SolarCity

I am guaranteed 9000 kWh a year and my system made a whopping 7000 kWh in the last 12 months, there were 6 months it didn’t even hit SolarCity’s minimum estimates.
I opened multiple tickets with SolarCity, only to be told trees, both which were there at system design and one that doesn’t even extend past roofline, are the reason for my dismal performance. They said if I removed the trees that were there at system design, then the system should perform better.
Meanwhile, I’m paying SolarCity and having to buy those extra 2000 kWh back from Xcel. Check out my numbers here
my system is performing at 79% of the guaranee.
EDIT: If you read SolarCity’s response below, you can see how frustrating it is to try and talk to them. After mentioning the trees in my second paragraph, their response goes on to blame the trees, again.

Serious billing problems with this company. I have spoke to myriad service reps — and I continue to have a credit on my account… The problem is they will not cut me a check for the credit balance — nor will they apply the balance to my billing. This has been a total «time suck» and this is still not resolved. Now, I have a bill that shows I am «past due» and these idiots still do not have this resolved. AVOID this company until they get their crap together. This has been a very frustrating experience and it is not improving! Hopefully, I will be able to revise this review after I speak to a customer service supervisor — but their representatives are incompetent! 122 815 Update! FINALLY, the bill is correct! It took months to fix, but the bill I have is accurate! I’m very pleased with the service, and now I can add more stars for a correct bill! :-)

I’ve been very impressed with the entire process. My sale rep (Alex Panagos) was very knowledgeable and helpful, answering questions that were both basic and complex (i.e. explaining specific sections of the contract, etc.). The installers were extremely professional as well. The email updates provided insight on the next step in the process. Reading other reviews, most come down to the sales rep/​consultant. Anyone interested, contact Alex Panagos | Cell: 312−343−2762 |
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Overall, great experience! Highly recommend.

BUYER BEWARE
Horrible sales reps and non-​disclosed lease restrictions. Beware, the sales reps will tell you that if you sell your home you can terminate the lease — what they don’t tell you is how many thousands of dollars that will you have to pay. They will also tell you that you can relocate the system to your new home and continue the lease if you sell your house — what they don’t tell you, until you actually try to do this, is that you actually CAN NOT relocate the system in the Xcel Energy service districts, and possibly some other local utility districts. In my opinion the district attorney should require SolarCity to disclose this in writing in the lease.
If you have Solar City and want to sell your house and are in the Xcel Energy district, either 1) the buyers MUST assume the remainder of the lease and its terms, or 2) you MUST buy out the lease agreement for thousands of dollars. Even if the buyers happened to agree to leave the panels in place and the sellers still paid the lease payment through the end of the term for some reason, the lien Solar City puts on the property would prevent a mortgage lender from loaning money on the home. This is not spelled out clearly in the PPA and the reps either tend to not know this or just lie about it.

Great company. Takes care of their customers. Innovative and excellent quality of workmanship

My wife and I were very interested in the solar power. We completed all the prep work with Solar city but decided we wanted to wait to install the panels till after we update our roof in a few years as solar city charges $ 499 plus tax to removal the panels to update roofing I told the sales rep we will wait till then since paying $ 499 to remove and reinstall panels doesn’t make sense with such an expensive charge The rep insisted it would still be worth it I told him I had done the math out on the kwh charge by the city at 11.4 cents to solar city’s 10.8 cents over 10 years doesn’t even save me the money to uninstall and reinstall at the $ 499. I then repeated that in a couple years when we will have to complete our roof we will then have the panels installed after so we aren’t wasting any of the money we would be saving over the 10 years The sales rep was then mad that I had actually done the math out instead of listening to him feed me more BS about how it is still worth it now. The rep then hung up on me. My wife and I are still interested in solar energy in the future but will no longer be giving solar city our business as they have no respect and are mad at those who truly do pros/​cons and do the math rather than just listen to their pitch
My neighbor had gone further than I and had the panels installed. She told us not to bother as it takes almost 3 months for the panels to fully charge and you pay 2 bills; excel and solar city for 3 months until the panels are charged. Solar city conveniently omits this information in their sales pitch

I have had several friends who are homeowners that have utilized SolarCity for solar panel installation and have been very happy with the process and the end result. Jake Jenkins in particular was extremely helpful to them, guiding them through the conversion to solar and helping to prepare the homeowners for potential delays due to Xcel, etc. SolarCity is a truly forward thinking organization that is worth your consideration. Be sure to ask for Jake!

