Anyone else being given the runaround by BG

[Centaur]

Hi Colin,

I seem to be in exactly the same boat!  My energy supplier needs to install a double pole isolator at the meter point before any work can go ahead but the earliest date that they could arrange for that was 30th March.  Following that, installation dates for the wall charger are now into April and so I just picked a convenient date mid-month.  British Gas have been very helpful but we are all in the dark as to whether Toyota will pick up the bill for the loss of the grant or whether I will have to pay the difference.  On the plus side, I did obtain the link to the free installation from this thread, so it's still going to be a lot cheaper than what I was quoted at the full price!

[Hayzee]

15 minutes ago, Centaur said:

Hi Colin,

I seem to be in exactly the same boat!  My energy supplier needs to install a double pole isolator at the meter point before any work can go ahead but the earliest date that they could arrange for that was 30th March.  Following that, installation dates for the wall charger are now into April and so I just picked a convenient date mid-month.  British Gas have been very helpful but we are all in the dark as to whether Toyota will pick up the bill for the loss of the grant or whether I will have to pay the difference.  On the plus side, I did obtain the link to the free installation from this thread, so it's still going to be a lot cheaper than what I was quoted at the full price!

Hi Mark

Glad to hear you have the process moving forward. When I had the original survey (way back in January) the PHEV wasn't on the Government list. I asked the engineer about this and he said that Toyota was picking up all the cost. Keep our fingers crossed 🤞that Toyota will step forward.

 

[Centaur]

It looks like I may get the charger a lot sooner than I will get the car... 🙄

[nlee]

1 hour ago, Hayzee said:

I have now received the £0 quote which I've accepted. However on calling BG they tell me  that at the moment there are no free installation dates during this month in my area.

Now I have to wait for them to call me back in a few days, which may mean they will ask me to stump up the £350. I'll find out if Toyota are covering it or not.

I had mine fitted before it was eligible for the grant and Toyota kindly gave me £350 to cover the equivalent of the grant and I paid the rest myself (interestingly, because I wasn't using the grant, the installation cost was less than £350, it would have been £350 standard charge if I had the grant, so it paid a little towards the charger). The full price for the charger you are getting is nearly £1000 so if it ends up costing you £350, you've still got a pretty good deal, thanks to Toyota. I don't see too many other manufacturers making similar offers to PHEV or EV owners. Better if you get it free though 😄

[Hayzee]

30 minutes ago, nlee said:

I had mine fitted before it was eligible for the grant and Toyota kindly gave me £350 to cover the equivalent of the grant and I paid the rest myself (interestingly, because I wasn't using the grant, the installation cost was less than £350, it would have been £350 standard charge if I had the grant, so it paid a little towards the charger). The full price for the charger you are getting is nearly £1000 so if it ends up costing you £350, you've still got a pretty good deal, thanks to Toyota. I don't see too many other manufacturers making similar offers to PHEV or EV owners. Better if you get it free though 😄

Yes I will go ahead if I have to pay the £350

[Mike2222]

For anyone still trying to get booked in for this, my dealer has forwarded me the toyota bulletin PDF that they get to explain about the FOC charger order process, and it specifically says :

"After the 31st March 2022, house owners will NOT be eligible for the free of charge wallbox offer. Additionally, if the customer hasn’t had their wallbox installed by this date, they will also not be eligible for the free of charge offer (only applicable for house owners)."

Only counterpoint to this is when the British Gas engineer was doing the home check, he was not aware of this recent Toyota customer offer, however he mentioned that Toyota have long had a scheme for free charger installations for their staff who have been given/purchased a plug in vehicle, which is independent of gov't grants.

 

Unfortunately, due to delays in getting an isolator switch installed, BG now have no availability in my area before the end of March, so I'm now trying to contact Toyota GB about what happens after 31st, ie do I pay the £350, or is the whole offer withdrawn.

[Mike2222]

spoke to toyota GB customer service. they've essentially said "we don't know yet exactly what happens to those people who are part way through the order process but can't get completed in time before end of March, so we're looking into it and will take your details and contact you back as soon as we know".

