Does anyone have experience communicating with Tesla that a destination charger is down? It is frustrating to make travel plans and reservations based on destination chargers only to arrive to find they don't work.
Reporting Destination Charger Failure
- Thread starter Corazon
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That should be the responsibility of the property it's located on. Complain to them. Tesla installed many of them for free, but that was the end of their involvment.
Agree with @animorph. I had this exact experience at a hotel we stay at when visiting my in-laws. Fortunately they had a J1772 unit run by Clipper Creek right next to the defective destination charger, so I was still able to charge using my adapter. In general, I always like to have contingency plans for any trip we take. I use the PlugShare app to preview available chargers to build my plan.
Wrt my recent experience, I discussed it with the hotel and they said they would fix it. I made sure they understood that I picked them because of that feature, that I was a repeat customer,..etc.
Wrt my recent experience, I discussed it with the hotel and they said they would fix it. I made sure they understood that I picked them because of that feature, that I was a repeat customer,..etc.
FoxSTL2HOU
Member
It's officially the end of their involvement... but it would be great if Tesla could detect issues and be a little proactive on finding a resolution. I'm sure it will improve with time, but it affects the experience of Tesla owners who might be counting on that for a full battery by the morning.
How would Tesla detect issues? Don’t think they monitor destination chargers.
beatle
Member
Tesla would need to provide the charger as a service model. The new HPWCs have Wifi and could be monitored. The owner of the HPWC would need to have a service contract with Tesla to fix it if it ever goes bad. Companies love service contracts, but even if I ran a hotel or some such, I'd likely have my own staff handling it and not outsourcing it.
Ideally some kind of built in communication system that just sends a little message alerting Tesla of incoming power and even charging success/failures when connected to a car. It adds to the cost, but I wonder if it could become a lower cost charging model. It would allow Tesla to offer charging for maybe 8-10 cents per kWh (just to cover electric cost and equipment maintenance) at destinations. The benefit is they can expand this to as many spots as needed and not rely on the hotel to expand over time. You could conceivably end up with 20 or more destination chargers at places that are popular. This is obviously more convenient when you're parked overnight and could reduce the burden on superchargers during peak travel seasons.
Exscite
Member
Some Destination Chargers are unreliable
Scottsdale AZ
We decided to stay at the Scottsdale Marriott/Courtyard since it has 4 Tesla Destination Chargers, 2 on each pole. The first thing we did upon arrival was to plug the Tesla into one of the free chargers, located in the hotel parking lot. The day temperature at noon was 100F (38C).
TWO OF THE FOUR DIDN’T WORK (one pole). The two other chargers on the second pole were occupied by cars.
By the way- one car was Tesla S model and the other, believe it or not, was a tiny BMW i3 EV connected with a strange contraption adapter (with screws!!!) to the Tesla charger (The BMW, Arizona plate 1E43AF, was gone in the evening so eventually we could charge overnight).
We called Tesla, and after a long conversation their response was- “Destination Chargers are not our responsibility”. So I talked to the hotel and the response was the same- “not our responsibility”.
So whose responsibility is it? And who will fix it??
View attachment 593532
Temecula CA
In a separate incident the same week- Following Tesla’s recommendations, we parked at a Destination Charger at the Peltzer Winery in Temecula. Of the two chargers there, only one worked, and was very slow indeed.
So whose responsibility is it? And who will fix it??
However, in other recent Destination Charger instances we have had a good experience of charging overnight without a problem.
Scottsdale AZ
We decided to stay at the Scottsdale Marriott/Courtyard since it has 4 Tesla Destination Chargers, 2 on each pole. The first thing we did upon arrival was to plug the Tesla into one of the free chargers, located in the hotel parking lot. The day temperature at noon was 100F (38C).
TWO OF THE FOUR DIDN’T WORK (one pole). The two other chargers on the second pole were occupied by cars.
By the way- one car was Tesla S model and the other, believe it or not, was a tiny BMW i3 EV connected with a strange contraption adapter (with screws!!!) to the Tesla charger (The BMW, Arizona plate 1E43AF, was gone in the evening so eventually we could charge overnight).
