Support

Welcome to SpotCharge! This guide walks you through creating your account, finding charging stations, and getting the most out of the platform.

Create your account

1. Visit the SpotCharge website and click Sign Up
2. Select Driver as your account type
3. Fill in your email address, password, and display name
4. Accept the Terms of Service and click Create Account

After signing up, you'll be redirected to the charging station directory where you can start browsing right away.

What you can do

• Browse the directory — Find charging stations by name, city, or state
• View station details — See connector types, power levels, amenities, photos, and pricing
• Read driver reviews — See what other drivers think before you charge
• Leave reviews — Share your experience to help the community
• Bookmark stations — Save short URLs for your favorite stations

SpotCharge makes it easy to find EV charging stations near you. No account is required to browse the directory.

Browse the directory

Visit /locations to see all publicly listed charging stations. Each listing shows the station name, location, and key details at a glance.

Search for a station

Use the search bar at the top of the directory to find stations by name or city. The search is powered by fuzzy matching, so partial matches and close spellings will still return results.

Filter by state

Use the state dropdown to narrow results to a specific state. This is useful if you're planning a trip and want to see all available stations along your route.

View station details

Click on any station card to visit its public page. Each station page includes:

• Full street address with city, state, and ZIP
• Charging stations and ports — connector types (J1772, CCS, CHAdeMO, Tesla/NACS) and power levels
• Amenities like restrooms, WiFi, food, parking, and more
• Photos uploaded by the station owner
• Driver reviews from other EV drivers

Short URLs

Every station has a short URL in the format /s/STATE-NNNNNN (e.g., /s/CA-123456). These are great for bookmarking your favorite stations, sharing with other drivers, or scanning from QR codes at the station.

Help other EV drivers by sharing your charging experience on SpotCharge. Reviews are text-based — no star ratings — so you can describe exactly what your experience was like.

Step by step

1. Visit the station's public page — Navigate to /s/STATE-NNNNNN from the directory or by scanning a QR code at the station.
2. Click "Leave a Review" — This takes you to the review form.
3. Write your review — Share your experience in 10–500 characters. Be specific about what you liked, didn't like, or any tips for other drivers.
4. Submit — Your review is posted to the station's public page immediately.

What makes a good review?

• Station condition — Was the equipment working? Clean and accessible?
• Charging speed — Did you get the expected power level?
• Location convenience — Easy to find? Good parking?
• Amenities — Were the listed amenities actually available?
• Tips — Anything other drivers should know

Owner responses

Station owners can respond to your review. You'll see their response displayed below your review on the station's public page.

Level 2 (AC) — Typically 7–19 kW. Uses J1772 or Tesla connectors. Best for longer stops (2–8 hours for a full charge).

DC Fast Charging — 50–350 kW. Uses CCS, CHAdeMO, or Tesla (NACS) connectors. Can add 100+ miles of range in 20–30 minutes.

Use our Charging Calculator to estimate charge time for your vehicle.

This guide walks you through the full onboarding process for new station owners. By the end, your charging station will have a public listing that drivers can find and review.

Step 1: Create your account

1. Visit Sign Up and choose Station Owner
2. Fill in your email, password, and display name
3. Accept the Terms of Service and click Create Account

You'll be redirected to the onboarding wizard automatically.

Step 2: Welcome screen

The welcome screen gives you three paths:

• Claim a listing already in our directory — If your station was auto-imported from OpenChargeMap or AFDC, browse /locations, open it, and click Claim this location. Details.
• Activate a SpotCharge QR poster — If you have a poster with a code in STATE-NNNNNN format, enter it here. Details.
• Create a new listing from scratch — Skip the code field and continue through the wizard. We'll mint a fresh code for you on publish.

Step 3: Add your location

Fill in your station's details: street address, city, state, ZIP code, access type, and pricing. The address is geocoded automatically to place your station on the map.

Step 4: Add stations and ports

Define the physical charging equipment at your location. For each station, provide the manufacturer, model, power level (AC/DC), and network info. For each port, set the connector type (J1772, CCS, CHAdeMO, Tesla, or NACS) and power rating.

Step 5: Upload photos

Showcase your location with photos. Upload images, add captions, and set a primary image that appears first on your public listing.

What happens next

• Your business profile is created automatically
• A welcome email is sent to your registered email address
• You're redirected to your owner dashboard
• Your station gets a public page at /s/STATE-NNNNNN that drivers can visit, review, and share

SpotCharge imports public charging-station data from OpenChargeMap and the US DOE's Alternative Fuels Data Center. Your station is most likely already listed. Claiming transfers ownership to your account so you can update photos, hours, pricing, and respond to driver reviews — without creating a duplicate listing.

This is different from activating a QR poster. If you have a printed SpotCharge QR sign with a STATE-NNNNNN code, see Activate a SpotCharge QR poster instead.

Claim from your station's public page

1. Find your station — Browse the Locations directory or search by name/address
2. Click "Claim this location" — The button appears on every unclaimed station's public page
3. Review the imported data — The onboarding wizard pre-fills with the existing address, network, and station details. Edit anything that's wrong
4. Sign up at the end — If you don't have an account yet, you'll create one in the final step. Existing owners just confirm and publish
5. Done — The site moves into your dashboard immediately. Claims are auto-approved

If your station isn't in the directory yet

Sign up as a Station Owner and use the onboarding wizard to create a new listing from scratch. We'll mint a fresh site code (format STATE-NNNNNN) and bind it to your new site automatically — you can print a QR poster from your dashboard.

