SourceEast FAIL

[arg]

Got my SourceEast card on Wednesday, so thought I'd give it a try at a local site to be sure it works.

Went to Cambridge Park&Ride Madingley Rd. Found the charge points after two laps of the site. Plugged in. Applied SourceEast branded smartcard to SourceEast branded post: 'tag read OK' then 'card not found' and a red flashing light (and no charge). Tried the other post (without plugging in) - same result.

Called the phone number on the post (same number on card). 'Source East' answered; said they needed to get someone to call me back.

Someone from 'PodPoint' called back; after some discussion of the location, decided it wasn't one of their posts (and indeed it says 'Elektromotive' under the SourceEast branding). Gave me the number for Elektromotive. Called the number; answerphone says they are only open 09:00-17:30 mon-fri and suggests leaving a message if wanting to report a fault.

Called SourceEast again and explained that I didn't want PodPoint, it's an Elektromotive site. Said someone would call back.

Same guy from PodPoint calls back.

Called SourceEast a third time. Different guy. Says the only thing he can do is to get someone to call me back - not sure who it will be as he just dials a number and it's 'automated'. Agree that it's a waste of time.


So, just as well I wasn't in desperate need of a charge.


Also, these unhelpful helplines were all 0845 numbers - haven't they heard that 0845 numbers for helplines are now illegal?

 

[dpeilow]

Source East has been pretty much a fail from the start. It's now run by PodPoint I think, who are little more than a marketing operation. We have a PodPoint post at the local shopping centre and it's constantly down or running the wrong firmware etc. I doubt it would be in operation at all if their janitor didn't go out and reboot it each day.

 

[arg]

Certainly seems like SourceEast itself is purely a marketing operation, though PodPoint at least had some kind of on-call support at the weekend. But all these SourceEast points in good locations around Cambridge seem to be run by Elektromotive rather than PodPoint. The rest of the listed SourceEast points seem to be a mixture of private stations with uncertain access where the meaning of the SourceEast branding isn't clear, and/or 13A socket stations.

These points at all the Park&Ride sites, while only 7kW, are potentially quite a useful resource (though not for me, since I live here) - for a day out in Cambridge, parking at the P&R makes sense and a few hours at 7kW is worth having. They seem to be seldom ICEd - even the ones in the short-stay at Trumpington P&R have seldom been ICEd when I've been looked previously despite the short stay often being crowded; noticed yesterday that someone has now taken the trouble to cone them off. Never seen anybody actually charging there though...

 

[arg]

Further update - spoke to business-hours customer support who insisted I went down there to read the number off the post; called back from the site and naturally they were able to identify it just from the address without needing the number. Conclusion was that the database in the post hadn't been updated recently enough for my card and they undertook to get it sorted.

Three weeks later, still doesn't work....

 

[miimura]

Definitely more sordid than sorted.

Probably sounds funnier in American English....