We called Tesla, and after a long conversation their response was- “Destination Chargers are not our responsibility”. So I talked to the hotel and the response was the same- “not our responsibility”.
So whose responsibility is it? And who will fix it??
View attachment 593532
Temecula CA
In a separate incident the same week- Following Tesla’s recommendations, we parked at a Destination Charger at the Peltzer Winery in Temecula. Of the two chargers there, only one worked, and was very slow indeed.
So whose responsibility is it? And who will fix it??
However, in other recent Destination Charger instances we have had a good experience of charging overnight without a problem.
Those are sold under a couple of names so you can Google for them if you want: JDapter or TeslaTap
Whoever you talked with at the hotel is wrong. These are always, 100% of the time, the responsibility of the property where it is installed--not Tesla. Keep asking there for the maintenance person or facilities manager until you get hold of someone who understands this. They get them installed and pay the electricity and maintenance.
Tesla's part is that they will give the wall connectors to the hotels. That is as far as their responsibility for the hardware goes. They then list their location on the navigation maps in the cars and on their website to attract business there. That's the point of the business tradeoff: You want to get advertised on the Nav in our cars? You upkeep and offer these.
I agree it's the hotel's responsibility, but it might be more of an issue where it's just very low priority and they don't actually care.
The only solution I see is that either Tesla creates some enforcement or other feedback. They could enforce it with agreements for the entire hotel chain, like Hilton or IHG, to install 5 destination chargers at every hotel and guarantee a certain uptime or repair time. They could alternatively provide feedback with in-car reporting and displaying information about the destination charger's last known status.
I think destination chargers are the way to go and if Tesla allows these places to generate some real revenue with their 2nd version, it will be more in their interest to keep the equipment operational. For this reason, I hope they allow billing at rates that provide room for hotels to maintain equipment.
Okay folks, - here follows my little contribution to that topic. 
The answer to the original question "Reporting of a Destination Charger Failure" (asked by @Corazon) is simple. It is effectively the Tesla driver / owner with his Tesla app which has the only reliable option in reporting a technical problem.
Yes, the functioning of the Destination Charger is the hotel's or Destination Charging locations responsibility. But in reality, the destination charging partner receives near no support if there exists a problem. I can confirm here my PAINFUL experience regarding our Tesla Destination Charging TWC issues.
I am located in Central Europe. And in summary, I have unfortunately to say that the support in conjunction with the Destination Charging Program is almost non-existent. At our small hotel company we have totally three (European type 2) Wall Connectors installed (three-phase, 22kw). Two of them are part of the Destination Charging program, the third was bought independently.
It turned out that we had TWC chargers from a problematic series (revision G and H) from 2016/2017. These TWC have problems with the cables - the wires tend to break quite easy. This is a known problem, at least for Europe. And it was also a problem for two of our TWC.
I first reported a TWC problem to the Tesla support in May 2020. The weeks passed and nothing happened. At the end of July I told a unhappy Tesla driver that he should make a report with his Tesla app. And you know what? At the end of the next day a Tesla employee came! He was responsible for the regional super charger infrastructure. Unfortunately he knows not a lot regarding the 2016/2017 TWC cable issues.
However, he came a day later again an looked deep into the TWC. He was all the time "guided" and strictly monitored by a Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" (a women, but that is at this point irrelevant). As I mentioned, the problem was known. Well, it was known for me and my electrician but not for the Tesla guy and the Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady. So the deplorable Tesla technician spent hours in measuring all different things at both buggy TWC. He was able to confirm that there were broken wires at both TWC charging cables. But it looks that this was not enough, - it looks that the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady was on the search of "more".
Towards the evening when the Tesla technician guy was somehow "finished" (with his nerves) I asked him again regarding the status. During our short discussion I told him that the two faulty TWCs are connected together in load balancing (load sharing) configuration. He was for a moment somewhat surprised but the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady was for whatever reason "not excited". So, the deplorable Tesla technician left without having achieved a lot.
