Reporting charger issue: do Shell view EV drivers with contempt

[3sheds]

Today on the way back from dropping off family members at Heathrow I stopped at a Shell garage in Kings Langley near Watford.

I tried scanning my card and touching the screen to activate the rapid charger. After a little trial and error it gave me a message that the CCS was out of order. Luckily I could get home without the charge anyway, so moved the car out of the EV bay and then went in to buy a breakfast snack. I mentioned to the cashier that the charger was out of order and she said to call the number. So I did it just to help out any other EV users who might happen to be on the route, but I was a bit annoyed that the Shell staff weren't responsible for doing that themselves.

I called and had to go through a couple of minutes of menus. Then I spoke to a technician who I guess was in Netherlands. He said if it its out of order, there's "nothing he can do." So I said I was trying to help Shell by reporting it. So he (somewhat reluctantly) asked for a serial number or a site number. I gave him a couple of numbers from the side of the machine. He couldn't match any of them to his database. So I had to go back in the station and queue up to ask for a postcode from the cashier. Eventually the technician found the site and confirmed it was marked out of order on their system. I asked him why there was no sign on the machine. He said that would be up to the staff at the garage to do it. He gave no indication about whether it would ever be fixed. I checked on zapmap and reported it out of order.

It got me thinking... why aren't staff at Shell garage given responsibility for making sure their EV charger works, or at least knowng that it is out of order? If all the petrol pumps at the station stopped working, would staff tell customers to take responsibility to call head office to report it? Why don't they just put a sign on charger saying it has been reported out of order so that their customers don't waste their time? Is anyone at Shell concerned about how they are perceived by EV drivers and the level of service they are providing? With other EV charging companies like, Instavolt and Grid Serve, they at least seem concerned when you report an issue and then to tell you when / how it might be fixed.

I have also observed that BP has similar attitude to their EV chargers with them being out of order for months on end and BP not taking any responsibility to fix them. Is this a general problem with oil companies? Maybe they don't really care or they even want us to have a poor charging experience to try to influence us to switch back to petrol?

 

[siteguru]

Oil company in Wants to make EV charging seem difficult Shocker!

 

[3sheds]

I know it's not a surprise, in some ways, but shouldn't their attitude be changing now more than 20% of new car purchases are EVs? Its not a niche market anymore, but staff and management at Shell don't seem to have caught up with the new reality.

 

[Gadget Geek]

EV's will take away their trillions of dollars of income and subsidies each year . . . Of course they hate EV's.

 

[3sheds]

But from a strategic point of view, Shell filling stations could still make money after the transition as convenience stores located next to ultra rapid chargers. BYD is already rolling out 1megawatt chargers and cars capable of filling a battery in 5 mins. Falling costs of batteries makes it way easier and cheaper to install such chargers as they could trickle charge a fixed battery at quiet times and use that battery to provide mega watt charging. Less need for grid upgrades. So Shell and other fuel station brands should be looking to future opportunities to convert to EV charging, not just trying to continue flogging the dead petrol horse for as long as possible.

Another way to see it as an opportunity for Shell... They have friendly staff available on site, unlike the newer EV charging companies like grid serve. Shell's competitive advantage is their staff. So why not encourage their staff to actively maintain their EV chargers and help customers with any issues, instead of just telling them to call a number? Could be a valuable service, especially for older customers who are nervous of using new technology.

 

[Gadget Geek]

Sometimes the issue is with who has responsibility for fixing a faulty charger, similar to warranty issues with your car and who will pay. Shell is the network provider and they use a number of different charger manufacturers. I should imagine they have service contracts etc, however, as we know, there can be grey areas if the repair is going to be expensive and neither side wants to pay for it.

 

[3sheds]

Understood, but if I go to the cornershop and there's no milk to buy, the owner doesn't then tell me to call his supplier to fix the problem for him.

 

[mystreet]

The majority of filling station are privately owned franchise.

They probably do not get any income from EV charging bays, so don't want anything to do with them. Hence the reply to call the number.

 

[salty]

The majority of filling station are privately owned franchise.

They probably do not get any income from EV charging bays, so don't want anything to do with them. Hence the reply to call the number.