Great friendly sales and installation guys BUT… We have had one problem after the next, from waiting patiently for months for the panels to be installed, to the system not working but the nail in the coffin is when they charged us for 3 months when the panels were NOT EVEN INSTALLED. Working with their billing department has been weeks of frustration. They send you to another number, transfer you to another department, tell you a manager will call you back and you never hear a thing. They ultimately told us sorry, you signed up and even though we show an installation date of March 18^th you still have to pay for Dec, January and February. Save the time and headaches and find other ways conserve energy.

I guess I never imagined switching to solar to be a pain free process. On the whole, I have to say it was. With the exception of a lag time waiting for Xcel to communicate and help facilitate the switch, everything went according to plan and according to the expectations I’d been given. The passion of the SC folks was easily matched by their responsiveness at every point, from design, to installation to customer service. The skill of communicating exactly what would happen and when exhibited by the sales rep Jake Jenkins was huge when it came to me being prepared for what was coming around the next corner. All in all the process was smooth and I am delighted to have Solar and lower monthly electricity bills. I would highly recommend Solar City and Jake Jenkins.

These guys suck. You are promised a whole lot, then after they mislead you into a 20 year contract, your bill goes up. They have no answers as to why and you are basically screwed. I wouldn’t recommend them to my enemies. They screwed up from their install, that took forever, through cutting my gas line etc.etc. Beware of this scam.

So far so good. We started the process of signing up for Solar City in August 2014 and just turned on our system this week. Part of the delay was our fault for not completing paperwork timely. Every person we interacted with at SC has been kind and responsive. I would send emails to my EcoMark Solar and Solar City reps and they always answered me promptly and clearly.

Let me start off saying that as a family we try to be «green» whenever possible. Our recycling bin fills faster than or garbage and we have a Prius so going solar was a logical path for us.
My coworker recommended Solar City saying the installation process was seamless which it basically was. The issue is their attentiveness after the panels are installed. At the completion of the panel install we mentioned to the Solar City rep that they forgot to install the «skirt» around the sides of the panels to keep the birds from building nest under the panels. One of our neighbors has the «skirts» so we assumed they were included. The rep told us they only installed the skirts if birds began to build nests. I said «If they built nests 2 doors down then they will build under ours». We notified Solar City 4 months ago about the nesting and have contacted them about every other week. They say they will hire an outside company to install the skirts but nothing. We can hear the birds through to night (morning doves coo really loudly!). And the bird dropping fill up my gutters!
I would recommend another company that doesn’t ignore their customers once the panels are installed and they have you under contract.

It has been less than 2 months since we first talked to SolarCity and our system is up and running, already producing more than we are consuming. We couldn’t be happier with the service from our rep, Eric Kleffner. He walked us through every step and helped whenever we had questions. I can’t believe how fast this has gone, and everyone has been very polite and patient with us. If you are thinking about solar, I highly recommend that you contact Eric directly — he was available to us ²⁴⁄₇ and I think it is because of him that everything went so smoothly. His phone # is 720−227−3748.
I really don’t write very many reviews, but I have been so floored with the service and the great deal that SC offers. I’m amazed that everyone doesn’t do it!

I have a solar system on our primary house and love it. The company I used was simply wonderful and continues to be so, but they are over 100 miles away so I looked into someone more local.
Contacted Solarcity at the Home Depot in Boulder. The first week was great – lots of activity.
But then…

The initial discussions were all about how they could provide a great system for me and they provided the size of the system, drawings of the layout, pricing, etc. All looked great, so
I signed a contract with them immediately and had the site visit.
and then nothing – they went totally dark – no contact, no information.
When I would contact them, things seemed to jump start and they would promise to get me information, but nothing ever happened.
Then they tell me that there are some structural concerns with my roof; but they’ll get the information on what needs to be done and we’ll get going on the project.
Nothing again for weeks.
Solarcity has strung me along for over 3 months with nothing to show for it.
Bottom line: their customer service is none-​existent. If everything isn’t a perfect project for them, you will get shoved aside, with promises and no action. Not even the courtesy to tell you that they just don’t want to build your system because it isn’t big enough or brings in enough money for them, or whatever their reason is (you won’t find out).
Since then, my original solar company came down and they said that although my system is small based on our usage, it is definitely do-​able. Gave me a fair estimate and, based on previous experience with them, I know they’ll make it happen.
Solarcity is a bait and switch outfit.
Only wish there was an option for 0 stars.

