SuperCharging Idle Fee at Service Center

[smilepak]

curious on the whole idle fee, when at certain service centers such as Beuna Park where the tend to leave a service vehicle parked there after full charge, wouldn’t the owner of that vehicle be charged without his knowledge and consent?

 

[ggr]

curious on the whole idle fee, when at certain service centers such as Beuna Park where the tend to leave a service vehicle parked there after full charge, wouldn’t the owner of that vehicle be charged without his knowledge and consent?

I believe the idle fee is only at superchargers, and most of the service centers just use normal AC chargers for their own purposes. And most don't even have superchargers!

 

[futurem3owner]

When I had my car serviced yesterday, I decided to wait at the service center to get my driver's window adjusted. It took them couple of hours to fix it and I was hoping they would keep the car charging while working on the issue but they didn't. Luckily, I still had enough charge to make it back home since I don't live that far from the SC. Do they usually do courtesy charging if you decide to drop off your car and take a loaner instead?

 

[appleguru]

When I had my car serviced yesterday, I decided to wait at the service center to get my driver's window adjusted. It took them couple of hours to fix it and I was hoping they would keep the car charging while working on the issue but they didn't. Luckily, I still had enough charge to make it back home since I don't live that far from the SC. Do they usually do courtesy charging if you decide to drop off your car and take a loaner instead?

Depends on the SC, how many cars they have in for work, and what chargers they have available. One local sc only has 2 or 3 HPWCs, and do my car is almost never full when I pick it up (they plug/unplug cars throughout the day as needed). At the other SC, they have superchargers, and do in fact plug customer cars into them. When I had work done at that’s SC, my car came back to me with a full charge.

 

[thecloud]

I wouldn't be worried about it. If the car was in for service and not under your control, and somehow accumulated an idle fee at that service center, I'd imagine you would easily be able to contest it and have the fee removed from your account. More than likely, since Tesla knows when your car is brought in for service, that should prevent any supercharging fees, idle or otherwise. And you'll probably get the latest software update pushed to your car as a bonus.

 

[kort677]

curious on the whole idle fee, when at certain service centers such as Beuna Park where the tend to leave a service vehicle parked there after full charge, wouldn’t the owner of that vehicle be charged without his knowledge and consent?

most service centers do not have superchargers, most have hwpc units. however if they left your car connected to their SpC long enough to generate fees I would think that those fees would be covered by them.

 

[doctorwho]

I'd had a $10 fee attached to my account since March. It happened during a car service, I've ignored the fee and Tesla haven't asked for it to be paid.

 

[evp]

The new Denver SC has two SuperCharger cabinets inside the actual building, plus a plethora of destination chargers in the parking lot outside. One SuperCharger cabinet services the check-in line, the other can be used while the car is waiting to be worked on.

 

[aus]

OP's referring to a service center that has superchargers open to the public.
.

 

[smilepak]

OP's referring to a service center that has superchargers open to the public.
.

Yes. He is correct. At service center where they have public supercharger as well.

I’ve seen Buena Park abuses them with cars parking there over the weekend before.

 

[gregtopf]

I can't speak from experience of getting smacked with an idle fee, but my local SC (Paramus, NJ) has an 8 stall supercharger where I occasionally go for a quick top off, but beyond that, but the service area they have 6 or so HPWC's that they use specifically for the service area.

 

[Brass Guy]

Yes, if the service center plugs your car into a supercharger, any idle fees will appear on your account.
I just noticed a $11.60 idle fee on my account from when mine was in for service. It was from a day before I picked up the car.
This indicates they left my car plugged into a busy supercharger for about a half hour after it was done, possibly preventing a traveler from charging - as has happened there before.
I'm ignoring it, but will expect them to waive it if the topic ever comes up.

 

[jgs]

curious on the whole idle fee, when at certain service centers such as Beuna Park where the tend to leave a service vehicle parked there after full charge, wouldn’t the owner of that vehicle be charged without his knowledge and consent?

That exact thing happened to me at my last service (a few days back, for a warranty issue). I was unpleasantly surprised to see the fee, quickly figured out that it was incurred while the SC staff were working on the car. I sent a note off to customer service asking them to please hop to it and remove the fee. We'll see what happens but I certainly don't intend to pay it.

I'm not annoyed now that I've figured out what happened. I am struck yet again by how amateurish Tesla's operation is in so many ways once you get outside their core competence.

 

[jlv1]

When my car was at the Dedham, MA, SC earlier this year, they plugged it into the (8-stall) SuperCharger where it finished charging. On my way there to pick it up and still 20 minutes away, I got a notice that idle fees would start accumulating in 5 minutes. However, no idle fees were ever posted to my account. When I contacted Tesla about it later, I got a polite response that no matter what the app said, they waive idle fees accumulated within 24 hours of a SC visit.