Supercharger - Strongsville, Ohio

[ArizonaP85]

It is true that half of the stalls are listed for 10-Minute parking. That said, the manager, and employees were parked at the other end, which are clearly listed as Tesla Charging Only. Not to mention, they are employees that work there, so they'll be there for more than 10-Minutes. Not to mention, they already knew the rules, and told me directly that they will not follow them.

On the one occasion, two of the girls parking there were heading next door to O'Charley's to have lunch with their crew. I asked them why they didn't just park over at O'Charley's then, which had tons of parking. They just responded with "I've gotta go, don't tell anyone, okay?".

On another occasion, there were two cars parked in the 10-Minute stalls.... for the whole 45 minutes I was there. I'm guessing they were employees too, as I can't imagine what you'd be doing in a gas station for almost an hour.

According to various building permits I've seen posted on TMC, Tesla spends around $300,000 on this sort of Supercharger installation, or over $30,000 per parking spot. It is in Tesla's and Sheetz's mutual interest to ensure they remain available for Supercharging as intended -- especially by Sheetz's own store manager!

 

[JohnnyG]

woke up and saw this message this morning and it made me angry, they're violating their agreement and it's against the Sheetz/Tesla corporate policy. we can easily get 15 tesla's to block their gas spots within a few minutes, but before we get all up in arms we need to get the guy in charge of superchargers in this area involved.
@JohnnyG pm me for Jordan Rhyne's email address to get this resolved.

Well, I contacted Jordan, however based on the first thing he said to me, I don't think he has the same opinion we do...

During this were any of the stalls available, or were all of them blocked by non-Tesla vehicles?

What difference does it make if half the spots were blocked by ICE (which was the case with the times I was there) or all were blocked?? It was Sheetz employees!! This is going to become a much larger issue as the M3 continues to ramp-up and they're delivering 5,000 per week. Why don't they want to address this now, before it becomes "all of them blocked"?!

I also asked him what we should / could do when blocked by ICE (i.e. towing). His response was:

If you are having a non-technical issue, like gas vehicles parking in the stalls, sending an email to [email protected] describing the problem will help as well.

I give up.....

 

[Peteybabes]

Well, I contacted Jordan, however based on the first thing he said to me, I don't think he has the same opinion we do...

What difference does it make if half the spots were blocked by ICE (which was the case with the times I was there) or all were blocked?? It was Sheetz employees!! This is going to become a much larger issue as the M3 continues to ramp-up and they're delivering 5,000 per week. Why don't they want to address this now, before it becomes "all of them blocked"?!

I also asked him what we should / could do when blocked by ICE (i.e. towing). His response was:


I give up.....

holy crap, what a S#!t show...

 

[PLUS EV]

Who is Jordan Rhyne?

 

[JohnnyG]

i have a contact at Tesla that deals with the superchargers in Ohio!
The contact is Jordan Rhyne, and he used to be the Store Manager of the Columbus OH location and he moved on to the supercharger team for Ohio to find optimal placement etc...

Who is Jordan Rhyne?

From his email signature:
Jordan Rhyne | Project Developer | Charging Infrastructure

 

[Big Earl]

Call Sheetz corporate and explain the problem. The Tesla/Sheetz partnership is important to both companies and I would imagine that the people involved in the contract negotiations wouldn’t be happy about a few rogue employees using the Superchargers as their personal parking spaces.

Everyone who encounters this type of situation should call Tesla support and Sheetz. The more people who document these problems, the more likely both companies are to resolve the issue.

 

[JohnnyG]

Call Sheetz corporate and explain the problem. The Tesla/Sheetz partnership is important to both companies and I would imagine that the people involved in the contract negotiations wouldn’t be happy about a few rogue employees using the Superchargers as their personal parking spaces.

Everyone who encounters this type of situation should call Tesla support and Sheetz. The more people who document these problems, the more likely both companies are to resolve the issue.

