Ford EV charging no longer working with Charge Anytime - what's happened?

As far as anyone knows, those permissions were sought upfront. Ford is just being fussy about it. OVO has a strict rule - both OVO and the other party e.g. Ford MUST be willing to play ball before Charge Anytime support can even be considered, let alone advertised.

The fact remains - and we’ve probably now said this at least 50 times - that Ford booted EVERYONE out, not just OVO Charge Anytime. This is a Ford issue, not an OVO one. But OVO and everyone else has been left with the blame because most of you wouldn’t see the other effects from elsewhere.

I have a call booked with a Ford Manager today and will be obviously querying their take on the issue.  I can understand your frustration, receiving these complaints, but as I am sure you will appreciate we the customers are again the ones left holding the can, draining cash from our pockets. 

I feel your pain. I think I would have stopped volunteering by now. Guess we need to blast someone for this debacle and unfortunately you’re in the firing line. Good luck is all I can say and sorry for wasting your time.

It looks like manufacturers restricting the volume of third party control could become a major problem. Currently issues with JLR and VW with Octopus. So it’s important to remember that it’s not the electricity suppliers that are causing the issues - they are the ones trying to fix them.

Actually, there is a rule about it. It’s an unwritten rule that forms part of forum etiquette for just about every forum and forum-like platform e.g. Discord, Slack and GitHub/GitLab, along with the many other forums out there. If you want to “me-too”, just use Reactions such as the Like button. That way, it gets your point across without generating unnecessary - and unhelpful - noise that adds nothing to the conversation.

Many such places will actually delete such comments as spam and potentially issue warnings or bans to those who keep doing it. The moderation here is a little more relaxed about that, but there is still only a finite limit as to how much time we’ve all got to patrol this place - which can eventually mean such threads get a little more limited in what can happen on them.

Free speech is a thing here, I agree with that and fully support it. But at the same time, there are expectations that exist on every forum of this type - you’ve gotta bear in mind that you’re blasting the helpers who give their time for free which can be extremely de-motivating for them.

You need to understand that I get literally hundreds of notifications from this forum every week, many of which are from folks desperate for help - it’s not helpful when they’re compounded by noise from folks piling on just because they can (which doesn’t mean you should!). That’s where our frustration comes from with threads like these. They just become a race to see who can create the most noise.

By “me-tooing” on this forum about something OVO is already very aware of, you’re not going to make the fix magically appear any faster, nor are you realistically telling us how much magnitude there is - we already know because OVO’s teams have magic dashboards that can tell them precisely how many users are affected. What you are instead doing is diverting Forum Volunteers and Forum Moderators attention away from those who actually need our help and drowning us with alerts that don’t help much. Ultimately, it’s more annoying than helpful - and it doesn’t just affect Forum Volunteers. It affects absolutely everyone who’s posted on the thread and may well be trying to monitor it for a solution. But they might not see that update because it got drowned out by all the noise from everyone else.

We get thousands of visitors per week on this forum, some of whom are absolutely desperate for help in ways that they cannot get from anywhere else. We try to focus on getting to them first, but when our resources keep being diverted, it makes it harder and slower for us to reach them.

If you have new info to share such as workarounds or fixes, then please, by all means go for it - that stuff helps a ton.

This is what the Best Answer on this thread is for - it’s constantly updated with the latest info we can share. If it’s not changed, it’s because we have nothing more to tell you right now. If it has changed, it’s probably because there’s been some progress or another update of some kind that can be shared with everyone.

We get it. You’re not happy - we know you’re not happy and we’re not happy about it either. And we really do understand that (seriously!). And yes, we already KNOW the magnitude of the issue at hand - this is a case of Ford nuking Smart Charging access for absolutely everybody under the sun - so if you want someone to moan at, go moan at Ford for pulling the plug in the first place, rather than the forums of energy suppliers  who are desperately trying to fix this mess.

By the same token, would you like it if I came into your house and fitted an “Everything’s OK!” alarm with a 130dB klaxon that basically only stops sounding if there is a fire? Given the chances of a fire are on average fairly low, the alarm would literally never stop sounding and would drive you mad. That’s effectively what “me too” posts do here - except the victims of the noise are the most active forum members who are, more often than not, the ones who try to help out.

