Tesla Motors Club
If you plan to use a Blink charger in the next few days and don't already have a Blink card, you should be aware that 1) Blink has some sort of issue shipping their cards which is causing delays and 2) their system to allow you to charge without a card is currently down due to a system upgrade.
Why anyone with half a brain would choose an extremely busy travel time such as the weekend before Christmas to shut down their system that enables electric vehicle road trips for a system upgrade is beyond me. But what I find completely inexcusable is the fact that they didn't build in any sort of over ride mechanism so users can charge their cars if Blink's central servers are off line. I thought I was well prepared for my trip, but my intended charge spot and primary backup happened to be in the Blink network and were thus unusable to me when I needed them. Luckily my secondary backup, the 70 amp charge point J 1772 in Picacho peak, was working or there is a 50/50 chance I would have needed a tow truck today.
In in addition to the system wide issues, the touch screens on at least two of the blink chargers were broken and have been that way for many months according to checkins on Plugshare. Basically you should never count on a Blink charger being functional when you really need it.
Why anyone with half a brain would choose an extremely busy travel time such as the weekend before Christmas to shut down their system that enables electric vehicle road trips for a system upgrade is beyond me. But what I find completely inexcusable is the fact that they didn't build in any sort of over ride mechanism so users can charge their cars if Blink's central servers are off line. I thought I was well prepared for my trip, but my intended charge spot and primary backup happened to be in the Blink network and were thus unusable to me when I needed them. Luckily my secondary backup, the 70 amp charge point J 1772 in Picacho peak, was working or there is a 50/50 chance I would have needed a tow truck today.
In in addition to the system wide issues, the touch screens on at least two of the blink chargers were broken and have been that way for many months according to checkins on Plugshare. Basically you should never count on a Blink charger being functional when you really need it.