I agree. I called Tesla, each time I was there, and explained the situation to them. I also emailed the Supercharger team. I was going to contact Sheetz corporate, but Jordan told me not to... He said he would contact them. I don't know, I think it might have a stronger impact if it comes from the customers also.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Well, I contacted Jordan, however based on the first thing he said to me, I don't think he has the same opinion we do...

What difference does it make if half the spots were blocked by ICE (which was the case with the times I was there) or all were blocked?? It was Sheetz employees!! This is going to become a much larger issue as the M3 continues to ramp-up and they're delivering 5,000 per week. Why don't they want to address this now, before it becomes "all of them blocked"?!

I also asked him what we should / could do when blocked by ICE (i.e. towing). His response was:

I give up.....

Please post the text of your email to Jordan. It's not fair to post and criticize responses without also exposing your own text to the own scrutiny.

Also, did you reply to the reply and explain why your concerns weren't addressed by Jodran's response?

 

[JohnnyG]

Please post the text of your email to Jordan. It's not fair to post and criticize responses without also exposing your own text to the own scrutiny.

Also, did you reply to the reply and explain why your concerns weren't addressed by Jodran's response?

Fair enough... Here you go...

In a nutshell, the employees of the Sheetz station are parking in the charging stalls.

When discussing this with the manager, she stated that those are their spots and that they don't have to comply with the signs, nor do they enforce them. One time, I was standing right there when the girl got out of her car and started heading over to O'Charley's to meet coworkers for happy hour. I asked her if she could move her car over to O'Charley's lot, and a different girl approached me, stating that she was the manager of Sheetz. She became quite belligerent, asking me "... do you own these spots right here?!". I of course said "... no, but your company has a contract with Tesla to allow us to charge at these locations.". This is when she stated that the signs don't apply. Not that it matters, but in this case, they were both parked in the "Charging Only" stalls; not the 10-minute parking stalls. On another occasion, two other vehicles were parked in the 10-minute parking stalls (along with the other two parked in their normal spots in the "Charging Only" stalls) for the whole 45 minutes I was there. I can only assume these are employees also, as I can't imagine what a customer would be doing at a gas station for almost an hour.

I don't normally travel through Strongsville, Ohio (nor do I plan to in the future). I was commuting back and forth between Columbus, Ohio and the Cleveland Clinic due to my dad being rushed there for emergency open heart surgery. He has been moved to a rehab facility, so I can't help with giving further feedback. I can say that there are photos on PlugShare of this location with plenty of stalls being blocked by non-charging vehicles.

I would like to know, in the future, when at a Tesla operated charging station, do we have any recourse? Can we call to have the vehicles towed? Who would we call? Do we have a legal right? There is so much confusion around these questions; maybe you could shine some light on it.

Thank you,
John

Yes, I did reply back to Jordan, expressing my concern. I'll just paste those here too...

Half of the spots were blocked, by non-Tesla vehicles; specifically Sheetz employees. I don't see the relevance of this question... It should not matter if only one spot was blocked by an employee of Sheetz. Does Tesla not have a contract with Sheetz, and as such, their employees, to reserve those spots for charging? What is the purpose of the signage which was placed there then? (As mentioned in my first message, two of them were parked in the "Charging Only" spots, not the "10-Minute Parking" spots. Not that it should matter in this case; as the other two were in the "10-Minute" spots the whole time I was there charging.)

Should we be contacting Sheetz directly, instead of Tesla with these problem? I'm sure the owners of the Sheets stations would prefer that we go inside and purchase items while we charge. Something that myself and others have refused to do, due to the attitude of their store management.

Again, it should not matter, the number of stalls that were blocked by non-Tesla vehicles. Before I left, all of the stalls were occupied. Four more Tesla's could have been charging if the employees and delivery vehicles where not blocking charging spots.

The best path to fix issues like this is to reach out to us, as we have the right resources and contacts at our site hosts to make the fastest impact.

Occasionally the local staff at one of our sites may be uninformed or unaware of the agreements between Tesla and their company even though we try to prevent this. That sounds exactly like what has happened here and I agree it seems like the attitude of their staff has not exactly been welcoming to our drivers or encouraging them to patronize Sheetz!

