"Terrible…"

Been charging my EV in Uk and Europe for 2 years now. Tried using this company’s chargers twice in Northumbria and had to download an app, could not just use a credit/bank card. Neither time worked. Very poor experience. Nobody answered their helpline. I think it’s council run. I think these chargers have been set up to give EV’s a bad name!

"Utterly appalling experience AVOID"

The charger works - but the experience of getting it to do so is unforgivably bad, representing the very worst of public EV charging, and the kind of experience which puts many people off EV ownership.

I went to a charger in a public car-park in Morpeth because there was a bank of chargers apparently available for contactless payment.

However, when I came to use the charger I found a discrete notice saying that the payment pad was disabled. There was a similar notice on the other chargers in the bank.

So, having established the signage on the charger lied - that there is no contactless payment! - I read the rest of the signage on the charger. Apparently there is an app available for my iPhone in the App Store. But no, that’s another lie - there is no such app. The only way to use this thing is to use the website evcharge.online, which another reviewer rather generously describes as “shonky” but it is actually far, far worse than that.

So where to start? Let’s start with how to tell the website which charger one wants to connect to. Scan a QR code? Well, the website offers that option, but if you select it, and give the site access to the phone’s camera, it is unable to read the code offered to it because the website seems unable to deal with the camera’s aspect ratio. Enter the charger’s identifying number? Nope, no option to do that. So one has to find the charger on a map of the UK. The site makes no attempt to establish your location (so it could find your nearest charger for you) - no, you must know where you are, and zoom into the correct bit of the map, and select the correct marker on the map for the car park you are actually in. In the 3rd decade of the 21st century I rather expect computers to work for me, not the other way around! Having selected the right car park (and if you select the wrong one you have to go back to the beginning again) you are then presented with a list of the chargers there (identified by the charger’s number, the one you are given no option to enter, remember!) which you can select.

OK, so now we have the charger, we have to say how much charge we want. Why? No other charger I’ve used does this! No matter, tell it to charge until full. Then enter card details (why can’t I use Apple Pay?). Then it says wait until the charger flashes green. But it never did, so round the loop again1

This time I thought I’d create an account - something I never do unless I absolutely have to. After all, I only want to charge my car and pay for it, I don’t need to give away any details about myself. But OK, I created an account. So now, round the loop again to select the charger I want to use …

Then I’m told that I have to pre-load cash to the account before the charger will work!!!!! (This is absolutely outrageous! How much must I pre-load? What happens if I don’t use it all? Why can’t it just charge my card at the end of the session?) So I pre-loadt, having to enter my card details AGAIN. And once I’ve done that I have to go round the loop AGAIN to select the charger I want to use, and then, finally, I can start charing my car, having been stood in the cold with my phone for about 20 mins trying to do what should be the simplest thing - and with every other charger network I use IS the simplest thing - start a charging session to be paid for by my card. For any sane charger network, and for every other charger network I use, I can achieve this simple by waving my phone at the charger, without any of the palaver described above.

This is the most egregiously bad charging experience I’ve ever had in 3 years of EV use. I shall NEVER, EVER, use evcharge.online again, and I recommend in the strongest terms that nobody else does either. These are the kind of turkeys who bring into disrepute the whole idea of EV usage. I cannot express strongly enough my disgust with this morning’s fiasco.

"I’m on holiday in Northumberland and…"

I’m on holiday in Northumberland and using a council endorsed charge point.

The councils website that I referenced before I planned my holiday says that all its chargers are either 11-22 kWh chargers or 50kwh chargers.

The charge paint I’m using at the moment costs .57ppkw but only charging at a rate of 3kwph which is less than half the rate I get when charging at home. At that rate it will take 24 hours to charge my car.

I will now have to take time to use another charge point in a local town and sit and wait for it to charge or just not use my car for 24 hours at a time.

When it took an hour to fully charge on my journey here having to wait 24 hours isn’t acceptable. And when I can charge twice as quickly on a standard home charger, in this day and age the low charge rate and cost just isn’t acceptable



Thank you for your feedback.

I booked my holiday location based on information provided online not what is on the charger at point of charging. At point of charging I have no option but to charge on whatever facility will provide a charge. So are you going to change the internet information?

Also I have topped up my account to pay for charging at your charge point which I am no longer going to use due to the poor charge rate. Can you let me know what the refund process is please so I have my remains top up back?

"Visited RHS Wisley on Saturday 12th Oct…"

Visited RHS Wisley on Saturday 12th Oct requested £5.60 charge but was charged £10.29! Outrageous

"Great Service Consistently"

Louise has always been very responsive and efficient at arranging and resolving EV charger issues.

"Probably the worst charging network in the UK"

Firstly there is no app for this network - even though they say there is; there is only a website.

They are not partnered with the likes of Electroverse to allow for RFID so you are forced to use the shoddy website. This is the charge network that is common in rural Northumberland: a place which offen does not have any phone signal! And yes that is the companies fault as they should deploy chargers with this in mind.

They don't use the industry standard of saving your card details; that would be too easy! You have to add money to a virtual wallet first - at this point I wonder if it is a scam rather than a proper CPO.

My only cope is Northumberland realises its mistake, rips these chargers out and goes with a proper company.

"How does software like this get…"

How does software like this get approved? Had to scan QR code 3 times because after each annoying step it goes back to map. Why top up? Just charge the amount charged. Eventually after jumping through many hoops in there freezing cold you might get lucky and not give up before you make it to the end of the stupid clunky process.

Tip for developers: Make it 3 steps. Scan QR code. Apple Pay. Start charging. Yes it can be that simple.

"I’m new to electric cars I used your …rubbish avoid these chargers "

I’m new to electric cars I used your charger at kingsway dundee had to deposit £25 then charger didn’t work and not only that it wouldn’t let me unplug my charger I want my money back I’m disabled and this caused a lot of problems luckily my daughter was with me but we had to wait around for ages we will never use these chargers again I think it must be a scam

"We’re on holiday in Northumberland and…"

We’re on holiday in Northumberland and these chargers are everywhere. That’s where the positive bit ends! They are awful! 50% at least of the ones tried can not connect because there is obviously no signal despite trying through the website or an rfid card(can’t actually find an app anymore despite the chargers telling you there is one). On 2 separate chargers we have got to work both have stopped charging before full. Never used chargers that are so difficult to use and also so unreliable. Assume Northumbria county council must have received some kickback for installing these because they’re utterly useless!

"Why are chargers so hard to use!"

I could not log into my account and I never received an email after two attempts to reset my password. There was only the phone number for the local council on the charger but it was out of office hours. Luckily there was a pod point close by I could use. Why cant all chargers just be pay as you go and just tap your card to pay!