Yep, my thinking, too. Similar principle to you wouldn't expect, McDonald's to have anything to do with an instavolt charger. They are probably told, not to get involved, apart from perhaps giving you a phone number. Which is probably on the charger anyway.

 

[3sheds]

Then I guess the question is how to make the private franchises allies in the transition to EVs and not opponents. The idea of having EV targets, mandates and fines for the car manufacturers is to cajole/force all car companies to become EV manufacturers. Once they start manufacturing more EVs then they have more incentive to sell EVs and to make them to succeed with consumers. Is it time for the UK government to do the same with filing stations? Give them a rising target for the proportion of energy they must sell in the form of electricity. If the proportion of revenue they receive from selling electricity compared to petrol increases, then they will have incentives to provide more chargers, in locations convenient for consumers, and that actually work

 

[salty]

Then I guess the question is how to make the private franchises allies in the transition to EVs and not opponents. The idea of having EV targets, mandates and fines for the car manufacturers is to cajole/force all car companies to become EV manufacturers. Once they start manufacturing more EVs then they have more incentive to sell EVs and to make them to succeed with consumers. Is it time for the UK government to do the same with filing stations? Give them a rising target for the proportion of energy they must sell in the form of electricity. If the proportion of revenue they receive from selling electricity compared to petrol increases, then they will have incentives to provide more chargers, in locations convenient for consumers, and that actually work

They possibly will, eventually.

 

[3sheds]

Yep, my thinking, too. Similar principle to you wouldn't expect, McDonald's to have anything to do with an instavolt charger. They are probably told, not to get involved, apart from perhaps giving you a phone number. Which is probably on the charger anyway.

But it's not really the same thing. The charger is branded Shell, and the filling station is branded Shell. Also Instavolt chargers generally work well. I think if they were generally unreliable and resulted in lots of complaints, McDonalds would end their partnership with them. McDonald's are famously obsessive in making sure all franchisees and any partners comply with strict rules about levels of customer service. That's why they're a successful publicly listed company with currently rising share price... If Shell and BPs really thinks it's a good idea to have branded chargers on their forecourts that don't work, then it might explain why UK and European listed companies have so far underperformed US listed companies in recent years.

 

[Gadget Geek]

They probably do not get any income from EV charging bays, so don't want anything to do with them. Hence the reply to call the number.

They don't get much income from selling fuel either. Most of the profits are from the shop sales, so they are missing a trick there as EV drivers are there much longer.

 

[salty]

They don't get much income from selling fuel either. Most of the profits are from the shop sales, so they are missing a trick there as EV drivers are there much longer.

Good point.

 

[tsedge]

All chargers have screens (except Tesla <v4), so it is pretty unforgivable that when a charger is out of order it doesn't show that across the whole screen!

 

[3sheds]

All chargers have screens (except Tesla <v4), so it is pretty unforgivable that when a charger is out of order it doesn't show that across the whole screen!

Very true. And also when it's working the whole screen should show the price by default.

 

[5teep]

Understood, but if I go to the cornershop and there's no milk to buy, the owner doesn't then tell me to call his supplier to fix the problem for him.

Yeah but you wouldn't ask the guy on the counter in Currys to fix a TV for you, TVs or chargers they are all highly technical and dangerous to work on.

 

[3sheds]

That's true. I wouldn't expect the cashier in a petrol station to be able fix the charger. But I would hope they could know how to help a customer start a charging session if it was playing up or if the menu system is too complicated for elderly people etc ( as many are). Also i'd expect them to recognise when it is out of order and call for maintenance when necessary instead of expecting the customer to use their valuable time doing this.

 

[Bam Bam]

I've found when dealing with customer service (for instance in a Supermarket) that sometimes the person you speak doesn't really 'get' why you are telling them the information if it doesn't impact you.

Happened to me in Sainsbury's when I reported that the electronic scales weren't working. "You can use that one" was the response. Well, yes, I already used that one. But it would be good if the broken was fixed for the next customer, which didn't seem to have occurred to the person I told.

Not all people working in customer service are oblivious but some are.

 

[tsedge]

Yeah but you wouldn't ask the guy on the counter in Currys to fix a TV for you, TVs or chargers they are all highly technical and dangerous to work on.

The guy in Currys doesn't even know enough to advise me on which TV to buy!