Charge complete / interrupted notifications

Hello everyone,

I've just bought a little Spark EV and I am happy driving past the gas stations ;-)
However I am having problems receiving "Charge Complete" and "Charge Interrupted" notifications through sms and email.
After a forum search I have found this old thread (February) where people report similar issues, but without any solution: OnStar Not Working Correctly

So just to be sure, the way it is supposed to work is through the OnStar mobile app, right? I have set my email and phone number under "Vehicle Status" > "Notification Settings" and then I have enabled "Charge Interrupted" and "Charge Complete" events in the same view.

I have fully charged my car twice and not a sign of notifications coming up. In my office we have to share one charging station and the accepted etiquette is to move your vehicle immediately after it gets a full charge so I was counting on these notifications to work.

Am I missing anything here? Any suggestions on what I could do to get these notifications working?

Thanks a lot
abe

abe said:

Hello everyone,

I've just bought a little Spark EV and I am happy driving past the gas stations ;-)
However I am having problems receiving "Charge Complete" and "Charge Interrupted" notifications through sms and email.
After a forum search I have found this old thread (February) where people report similar issues, but without any solution: OnStar Not Working Correctly

So just to be sure, the way it is supposed to work is through the OnStar mobile app, right? I have set my email and phone number under "Vehicle Status" > "Notification Settings" and then I have enabled "Charge Interrupted" and "Charge Complete" events in the same view.

I have fully charged my car twice and not a sign of notifications coming up. In my office we have to share one charging station and the accepted etiquette is to move your vehicle immediately after it gets a full charge so I was counting on these notifications to work.

Am I missing anything here? Any suggestions on what I could do to get these notifications working?

Thanks a lot
abe

Click to expand...

This seems to be an OnStar issue. I had to have my OnStar account reset and re-registered a few times before it actually worked. I think they have a serious issue with setting up new accounts.

It took about 3 months before my system worked properly and even now, once in a while I don't get a text when I should.

Make sure your OnStar account is active. And you have the correct account number registered. My account number actually CHANGED over time. I have no idea why...but it did.

Call OnStar as many times as you need to to get it resolved.

Thank you for the hint; my OnStar account does seem to be a little odd indeed. I can't properly update my profile and it doesn't save some settings either.

I will continue calling them over and over again.

Cheers

Mine has never worked so I just check the app periodically for charge rate.

I have been working on this issue the last 2 months since getting the car. I often am charging in a public place and really could use the help of it texting me when it's done charging. But it only notifies me the charge is complete when I start the car. I have one other friend with the same car and it has never worked for him at all. When I opened the ticket with onstar they reset my account and that at least got the text messages working when i started the car (instead of not at all). The next time they tried to fix it they took out all communications on the vehicle - no hot spot, not connection through remote link, no on-star or on-star emergency. Nothing. I had to wait a week to talk with a "level 2" tech at on star and they got on the phone and said the first person should have told me to take it to the dealer. So i did that and they got me back to notifications when I start the car - but now I get 2 text messages and 3 emails. So I called on star again - they said I would have to go to the dealer - so I took it in, waited half a day and the dealer said they called on star and on star told them to have me call on star and they would walk me through it.
Obviously that was unacceptable - so I went to the dealer and sat in the car with the service guy and we called on star together. Now they are calling GM Tech to try to figure it out.

I'm almost sure their system has a design flaw and there's no way to fix it - but I'd love to hear if others actually have this working or not.

lasparkster said:

I have been working on this issue the last 2 months since getting the car. I often am charging in a public place and really could use the help of it texting me when it's done charging. But it only notifies me the charge is complete when I start the car. I have one other friend with the same car and it has never worked for him at all. When I opened the ticket with onstar they reset my account and that at least got the text messages working when i started the car (instead of not at all). The next time they tried to fix it they took out all communications on the vehicle - no hot spot, not connection through remote link, no on-star or on-star emergency. Nothing. I had to wait a week to talk with a "level 2" tech at on star and they got on the phone and said the first person should have told me to take it to the dealer. So i did that and they got me back to notifications when I start the car - but now I get 2 text messages and 3 emails. So I called on star again - they said I would have to go to the dealer - so I took it in, waited half a day and the dealer said they called on star and on star told them to have me call on star and they would walk me through it.
Obviously that was unacceptable - so I went to the dealer and sat in the car with the service guy and we called on star together. Now they are calling GM Tech to try to figure it out.

I'm almost sure their system has a design flaw and there's no way to fix it - but I'd love to hear if others actually have this working or not.

Click to expand...

Wow - even worse than the glitchy system is the maddening phenomenon of OnStar and the dealer pointing to each other, nobody taking responsibility, and your time being wasted on a huge scale. Horrendous customer service. Shame on GM.

Am I getting this right? The ONLY way to get charge notifications is through OnStar, which after the trial requires you to pay every month? That would be outrageous if true. I'll bet other EVs don't do that.

Yes, I agree - this relationship between OnStar and GM seems rather dysfunctional. They need counseling.
I have OnStar for the length of the lease - so in my case I won't lose that functionality at the end of a trial.

But - I'm curious - Does ANYONE get notifications (text or emails) when their car completes charging and before they start it?

lasparkster said:

Yes, I agree - this relationship between OnStar and GM seems rather dysfunctional. They need counseling.
I have OnStar for the length of the lease - so in my case I won't lose that functionality at the end of a trial.