All I ask is please be patient. We’re not trying to hide anything here - we too want to see this fixed because we care an absolute ton about great experiences. It’s just that we can’t do that if all our time is spent typing the same answer over and over again because folks don’t read the existing one.

There WILL be an update posted here as soon as it’s available. That is a promise and we intend to keep it. You just have to wait until we can deliver upon it.

When you work in IT like I do, or in customer service you are exposed to this stuff constantly - you should try it sometime. It is worth remembering that the human on the other end of the line is rarely the one who's causing your problems.

In actual fact, I can completely understand cases where CS agents lose it with a customer who has been massively abusive towards the agent. In those cases, it’s more likely - but not guaranteed - that the agent might receive a get out of jail free card if the investigation reveals the customer deliberately ensnared or entrapped the agent into doing what they did purely to try and get them fired and/or the customer was found to be extremely abusive, whether or not the customer broke any laws in doing so. In actual fact, it’s more likely the customer might get banned from the service, or at very least won’t be routed to that agent again as a workplace safety measure designed to prevent customer abuse. That last measure doesn’t punish the agent so much as protect them from harm. It’s a last resort, but an effective one.

On the other hand, there’s people like me. Some of OVO’s Support Team - and those of other companies - actually really enjoy talking to me because I give them a break from the usual customer. I’m known to be extremely friendly, respectful and highly understanding and these are all traits that make support reps much more comfortable in their dealings with me. Some of them have even commented that my interactions help them to destress and make their day. It’s a tough job, but at least there are some folks out there who make it easier.

We feel your pain too, and we're also in the "Urrgghh, when is this nightmare going to end" situation as well. Ultimately it is Ford who caused it, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces. They had a badly designed system which put security on the back burner and it's ultimately burned them with the consequences of doing so.

As it so happens, we care an absolute ton about making stuff work. As the Forum Volunteers, we put a ton of time and effort into researching things on behalf of other members, creating guides, reaching out to DNOs/Gas Transporters and a whole bunch of other things you never see because they’re behind the curtain. We’ve even helped to make other stuff play nice with OVO before, which is part of our commitment to wanting folks to have amazing experiences.

All we ask is, please, consider how we feel too. We’re not meant to be your personal punchbag so please don’t take it out on those of us who are just trying to help.

As for compensation? Going to be brutally honest with you here about that. OVO made the terms clear that if Smart Charging isn't possible, you won't get the Charge Anytime rate and will be charged at standard rates. However, I do personally believe that Ford should be the ones to compensate everyone affected. It was their screw up that is the ultimate root cause, and they should be responsible for putting it right.

Technically speaking, Charge Anytime is still working with Ford EV’s. It’s just a case that Ford keeps doing a ban/unban game every time someone actually tries to use it at the moment. :)

Update for Ford drivers having issues with Charge Anytime

Thanks for bearing with us while we work with Ford to get you back on Charge Anytime. We hope to have an update by 8 April. If we find out anything sooner, we’ll let you know. 

We really don’t want you to miss out on your Charge Anytime rate. If we can find a solution, we'll ask Ford to share your charging data, so we can backdate your credit. We’ll let you know if we’re able to do this.

And we’ll update you here as soon as we have any other information. 

Has it also been confirmed about being able to backdate the credit for the reduced rates whilst this issue is ongoing? I’ve received mixed replies from OVO staff over email over the last couple of weeks. 

It’s being chased up today - they’ll swing by ASAP

Thanks for this Chris, appreciated, hopefully Ford see sense soon and expedite a solution. I have been;

• Charging my car overnight
• Ford disconnect me the next day
• I delete my car from Ovo app and phone Ford for a password reset
• Reconnect car to Ovo and Charge / delete / repeat, repeat, repeat… 

Bit of a pain and not always stable but I reckon I have managed to get 60% of my overnight charges on the lower rate since the issue arose - seems to work better at the weekend (perhaps because Ford I.T are not working!)

This affects Ford ONLY. Switching supplier won't help you either - it affects ALL suppliers.

It isn't mis-selling by any stretch of the imagination 

Indeed. As far as I can tell, Ford isn’t advertising any special OVO-specific deals e.g. Charge Anytime on their website or via their dealers either (I’ve checked!)… Or for that matter, nor via any of their current marketing channels.

OVO has also temporarily de-listed Ford from the Compatible EV’s list on their website. If you still go ahead anyway, that’s on you. Caveat emptor, as they say.