My pod-point experience

[Lupe]

So my vehicle should hopefully be here in the next month. I filled in all the paperwork for pod-point just after Christmas and they had an engineer booked within a couple of days. Can’t complain about this.

However, despite sending all the requested survey photos, on the day of the engineer coming out he called me beforehand and said he might need to upgrade the Earth from 10mm to 16mm. He gave me some chat about an electrician charging £200 but he would sort it while he was here for £75. (Cash). I wasn’t entirely comfortable with this, but I was actually at work trying to discuss this with him. I initially told him to go ahead with it and then had second thoughts and told him to wait while I discuss with an electrician. His response was that he had already done it, but would happily change it back to 10mm. This was 15 minutes after me giving him the go ahead. All a bit weird for my liking.
He also tried to persuade me that the charge point on the model 3 is driver side so his desired position would reach. I double checked and he was wrong so had I gone along with this (tethered) I would have been further screwed over.

I got home that evening to find he had run the wiring quite literally over my gas meter to get to the front of the garage (at the base). Not an issue practically but it looks quite an eyesore and I am unsure why he couldn’t just run over the top of it.

I have also noticed the nozzle keeps falling out of the holder. Am I missing something here?

Overall not a great experience and I would not recommend to others. Has anyone had a similar experience? Unfortunately can’t even check if the bloody thing works until I get my car.

 

[Medved_77]

They're due at my house tomorrow afternoon, luckily I work from home mostly so will be around to question anything odd.

I'm also waiting for the car so no way to know if it'll work until March probably.

 

[TonyP_UK]

Have to say my customer experience has been poor.

Completed the paperwork only to be told the signatory for the OLEV grant was not good enough even though it was accepted for a colleague of mine. They then accepted this and on sending all the survey pics I was given a install date 3 + weeks away. Trying to call them to get this expidited is pointless as you just get put through to a full voice mailbox.

Right now I wish I had gone for the Anderson one, at least they are honest about the installation times.

 

[Mr H]

I had mine installed on Thursday and the bloke did a perfect job, exactly where I wanted it with no fuss and no trying to get extra work

 

[OOvOO]

Most constructors will quote based on the value of your house and what car you drive. There is no return customer for home charge point. So they just make money out of your pockets.

i would say labour cost about £200-£300 a day. Most case would finished in 2-3 hours? Plus accessories for installation. I think lots of them charge too much.

Also, I think OLEV grand won’t involved VAT as it’s government fund. For example, if their quote is £1200 ( £1000+£200VAT), they should do the invoice £1000-£500=£500, then £500 add £100 (20% VAT ), which makes it total £600. Not £1200-£500=£700.

 

[RichOB]

I had mine fit back in November, the electrician was great and did a top job. I only paid the £279 for the 3.6kw universal unit (I currently have an XC90 T8 with M3 on order) but he set it up for 7kw which saved me £90 which is the different in price less the government grant.

I haven’t had an issue with it to date and I told him where I wanted it. He did the job in 2 hours, set up up the app and gave me a walkthrough of the unit, he also gave me his number if I have any issues so I couldn’t complain.

The certificate came through the post a few weeks ago.

 

[UrbanSplash]

Just pocket lining. On a grand scale. I would just buy a Tesla wall connector and get a local recommended electrician to fit. It’s a ‘dumb’ charger but does a solid job.

This grant nonsense is it’s a red herring and providing an opportunity to inflate install costs.

 

[R.A.G]

Sorry to hear of this type of thing going on but not surprised.

I think the biggest problem in this instance was not being present for the install, I’m sure it was unavoidable, but I’m too OCD to have let a stranger turn up and do this type of work effectively unsupervised.

 

[Lupe]

My wife was here but he called me to discuss everything. She wouldn’t have known what he was going on about to be fair.

 

[R.A.G]

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a totally poor show by the installer and there’s no excuses....

...But I wouldn’t have trusted my wife with it lol!

 

[MrBadger]

His response was that he had already done it, but would happily change it back to 10mm.

I would have called his bluff. An electrician is responsible for the electrical installation when he signs off on it. Either he reverses the earth install and leaves the install in a non compliant state (naughty naughty), or there was nothing wrong with it in the first place (naughty upsell). So 10 minutes work cost £75 cash and probably untaxed - I hope you got a receipt!