 

So none-the-wiser, per se, but I would suggest anyone in a similar situation who is being limited by engineer availability before the end of March, contact TGB customer relations directly to get your name on the list, and to highlight the problem. Could go either way I suppose - they may think loads of people, not worth the cost, or may think loads of disappointed customers who feel misled!

 

Toyota GB - 0344 701 6202 , option 7

[Hayzee]

1 hour ago, Mike2222 said:

For anyone still trying to get booked in for this, my dealer has forwarded me the toyota bulletin PDF that they get to explain about the FOC charger order process, and it specifically says :

"After the 31st March 2022, house owners will NOT be eligible for the free of charge wallbox offer. Additionally, if the customer hasn’t had their wallbox installed by this date, they will also not be eligible for the free of charge offer (only applicable for house owners)."

Only counterpoint to this is when the British Gas engineer was doing the home check, he was not aware of this recent Toyota customer offer, however he mentioned that Toyota have long had a scheme for free charger installations for their staff who have been given/purchased a plug in vehicle, which is independent of gov't grants.

 

Unfortunately, due to delays in getting an isolator switch installed, BG now have no availability in my area before the end of March, so I'm now trying to contact Toyota GB about what happens after 31st, ie do I pay the £350, or is the whole offer withdrawn.

Logically you would think that Toyota would honour the free charger after 31 March and just ask the customer to stump up the £350 to cover he loss of the grant. Then the cost to them would be the same.

[Mike2222]

49 minutes ago, Hayzee said:

Logically you would think that Toyota would honour the free charger after 31 March and just ask the customer to stump up the £350 to cover he loss of the grant. Then the cost to them would be the same.

Yeah, I agree, but I don't want to find out after going ahead with an April install and get a shock from BG. As I said, the verbatim quote from internal dealer bulletin is "they will also not be eligible for the free of charge offer" [I have added the bold for emphasis], so Toyota would be justified in saying entire offer has an March cut off. 

WALLBOXBULLETIN.pdf

[Hornet3D]

If the government were really serious about electric vehicles they would somehow work with the power companies and the manufacturers to get installations like this done without the new owners having to jump through hoops to get the matter sorted.  For me the stress would take the edge of having or ordering a new car.

More worryingly if this is the situation with an emerging but basically well known technology just how is the government going to cope with the introduction of hydrogen boilers in the home where the knowledge is no where near the understanding of electric cars.

[Hayzee]

22 minutes ago, Mike2222 said:

Yeah, I agree, but I don't want to find out after going ahead with an April install and get a shock from BG. As I said, the verbatim quote from internal dealer bulletin is "they will also not be eligible for the free of charge offer" [I have added the bold for emphasis], so Toyota would be justified in saying entire offer has an March cut off. 

WALLBOXBULLETIN.pdf 6.87 MB · 1 download

Mike

They would have to issue you with a new quote (if it changed from £0) that you would have to accept before go-ahead, so they can't surprise you.

[Mike2222]

37 minutes ago, Hayzee said:

Mike

They would have to issue you with a new quote (if it changed from £0) that you would have to accept before go-ahead, so they can't surprise you.

That's a very good point. Hadn't considered that. 

In the order process, they do give themselves the wiggle room to charge back the OZEV grant money, and I think this is standard t&cs with all chargepoint installers, not just BG or Toyota foc offer. So if this is all it turns out to be then I'd be content with that - £350-440 (untethered/tethered, I've opted for latter) is a darn sight better than £900-1100.

On a slight tangent, but I'm very curious to see what people start getting as quotes once the Ozev money disappears with respect to installation/labour costs. It strikes me that installers are simply quoting a standard £350 or thereabouts for the install and the material costs have stayed the same all along, in essence just pocketing the Ozev cash, including when it was a larger grant a few years back. One of the previous posters mentioned something along those lines due to getting a charger installed before the Rav4 was included in the grant eligibility. 

[nlee]

23 minutes ago, Mike2222 said:

One of the previous posters mentioned something along those lines due to getting a charger installed before the Rav4 was included in the grant eligibility. 

Yes, that was me and my experience. My installer was perfectly honest that it would have been a standard £350 installation with the grant.

