Let me start by saying that I have no issue with Tesla's Supercharger Idle Fee policy. There may be a few ways to improve the implementation of it but in general it is a good start to managing supercharger use.
That said, I was recently charged supercharger idle fees (but automatically waived) when it is highly unlikely the station was >=50% full for the 10 minute window during the idle.
I was on a road trip recently and stopped at a supercharger station at a mall. I take this trip often and my routine is plug in, walk from the lot to the mall entrance, walk about 10 minutes to the other side of the mall to have dinner and use the restroom, walk about 10 minutes back to my car, unplug and go. This time the service at the restaurant was even slower than normal and the car hit the 90% charge goal and I got a message indicating that I would start to incur idle fees. It took me about 10 minutes to get back to the car. During this trip there was 1 other car plugged in when I arrived and 1 other car plugged in when I left. Every time I have stopped at this location there were at most 2 other cars plugged in.
My concern is it is highly unlikely that the ~7 stalls were being used during the 10 minute window during which I was "idle." I took a picture when I got back to the car.
Has anyone had an experience in which they were charged idle fees but the station was not at >=50% full? How do you dispute this? In my case there was nothing to dispute since Tesla did not actually charge the fee (the bill showed the time with a $0.50 and $1.00 rate and zero charge). How accurate is Tesla's system?
One thought I had is there may have been a number of offline or broken chargers...I know there was at least 1. This station has let's say 14 chargers....assume 4 were broken...that leaves 10....it is realistic, albeit unlikely, that there were 4 other cars charging (for a total of 5) just as I got to my charging goal.
BTW, save the "just move your car" comments. That's not the point of the thread. It is about the accuracy of the data used to implement the policy.
That said, I was recently charged supercharger idle fees (but automatically waived) when it is highly unlikely the station was >=50% full for the 10 minute window during the idle.
I was on a road trip recently and stopped at a supercharger station at a mall. I take this trip often and my routine is plug in, walk from the lot to the mall entrance, walk about 10 minutes to the other side of the mall to have dinner and use the restroom, walk about 10 minutes back to my car, unplug and go. This time the service at the restaurant was even slower than normal and the car hit the 90% charge goal and I got a message indicating that I would start to incur idle fees. It took me about 10 minutes to get back to the car. During this trip there was 1 other car plugged in when I arrived and 1 other car plugged in when I left. Every time I have stopped at this location there were at most 2 other cars plugged in.
My concern is it is highly unlikely that the ~7 stalls were being used during the 10 minute window during which I was "idle." I took a picture when I got back to the car.
Has anyone had an experience in which they were charged idle fees but the station was not at >=50% full? How do you dispute this? In my case there was nothing to dispute since Tesla did not actually charge the fee (the bill showed the time with a $0.50 and $1.00 rate and zero charge). How accurate is Tesla's system?
One thought I had is there may have been a number of offline or broken chargers...I know there was at least 1. This station has let's say 14 chargers....assume 4 were broken...that leaves 10....it is realistic, albeit unlikely, that there were 4 other cars charging (for a total of 5) just as I got to my charging goal.
BTW, save the "just move your car" comments. That's not the point of the thread. It is about the accuracy of the data used to implement the policy.
