Charging my electric car is a pain as I can’t use BP Pulse credit

theguardian.com:

I have a Polestar 2 electric car. Shortly after its launch, because of a number of software glitches, the company gave owners a £450 credit for use on BP Pulse public chargers.

BP operates a membership scheme where you pay a monthly fee and obtain a lower charging cost. Alternatively, non-members can use chargers on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis, at a higher cost. The Polestar offer also gave 12 months’ free membership.

When my membership expired in January, my remaining balance should have been transferred to a PAYG credit and, based on posts in the Polestar forum, this is what happened to others.

However, the first time I used a charger as a non-member, I was told I needed to add £5 minimum credit to my account, the balance being zero. The BP Pulse app showed zero, too.

I emailed BP at the end of January to try to sort this out and followed up with a call in February. It told me the issue needed to be escalated to management and that, after four weeks, the balance would be transferred to PAYG or refunded.

Despite sending three reminder emails I have since been completely ignored by BP.

NC, Redditch

For a company with “pulse” in its name, it has been hard to find one. It has taken me more than a month to resolve this relatively straightforward issue, which means it is nearly six months since you first contacted the company.

BP Pulse gave no reason for the hold-up, but has credited the missing £175 to your PAYG account. It has also given you an extra £50 as a goodwill gesture.

You don’t think this would have been resolved without our help, and say BP needs to work on its customer support. We agree.

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions,