NortheastLightning
Member
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello All,
I wanted to post about my recent experience using highspeed (50 kW +) chargers across the U.S. and Canada border. I frequently do 600+ mile round trips to northeastern Canada. My typical charging experience has been good with little to no issues. However, I have had two occasions now on the Canada side where I believe Plug and Charge is causing a major headache, and I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else ran into these issues.
The first occurrence happened when charging in June. We arrived at the charger after ALREADY successfully charging in Canada and plugged in as normal and followed the prompts on the charger. A few seconds after plugging in and the charger doing it's test cycle ("communicating with vehicle", etc.), the charger ramps up and then immediately stops. The vehicle says "charging interrupted", and the charger disengages. We tried multiple times, and received the same error. We also went to a different location and tried another highspeed charger and got the same error. We called Ford Canada to see if they could help. This was the most frustrating part of the entire experience. The people on the other side of the phone really did not believe or want to admit that the issue was with the vehicle or the Ford Pass app. They even said that because I had not had the recommended recalls done, it could be causing the issue.
After speaking with multiple people, we finally escalated the issue to Ford USA. They were able to identify the issue as a ford plug and charge issue, but they weren't exactly sure what was causing it. They were able to do "something" on their side that made it so the charger would initiate and stay charging. I wish I knew exactly what they did, but I was happy to be charging after spending 2 hours on the phone.
The second occurrence happened this past weekend. It is almost identical to the above (I should note, that we had done another trip across the border with multiple successful charging sessions). We immediately called Ford (unfortunately, because we were in Canada, it automatically routes us to the Canada team). Similar to my previous experience, Ford Canada was not helpful. They asked that I try plugging and unplugging the charger. Uninstalling/Reinstalling the ford pass app. Logging in/out of the ford pass app. Multiple times, over multiple operators. None of these options worked. I asked them if they could connect us with Ford USA, and they did. I talked with a very patient person, that suggested I toggle the "Plug & Charge" option to "off" under the "Access & Permissions" section of the "Energy" tab. Unfortunately, the previous Ford Canada person has asked that I deactivate "BlueOval Charge Network" under the "Connected Services" section of your account. When I did this, it completely removed the the "Access & Permissions" section under the "Advanced" portion of the "Energy" Tab. The Ford US person was surprised the options didn't exist. She asked that I go back into "Connected Services" and re-enable "BlueOval Charge Network". I did this but it did not change and the "Access and Permissions" did not reappear in the app. At this point, it was 10:00 PM and I was with my wife and daughter. We hung up with Ford USA and when to our hotel which had slow chargers (which we'd tested and confirmed they were working at the high speed charger site).
That night, the Ford USA person emailed and suggested I try her solution again. To my surprise, the access and permission returned, but the toggle for "Plug and Charge" would not stay in the off position. I pounded that toggle forty plus times.... nothing. I woke up the next morning, thought to myself, I may as well try the toggle one more time. It worked. It stayed in the "off" position. We went to the high speed charger, plugged in, and halleluiah it worked. I don't know what if anything the Ford USA person did on their side, but they went above and beyond to try and help me, even emailing me later to check in. Ford Canada was unfortunately ill prepared to help and admit the problem could be on their side.
For the record, I do not have Plug and Charge enabled as I don't find it convenient, but I believe that when Ford updated their phone app, it re-enables it, which caused the above issue. I hope this helps someone in the future. Sorry for the wall of text.
I wanted to post about my recent experience using highspeed (50 kW +) chargers across the U.S. and Canada border. I frequently do 600+ mile round trips to northeastern Canada. My typical charging experience has been good with little to no issues. However, I have had two occasions now on the Canada side where I believe Plug and Charge is causing a major headache, and I wanted to share my experience in case anyone else ran into these issues.
The first occurrence happened when charging in June. We arrived at the charger after ALREADY successfully charging in Canada and plugged in as normal and followed the prompts on the charger. A few seconds after plugging in and the charger doing it's test cycle ("communicating with vehicle", etc.), the charger ramps up and then immediately stops. The vehicle says "charging interrupted", and the charger disengages. We tried multiple times, and received the same error. We also went to a different location and tried another highspeed charger and got the same error. We called Ford Canada to see if they could help. This was the most frustrating part of the entire experience. The people on the other side of the phone really did not believe or want to admit that the issue was with the vehicle or the Ford Pass app. They even said that because I had not had the recommended recalls done, it could be causing the issue.
After speaking with multiple people, we finally escalated the issue to Ford USA. They were able to identify the issue as a ford plug and charge issue, but they weren't exactly sure what was causing it. They were able to do "something" on their side that made it so the charger would initiate and stay charging. I wish I knew exactly what they did, but I was happy to be charging after spending 2 hours on the phone.
The second occurrence happened this past weekend. It is almost identical to the above (I should note, that we had done another trip across the border with multiple successful charging sessions). We immediately called Ford (unfortunately, because we were in Canada, it automatically routes us to the Canada team). Similar to my previous experience, Ford Canada was not helpful. They asked that I try plugging and unplugging the charger. Uninstalling/Reinstalling the ford pass app. Logging in/out of the ford pass app. Multiple times, over multiple operators. None of these options worked. I asked them if they could connect us with Ford USA, and they did. I talked with a very patient person, that suggested I toggle the "Plug & Charge" option to "off" under the "Access & Permissions" section of the "Energy" tab. Unfortunately, the previous Ford Canada person has asked that I deactivate "BlueOval Charge Network" under the "Connected Services" section of your account. When I did this, it completely removed the the "Access & Permissions" section under the "Advanced" portion of the "Energy" Tab. The Ford US person was surprised the options didn't exist. She asked that I go back into "Connected Services" and re-enable "BlueOval Charge Network". I did this but it did not change and the "Access and Permissions" did not reappear in the app. At this point, it was 10:00 PM and I was with my wife and daughter. We hung up with Ford USA and when to our hotel which had slow chargers (which we'd tested and confirmed they were working at the high speed charger site).
That night, the Ford USA person emailed and suggested I try her solution again. To my surprise, the access and permission returned, but the toggle for "Plug and Charge" would not stay in the off position. I pounded that toggle forty plus times.... nothing. I woke up the next morning, thought to myself, I may as well try the toggle one more time. It worked. It stayed in the "off" position. We went to the high speed charger, plugged in, and halleluiah it worked. I don't know what if anything the Ford USA person did on their side, but they went above and beyond to try and help me, even emailing me later to check in. Ford Canada was unfortunately ill prepared to help and admit the problem could be on their side.
For the record, I do not have Plug and Charge enabled as I don't find it convenient, but I believe that when Ford updated their phone app, it re-enables it, which caused the above issue. I hope this helps someone in the future. Sorry for the wall of text.
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