Charging Port Damaged By EA
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eqs450+
Charging Port Damaged By EA
Hi all, wife's EQS450+ was having trouble charging at Electrify America (EA), the charger simply won't plug into the car charging port. Took it to the dealer today and they said the charging port was damaged, most likely by a bad EA charger leaving stuff welded to the charging port. They also said they had two cars with similar problem. One of them was so badly welded together the charging cable had to be cut off in order to tow / drive the car. Cost of repair is $4000+. Dealer said we could go file a claim against EA but after some research online i doubt EA would pay up without a fight. Anybody has or knows someone who has any experience on this? I will call insurance tomorrow and see if this is covered, hopefully it is so i can leave the claims to the pros. Thanks in advance for any advice.
***Update*** Just talked with insurance and they said this is not covered with our comprehensive coverage. This is ridiculous! Working with dealer to see if MB is willing to repair it out of goodwill (one member at MB forum got it worked out). Any advice is appreciated.
***Update*** Just talked with insurance and they said this is not covered with our comprehensive coverage. This is ridiculous! Working with dealer to see if MB is willing to repair it out of goodwill (one member at MB forum got it worked out). Any advice is appreciated.
Last edited by klin6; Sep 17, 2024 at 01:07 PM. Reason: update
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2022 Mercedes EQS 580
Just googled this and it seems you are right. A number of people incur damages from defective EA chargers and have difficulty getting compensation. In some cases their entire car was fried by the charger supplying to much electricity.
Makes me wonder if someone makes a protector which you can place in between the charger and your car to regulate the electric supply.
Makes me wonder if someone makes a protector which you can place in between the charger and your car to regulate the electric supply.
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eqs450+
Dealer won't even talk to MB and told me to file a claim against EA. I have reached out to MB corp. and will see what they have to say. Also reached out to EA but doubt they will respond in a timely manner. I am taking the car home for now.
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Are you able to charge at home with an L2 charger until you can get the matter resolved?
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I would tell Mercedes they are responsible because It occurred using the EA free charging which was bundled with the car. And if they hadn't provided that to you, then you would have been charging at Chargepoint or Tesla. Also if they did indeed pay for the charging then they must bear a degree of responsibility because they were the customer and EA was the provider in this charging transaction. You were merely the beneficiary (or victim) of Mercedes buying the charging.
Last edited by stealth.pilot; Sep 17, 2024 at 07:12 PM.
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eqs450+
Exactly. I, as the customer, pay all the bills on time and fulfill all my obligations and i went to a charging station recommended by MB and followed all the instructions correctly to charge. MB and EA can fight it out but i should not be on the hook. In a perfect / reasonable world this should work. Unfortunately i have a feeling it won't. I will definitely include that point when MB responds however.
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Exactly. I, as the customer, pay all the bills on time and fulfill all my obligations and i went to a charging station recommended by MB and followed all the instructions correctly to charge. MB and EA can fight it out but i should not be on the hook. In a perfect / reasonable world this should work. Unfortunately i have a feeling it won't. I will definitely include that point when MB responds however.
Also it helps if you used the 30 minute free charging as part of this session. Do you know?
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2022 Mercedes EQS 580
Okay in this case it is very clear. You were Mercedes customer for this charging session, and Mercedes was EAs customer. You didn’t have a transaction with EA, Mercedes did which means they are responsible for this.
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I would send a FedEx rather than an email. I don’t know if these CEOs have their email monitored by anyone other than their EA. A FedEx would go to the “Office of the CEO” and would be handled by his staff. That is the channel you need. The “office of the CEO” is a bit like a customer service escalation path.
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eqs450+
I would send a FedEx rather than an email. I don’t know if these CEOs have their email monitored by anyone other than their EA. A FedEx would go to the “Office of the CEO” and would be handled by his staff. That is the channel you need. The “office of the CEO” is a bit like a customer service escalation path.
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GLE 580
Are you in California? This group sets the performance standards for EA in California. Maybe try to contact this person (Hector De La Torre) about the number of vehicles getting fried by EA chargers. He's on the board of ARB.
Reference article:
https://www.govtech.com/transportati...charging-giant
Reference article:
https://www.govtech.com/transportati...charging-giant
Last edited by wildta; Sep 21, 2024 at 09:58 PM.
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eqs450+
Are you in California? This group sets the performance standards for EA in California. Maybe try to contact this person (Hector De La Torre) about the number of vehicles getting fried by EA chargers. He's on the board of ARB.
Reference article:
https://www.govtech.com/transportati...charging-giant
Reference article:
https://www.govtech.com/transportati...charging-giant
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Of course I agree with you all about MB/EA taking responsibility for their faulty equipment. However, I don't hold out much hope of getting this accomplished, at least without getting a lawyer involved. I can't even get either company to help me get my measly 30 minutes of charging--I tried, but gave up months ago, as it just wasn't worth the hassle for $15 in free power. Despite trying initiating in car, on the MB app, talking with customer service at both, etc., a charging session will not initiate. No big deal--done trying or caring--but MB blamed EA, and EA blamed MB. Neither would talk to each other. A fried charging port is this x100. BTW, charging will initiate just fine through the actual EA app.
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I want to acknowledge the great response I received from 'dimitris.psillakis@daimler.com' after I was charged over $6500 due to a price increase in 2022 after I had placed the order in 2021. I was approached by someone from his office within a few days. The assistant understood the problem and agreed to talk with the dealership. BTW, my dealer had earlier "rudely" declined to address the issue. Within two weeks afterwards, I received a check for the price increase plus state taxes paid on the increment.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
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eqs450+
Of course I agree with you all about MB/EA taking responsibility for their faulty equipment. However, I don't hold out much hope of getting this accomplished, at least without getting a lawyer involved. I can't even get either company to help me get my measly 30 minutes of charging--I tried, but gave up months ago, as it just wasn't worth the hassle for $15 in free power. Despite trying initiating in car, on the MB app, talking with customer service at both, etc., a charging session will not initiate. No big deal--done trying or caring--but MB blamed EA, and EA blamed MB. Neither would talk to each other. A fried charging port is this x100. BTW, charging will initiate just fine through the actual EA app.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Sep 2024
Posts: 18
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eqs450+
I want to acknowledge the great response I received from 'dimitris.psillakis@daimler.com' after I was charged over $6500 due to a price increase in 2022 after I had placed the order in 2021. I was approached by someone from his office within a few days. The assistant understood the problem and agreed to talk with the dealership. BTW, my dealer had earlier "rudely" declined to address the issue. Within two weeks afterwards, I received a check for the price increase plus state taxes paid on the increment.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
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I want to acknowledge the great response I received from 'dimitris.psillakis@daimler.com' after I was charged over $6500 due to a price increase in 2022 after I had placed the order in 2021. I was approached by someone from his office within a few days. The assistant understood the problem and agreed to talk with the dealership. BTW, my dealer had earlier "rudely" declined to address the issue. Within two weeks afterwards, I received a check for the price increase plus state taxes paid on the increment.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
So, yes, please do approach MB. I did it via email and it worked wonders.
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eqs450+
I actually did contacted local CBS and NBC stations, still waiting for a response. This is not something that rare after all. One BMW owner in another state had the exact same thing happened on the same day i posted. We are updating each other via PM now.
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Try contacting Autoblog this may be the sort of thing they may cover.
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eqs450+
Just want to update everybody and give credit where credit is due. MBUSA has contacted me and stated that they will repair this for free. Thank you everyone for helping me out! I really appreciate all the helps i got. I will avoid using any public chargers from now on, if possible.