It pains me to deduct a start and I’ve debated 2. I’m still happy with my system but I have referred countless people to SC. Their referral program used to give you $ 400 for each and now it’s down to $ 250, but that’s not the reason.
The reason is I have to bug the person I referred to bug SC to give me my referral reward after their system is up and running. This happens with each successful referral I’ve made. The latest has been on line 6 months and I’m still waiting. And SC pushes this aspect hard! WTF?
Come to think of it, I will deduct 2 stars.
Update 10÷30÷14
Katie from SC took it upon herself to contact me per this latest review. Seems there was an email mix up, she apologized and referral check on the way. Great service!

I’ve been a SolarCity customer for over a year now, and I have nothing but nice things to say about the company. My solar consultant, Ed Dugan, walked me through the entire process so there were no surprises. As promised, all the paperwork was easily filled out online, the install crew was very polite and were happy to clean up after themselves, and the young lady I spoke to on the Customer Service line deftly walked me through the process of turning on my system once Xcel installed the new meter. Honestly, the biggest hiccup I encountered was waiting for Xcel to put the new meter on my house (6+ weeks).
Coincidentally, I turned on my system July 4^th 2013, which I proudly say is the day I became energy independent.
Thank you SolarCity. I look forward to seeing more of my neighbors go solar with you.

Our experience with solar city has been great. Jay and everyone else we worked with throughout the process have been amazing. We have had our solar system up and running for about six months now and we have not had a single problem. The process of getting everything set up was very easy and Jay took a lot of time to answer any and all questions we had.
Jay has also since followed up with us to make sure everything was going well and to make sure we knew how to track our solar production with solar city’s app.
We could not have asked for better customer service and we recommend solar city to all of our friends and neighbors.

After buying a new house, I got to talking to a neighbor about their solar system and it seemed like a good idea. I talked to Solar City and had a consultant over to discuss what we could expect for the costs and benefits of getting solar for our house. I was walked methodically through the process and options that were involved in getting solar and precisely what we could expect benefits-​wise from the system and made sure that we were comfortable with them before proceeding, giving us a detailed plan of the proposed system.
Once we agreed on the solar system, all of the interactions that we had with other institutions in getting solar set up went amazingly smoothly, from our HOA, our power company, to the county inspectors. Each of these could have been a possible headache had we had to deal with them on our own, but due to Solar City; they took the pain out of it for us and kept everything on track.
Our system is now up and functional and we couldn’t be more pleased with it. I am always happy to recommend Solar City to my friends and family who show an interest and are good candidates for having a new solar system installed as it really is a no-​brainer…

We started working with SolarCity about 6 months ago, and we still haven’t seen a single watt of electricity. Every step of the installation process took a long time, and they ended up installing defective equipment.
When their technician came out and told us the equipment was defective, he said they should be able to replace it in about 1 week. But that was a month ago, and they still claim not to have the replacement part. I called SolarCity to inquire when we might get our system fixed, and they basically responded «don’t call us, we’ll call you.»
So, the panels are sitting on our roof useless. I’d be happy to get a solar from another dealer, but we’re locked into a contract with SolarCity (despite the fact we’re not getting electricity out of it).
EDIT: About a month after I wrote this review, a technician came out and fixed our panels. It’s nice to have them working, but a shame that SC’s service was so bad.

Had I not read the prior reviews about the initial appts being rescheduled multiple times, or the Solar City rep just not showing up, I just MIGHT have believed it when my rep Alessandra called one hour before my first scheduled appointment and left a VM indicating she had a «family emergency» and would not be coming to my house yesterday.
I had the appt set for over 2 weeks and scheduled my entire Sat around being home for this meeting to learn about solar and it’s benefits.
Sorry, Solar City, but reviews speak for themselves. I was a skeptic before due to your Unilocal reviews, and now I have first-​hand experience.
Ain’t happenin.