IDLE Fees questions

[gnuarm]

In San Luis Obispo on busy weekends we have had a Tesla employee show up and post signs that charging to 80% only is allowed.

I hope you see that is a different matter than letting someone start charging to 90%, walk away only to return to find a guy with a sign telling them their car was only charged to 80% and collecting idle fees.

I can't believe anyone is defending Tesla on this. It harks back to the days of gas lines when we could only buy 10 gallons a trip for the "greater good". That is not the way to sell Teslas.

 

[deltajent]

Penalizing everyone for the bad behavior of a few creeps is typical of governments, not the private sector where customers set the standards (remember "the customer is always right"?). In this digital age of smart AI and total communication there is simply no excuse not to tailor the service to the situation: no cars, no problem; lots of cars, charge the snot out of the negligent/rude for inconveniencing others.

If someone chooses to break something off to move his/her car from an empty row of chargers, that's their business. Just don't look down your holier-than-thou nose at me for letting mine sit there all alone. Tesla should never charge anyone for overstaying at an empty charging lot unless they're being disingenuous about not wishing to make money off the fines. In the end, Tesla has to make its customers happy or bad things happen to the bottom line. If they piss off too many people with Mickey Mouse penalties for breaking arbitrary rules (like govt does) they shouldn't be surprised when the grumbling gets loud enough to hear all the way up in the CFO's office.

I love my Tesla, but that doesn't mean it's perfect. There are some things that could be improved...like the customer service line wait time!

 

[ThosEM]

So I received a reply from Tesla. They deny doing it and suggest that I reboot my car to get rid of a "glitch".

I remain suspicious and thank you for the reports of the same phenomenon, which appear to be rare.

From: Customer Support Tesla <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Idle Fee after Charging Completed Question [ ref:_00D506dxX._500f1opr4z:ref ]
Date: January 26, 2019 at 18:01:22 EST
To: "thosem@xxxx

Hello Mr. Moore,
Thank You for contacting Tesla Service Support! I apologize for any inconvenience this delayed response has caused.
We are sorry to hear that you had your charge limit automatically switched from 90% to 80%, that should not be happening. As we understand that for some travelers 80% with less powerful batteries may not be enough to make it to their next destination. It might be a software glitch that happened to your vehicle and we would recommend following the procedure below.

 

[ThosEM]

Well, now cutting off at 80% seems to have become a standard practice at "some" (perhaps 17% of) superchargers. I hit it again this past weekend, arriving at about 70%, needing about 10% to make my destination. The image shows a notification threatening idle fees if I went over 80%. This was at the Strasburg SC, which was empty on arrival but became more than half full quickly thereafter. I made a short stop just long enough to obtain a drink at the Burger King there.

I was able to cancel the continuation of the trip, which then allowed charging to continue above 80%, but then continued on without fully charging...

 

[zanary]

Just change your charge level back to 90 or 100% after it automatically switches it to 80%. That’s what I did all weekend long st Bay Area superchargers which are the busiest around.