Thankfully this is rare and we have not encountered it at any of our other Sheetz sites. When something like this happens we always work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible to make sure our stations provide good customer experiences.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention, and I’m sorry that the experience at this site so far hasn’t been up to our standards.

 

[Peteybabes]

Fair enough... Here you go...


Yes, I did reply back to Jordan, expressing my concern. I'll just paste those here too...

Thanks tons @JohnnyG you've been an advocate for those of us using this site!

I can't thank you enough, you've been far more professional than i would have been.

 

[Tic-tac-toe]

No problems with icing but the slowest supercharging I’ve ever used so far.

 

[Darren S]

No problems with icing but the slowest supercharging I’ve ever used so far.

How long did you drive before you arrived? I'd say the slow kW rate is because you are already at ~60% SOC and it normally starts to taper around 50-55% so this looks perfectly normal to me.

I was just there yesterday, @Tic-tac-toe, and at 61% SOC it was 71 kW after driving 2 hrs to arrive (and therefore a warm battery pack) so I don't think this is a slow charger at all.

 

[Tic-tac-toe]

How long did you drive before you arrived? I'd say the slow kW rate is because you are already at ~60% SOC and it normally starts to taper around 50-55% so this looks perfectly normal to me.

I was just there yesterday, @Tic-tac-toe, and at 61% SOC it was 71 kW after driving 2 hrs to arrive (and therefore a warm battery pack) so I don't think this is a slow charger at all.

View attachment 366756

This was the second time using the Strongsville Charger. The highest it ever gets is 71 KW it looks like. After driving for an hour, I expect at least 100 KW if I am under 50%. 68 KW was the highest it ever got for me.

This is what I got earlier in the week after driving for 1/2 hr on 2B. Sad. Why I did not use 2B the second time.

 

[bariiings]

View attachment 367166
This was the second time using the Strongsville Charger. The highest it ever gets is 71 KW it looks like. After driving for an hour, I expect at least 100 KW if I am under 50%. 68 KW was the highest it ever got for me.

This is what I got earlier in the week after driving for 1/2 hr on 2B. Sad. Why I did not use 2B the second time.

It’s your car. Your batteries cold or something. I’m on 2b right now. And I have a 90 that’s been throttled due to all my supercharging. Peaked at 94kw.

 

[Big Earl]

View attachment 367166
This was the second time using the Strongsville Charger. The highest it ever gets is 71 KW it looks like. After driving for an hour, I expect at least 100 KW if I am under 50%. 68 KW was the highest it ever got for me.

This is what I got earlier in the week after driving for 1/2 hr on 2B. Sad. Why I did not use 2B the second time.

I was getting 118 kW in Strongsville just a few days ago. It can take up to two hours of highway driving to warm the battery up enough to accept a full speed charge.

I'll note that you have range mode turned on, so battery heating is disabled, making the warm-up process take even longer. Don't run in range mode when you intend to Supercharge.

 

[Tic-tac-toe]

I was getting 118 kW in Strongsville just a few days ago. It can take up to two hours of highway driving to warm the battery up enough to accept a full speed charge.

I'll note that you have range mode turned on, so battery heating is disabled, making the warm-up process take even longer. Don't run in range mode when you intend to Supercharge.

Thank you and Bariiings! I didn’t know range mode turned off battery heating. This SC is close to my brother’s house so next time I’ll supercharge when I arrive when battery is toasty instead of as I leave when battery isn’t warmed up.

Planning on driving to the Detroit auto show and more cold weather driving so this is very helpful! Thanks again!

 

[Big Earl]

Thank you and Bariiings! I didn’t know range mode turned off battery heating. This SC is close to my brother’s house so next time I’ll supercharge when I arrive when battery is toasty instead of as I leave when battery isn’t warmed up.

Planning on driving to the Detroit auto show and more cold weather driving so this is very helpful! Thanks again!

Cool. I’ll be driving out to the Detroit auto show, too. Hopefully the weather cooperates.