 

[Lupe]

He was more than happy to provide a receipt which is what confused me. He also started giving me some spiel about all the switches. I’m tempted to make pod-point aware but not sure what benefit there is

 

[Doudeau]

I have also noticed the nozzle keeps falling out of the holder. Am I missing something here?

Apologies if you already know but you need to turn the nozzle 90 degrees to put it in the holder (and turn it again to get it to stay).

I’m going to remove the holder as the nozzle sticks out so far and i think it looks neater to just let it hang down.

From my POV my Pod-point order and installation was an indifferent experience - maybe they are using Tesla as role models for customer service. Most importantly - I was at home for the engineer and he did an excellent and very neat job for me.

 

[Radders]

Ive had my pod-point since about early Nov, paperwork side was a bit painfil (but i think that would be the same with any of the larger companies, rolec etc and they was just as difficult (although i was asking them to install less the VAT as it was on a New Build - VAT exempt, and none of the companines really knew what i was talking about..... so went with pod point as preferred the look) anyway, come to the install, and the electrician, done exactly what he should, wasn't interested about pushing for extras, although, a bit of 'jobsworth' as i asked him to install inline check meter, which he would't, made up some excuse!!!! but he was clean tidy and installed where i wanted. so i must have had a reasonably good installer....

 

[menzic]

Without writing war and peace, I nearly cancelled my installation and asked for my money back twice. I thought there installation team was off-shore somewhere as I would get emailed question at the end of the UK working day and then not get a reply for a couple of days, which would be another question. So I called prepared to cancel but then they setup an install date for a week later.

Then got an email to say they had an emergency install and had to move mine to the next day. Then on that day got a text from the guy saying he was ill and wouldn’t be coming. So I reached out to the director who then got the director of operations to get in touch.

In the end I got it installed last Wednesday which was about 3.5 weeks after I sent the survey. I did have a debate with the installer about the cable run but looks ok. I am assuming it works but I am still waiting for my M3 to be delivered.

I think they have a lot of business which is good, but customer service is suffering. In my view they should site survey ahead of an install to confirm the cable run and adjust an costs. I would have paid an extra few quid for the peace of mind.

Running a cable over gas doesn’t seem like a great idea, but guess they wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t safe, but I would email a photo to the install team to be sure.

If I had my time again, I think I would have tried to find a local installer company who could offer a few options.

 

[Jez_GB]

I had mine installed on Thursday and the bloke did a perfect job, exactly where I wanted it with no fuss and no trying to get extra work

Mine was installed Friday - same experience as Mr H - zero complaints.

 

[TezzyMod3]

So depending on where you live you either get an official pod point electrician or a subcontractor.

From what the guy who did mine said, the latter can result in variable experiences.

Official pod point installer in my case; did a great job. On time. Nice and clean. Hoovered up. Took all his rubbish etc.

 

[alanbyvale]

I would echo menzic's experience. There was always a delay in responding to queries and then the installer texted me the night before to say he was ill and Pod Point would be in touch. When I rang Pod Point I spoke to a woman who told me the installer was on his way and would be with me shortly. When I asked her to confirm that she got quite belligerent and repeated the details. I then hung up and emailed the company. I got a phone cal in minutes from someone who seemed to be in charge as I got profuse apologies and a guarantee of a fitter the very next day. He turned up and was polite, efficient and clean.

 

[SteveM3P]

Mine was fitted by a contractor. Nice guy, polite and did a great clean job. Zero complaints.

 

[Durzel]

The OP's experience sounds shambolic, but at the same time I think it's madness not to make yourself available for the install. Leaving it up to your other half, particularly if they don't know what you want or what the electrician is talking about, sounds like you're making yourself ripe to be ripped off. Being asked to give the sparky cash in hand on the day would've set massive alarm bells off in my head.

If you were there you could've pointed out you were unhappy about the route he was taking with the electrical cable, before he'd done it. As it is you're having to deal with it now - after he's left.

I took the day off when I got my Andersen installed and although the guy did a great job, I had several questions throughout the day and made a point of supervising it at various points to ensure the cable was being routed to my satisfaction.

As has been said above I think the whole OLEV grant thing is a bit of a scam. I remain unconvinced that installers aren't just pocketing a significant part of it by inflating their prices accordingly. They know you have to use them to claim it.