Its Official, its happening, old EVSE are being yanked, trashed, with no replacements in mind.
I spend time in many places of the EV and pih communities. I did not get wind of this bad-Costco-decision until a Leaf EV driver placed a 'checked in' @ Costco Fremont (CA) on the recargo.com EV finder site&app
http://www.recargo.com/sites/661
(see bottom of page)
me4tux in a Nissan Leaf on Wednesday Aug 03, 2011
(Didn't Charge - Site Looked Bad)
NOTE: COSTCO has officially removed all their EVSEs. It's all gone!
Paddles, AVCONs the whole deal. The word came down from COSTCO corporate office.
I asked an EV driver more local than I (Tom driving a 1970's Citicar) to swing by and verify this. Yup. At both Fremont, CA (SF South Bay) and San Leandro, CA (SF East Bay) Costco's
http://www.recargo.com/sites/745
the old EVSE has been removed (Tom uploaded images of EVSE being gone).
So, many Tesla EV drivers new to the EV community, might think what is the Big Deal? So what, there are or will be plenty of other EVSE installed at other areas to shop. While this might be true, the EV community and Costco go back a long ways.
Costco History ...
It was a Costco Corporate Manager that I witnessed speaking in front of the documenting lights and cameras of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) workshop meetings (#1 in Sacramento and #2 in Rosemead - LA area) back in 2000. He said it was a win-win for both Costco and EV drivers: easy access off highways, and plenty of ways to spend money at their stores.
Though Costco made the same dumb mistake as many new installations at the time and put their EVSE in prime-parking-real-estate which meant those spots were always ice'd with gas-cars, and near the on-site Costco tire store which annoyed the tire jockeys to no end, this relationship between Costco and the EV community has been a good one for years.
An EV driver could come in anytime (24 by 7, 365) and access power. Usually, EV drivers would use them during business hours and spend money in the store to help pay back for their foresight in being first to install EVSE in a huge way across California and some in Arizona.
Now, a clueless unqualified Costco Corporate manager has made the decision to rip out and trash perfectly working old EVSE and not replace them with new EVSE anywhere on-site. All of Costco's long time good-Corporate-social-responsibility is now out the window, gone, finito. All because of a lame Corporate manager's decision.
EV History ...
A long time ago, GM thought they were cute, that they would be selective about who could be on a three year waiting list just to 'lease' their EV1. But that backfired on them because the people GM chose were highly educated and motivated people, who were already successful in their careers (there were no slouches there). They formed an EV political force that made some serious changes to what Automakers thought they could get away with (anyone seen Who Killed the Electric Car movie? That only touched on the many things the EV1-Club members had done).
Once GM had ripped their EV1s from the leasee's gripped hands and crushed/chewed-up perfectly good high-end EV1s into tiny bits, these former EV1 drivers got RAV4 or Ford Ranger EVs, and remained a strong EV political force.
Now, it is the Tesla EV driver's turn to form a political force for positive actions when needed. Minorities have always had to fight for their right to exist and be respected. There are many forces that are paid to constantly knock/diss EVs. We will always have to fight to drive Electric.
So, here is your chance. It isn't hard or painful. Just send in your views on this matter.
*** I suggest you use the Costco Corporate feedback form
https://costco.egain.net/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=STARTPAGE&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=us
There is an Assoc. VP (Craig) that has been responding to comments, but his mind is closed, his ignorance and prejudice plain. He is not interested in sales and service, nor Corporate image. He lives in his own small world re-counting over and over his tiny amount of beans. He is not about to bring any of this to his upper management unless he knows the noise on this was already heard by them.
Now, if you by-pass the feedback form for an email that only goes to Craig, it will end up deleted or not responded to.
If we all continue to use the feedback form, more Costco hands see it, touch it, count it before it gets to where it is going ( = more noise made that will eventually get to management above Craig ).
The fever over all the noise we make about this will make plain: they made a bad-decision, and will dislike paying the price for it.
Whoever made this decision, will have the stain of ticking off a lot of people, and forever tainting Costco's responses, management names, and Costco Corporate reputation.
In the strange world of unqualified managers who should not be in charge, justifying their existence is their most important goal, not customers. I saw 25 years of this in the corporate world. They did not last long in their position, but the stink of what they had done, did.
Once Costco's pants are undone, and the hiney pimples that made this bad-decision (like Craig) are repeatedly on view for the world to see on the Internet, Costco's good-Corporate-citizen reputation will be besmirched for a long time ...
