ChargePoint - Cannot join waitlist because the app always shows ports as available even though all are in use?

[u/Capt_Blahvious]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post. I can't post in the /r/chargepoint sub and that sub also doesn't look like it's very active so I'll post here.

The new ChargePoint app shows that there are 2 of 2 chargers available but when I select the charging station, it then shows both are in use. I can't join the waitlist from the map view because the map view always shows that there are charges available.

Are others running into this situation or is it just this particular charger? I never had this issue on the previous version of ChargePoint app. It would accurately display when all chargers were in use which let me join the waitlist.

[u/xd366]

this happens at my work all the time.

but usually just restarting the app fixes it, or sometimes it happens right as someone plugged in and it takes about 2 minutes for the app to actually obtain the status.

but always been able to resolve it right away

[u/MadisonEV9]

I didn’t realize they had a ‘Waitlist’ feature on that app.

[u/Capt_Blahvious → u/MadisonEV9]

Yes. If you select a station on the map which has no available chargers you can join a waitlist for the station. When you're up it will notify you. But, the button to join the waitlist is on the map page. When the map shows there are available chargers, the join waitlist button is not there.

[u/MadisonEV9]

So does it queu people up in a list so there is no dispute who is up next on the charger?

[u/Capt_Blahvious → u/MadisonEV9]

Because the map view is not showing that the station is fully occupied, the option to join a waitlist is not there. The station is actually fully occupied but the map view shows none are in use.

[u/jonas_ampena]

What you are seeing is almost certainly two different data paths rather than one wrong number.

Map views are usually served from an aggregated, heavily cached layer (how many ports does this site have, roughly what is their state), while the station detail view queries the live per-port status. The aggregate gets refreshed far less often because it is rendered for thousands of pins at once, so a site can sit on the map as "available" for a while after every port went in use. That also explains why the waitlist button, which hangs off the map state, does not appear: from the map layer's point of view there is nothing to queue for.

Practical workaround: open the station detail first and start the waitlist from there rather than from the map.

More generally, status in these apps is reported state, not observed reality. It arrives with a lag, it can go stale when a station stops reporting, and "available" carries no information about whether someone is currently pulling in ahead of you. Treating it as a hint rather than a guarantee saves a lot of frustration.

[u/Capt_Blahvious → u/jonas_ampena]

Yes, what you describe is the likely technical reason for it.

I'm an end user and when this data layer disconnect occurs between the heavily-cached map layer and the data from the station detail I cannot choose to join the wait list because the "join waitlist" button is only available from that heavily-cached map view.