Lucid Issue with Free 3 Year Electrify America Charging - Air Touring Ordered March, 2022

[jsf1993]

I’m not sure if any other early adopters are facing the issue I am now facing with Lucid and Electrify America, but I thought I’d post my experience and see if anyone else is having a similar issue.

When I first placed a non-binding order for my Lucid Air Touring in March, 2022, all Air Touring “early adopters” were promised 3 years of Free Electrify America charging. Like many early adopters, I received an email from Lucid Motors in July, 2022, suggesting that I convert my non-binding reservation (with a $1,000 deposit) into a binding order on or before August 10, 2022 to preserve my ability to qualify for the $7,500 Federal tax credit at the time. I complied with Lucid’s suggestion and my non-binding reservation became an order as of 8/10/22. Except for my first month of ownership (beginning in March, 2023 and before I had a Lucid Home Charger installed), I used Electrify America on 1 or 2 occasions and had no issues and was not charged. I had not needed to charge my car at a fast charger since that time, electing to charge at home all of the time. However, I am now on a road trip and needed to charge along the way. I pulled into an Electrify America station to charge and was required to pay for the charging session by credit card. I immediately called Lucid Customer Care and after a lengthy hold waiting for someone to get on the line, I elected to have Customer Care call me back. I finished my charging session, paid the Electrify America bill and received a call back from Lucid about 45 minutes later (+/-). Customer Care told me that my car did NOT qualify for the 3 year Free Electrify America service because my order date, on Lucid’s records, was August 10, 2022, the date I converted my reservation to a binding contract and that, as of that date, Touring and Pure orders only qualified for 1 year of Free Electrify America service. I explained that I placed my order in March of 2022, not August of 2022, at a time when all orders for Lucid Touring cars qualified for 3 years of Free Electrify American service, but Lucid now claims it has no record of my earlier reservation and, thus far, is refusing to reimburse my Electrify America charge and reinstate my free 3 years of Electrify America service. I have sent them a copy of my email confirming my March, 2022 reservation but have not heard back. Needless to say, I’m frustrated and angry over this, especially after having been a loyal Lucid customer and ambassador of the brand since March, 2022, not having complained about some of the early adopter issues that so many others made a fuss about.

Am hoping that Lucid fixes this issue for me but am not sanguine about my prospects. Have any of you experienced anything like this with your early ordered Lucid Tourings?

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

[joec]

Sorry to hear this is happening to you. I have not used EA in quite a while, but I will be in a few weeks. I will let you know what happens.

Regardless, I hope Lucid sees this is clearly their error and reimburses you for the charge. Have you tried using plug and charge since? I'm wondering if it was a fluke that the EA charger couldn't connect to your car. That's happened to a few people here in the past, and then Plug and Charge goes back to working as usual later.

 

[jsf1993]

Sorry to hear this is happening to you. I have not used EA in quite a while, but I will be in a few weeks. I will let you know what happens.

Regardless, I hope Lucid sees this is clearly their error and reimburses you for the charge. Have you tried using plug and charge since? I'm wondering if it was a fluke that the EA charger couldn't connect to your car. That's happened to a few people here in the past, and then Plug and Charge goes back to working as usual later.

Thanks, Joe….I did try it twice before realizing that Plug and Charge was not working. That’s why I called Lucid. The upsetting part is Customer Care claimed that my order date was 8/10/22 (after the 3 year offer was changed to 1 year), not 3/22, when I placed my original reservation to take advantage of the 3 year offer. I never cancelled that reservation and simply converted it to an order, following the instructions that I received from Lucid at the time. One would think that their records would include my original reservation date, but they claim that they don’t have any record of that now. I’m hoping that they’ll “fix” this, especially after I forwarded them a copy of my email confirmation of my reservation in March, 2022.

Will post again if Lucid resolves this for me. Thanks again for your suggestion!

 

[scal_air]

In your Lucid app, under Lucid Charging Service and then Service Summary, does it say that that your length of free charging is a year or three years?

 

[jsf1993]

In your Lucid app, under Lucid Charging Service and then Service Summary, does it say that that your length of free charging is a year or three years?

Good question and thank you for your suggestion to check. I had forgotten all about that. My app does say that I have 3 years of Free Electrify America service, effective 3/26/23 (date of delivery) to 3/26/26. One would think that Lucid’s internal records would confirm this and that Customer Care would be aware of this. Honestly, my Customer Care person was not very helpful or considerate. He simply kept telling me that I only qualified for 1 year of Free Electrify America, which was getting me more and more frustrated and upset. He didn’t seem terribly interested in pursuing the matter on my behalf, which was quite disappointing. I tried asking for a supervisor, but was told that no one was available for me to speak to.

 

[scal_air]

I would say it's a one off with that particular CS rep. Try again, pointing out your app says you have 3 years and ask for reimbursement. I bet you'll get it

 

[LucidJazz]

My timeline was exactly the same as yours and I have had no trouble charging at EA. I have charging capability at home, but have used EA almost exclusively (almost once a week) since picking up my car on 3/15/23.

 

[segbrk]

Agreed, I think both the EA issue and the CS issue were unfortunate one-offs. EA+Lucid don't know how to bill us right now. I don't think the system exists yet. So that CS rep just didn't know what's going on.
Also don't forget that you sometimes have to open your Lucid app while at the EA station to press the "Electrify America" button that appears. You only have to do this if it doesn't automatically recognize your car, but it should get the charge started without you needing to touch the EA app.