' Yea, Costco put them in years before everyone, but then some lame manager had them taken out and trashed without replacement. All that good work ... gone. What a bunch of idiots! '
{brucedp.150m.com}
I spend time in many places of the EV and pih communities. I did not get wind of this bad-Costco-decision until a Leaf EV driver placed a 'checked in' @ Costco Fremont (CA) on the recargo.com EV finder site&app
http://www.recargo.com/sites/661
(see bottom of page)
me4tux in a Nissan Leaf on Wednesday Aug 03, 2011
(Didn't Charge - Site Looked Bad)
NOTE: COSTCO has officially removed all their EVSEs. It's all gone!
Paddles, AVCONs the whole deal. The word came down from COSTCO corporate office.
I asked an EV driver more local than I (Tom driving a 1970's Citicar) to swing by and verify this. Yup. At both Fremont, CA (SF South Bay) and San Leandro, CA (SF East Bay) Costco's
http://www.recargo.com/sites/745
the old EVSE has been removed (Tom uploaded images of EVSE being gone).
So, many Tesla EV drivers new to the EV community, might think what is the Big Deal? So what, there are or will be plenty of other EVSE installed at other areas to shop. While this might be true, the EV community and Costco go back a long ways.
Costco History ...
It was a Costco Corporate Manager that I witnessed speaking in front of the documenting lights and cameras of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) workshop meetings (#1 in Sacramento and #2 in Rosemead - LA area) back in 2000. He said it was a win-win for both Costco and EV drivers: easy access off highways, and plenty of ways to spend money at their stores.
Though Costco made the same dumb mistake as many new installations at the time and put their EVSE in prime-parking-real-estate which meant those spots were always ice'd with gas-cars, and near the on-site Costco tire store which annoyed the tire jockeys to no end, this relationship between Costco and the EV community has been a good one for years.
An EV driver could come in anytime (24 by 7, 365) and access power. Usually, EV drivers would use them during business hours and spend money in the store to help pay back for their foresight in being first to install EVSE in a huge way across California and some in Arizona.
Now, a clueless unqualified Costco Corporate manager has made the decision to rip out and trash perfectly working old EVSE and not replace them with new EVSE anywhere on-site. All of Costco's long time good-Corporate-social-responsibility is now out the window, gone, finito. All because of a lame Corporate manager's decision.
EV History ...
A long time ago, GM thought they were cute, that they would be selective about who could be on a three year waiting list just to 'lease' their EV1. But that backfired on them because the people GM chose were highly educated and motivated people, who were already successful in their careers (there were no slouches there). They formed an EV political force that made some serious changes to what Automakers thought they could get away with (anyone seen Who Killed the Electric Car movie? That only touched on the many things the EV1-Club members had done).
Once GM had ripped their EV1s from the leasee's gripped hands and crushed/chewed-up perfectly good high-end EV1s into tiny bits, these former EV1 drivers got RAV4 or Ford Ranger EVs, and remained a strong EV political force.
Now, it is the Tesla EV driver's turn to form a political force for positive actions when needed. Minorities have always had to fight for their right to exist and be respected. There are many forces that are paid to constantly knock/diss EVs. We will always have to fight to drive Electric.
So, here is your chance. It isn't hard or painful. Just send in your views on this matter.
*** I suggest you use the Costco Corporate feedback form
https://costco.egain.net/system/selfservice.controller?CONFIGURATION=1001&PARTITION_ID=1&CMD=STARTPAGE&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTRY=us
There is an Assoc. VP (Craig) that has been responding to comments, but his mind is closed, his ignorance and prejudice plain. He is not interested in sales and service, nor Corporate image. He lives in his own small world re-counting over and over his tiny amount of beans. He is not about to bring any of this to his upper management unless he knows the noise on this was already heard by them.
Now, if you by-pass the feedback form for an email that only goes to Craig, it will end up deleted or not responded to.
If we all continue to use the feedback form, more Costco hands see it, touch it, count it before it gets to where it is going ( = more noise made that will eventually get to management above Craig ).
The fever over all the noise we make about this will make plain: they made a bad-decision, and will dislike paying the price for it.
Whoever made this decision, will have the stain of ticking off a lot of people, and forever tainting Costco's responses, management names, and Costco Corporate reputation.
In the strange world of unqualified managers who should not be in charge, justifying their existence is their most important goal, not customers. I saw 25 years of this in the corporate world. They did not last long in their position, but the stink of what they had done, did.
Once Costco's pants are undone, and the hiney pimples that made this bad-decision (like Craig) are repeatedly on view for the world to see on the Internet, Costco's good-Corporate-citizen reputation will be besmirched for a long time ...
' Yea, Costco put them in years before everyone, but then some lame manager had them taken out and trashed without replacement. All that good work ... gone. What a bunch of idiots! '
{brucedp.150m.com}