After a few days the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady phoned back. She really wanted that a local electrician makes the whole work a second time, under her monitoring. My electrician said NO, I said also NO, because as I said the problem was clear. If she really want that someone will do that, she must send again the deplorable Tesla technician. Maybe this was the moment when I started taking the story personally...
After the Tesla support has led to almost nothing, I started asking all disappointed Tesla drivers to report the TWC problems via the Tesla app. And you know what? At the begging of the month of September I get a replacement TWC! The second buggy TWC was separately replaced later (at our own expense). It no longer had any warranty because it was not part of the Destination Charging program.
So finally it must be said, - Tesla has to get in that topic much, much, MUCH better. This is not the kind of support you would expect from a company with such a reputation.
There was in the whole process so a lot of unnecessary overhead, of wasted energy. I was very sorry for the Tesla technician. He recognized the problem, but he was caught in a "static process flow" which is probably not even understood by Tesla itself. Maybe this was true also for the Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady. It seems that the Tesla support staff are doing their job based on very very rigid, static procedures. A nightmare for me, - but that's a personal opinion.
Okay, what could be a better, a pragmatic (and cheap) solution for Tesla? For example, Tesla could provide (at least for their partners) a TWC "repair charging cable" kit. This will allow the Destination charging members to do effectively the job for Tesla. My electrician has told me several times that he can do that if he gets an original TWC charging cable replacement. Such replacement exists, but these are not available for external usage and are not distributed separately. (Tesla uses them internally to refurbish their TWC.)
Maybe this feedback will help some people here to understand the whole matter somewhat better and / or different. It shows pretty well where the problems are in the whole process.
Kind regards
lorn10
The answer to the original question "Reporting of a Destination Charger Failure" (asked by @Corazon) is simple. It is effectively the Tesla driver / owner with his Tesla app which has the only reliable option in reporting a technical problem.
Yes, the functioning of the Destination Charger is the hotel's or Destination Charging locations responsibility. But in reality, the destination charging partner receives near no support if there exists a problem. I can confirm here my PAINFUL experience regarding our Tesla Destination Charging TWC issues.
I am located in Central Europe. And in summary, I have unfortunately to say that the support in conjunction with the Destination Charging Program is almost non-existent. At our small hotel company we have totally three (European type 2) Wall Connectors installed (three-phase, 22kw). Two of them are part of the Destination Charging program, the third was bought independently.
It turned out that we had TWC chargers from a problematic series (revision G and H) from 2016/2017. These TWC have problems with the cables - the wires tend to break quite easy. This is a known problem, at least for Europe. And it was also a problem for two of our TWC.
I first reported a TWC problem to the Tesla support in May 2020. The weeks passed and nothing happened. At the end of July I told a unhappy Tesla driver that he should make a report with his Tesla app. And you know what? At the end of the next day a Tesla employee came! He was responsible for the regional super charger infrastructure. Unfortunately he knows not a lot regarding the 2016/2017 TWC cable issues.
However, he came a day later again an looked deep into the TWC. He was all the time "guided" and strictly monitored by a Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" (a women, but that is at this point irrelevant). As I mentioned, the problem was known. Well, it was known for me and my electrician but not for the Tesla guy and the Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady. So the deplorable Tesla technician spent hours in measuring all different things at both buggy TWC. He was able to confirm that there were broken wires at both TWC charging cables. But it looks that this was not enough
, - it looks that the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady was on the search of "more".Towards the evening when the Tesla technician guy was somehow "finished" (with his nerves) I asked him again regarding the status. During our short discussion I told him that the two faulty TWCs are connected together in load balancing (load sharing) configuration. He was for a moment somewhat surprised but the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady was for whatever reason "not excited". So, the deplorable Tesla technician left without having achieved a lot.
After a few days the "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady phoned back. She really wanted that a local electrician makes the whole work a second time, under her monitoring.
My electrician said NO, I said also NO, because as I said the problem was clear. If she really want that someone will do that, she must send again the deplorable Tesla technician. Maybe this was the moment when I started taking the story personally...After the Tesla support has led to almost nothing, I started asking all disappointed Tesla drivers to report the TWC problems via the Tesla app. And you know what? At the begging of the month of September I get a replacement TWC!
