Thank you so much for posting this.
I got contacted yesterday for my installation, I haven’t been able to sleep due to the anger and frustration of dealing with these people,
I wanted them to install a charging point on the external wall of the front of my house, so that I could run a 20m cable from my car to the charging point, it’s a direct line, there is no road in between, just a grass lawn.
Do I have permission to run the cable from my car to the charging point, I need to provide them with the proof that I have permission, what business is it of yours how I connect my cable to the charging point?
Do you have permission to park in front of your house, um no, that’s why I have residents parking in front of the house.
There is a public access lawn in front of the house, I am one of several properties all in a row with a big open flat piece of grassy lawn in front of us, no one is going to walk down the piece of lawn in front of my house so they can trip over the cable I am using to charge my car.
Do you have an allocated parking space. Um no, it’s resident’s parking, yes, but you need an allocated parking bay, why do I need an allocated parking bay, whichever spot in the parking bay I am parked in has direct access to my house?
No, but you need an allocated parking bay, our procedures clearly state you need an allocated parking bay,
We also need permission to dig up the lawn, because you cannot use a cable from the residents parking area across the lawn to the house…long suffering sigh, picture an extension cable, now they want to bury the cable, and in order to bury the cable, they need permission to dig up the area. Or better when you go and charge at a charging point at the garage, you don’t need to dig up the area to hide the charging cable to prevent someone from tripping over the cable, they can see you are charging your car, there is a charging point.
Before we can book the assessment, to take the pictures and do the sketches, you first need to get permissions, to install the charge point, get permission for digging, for parking on the grass, get an allocated parking bay…but I already explained I am not parking on the grass, I don’t need permission to run a cable from my car to the charge point and it’s none of your business how I charge my car, all you need to do is install the charge point, it’s a simple process.
Charging point is a complete unit, it is installed on the outside of your house and connects to the mains, ideally you get a qualified person to do it.
British Gas will do it, their maximum installation time is 5 hours, for Ohme to do it, they will take 2 weeks to get all the permissions, which btw is never going to happen, then 2-3 weeks to book the pre-assessment and then 4 weeks to book the installation, at any point they will turn around and say it’s not a standard installation so it’s not free.
Motability are happy, because they save the money, Ohme are happy because they don’t have to do the work, and only the customer….well never mind the customer.