But - I'm curious - Does ANYONE get notifications (text or emails) when their car completes charging and before they start it?

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It works as expected for me - I get texts and emails a couple of minutes before Chargepoint notifies me that the power draw has become very low.

kevin

thanks, Kevin. It's good to know it's possible! OnStar attempted another account reset while I was at the dealership - now I no longer receive any text or emails - both are set under notifications.
I"m going to try to turn all notifications off, save it - then turn them back on again.

On the notifications screen in the RemotLink app - it often says "notifications update failed". I usually have to turn one or 2 of the options off that i wanted on, save it, then go back in and turn those on and it works.

This all seems to work as well as if I had figured out a way to hack into my Spark, write my own software and cheat the system to get these features. Definitely not like factory options! That makes this article http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/automakers-gearheads-car-repairs/ all the funnier!

Mine never work either. The only notifications I get are to plug the car in.

Sorry to hear that - i'll tell you what the fix was so if you want it to work you can jump right to the solution instead of going through this hell like me. ;-)

I just heard from the dealer - this is a problem with all Sparks. No Sparks should be able to send messages until the car is turned on. It's a flaw in their system like I told OnStar it probably was when I called the very first time 2 months ago.

They said GM is working on a fix. Yeah, right.

lasparkster said:

I just heard from the dealer - this is a problem with all Sparks. No Sparks should be able to send messages until the car is turned on. It's a flaw in their system like I told OnStar it probably was when I called the very first time 2 months ago.

They said GM is working on a fix. Yeah, right.

Click to expand...

I think there is some misinterpretation happening here. Mine works pretty much as expected:

I just got this message from mine which is sitting charing in my garage.

"Your 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has completed charging. To learn more about your charge mode settings, visit My.Chevrolet.com. To disable these alerts, change your notification settings on the OnStar RemoteLink Mobile App. To learn more about your charge..."

kevin

kevin said:

I just got this message from mine which is sitting charing in my garage.

"Your 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has completed charging. To learn more about your charge mode settings, visit My.Chevrolet.com. To disable these alerts, change your notification settings on the OnStar RemoteLink Mobile App. To learn more about your charge..."

kevin

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Wacky. Mine is much more terse:

"Your 2015 Chevrolet Spark EV has completed charging. For help, call 877-486-5846."

Solder, but you are notified properly when the vehicle is done charging, but before you disconnect it and start it?

solder said:

kevin said:

I just got this message from mine which is sitting charing in my garage.

"Your 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV has completed charging. To learn more about your charge mode settings, visit My.Chevrolet.com. To disable these alerts, change your notification settings on the OnStar RemoteLink Mobile App. To learn more about your charge..."

kevin

Click to expand...

Wacky. Mine is much more terse:

"Your 2015 Chevrolet Spark EV has completed charging. For help, call 877-486-5846."

Click to expand...

Sorry, when I said message I meant email. The message I get (as well) is just like yours.

kevin

I've never gotten either notification—though app was correctly configured to receive them—until this morning. This first notification—both email and text—was indeed after I unplugged and hopped in, heading off to work. It was within a few seconds after I drove off, telling me what I already knew: that the charge was complete. I've not tested to see if I'd get the interrupted notification, though in the past I've unplugged before complete charge and NOT received any notice.

I have an update on this:
Because I had spent 40-50 hours opening tickets (7 all together), taking my car into the dealer (3 trips, 1 overnight stay) and on the phone with Chevy, OnStar, and the dealer - all while GM knew there was a problem with all Sparks, I wanted to be reimbursed for my time. It makes it worse that the very first time I called in I told them I believed this was a problem with their system and not my car. I am also an IT Consultant and told them I would be happy to help repair their system and was confident I could find the problem quickly. They declined my help.

So because they had taken so much of my time to help troubleshoot what turned out to be their problem, I offered Chevy and OnStar 2 options: they can add 10,000 miles to my lease or pay me the monetary equivalent at $0.25/mile per my lease agreement. They declined both - so I said, "No problem, I'll just return the vehicle. This is a small issue, but the way it's been handled isn't something I want to deal with for the next 3 years." I then started getting calls from the brass at OnStar wanting to get me back to happy. However, what they've done is continue to use me as a troubleshooting point! The nerve! They said they found the problem yesterday and fixed it, but this morning the 2 text messages and 3 emails came in right after I unplugged it - per usual.

I think my demands just went up.

lasparkster said:

... - but now I get 2 text messages and 3 emails....

I'm almost sure their system has a design flaw and there's no way to fix it - but I'd love to hear if others actually have this working or not.

Click to expand...

Well, my '14 Spark EV has been working perfectly by telling my when it is done sipping electrons.
Plus, I always get a txt from chargepoint about the exact same time telling me the same thing.
Plus, if I don't touch the card to the EVSE before disconnecting from the car, I get a txt from chargepoint within 5 seconds telling me 'someone pulled your plug', or some such msg.
Plus, my 'Preconditioning' of the cabin works perfectly.
Plus, I get all the other 'Vehicle Status' data anytime I ask for it.

Too bad they can't figure out what is going on with yours.
Are you sure the app is conf'd correctly? What about uninstall and re-register? Are you also using Onstar on a PC ? What about canceling that? I have never used the online version with this car.

But I understand Lists of Demands.
You won't get anything if you don't ask for it!
Shoot for the moon, buddy!