chargeplacescotland.org Avis 

Staff were good over the phone helping me get my charger to start charging my car. But they took a £75 prepayment off my bank and then charged me again for the kw usage. Im still waiting for my 75 quid to be available to me 5 days later. They blame the bank but thats nonsense. Lidl take a £40 prepayment and then take the value of power used and the remaining money is back in your bank within minutes. Will never use Charge Scotland again for that single reason.

Before I launch - there are extremely nice people on the other end of the phones through all of this. But as nice as they were they didn’t help. This is the most appalling experience I have had with car charging. I have been in an electric car since 2014. I have driven across Europe, the US, all over UK - and then to I had the pisspoor idea of driving the highlands of Scotland. There’s chargers everywhere! What could go wrong. Mistake!!! I tried nine of these piece of shit chargers from Harris through caithness and none work. They are the only game in town. And the chargers are absolutely in appalling condition. One of the chargers they claimed had worked that morning was covered in cobwebs. All were beaten to shit and never managed to get one to work. So you are screwed driving an ev in the north of Scotland. Terrible for tourism. They are so bad it makes me wonder whether this is a Machiavellian trick by big oil to turn consumers off EVs in an oil revenue dependent country

Just back from driving NC500 & round Orkney, over 800mikes & used all CPS chargers with Electroverse RFID card. No issues with charging, there was always availability with no waiting and never any concerns regarding range between chargers. Overall very pleasantly surprised, well done ChargePlace Scotland 👍

Dreadful service, in Coatbridge there are 6 chargers within a ten minute walk of my home, not a single one of them functions. One neighbour states that the one in the carpark at their home has had a fault for over two years!
There's a nearby hub of them at the Time Capsule which has around 8 points spread across 4 machines, one of them, by its own admission, doesn't work and has never worked, 5 of the remaining 7 don't work and the remaining 2 only work during a full moon, if you're facing North, North East and burn a sprig of Lavendar before logging into their app. Then there's the App - this may seem trivial, but when the points on the charger are labelled "A" and "B", why are their corresponding entries in the app labelled "1" and "2"? These terms aren't interchangeable. Unless you're directly underneath a 5G mast, no signal strength known to man will allow this app sufficient bandwidth to do anything except provide the loading function whilst processing payment. On the occasions that it does work, I'd expect to have the hold fund of £35 taken on more than one occasion, and I'd expect to wait a week for this to be returned to your account. The displays, if they even exist, on the chargers, say helpful things such as "Charger available" and "disconnect plug" on a display that hasn't been used since we landed men on the moon. Overall, just grim, and not recommended for anyone who would like to charge their car without overwhelming frustration.

Can't give 0 stars. No even worth 1 star. How this company are still operating is beyond me.

At they hold your money and blame your bank. £120 and up to 5 days wait. Get a grip.

AVOID USING THEIR CHARGERS

This is one of the worst apps nd companies I have ever used. Nothing works. Even with registration the system freezes. Numerous times I have tried charging the charger doesn't work despite lengthy calls to the help centre. Today in Stromness I had to register. They asked me to put £75 on my account to begin charging and I once again got frozen doing this. Moreover I'm sure i have credit in my account going back a few years but there is no sign if this. The sooner a more competent company takes over the better.

From the moment you try to log into the app, things start going wrong. There’s no clear feedback if login fails, and confirmation codes often never arrive. When you do finally get access, you’re met with a clunky interface that gives you little reassurance about what’s happening.

Start a charge and £75 is instantly blocked from your account - only for the app to respond with a vague “an error occurred.” You’re left stranded, confused, and forced to phone in.

The real frustration isn’t just the broken tech - it’s the indifference you meet when seeking help. While most phone staff are helpful and knowledgeable, you’re often greeted first by a cold, dismissive tone or unhelpful diversions like being told to read the privacy policy.

The bigger issue is structural: councils may own the chargers, but ChargePlace Scotland controls the network - and the whole thing feels built on the cheap. The interface lacks even basic user feedback, the system provides little transparency, and the entire experience erodes trust.

Fixing the UX and UI should be the first priority. Better real-time feedback, clearer error messages, and more transparency around payments would go a long way. Right now, it feels like the system was designed to meet minimum requirements - not real human needs.

Utterly abysmal, app error multiple times ,4* £35 payments… £140 WTF is this so crap!!!
Linlithgow charger error, absolute rubbish!

Just avoid - unreliable and unhelpful. We have tried several charge points in Edinburgh and Glasgow and have not once successfully charged our car. Each time it seems to be a different problem, whether it is with taking payment or actually registering the charge on their app. The one in Glasgow was a whole new level of bad, with us getting to the end of the payment process only for the error message "Chargepoint or Connector does not exist" to pop up. I'm still waiting for the credit card hold to expire so I can get my money back! Customer service is virtually non-existent, claiming that their chargepoints are fine when there is clearly something very wrong with this company.