If a claim was made in error

Contact support@spotcharge.io. An admin can revert any claim and reset the site to unclaimed so the rightful owner can take it back.

A SpotCharge QR poster is a printable sign you display at your station so drivers can scan it, see your listing, and leave reviews. Each poster carries a pre-generated code in STATE-NNNNNN format (e.g., CA-123456). Activating the poster binds that code to a new listing you build in the onboarding wizard.

This is different from claiming a directory listing. If your station is already auto-imported into our directory (most are), don't activate a poster — go to Claim a station already in our directory instead. Otherwise you'll end up with a duplicate.

If you received a pre-printed poster from us

1. Sign up as a Station Owner at Sign Up
2. Enter the code printed on the poster when the wizard prompts “Have a SpotCharge QR poster?”
3. Build the listing — fill in address, station details, and photos as normal. The poster code follows along.
4. Publish — the code flips from available to claimed, and your printed sign now resolves to your live listing at /s/STATE-NNNNNN.

If you don't have a poster yet

Skip the code field in the onboarding wizard. We'll mint a fresh code on publish, and you can download a printable QR poster PDF from your dashboard.

Lost or invalid code

If the code in the wizard says “already activated” or “not found,” email support@spotcharge.io with the code and a photo of the poster.

Once your station is set up, you can manage everything from your owner dashboard.

Your dashboard

Access your dashboard at Dashboard → Locations. You'll see all of your charging locations with a summary of each one. Click on any location to manage it.

Editing location details

From the location detail page, you can update the address, access type, pricing, and status. Changes are reflected on your public page immediately.

Managing stations and ports

Each location can have multiple charging stations, and each station can have multiple ports. Edit manufacturer, model, power level (AC/DC), and network information. For ports, set the connector type (J1772, CCS, CHAdeMO, Tesla, or NACS) and power rating.

Managing amenities

SpotCharge has 34 standard amenities across 6 categories (restrooms, food, WiFi, parking, shopping, recreation). Toggle these on or off for your location to let drivers know what's available nearby.

Managing photos

Keep your listing fresh with up-to-date photos. Upload new images with captions, set a primary image that appears first, reorder photos, and remove outdated ones. Photos can be associated with your location, specific stations, or individual ports.

Generating QR codes

Generate QR codes that link directly to your station's public page. Download as a PDF poster for printing and display at your charging station so drivers can quickly access your listing and leave reviews.

When drivers leave reviews on your station, you can respond directly from your dashboard.

1. Navigate to your location in the dashboard
2. Find the review you want to respond to
3. Click to open the response form
4. Write your response and submit

You can leave one response per review. Responses appear publicly on your station's page below the original review. Free accounts get 2 responses per month; Premium accounts get unlimited responses.

Free — 1 location, 10 stations, 5 photos, 2 review responses/month. Free forever.

Premium ($12.99/mo) — 3 locations, unlimited stations, 25 photos per location, unlimited review responses.

See the Pricing page for full details.

Visit Pricing and click Subscribe — $12.99/mo. Your upgraded limits (3 locations, 25 photos per location, unlimited review responses, premium analytics) take effect the moment checkout completes.

Premium is billed immediately and renews monthly. If you're not happy within the first 30 days, email support@spotcharge.io for a full refund — no questions asked.

Cancel any time from Dashboard → Settings → Manage billing. That button opens the Stripe billing portal where you can:

• Cancel your subscription
• Update your payment method
• View your past invoices

When you cancel, your Premium features stay active through the end of the month you've already paid for. After that the subscription stops automatically and no further charges are made. Your account stays open and drops back to the Free tier — your locations, photos, and reviews remain.

30-day refund window. If you signed up within the last 30 days and aren't happy, email support@spotcharge.io for a full refund — no questions asked. After 30 days we don't prorate partial months. See Refunds and billing disputes for details.

We don't expose self-service refund or dispute buttons in the dashboard — those go through us so we can investigate properly and get you a fast answer.

30-day no-questions-asked refund

If you subscribed to Premium within the last 30 days and you're not happy with it for any reason, email support@spotcharge.io from the address on your account and we'll issue a full refund and cancel the subscription. We won't ask why. Refunds typically land in your original payment method within 5–10 business days.

If you think you were charged in error

Email support@spotcharge.io with:

• The email address on your SpotCharge account
• The approximate date and amount of the charge
• A short description of the issue

We'll review the charge against your account history and reply within 1–2 business days. Erroneous or duplicate charges are always fully refundable, regardless of the 30-day window.

Refund policy summary

• First 30 days — full refund, no questions asked. Email us.
• After 30 days — no prorated refunds for partial months. Cancellation at end of the current paid month is the standard exit.
• Erroneous or duplicate charges — always fully refundable. Email us.

Before filing a chargeback with your bank

Please email us first. Chargebacks involve fees on both sides and a slow bank-mediated process. In most cases we can resolve a billing question directly within a day or two — much faster than your bank can. If we've done something wrong, we'll fix it.

If a renewal payment fails (most often an expired or replaced card), your subscription is marked past due and we'll show a banner on your dashboard. Stripe will retry the charge a few times over the next several days.

Update your card from Dashboard → Settings → Update payment (visible whenever an account is past due). The button opens the same Stripe portal where you can swap in a new payment method. Once the charge succeeds, you're back to active automatically — no other action needed.

If retries fail and the subscription lapses, you keep your account and your locations stay on the Free tier. You can resubscribe at any time from the Pricing page.