Shell Recharge Charging Station

CSS fast charging. Grabbed a bite to eat at the Oyster House

I visited this charger April 2 for the CCS. I had to get down on my knees to read the screen. It told me to download an app I had never heard of, PSE Up & Go. I did that, and went through all the steps. It still didn’t work. I called the customer service and got a person pretty quickly. She asked me many questions, then did something that made it work. On the plus side, it’s a nice location. We enjoyed walking on the waterfront and shopping at the Thriftway while our car charged.

The GOOD:

1) For Chademo, one of the fastest charges. 2) Walkable to much of downtown while charging.

The BAD:

1) Charger may not disengage from your car’s Chademo port. Specifically, the internal spring within the button used to disengage charging cable from vehicle becomes stuck. Calling customer service, they have been aware of this issue, and advised I use a toothpick to attempt to free the spring within the release button of the connector on their charging cable.

The UGLY:

1) Shell is AWARE of this issue; they’re aware this is an ongoing problem with their chargers and they’re actively choosing to NOT fix it. We were on a road trip, and they kept my family about 30 minutes past when charging stopped, till I finally wiggled the button/cable free (lots of time with mechanical pencil tip—I don’t carry toothpicks). I’m no lawyer, but this “known” and “ongoing” issue felt to me like unlawful detention—and one in which I was forced to work to overcome their chosen negligence. My requests for a technician went unfulfilled. I’m only lucky the weather wasn’t bad. I can’t even imagine Shell putting us into this scenario during a rainstorm…

Follow-up email to Shell, after their response, felt like a waste of time.

If you plan to use Chademo cable here, be ready with a toothpick. Don’t expect Shell to send help.

GOOD LUCK.