Hopeless for travelling around Scotland. Chargers not working, round trip of 60 miles just to get a charge! Half the time I use a Charge Place Scotland there is an issue!

After having dreadful experiences with this mob, thought I’d check their reviews which are just terrible, our Scotland holiday tarnished by endless not working chargers, dreadful website Surely the Scottish government can do better than this, how does the CEO keep her/his job with ratings like this

On arrival at the Sky Bridge charging point (11.30, 11th May) the 50kw cable was in use, but the vehicle driver was not present. On phoning CPS, (Cal I think) was able to tell me the charge status of this vehicle and also the nearest and currently available alternative fast charge location to give me options. Shortly afterwards the driver returned, card and EV point worked properly with no billing issues, so all good. Have to say I have always found the CPS staff polite and efficient when calling.

Two charge points visited in Inverness on the same day as I was there and back. Twice I had to call the support team, who, to give them credit managed to get me on charge when I couldn't do it with the app or my RFID card. Checking my invoice for one charger and I've been charged double the kwh cost that was on my app (cost wasn't displayed on the machine), even though I said to the customer support I was picking the 43kwh charger as it was cheaper (and it was only drawing 21/22kwh.) Would've been cheaper and quicker going to a podpoint but used this one as I'm trying to get the benefit of cheaper electricity over petrol. Then, because I stayed to help a second (elderly) driver navigate what to do, I went over the staying time by 5 minutes so I've been penalised for that. I'm going to fight my corner but I'm not confident. Charger info was confusing, charger was unreliable and I feel sorry for tourists and EV newbies to the network.

One of the worst companies to deal with - every transaction I have had there has been a fault with the network the charger or the account
Awful experience - if I did not have to use this company would make my life easier

I used the Chargeplace Scotland app on my iPhone on 7 May 2025 to check if the Kennacraig Ferry Terminal Chargers were working. The app said SEC322949 was available by either CCS Combo or Chademo charging. When I took my motor to the charger it would not accept my Chargeplace Scotland card. I subsequently phoned up Chargeplace Scotland Agent who said the the SEC322949 charger was not available. I questioned the agent who could not provide me a reason for the conflicting information. I noticed that the charger was a Swarco and was compatible with EVolt. I was therefore dismayed that this new charger which replaced the Chargeplace Scotland charger I used for 4 years could not charge my car. Very surprised that this charger was referenced as available on the Chargeplace Scotland website. It seems that Chargeplace Scotland does not know its left hand from its right hand. Furthermore, from this experience I am totally disillusioned with Chargeplace Scotland. Talking to the Chargeplace Scotland Agent was a totally waste of my time.

What has happened to Scotland - originally one of the leaders in electric vehicle charging with a good infrastructure and bright and keen people on the phone.
Since those times, we have visited Scotland a number of times and each time we have been more disappointed- at the start it mostly worked great except for the Burrell which was still not connected. The following visit, the Burrell was still not connected and some other chargers across the country weren’t working. This year, our first stop, one charger in the village - not working and hadn’t been for months apparently. Second stop better - a different provider and even the CPS ones working apparently. Third stop 1 charger in village - not working and, again, hadn’t been for months apparently. 4th stop 3 chargers in village not working - for ages we were told, next nearest not working. Drove 10 miles for a working one. Now on our 5th stop there are 6 chargers and only one we have found working. Has CPS given up? When I first spoke to them, they said they aimed to fix non-working ones in 24 hours. Now they seem to pretend they don’t exist or they didn’t know. It is very sad.

When ChargePlace Scotland works, it works well. Unfortunately, that’s not often. I’ve had 11 failed attempts to charge, each one blocking £35 on my card for 7 days. That’s £385 held up just because their chargers didn’t function.

No warning, no immediate refund, and no reliability. It’s frustrating, inconvenient, and unacceptable for a service that EV drivers rely on. Fix the reliability issues and rethink the pre-auth hold system — it’s punishing users for your own technical failures.

Update:
After receiving my RFID card, charging is much more reliable and doesn’t cost £35 a go even when it fails. So updated rating to reflect this. Getting happier.

Have to say used three different charger points this weekend in Scotland and all worked well. First time using the app and setting up as we are only visiting. Live
Updates worked well and charge was clearly shown during and after the charge. A couple of times had to restart initially but that’s the same with all chargers. Overall great experience from me 👍🏼

On holiday in Skye, Dunvegan. Charger in the village. Doesn't work, CPS finally tell me it's being decommisioned. Nearest charger 23 miles away in Portree. Three of them in main car park, only two working, only allowed to stay for 45 minutes, every extra minute costs £1! Old Man of Storr car park has one charger, screen gone crazy. Nice people at CPS get it connected for me. 45 minute stay rule means I can never get near to 80% charge and then need to use 46 miles of range to get there and back. These old Swarco chargers are very unreliable. I feel sorry for CPS call handlers, they're dealing with such a useless system.

Had problems logging into my account, emailed for help and was told the complicated process was for my security and that was that. No help whatsoever. I understand why every one else has given them 1 star.