Poncho’s Solar Service

By far the worst salesperson I have ever had to deal with. Unresponsive, unethical (tried t have me sign a blank form) and arrogant. Your rep on the east side is terrible. The pricing for the product was okay but if you don’t ask the right questions, this guy will selectively try to exclude the right build and type of panels for your property. Back and forth emails were argumentative and counterproductive. Claims to not have received emails; then changed addresses from his own published and business card points of contact. While I think the company, office and workers did a great job, it’s been a month trying to get hold of the enphase monitor this fool took month ago because he couldn’t get it going. Be careful when dealing with Ponchos rep from the east side. Looza

I was surprised that Mike called me on Friday morning. Even though he was a bit late, I was glad that he showed up with his assistant. The valve was repaired. Mike also recommended me to schedule an overall maintenance and the State of Hawaii rebate program. Overall I gave them a 3 star because the actual repair service is very good (5 star), but setting appointment as previously mentioned, disappointing and frustrating (1 star).

Poor service. My mother and I tried to schedule an appointment with Poncho’s, but they continually flaked out on their scheduled appointment. The service man who does the installations has major bad attitude and is hard to talk to without wanting to slap him. I’m not sure if the shoddy service is due to that one guy, or if it is just how the company works. We are now looking at other businesses to get our problem fixed.

Great team. Very knowledgeable about solar and energy-​saving products and options, from PV to hot water to attic fans and everything in between. Great guidance on the local/​state/​federal rebates.

Recently got my solar water heater replaced by Poncho’s. Great job, friendly crew, cleaned up the place and very competitive pricing. It comes with 10 year warranty, preventive maintainance and service! My application with HECO for photovoltaic is now submitted through Poncho’s as well.

Great service provided by knowledgeable staff. I would use them again. I worked with Carlo Brand and he was professional and courteous.

Great service! They handled my new solar water heater and were prompt and professional with everything. It’s working great!

Great customer service and friendly, knowledgable staff. Will definitely be using them again.

Excellent Service!
Extremely professional and fixed the issues I had with my solar water heater. Mark was great!

Poncho’s Solar did my pool solar system many years ago and did a fantastic job. His customer service and fixing repairs when called was excellent. So when it was time to do our Photovoltaic system we called Poncho. They installed all my panels and did another great job. System up and running and my electric bill is almost zero. I wanted to really zero out my electric bill so I called Poncho again and he installed my solar water heater. Another great job by Poncho. My salesman was Blake and he is very responsive, returns calls quickly and answered all my questions.

very poor customer service. made an apointment with office for a maintenence check on my solar water system that was purchased before we bought our house. on the day of apointment waited all day for someone to call or show up. no call no show!

Problem: solar pump was intermittently running at night cooling down the hit water heater so that there was very little hot water in the morning
Solution: the company sent Mark to come and fix it. He couldn’t make the the agreed upon time of 10:30 but he called at 8:00 to let me know that an emergency job was keeping him from coming. He said he would call an hour before coming and which he did. Watching him gave me a sense of confidence as he troubleshooted the sensor system and isolated it down to a potential problem of a pinched sensor at the solar panel on the roof. That sensor he suspected was the problem because it told the pump when to turn on and that he replaced. He was very thorough on the system and knowledgeable. I would ask for him back if I had another problem.

We’ve had our PV system in for ~ 3 years. We selected Pancho’s based on local labor, good PV products, and support from Walter’s Electric. Walter’s Electric is 5 Star… Poncho’s is 1 or 2 stars based on their after installation service. I called and left messages never to hear from them. One would think that they would take care of existing customers, but it seems not. Thank to Walter’s for stepping in to support my system issue without any questions asked. I can see why Walter’s is no longer associated with Pancho’s…Walter’s cares about their reputation and Pancho’s seems to only worry about the next sale. It is what it is.

DO NOT SUPPORT THIS COMPANY! Awful customer service! Wish I read reviews about them before going with this company. Once they got your money, don’t expect any service if something goes wrong.

I’m a very disappointed PV customer that mistakenly chose Ponchos Solar, Lets analyze what I went through, I requested a quote from Poncho’s Solar Service in September of 2012, the sales person responded to my request and set up an appointment to take a look at our home and look at the required number of panels needed to meet our electricity needs.
The appointment date came and went and the sales person did not show up, I had to call the company and then finally the sales person showed up a day later several hours after the set appointment time. The Quote for the system was quickly returned and Poncho’s asked for a $ 1000 deposit for what they call «Engineering Fees» which I quickly paid. They won’t tell you but those $ 1000 dollars are not deductible from your taxes.
After putting some pressure on them and 3 months later after several calls and inquiries they gave me a date at the end of January,
Installation date came about and an Army of people showed up to our home, 4 trucks, with all the hardware ready to be installed, the system installers and electricians were very professional they seemed to know what they were doing the guys that mounted the rails were careful so they would not perforate the beams that support the system. I personally monitored the installation not only on the roof but also the Electrical portion and I think they did a good job. Four hours after starting the new PV system was up and running, This included the installation of all the rails, inverters, panels and all the electrical system.
Our system has been installed for about 6 months and as far as the system is concerned things seem to be working okay although there are no permits, digital meter or Envoy system was not configured by Ponchos. In Hawaii in order to have the system installed you need to sign a net zero metering agreement and until today there has not been anyone else at the premises from Ponchos or the City.
After several weeks of waiting I decided to configure the Envoy system myself it allows you to see how your panels are working over the internet. It took Ponchos Electrical contractor 41 days to call me to tell me that they wanted to connect the device to the internet… I told them that I’d done it myself and told them that I’d sent numerous emails to the account manager as well as contacted Poncho’s office but they don’t get back to me or they give me the run around that it will be done in a few days. Competitors like Sunetric, Kumu Kit, Haleakala Solar have these systems operating the same day they turn the system to you, they also have the required permits in place, Ponchos does NOT.
Nearly 6 months passed since the initial installation and finally we got the New meter installed, I had to contact HECO since Ponchos could not find the document that we signed.
In short, Poncho’s is not the best choice when installing a P. V system, I would not recommend them. They miss lead you, do not follow up on requests, as others indicated here in Unilocal their customer service has much to be desired…