I will defend the smaller independent installers to a degree though, in that there is quite a bit of work and time involved in completing all the paperwork and jumping through hoops, which they can't provide for free. My installer told me that around 30% of applications are returned for further information for the tiniest of niggles in dotting the i's and crossing the t's. On top of that, they are standing the cost of the install in the short-term due to it taking around 9 months on average to get the claim settled.

As @Hornet3D says, they don't make it easy.

[Flatcoat]

I chased up BG this morning and told I am already on their priority installation list. Let’s see how it goes…. 

[Steve169]

Good luck, i was added to that about six times and heard nothing. 

[Hayzee]

9 minutes ago, Flatcoat said:

I chased up BG this morning and told I am already on their priority installation list. Let’s see how it goes…. 

On Monday BG gave me an installation date of 26th April, but said they had aslo asked the planning team to see if they could do something faster. Apparently they are sending engineers who are in less busy regions to help in the very busy regions like mine.

Yesterday I had a call from the planning team asking if I could possibly support an installation today! I'm currently waiting for the Engineer to arrive.........hopefully!

[Steve169]

Finally got an installation date, this Monday coming. After multiple calls and emails I was getting nowhere, copied the CEO in and suddenly a date was available 🤔😁

[Hornet3D]

2 hours ago, Steve169 said:

Finally got an installation date, this Monday coming. After multiple calls and emails I was getting nowhere, copied the CEO in and suddenly a date was available 🤔😁

Funny how an email to the CEO has that effect, I had a similar problem with Thames Water after they fitted a water meter(wrongly), I was getting nowhere, no responses to emails and multiple promises to call back that never happened.  Emailed  the CEO and it was responded to almost by return, still took them a while to sort out the problem but no more difficulties getting in contact after the CEO email.

[Lawnmowerman]

BG sent me forms to complete for the OZEV rebate after the installation. I noticed they had spelled my surname wrong on the OZEV form (not uncommon for someone in England to misspell it - they try to include 'h' or add an extra 'L' or include an 's' or all of them - so no surprise really). Having pointed it out they resent an amended form for my digital signature.

I'm sure that could have been enough to bounce the claim if it hadn't been spotted.

 

[Steve169]

19 hours ago, Hornet3D said:

Funny how an email to the CEO has that effect, I had a similar problem with Thames Water after they fitted a water meter(wrongly), I was getting nowhere, no responses to emails and multiple promises to call back that never happened.  Emailed  the CEO and it was responded to almost by return, still took them a while to sort out the problem but no more difficulties getting in contact after the CEO email.

Yeah, not really the route I wanted to go, but time was pushing on! 

[Hornet3D]

58 minutes ago, Steve169 said:

Yeah, not really the route I wanted to go, but time was pushing on! 

You always have to hope that the standard customer service of any company can deal with it but in one sense customers are a little like aircraft, if air traffic control stops talking to them they are forced to find another route.  In the same respect if customers are not being kept informed on what is going on they need to find another route if the CEO doesn't want to be bothered with day to day matters they should make sure the customer service is doing just that, servicing the customer, why else are they paid the big bucks. 

[Mike2222]

Some good news for anyone struggling with delays in home checks/isolator switches/BG Engineer availability - spoke to BG today and lady reported she has been chasing Toyota for an answer on the grant expiry, and today been confirmed via email tgat Toyota will be honouring any existing quotes, regardless of eventual install date! 

 

I don't have any further details, and obviously a little bit he-said-she-said at this stage, but sounds legit and BG EV team call handler also  seemed very helpful & proactive. Also, represents good corporate behaviour/consistent with Toyota's reputation. Call it ethnic stereotyping, but as a first time Toyota customer, Toyota have a reputation of honourable behaviour and standing by their products/statements, which I'm very happy to see them living up to!! 

[Centaur]

Thank you for that, Mike.  That sounds like very good news, as my box won't be fitted until April and earlier posts suggested that not only will the grant stop after the end of March but Toyota's contribution too, potentially leaving me to pick up the entire cost.

[Steve169]

Mine was installed today after some chasing, just need the car now! 😁

[Lawnmowerman]

1 hour ago, Steve169 said:

Mine was installed today after some chasing, just need the car now! 😁

Reminds me of the joke of the Irishman (more stereotyping!) who sold his telly to buy a video recorder 🤣