 

[joec]

Good question and thank you for your suggestion to check. I had forgotten all about that. My app does say that I have 3 years of Free Electrify America service, effective 3/26/23 (date of delivery) to 3/26/26. One would think that Lucid’s internal records would confirm this and that Customer Care would be aware of this. Honestly, my Customer Care person was not very helpful or considerate. He simply kept telling me that I only qualified for 1 year of Free Electrify America, which was getting me more and more frustrated and upset. He didn’t seem terribly interested in pursuing the matter on my behalf, which was quite disappointing. I tried asking for a supervisor, but was told that no one was available for me to speak to.

I'd definitely take this screenshot and tell the rep they are clearly wrong. Ask to speak with their manager if necessary.

Lucid will fix this. I truly think this is a case of one service rep simply not understanding what's going on.

 

[borski]

Yeah this is just an honest mistake somewhere. I wouldn’t stress too much about it. If Lucid doesn’t fix it, I would be *extremely* surprised.

 

[jsf1993]

Yeah this is just an honest mistake somewhere. I wouldn’t stress too much about it. If Lucid doesn’t fix it, I would be *extremely* surprised.

I followed the advice offered above and called Lucid once again and spoke to another customer assistance representative who informed me that “management” will be reviewing this matter and the materials I provided and will get back to me. I will follow up and advise all of you how this works out. I’m confident that this can and will get worked out provided a manager reviews the materials I have provided to them. One would think that it would not take more than 4 hours to resolve this, but I recognize that this is now the world we are all living in.

Nothing is easy these days.

 

[jsf1993]

Yeah this is just an honest mistake somewhere. I wouldn’t stress too much about it. If Lucid doesn’t fix it, I would be *extremely* surprised.

Honestly, when I first called, I expected the customer service rep to say pretty much what you said. Instead, he kept insisting that Lucid’s “records” indicated that I was simply wrong. I wish I had known to check my Lucid App at the time to challenge his assertion, but he had hung up on my call by then and never suggested that I take that step either. On a 1-10 scale of being sympathetic to a customer’s needs/concerns, the first rep I spoke with would have scored a 2 or 3, at best.

 

[borski]

Honestly, when I first called, I expected the customer service rep to say pretty much what you said. Instead, he kept insisting that Lucid’s “records” indicated that I was simply wrong. I wish I had known to check my Lucid App at the time to challenge his assertion, but he had hung up on my call by then and never suggested that I take that step either. On a 1-10 scale of being sympathetic to a customer’s needs/concerns, the first rep I spoke with would have scored a 2 or 3, at best.

Not every rep you get is always great; learned that with even the great customer service reps like Amazon and Zappos. Sometimes you just have to hang up and try again.

(But that's also why they record these calls!)

 

[jsf1993]

It’s been about 2 days since I first reached out to Lucid and I’ve yet to hear back from them. So, this situation remains unresolved. I know that it’s now the 4th. of July, but I would have expected this matter to have been resolved successfully within a few hours of my first reporting it to Lucid. I followed the advice that one or more of you have provided above and did speak to a 2nd. customer service representative 2 days ago and was simply told that the issue was being “reviewed by a manager.” The fact that there is little to review and the lack of follow-up over the past 2 days suggests that Lucid’s customer service managers are either overwhelmed by many customer service issues or are not addressing matters efficiently. Neither possibility provides me with much comfort or confidence right now. It’s been a disappointing experience.

 

[scal_air]

Sorry, there is another active thread where a member is leasing a car and somehow getting free charging even though his lucid app shows no free charging. I guess this is an example of how the Lucid/EA free charging system is inaccurate and perhaps they are investigating more carefully after giving away charging sessions. Still not a good excuse and I really do think you'll be reimbursed.

 

[Leftlane]

As frustrating as this is and how easy it seems to to get fixed, my guess is that many people are out this week making it a long holiday. I’d bet this is handled the beginning of next week.

 

[jsf1993]

As frustrating as this is and how easy it seems to to get fixed, my guess is that many people are out this week making it a long holiday. I’d bet this is handled the beginning of next week.

The problem this presents to me is that I will need to use Electrify America charging on my return trip this Saturday. If this matter is not “fixed” by then, the reimbursement amount and the number of claims I will have to submit will continue to grow, further complicating this matter both for me and for Lucid and, in all likelihood, extending the inconvenience and time it will take to get this issue completely resolved. That is quite frustrating for such a simple issue that was brought to their attention 2 days before the start of the national holiday itself and could have and should have been easily and quickly resolved. Heck, I haven’t even received an assurance from anyone that I will be reimbursed for my Electrify America charges incurred. At the very least, one would think that I could have gotten that assurance from Lucid quickly while they worked to resolve the issue from their end.

 

[scal_air]

So just a couple of questions. When you started to charge, it did not automatically plug and play and gave you an error message. Did you open your Lucid (not EA) app to see if you could authenticate? Or did the charging station go straight to remit payment?

 

[jsf1993]

So just a couple of questions. When you started to charge, it did not automatically plug and play and gave you an error message. Did you open your Lucid (not EA) app to see if you could authenticate? Or did the charging station go straight to remit payment?

My Lucid App was open at the time. The last time I used EA (over a year ago) plug and play engaged immediately. This time it did not and my connection was terminated. So, I had to reconnect the plug and pay by credit card. I did not use the EA app.

 

[hydbob]

My Lucid App was open at the time. The last time I used EA (over a year ago) plug and play engaged immediately. This time it did not and my connection was terminated. So, I had to reconnect the plug and pay by credit card. I did not use the EA app.

Did you try a different station?