So far so good until 4 year warranty expires… no hot water produced by solar system, called to have system looked at. by tech, came by and said pump poss. not working or stuck, usually needs a slight tap by hammer to free mechanism,. gave him rock to tap pump, system now working. he opened valve to release pressure. less than 15 minutes of his time spent was billed $ 75
+ tax by Poncho’s Solar System…

With all the rain we’ve been having, I can now safely say that there are no leaks due to the installation, everything is tight. One added piece of advice, with the formula everyone seems to be using for estimating the amount of panels needed to cover your needs, I am thinking that it is not enough to average a net zero. With really good «winter sun», my system only makes about 70% of the calculated daily average. It remains to be seen how much output I get during late spring/​summer, 130%?

I recently had my roof redone so Poncho had to take my solar panels off for the roofers. You would think they would come either the day the roofers finish or the following day to put the panels back up. It took them 3 days for them to contact us. They finally called and scheduled a day and time to come by. They originally wanted to come at 12pm but we told them nobody would be home after 12. So they set a time for 2pm to stop by. They showed up at 11:50 and I needed to be out of the house by 12:30. The workers told me that nobody from their office told them anything about a 2pm appointment. So I had to reschedule for the next day which wasn’t a problem since I didn’t have anything planned for the day. I asked the customer service rep what time would they stop by. Her response was «I don’t know, it depends on how fast the workers get done with their previous jobs». So I’m confused to why she gave me a service time of 12pm and 2pm the day before if thats the case. So I asked her why don’t they call before they stop by? Her response was «we don’t do that». So you’re telling me you don’t communicate with your field workers? What kind of company are you? Every business I’ve dealt with in the past that stopped by my house, has made a call to inform me they were on their way. Even Pizza Hut makes a call to say they are on their way. At least give me a time frame when your field workers will stop by.
Last year there was a power outage at my house and the timer for the heater stopped working. We called Poncho several times to see if they could come check it out. Nobody answered the phone and they didn’t return any of our messages. This is by far the worse company I have ever dealt with. I would give them 0 stars if that was possible.

In general, although they sold us a great product, we were disappointed at their customer service, and at how the company handled issues (which are the true test of a company).
We were looking to get solar water heating for my Grandpa, and settled on Poncho’s Solar since we saw numerous ads for them, and even had a neighbor who had used them. Everything went smoothly, and my Grandpa had no issues for the first couple of months, until last week when there was no hot water. My Grandpa called right away early in the morning and left messages, but no one got back till the next day (during which my family had intermittent hot water). When they sent a foreman out to investigate, he found the root cause, and explained that during the initial installation they failed to inform us of an important step which apparently we had to do, which involved setting the timer. My Grandpa (who is 91 years old), asked him if he could set it up for him, since the tiny-​print instructions were located on a junction-​like box high up in the corner, but the foreman said he was too busy, and that my Grandpa could do it himself by reading the instructions. Also, when the foreman purged the water heater system, he haphazardly had the outlet hose in the carport, and it would’ve flooded the area hadn’t my Grandpa moved it into the yard. In the end it was disappointing to spend so much money for a critical utility of the house, and not have a high level of support.

Poncho’s does extensive advertising and is one of several contractors who claim to be Hawaii’s leading solar firm. I had it checked out and found out that up to that date, Poncho’s did lead the pack in the number of solar building permits pulled from the city building department. It may have been a combination of water heating systems and photovoltaic (PV) systems.
Poncho’s works with Walter’s Electric, a Hilo-​based firm. It may not be as odd an arrangement as it might first seem — this gives Poncho’s a presence on the Big Island, where HELCO’s rates are 25−30% higher than HECO’s here on Oahu. The electrician, who came over to give me the estimate for the PV system, said that this arrangement has been working fine in regard to his traveling between islands.
The biggest problem with Poncho’s was the price. 36 Samsung 241W panels qualifying as three systems at an astonishingly high $ 57,487. There was also no information given on the power output or anticipated electricity savings. With that kind of money involved, you can’t render a favorable decision based only on the guy’s personality.
Besides, my sister’s general contractor had selected Poncho’s for the mandatory solar water heater on her newly-​constructed rental property earlier this year. She informed me that she was not particularly pleased with that job. Exactly why, I don’t really know.
With a typical gross price difference of $ 13,000 against the rest of the contractors, I had to say «NO» to Poncho’s. The value is not there.