A genuine '2 Star' rating for our 5 month 'deteriorating' experience with CPS who leave yet another dirty stain on the confidence and competence of a SNP led Scottish government (via funds to Transport Scotland).Issues with our first charge in Fife during February 2024 was efficiently sorted with the friendly, patient kind chap on the telephone who identified that charging through the digital app was the issue and recommended a RFID at a £10 cost. This card was ordered and a Direct Debit mandate set up with my bank for payments. No further issues was experienced using chargers in Fife and Edinburgh other than irregular Direct Debits being taken.In a short period of time, this changed. On a journey home from work late at night, my range became too small to complete my journey. A stop at Halbeath near Dunfermline was required and waited in turn to obtain the use of 1 of 2 CCS chargers, I was unable to use the RFID card due to Chargeplace Scotland changing their saved / recorded payment method from Direct Debit to credit/debit card. This would have been absolutely fine, only the organisation failed to let account holders know about this in advance of the change and I had not yet saved any payment card details. I didn't have any payment cards on my person either which left me in a very difficult position. Incidentally, another EV user stated that they had noticed a message on the App. stating there would be a need to store card details however as I had not used the App for several months, I was completely unaware - perhaps Chargeplace Scotland could have handled this transition more robustly and professionally by notifying such a significant and important change to all their account holders registered email address (Simples!!!) Having arrived home to East Fife (5 hours later) I registered a credit card which made using the RFID card and charging experience more reliable however, the billing / accounts team continued to make life harder than it needs to be by issuing a compounded invoice for 'unpaid' charges for the previous 3 months prior to credit/debit card payment. I had oversighted that they had not debited my bank account on a frequent monthly basis despite an active 'live' mandate being in place further to this they had again charged me for connection / no charge attempts. To explain this further Fife Council previously charged a connection fee followed by a KW/h fee, the former has since been removed.I had experienced connection / no charge fees at the beginning of using CPS points and I knew that claiming this money back was going to be difficult, time consuming and exhaustive. The refund had taken nearly 8 weeks to be resolved in the past and now I have to endure the same experience again, as emails are not responded to in a timeous / acceptable timeframe (with an exception of an automated 'we will respond' promptly message).I won't hold my breath waiting though... however, I wont stop contacting them either until the refund is issued regardless of the sum otherwise it will be redeemed as a theft from a government agency.On a final note, Chargeplace Scotland state that they are on 'a mission to get Scotland driving electric' however half of their organisation is needing recharged with some new energy, namely competence and professionalism in the customer services pertaining to finance. The guys who answer the phones regarding faults to chargers are a good bunch who will usually resolve any issues (non financially related) immediately so they are the backbone to our national network and are swimming against the tide to make the orgainsation credible to Scotland's people who wish to improve the environment and like minded visitors. Come on Transport Scotland and SNP gov. you know this can be done.... on budget and within target time! Hmm... :(
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