Reporting a Supercharger problem is a pain in the butt!

[Fourdoor]

On my latest road trip, I plugged in to charge at a V3 supercharger and I was only getting 120 KW (I was at a low SOC, with a preconditioned battery), so I unplugged from 1C and plugged into 2B assuming that there was a problem with that cabinet... and got the same results. As pack voltage went up, the charging speed slowly crept up until it peaked and started the normal ramp down. Using some math, it looked like the units at that location were limited to 300 amps of current (V3 should peak at dang near 700 amps). So, I looked in the app and couldn't find any way to report the problem, I then googled it and got a customer service number. After waiting on hold for around half an hour I finally talked to a customer service rep who seemed shocked that anyone would bother to report a problem with a station after they had completed charging, and continued their journey (I started the call while I was charging).

Do other people not report when they have an obvious problem like this? Or do they try, and give up after being left on hold for half an hour?

Keith

 

[jcanoe]

On my latest road trip, I plugged in to charge at a V3 supercharger and I was only getting 120 KW (I was at a low SOC, with a preconditioned battery), so I unplugged from 1C and plugged into 2B assuming that there was a problem with that cabinet... and got the same results. As pack voltage went up, the charging speed slowly crept up until it peaked and started the normal ramp down. Using some math, it looked like the units at that location were limited to 300 amps of current (V3 should peak at dang near 700 amps). So, I looked in the app and couldn't find any way to report the problem, I then googled it and got a customer service number. After waiting on hold for around half an hour I finally talked to a customer service rep who seemed shocked that anyone would bother to report a problem with a station after they had completed charging, and continued their journey (I started the call while I was charging).

Do other people not report when they have an obvious problem like this? Or do they try, and give up after being left on hold for half an hour?

Keith

The means of reporting your Supercharger charging experience is buried in the Telsa app. Under My Account, open Recent Supercharger sessions. There is an option to provide feedback to Tesla on your experience with this Supercharger location. (If possible, make a note of the Supercharger that was not functioning as expected, broken or damaged.)

 

[Cosmacelf]

Wouldn’t Tesla‘s SC central monitoring already know about such a degradation anyways?

 

[RTPEV]

On my latest road trip, I plugged in to charge at a V3 supercharger and I was only getting 120 KW (I was at a low SOC, with a preconditioned battery), so I unplugged from 1C and plugged into 2B assuming that there was a problem with that cabinet... and got the same results. As pack voltage went up, the charging speed slowly crept up until it peaked and started the normal ramp down. Using some math, it looked like the units at that location were limited to 300 amps of current (V3 should peak at dang near 700 amps). So, I looked in the app and couldn't find any way to report the problem, I then googled it and got a customer service number. After waiting on hold for around half an hour I finally talked to a customer service rep who seemed shocked that anyone would bother to report a problem with a station after they had completed charging, and continued their journey (I started the call while I was charging).

Do other people not report when they have an obvious problem like this? Or do they try, and give up after being left on hold for half an hour?

I personally would not wait. Common belief is that Tesla can monitor this kind of issue remotely (and for this kind of thing, I do believe that--other situations such as broken handles or physically damaged or blocked pedestals, I'm not so sure of).

However, one question back to you: how full was the site when you were charging?

I know the common belief is that V3 is not power limited, but that is not actually true. There is a site-wide limit constrained by the amount of power coming in from the grid (unless there is also local storage or a solar canopy, but this is not that common). So it is possible for a V3 site to "saturate" if it is busy. Each charging cabinet is only capable of pulling in 575 KVA from the grid, and while this can be shared between cabinets, that means that for example an 8-stall site will max out at 1150 kW (it may be further limited by the size of the transformer on site, which may in fact be even smaller, like 750 KVA).

If there were 7 vehicles at the site, and you were unlucky enough such that all were trying to pull over 150kW, you would probably notice reduced power at the site.

