Zoidz
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Posting this for people here who travel to Penn State Main Campus for events, etc.
I was at an Engineering Job Fair at Penn State University Park campus last week recruiting/interviewing. I stayed at the Penn Stater Hotel (not actually owned/operated by PSU) because that's where the event was and they advertise EV Charging Available.
Nope.
They have two 2 vehicle L2 Chargepoint stations. Both are powered up and appear ready to use. But when you insert a credit card, it comes back and "No network connectivity........Can't process your payment". I dug in a little further into the menus and it showed a strong WIFI connection. hmmm. I called Chargepoint and gave them the station number. After a bit of a delay, the CSR said that the stations are registered with Chargepoint but they are privately owned by the hotel and they have not been ACTIVATED/AUTHORIZED on the network by the owner, so they cannot process any transactions.
Based on the appearance of the stations, the ground around the stations, etc, they are NOT newly installed. I went to the front desk and the clerk said "I'm sorry, yeah, we know they don't work. I'll tell my manager again." I got the distinct impression this was not the first or even 50th time the person has said this, more like a few hundred times. They clearly know they are not working, have done nothing but advertise it on their web site. To Chargepoint's credit, the stations do not show up on their app. I went to the management company's web site (Scholar Hotels) and their Contact Us page does not work, so I sent them a nastygram via FaceBook. If you post EV charging on your web site, you have an obligation to make sure it works.
FWIW, there is a Sheetz about 3 miles away with L3 150 and 350 chargers.
I was at an Engineering Job Fair at Penn State University Park campus last week recruiting/interviewing. I stayed at the Penn Stater Hotel (not actually owned/operated by PSU) because that's where the event was and they advertise EV Charging Available.
Nope.
They have two 2 vehicle L2 Chargepoint stations. Both are powered up and appear ready to use. But when you insert a credit card, it comes back and "No network connectivity........Can't process your payment". I dug in a little further into the menus and it showed a strong WIFI connection. hmmm. I called Chargepoint and gave them the station number. After a bit of a delay, the CSR said that the stations are registered with Chargepoint but they are privately owned by the hotel and they have not been ACTIVATED/AUTHORIZED on the network by the owner, so they cannot process any transactions.
Based on the appearance of the stations, the ground around the stations, etc, they are NOT newly installed. I went to the front desk and the clerk said "I'm sorry, yeah, we know they don't work. I'll tell my manager again." I got the distinct impression this was not the first or even 50th time the person has said this, more like a few hundred times. They clearly know they are not working, have done nothing but advertise it on their web site. To Chargepoint's credit, the stations do not show up on their app. I went to the management company's web site (Scholar Hotels) and their Contact Us page does not work, so I sent them a nastygram via FaceBook. If you post EV charging on your web site, you have an obligation to make sure it works.
FWIW, there is a Sheetz about 3 miles away with L3 150 and 350 chargers.
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