The second buggy TWC was separately replaced later (at our own expense). It no longer had any warranty because it was not part of the Destination Charging program.So finally it must be said, - Tesla has to get in that topic much, much, MUCH better. This is not the kind of support you would expect from a company with such a reputation.
There was in the whole process so a lot of unnecessary overhead, of wasted energy. I was very sorry for the Tesla technician. He recognized the problem, but he was caught in a "static process flow" which is probably not even understood by Tesla itself. Maybe this was true also for the Tesla "Sr. Field Support Engineer" lady. It seems that the Tesla support staff are doing their job based on very very rigid, static procedures. A nightmare for me, - but that's a personal opinion.
Okay, what could be a better, a pragmatic (and cheap) solution for Tesla? For example, Tesla could provide (at least for their partners) a TWC "repair charging cable" kit. This will allow the Destination charging members to do effectively the job for Tesla. My electrician has told me several times that he can do that if he gets an original TWC charging cable replacement. Such replacement exists, but these are not available for external usage and are not distributed separately. (Tesla uses them internally to refurbish their TWC.)
Maybe this feedback will help some people here to understand the whole matter somewhat better and / or different. It shows pretty well where the problems are in the whole process.
Kind regards
lorn10
Unfortunately, I would say that does match their reputation.
This brand unreliability is a threat to Tesla as a company. Who will buy a car that can only be used around town and not be taken on trips? Shortly, there will be numerous EVs to compete and the reliability of the charging grid will need to be regulated just like gas pumps are inspected. Consumers will chose a brand of vehicle based on customer satisfaction: the inability to travel distance will be a major deterrent to Tesla and sully the brand. Tesla should roll out a local service grid of electricians who check the chargers monthly, receive complaints, and assure reliability. The information relayed on the Tesla/trip site. If not, I propose a media campaign to inform the general investing public of this fault: the stock will fall and management might wake up.
Well, that's a ridiculous and wrong conclusion to jump to. Issues related to using those connectors at destination charging hotels only relates to people who want to stay at those hotels--not to whether the car can be used for traveling. The destination charging hotels are usually pretty pricey, so I don't use them. I always prefer AirBNB anyway, so when I did my 5,000+ mile trip across the country in 2018, I never used any destination charging hotels anyway.
So let's be real about what the issue is.
Sure. But have you looked at what else is out there for other brands for the actual traveling?! It's a nasty, pathetic mess of broken and unavailable stations, lack of redundancy, and incompatible and expensive memberships. Tesla's Supercharger network is head and shoulders above anything else available.So while the first part of your statement is correct, it doesn't say what you think it does. Tesla gets a clear win in the ability to use an electric car for traveling over other brands.
But as to the stations available at hotels, well, that's another issue where some will have problems, regardless of whether it's a J1772 connector or a Tesla (TM) connector.
@Rocky_H Porsche seems to have with their destination charging program a high-end variant which is open to ALL (type 2) vehicles. (Source: Porsche Destination Charging) Yes, of course, they are standing with this "project" just at the very beginning. And furthermore this charging program is rather intended for higher class locations / hotels. However, I am almost certain that the Porsche support is far better than that from Tesla.
In Europe, the Tesla Destination Chargers are definitely not located at "pretty pricey hotels". On the contrary, these are found more likely at 4 star hotels and just sometimes also at 3 star. Why? That's simple. Who drives Tesla cars? Rather better earners! The "normal" ELV folks are driving Smart ED and Zoe cars. And the really really GREEN people are arriving with the pretty comfy (electric) public trains. I know, I know, that's now very Europe specific.
Our Tesla TWC are frequently and more and more used. So they act really somehow as "destination chargers", - for own guest and also "strangers". (Well, that's somewhat the wrong term but I am not native English speaking so it's okay). Whatever, the use of our TWC has increased so much that we turn now off the electricity in the evening...
And regarding any "media campaign". Yes, this sound funny (at the moment). But Tesla will definitely have to improve in the future! Or they will experience some day one shitstorm after the other. This may have then really the potential to corrupt their brand sustainable.