Statistically this would be uncommon, but not impossible. And like I said, some 8-stall sites only have a 750 KVA transformer, which would mean as few as 4 cars could result in reduced power.

 

[RayK]

A couple of years ago I found a Supercharger that wasn't working at the lot I normally use. I moved to another stall and contacted Support. As far as I remember, it was fairly easy to find a phone number; not so easy nowdays. Anyway, I told them there was a problem and they said it was already noted and that I didn't need to call it in if I found another bad stall, that they can monitor the equipment remotely.

A few months ago, at the same location, there was a stall which didn't work. Again, I moved to another one. While I was charging, I saw someone backing into the broken stall so I rolled down my window to tell them it wasn't working. He already knew - he was Tesla Service (but wasn't in a marked Tesla service car).

As far as knowing if a stall is semi-functional, sorta working but not up to the usual standard, I don't know if they can tell. If they can see the amount of power flowing and what the SoC is for the vehicle being charged, then they should be able to put two-and-two together.

 

[brainhouston]

The means of reporting your Supercharger charging experience is buried in the Telsa app. Under My Account, open Recent Supercharger sessions. There is an option to provide feedback to Tesla on your experience with this Supercharger location. (If possible, make a note of the Supercharger that was not functioning as expected, broken or damaged.)

does this only work after a successful session?
what if none of chargers worked n u never been to that location before..? (worst case but i'm curious...)

 

[jcanoe]

does this only work after a successful session?
what if none of chargers worked n u never been to that location before..? (worst case but i'm curious...)

Works like this:

 

[Zythryn]

Do they no longer put the phone number right on the charging pedestals?

 

[ucmndd]

Remember the Tesla mantra - all user input is error.

They don’t want to speak to you about an issue like this. There are dozens of different reasons why your charging session could have been slow. The ones they can fix they ostensibly already know about.

They really don’t want to talk to you on the phone because that’s expensive. Just move on next time or use the app feedback referenced upthread.

 

[Fourdoor]

I personally would not wait. Common belief is that Tesla can monitor this kind of issue remotely (and for this kind of thing, I do believe that--other situations such as broken handles or physically damaged or blocked pedestals, I'm not so sure of).

However, one question back to you: how full was the site when you were charging?

I know the common belief is that V3 is not power limited, but that is not actually true. There is a site-wide limit constrained by the amount of power coming in from the grid (unless there is also local storage or a solar canopy, but this is not that common). So it is possible for a V3 site to "saturate" if it is busy. Each charging cabinet is only capable of pulling in 575 KVA from the grid, and while this can be shared between cabinets, that means that for example an 8-stall site will max out at 1150 kW (it may be further limited by the size of the transformer on site, which may in fact be even smaller, like 750 KVA).

If there were 7 vehicles at the site, and you were unlucky enough such that all were trying to pull over 150kW, you would probably notice reduced power at the site.

Statistically this would be uncommon, but not impossible. And like I said, some 8-stall sites only have a 750 KVA transformer, which would mean as few as 4 cars could result in reduced power.

To answer your question, there were only myself and one other car, one of the reasons I was able to quickly and easily switch from the 1C dispenser to 2B is that there was hardly anyone there. I know about the "whole site" power limit, and in my case it was not a factor, but I should have mentioned that for clarity in my original post.

Keith

 

[Fourdoor]

Remember the Tesla mantra - all user input is error.

They don’t want to speak to you about an issue like this. There are dozens of different reasons why your charging session could have been slow. The ones they can fix they ostensibly already know about.

They really don’t want to talk to you on the phone because that’s expensive. Just move on next time or use the app feedback referenced upthread.

Well, per my phone conversation with them, they did not know about the issue and were surprised that anyone would bother to repot it. So, if I followed your advice it would have remained functional but at reduced capacity for who knows how long before they figured it out?

Personally, I love the reliability of the supercharger network, so when there is a problem, it really sticks out! Sort of like if you use an Electrify America station and DON'T encounter a problem it sticks out

Keith