ChargePoint‪®‬ 4+

When technology is master you can reach disaster faster

In an age where you call an 800 number for technical support and after a series of frustrating calling tree delays only to speak to someone who is at best clearly reading from a trouble shoot manual and putting you on hold with any even vaguely difficult question… they are doing their best… realize that the company that really put you there is the same one you paid for their service and hardware… Now comes Charge Point, a company representing a vital part of the technology of electric vehicles … the future, a cleaner more possible planet… with a reliable product and consistently high quality customer support around the clock… I’ve never waiting more than 2.5 minutes to be connected to someone I could understand and had the correct solution… if I ever experience anything less, I will let you know… we all deserve it… it is our planet the one we borrowed from our grandchildren.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your review. It’s always a pleasure to receive nice comments — it means we’re heading down the right road. Our support team works hard to be there for drivers like you, and we’re so glad you’ve had a positive experience. Charge on, Team ChargePoint

Lots of Potential, Meh Execution

I use the ChargePoint app mostly to support my ChargePoint Home Flex L2 EVSE at my home. While the app is decent, it has seen few functionality enhancements in the last year, and there are a couple features it should have by now:

1- Ability to schedule more than a single “weekday” and single “weekend” on/off. At minimum it should support specific days and multiple on/off events per day. In our world of hybrid and non-9-to-5 work schedules, this limitation is baffling.

2- More analytics and ability to look into charging sessions and curves. My VW ID.4 has some issues of its own with regards to scheduled charging, and it would be so helpful to drill into the line chart or look at underlying details. Clearly the data is being captured, so please let us see it! In terms of support for public ChargePoint charging stations, it is all still a bit finicky — but such is the state of electric vehicle charging everywhere. I wish things would just work, like our experience with getting gasoline, but I am sure eventually it will. Lots of complexities here, most of which are not on ChargePoint. My earlier commentary on the Home Flex items, however, are entirely ChargePoint’s responsibility.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the feedback on our scheduled charging feature for home and the suggestion to add more analytics around charging sessions. We’re always looking for ways to improve our app and overall charging experience. We’ve passed along your feedback to the team. Charge on, Team ChargePoint

There are a lot of problems with this app.

- Connectivity
- While there is a status saying slow internet, the app often provides no state, then frequently glitches, making me lose my place in line on the waitlist. This leads to me being placed last in the list and having to wait an additional hour at times. This is incredibly frustrating and an extreme loss to my productivity.
- If there is an area of slow internet which is often garages, I feel that this problem should be more thoroughly thought out such as using Bluetooth to preserve the condition with the station. My device was unable to recognize the state of my position and the plug in dialog never showed up, leading to losing my place in line because of app error. If there are no plans to fix this, the user should not be punished for the apps failure to properly connect.
- The app on warm start should be able to either quickly load or preload the waitlist state and map. Not sure why whenever I open the app it seems like I’m cold starting every time. It’s such a hassle to get to the specific location I am or waiting to load. Is there no caching implemented? I feel that a high use app should highly think about speed.