In Europe, the Tesla Destination Chargers are definitely not located at "pretty pricey hotels". On the contrary, these are found more likely at 4 star hotels and just sometimes also at 3 star. Why? That's simple. Who drives Tesla cars? Rather better earners! The "normal" ELV folks are driving Smart ED and Zoe cars.
And the really really GREEN people are arriving with the pretty comfy (electric) public trains. I know, I know, that's now very Europe specific. Our Tesla TWC are frequently and more and more used. So they act really somehow as "destination chargers", - for own guest and also "strangers". (Well, that's somewhat the wrong term but I am not native English speaking so it's okay).
Whatever, the use of our TWC has increased so much that we turn now off the electricity in the evening...And regarding any "media campaign". Yes, this sound funny (at the moment). But Tesla will definitely have to improve in the future! Or they will experience some day one shitstorm after the other. This may have then really the potential to corrupt their brand sustainable.
So, on two recent trips we had charger issues. The first was a destination charger at a hotel (not pricey). The Tesla charger didn't work. The hotel had no resource to call upon to fix it. The second were two superchargers at a Tesla supercharging station. A local Tesla owner who came by indicated that they had been having trouble with charger 1A and reported it several times to no avail. A call to Tesla later with review of that supercharger by them indicated no calls or problems ever.
I discussed this with the service manager at my local Tesla service center who indicated that they were not capable of checking the local superchargers or destination chargers and could offer no support at present, but would be willing to set up a service web.
My point is pretty simple. Set up a system using the local Tesla service to check on destination chargers and superchargers and fix them if needed. Perhaps a subscription. Remember those signs: 'Last gas for 100 miles?' Planning a trip with the caveat 'Last reliable supercharger for 250 miles. No reliable destination charging' doesn't seem feasible.
I discussed this with the service manager at my local Tesla service center who indicated that they were not capable of checking the local superchargers or destination chargers and could offer no support at present, but would be willing to set up a service web.
My point is pretty simple. Set up a system using the local Tesla service to check on destination chargers and superchargers and fix them if needed. Perhaps a subscription. Remember those signs: 'Last gas for 100 miles?' Planning a trip with the caveat 'Last reliable supercharger for 250 miles. No reliable destination charging' doesn't seem feasible.
Tesla destination failure may be your car not the charger. AND Tesla won’t tell you. I had August trip two stops two destination chargers in my June 2020 S: my charge ring went red. August Tesla service says it’s bad hotel charger.
November service chat with service about something else but somehow get to me saying ‘I want to use my 2015 mobile charger as it is rated for faster charging than my new 2020 mobile charger. Service: ‘generation 1 wall chargers won’t work with this vehicle.” ‘how do I know Gen 1’. Service “it is not marked”
Tesla telling hotels? Doubt it. They have never warned me officially.
November service chat with service about something else but somehow get to me saying ‘I want to use my 2015 mobile charger as it is rated for faster charging than my new 2020 mobile charger. Service: ‘generation 1 wall chargers won’t work with this vehicle.” ‘how do I know Gen 1’. Service “it is not marked”
Tesla telling hotels? Doubt it. They have never warned me officially.
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So, after asking Tesla to check the car for this issue, they told me that nothing was wrong. And, I went to the local service center who also check and announced that the car was working fine. Is there a next step?
Lo and Behold! I investigated the failed Superchargers I experienced and found them reported on Plugshare! So, I feel better that my car is not at fault. However, this underscores again the points I am trying to make: Who supports the charging infrastructure? Where are problematic chargers publicly reported with integration into trip planning?
I see a business opportunity to amass an infrastructure of electricians to check the chargers and fix them as needed. Home installation of chargers by these gentlemen would be a given.
I'm too old to float this but perhaps some canny readers might grab ahold.
I see a business opportunity to amass an infrastructure of electricians to check the chargers and fix them as needed. Home installation of chargers by these gentlemen would be a given.
I'm too old to float this but perhaps some canny readers might grab ahold.
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