SolarCity

Installation and process was great system is performing ok, but… referral program sucks. I didn’t get credit for anyone I ever referred and I never got my free month as a referral. The promotions team always had some technicality that I didn’t qualify for. Great system just don’t expect any reward for telling people about it.

Use the Internet to sell your product like everyone else. Stop bugging people at their homes. I have had about ten assholes at my door this year. If you have to go door to door then you are obviously scamming people. According to your reviews that is about right.

Once we decided to go solar — we got quotes from various companies — with Solar City being one of them.
From the start it was clear that they had way too much going on and every department was overwhelmed. Communication was spotty at best and information was not being communicated across departments. Some staff for e.g. the home inspector who cam to survey our roof were clearly very green and I had to tell them how to do their jobs (which was not good because I’m not an expert by any means)
Finally after many months of trying to get the project started — I gave up on SolarCity and cancelled our contract.
I hope they resolve their staffing challenges — but I am happy I went with another provider who has been nothing short of brilliant from start to finish.

I am going with solar city for a PPA. I can tell you that the company is trying to grow so fast that not all employees are good. This happens all the time it is hard to find good people with their pay structure. However they are the most forward looking solar company. Are they perfect? No of course not. They have way too many rookies on staff and too many clients to handle. Is their commission or the way they pay salaries necessary? No, but to managers it appears that way. If I was running the show I would focus more on a Disney type experience.
Here are a few things to keep in mind with the program I going for a PPA:
1. You pay for energy PRODUCED!!! This is very important. Let’s take May as an example, you might only pay now $ 50 a month in May. However if it is sunny in May you may produce 1000kWatts at a PPA rate of .12 cents per kWatt that would be $ 120 bill. And maybe another $ 20 to your electrical company. So in the end in May you will actually pay more, but build up a credit for the winter months or a rainy day. In the end your bill actually BE MORE than double so if you have cash flow issues stay away, this I felt was not communicated by the salesman. I happened to not have cash flow issues, but people getting this might be looking to up their cash flow as I read review after review on other sites. This company only saves you over all not on a month by month basis like some people live. This is why people get so pissed on reviews. This and rookies doing shady work.
2. If you have cash flow issues DO NOT sign up for this!!!
3. If you get your panels installed in April your May bill will be really high and if you can’t pay this maybe 2x what you can pay now STAY AWAY!!!
4. In the end you will save $ 500 – 700 a year but at a 1 year full cycle year. You WILL NOT save every month.
Solar city’s biggest pit fall is that they say that you will save money and they make it seem like right away. Well if we had batteries hooked up like the Tesla battery then yeah they would save the over production. But without batteries your Solar city bill will be really high in sunny months and nothing in cloudy days. Brings a whole new meaning to saving for a rainy day literally. Since the system contains no batteries then at night you will always have a utility bill hopefully offset by credits from producing during the day.
Conclusion:
IF YOU HAVE ANY CASH FLOW ISSUES DO NOT SIGN Up!!! It will be more expensive some months. The other mayor risk is dealing with rookies and workers that don’t have much experience or don’t care about their work because they will never see you again. This is a risk I am willing to take to go Green. Bottom line cash flow issues stay away these systems can produce a lot more than promised and you might get stuck with a very big bill.

It was very difficult to talk with sales person at Solar City and he didn’t have a handle on how things work when your panels don’t produce as much as you consume in winter months with the lease/​ppa option. They also made us do a credit check before they would come to the house to see if we met their requirements and in the end they rejected our roof as they said there was not enough pitch. Each request for your credit score lowers your credit score so they should wait to do that until they confirm your roof meets their requirements.
Ended up going to Revolusun which was much easier to talk to, didn’t do a credit check until they inspected our property and had no problem with a lower pitched roof. Revolusun also took the time to explain all the options including lease vs. buy and I realized we are much better off with a solar loan vs. a lease/​ppa as you save much more money. I think the warranties were also better with Revolusun and the products are higher quality. Direct Energy was another good option but I choose Revolusun do to some poor reviews on service with Direct Energy.
Summary is don’t bother with Solar City unless you have plenty of free time to meet their schedules, deal with a long sales pitch and have a perfect roof for solar — South facing, no trees, pitch not too high or too low, etc.

We had a rep stop by our home on Thursday for an initial meeting. The rep spent about ½ hour with us and then said she would send us a proposal that night and if not then, first thing on Friday. Its now Tuesday and we have not heard a word, she had our phone number and could have called. Very disappointed. Not very professional. We ended up going with another larger competitor.

Wish I could get bef and aft pictures. They have done such a great job. I can give an excellent referral to Solar City. They used local people for installation and even provide workers with UV sweat wicking clothing. I’m impressed. There were 3 levels of financial investment. I chose to have them install the panels for free and pay a small kilowatt hour and delivery charge compared to Local electric service. I feel confident I will be saving money on electricity AND contributing to the solar powered electric grid. I recommend Solar City.

SolarCity installed a 12kw solar system on our home, exceeding the state of Massachusetts’ preexisting regulatory cap of 10kw, and therefore, National Grid will not allow the system to be turned on. According to our state representative, these regulations have been in effect for some time. We now have a 12kw solar system on the roof of our home that is being subsidized by the federal and state governments that is producing no electricity.
They had failed to mention any such regulation prior to installing the solar panels. It was only after the installation was complete that SolarCity alerted us that we had an issue. To solve our problem, they proposed that we lobby our state representatives to increase the regulatory cap. This is an unacceptable solution, as it is SolarCity’s responsibility to understand and adhere to state regulations.
When we contacted SolarCity with two reasonable solutions of our own, they were dismissive. We had suggested that they remove 2kw of solar panels or completely remove the system. The SolarCity representative said their policy does not allow for a system to be downsized and that we signed a contract to keep the system.
We have already filed a complaint with the San Francisco Better Business Bureau (where SolarCity is headquartered) and with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
SolarCity is receiving approximately $ 32,000 in federal and state subsidies to install and produce electricity from the solar system on our home. SolarCity should have followed all MA Department of Energy regulations. SolarCity’s recommended solution of lobbying the state legislators to increase the 10kw cap is disappointing. It is SolarCity’s responsibility to understand and follow all state and federal regulations, not to force their customers into a position where they have to lobby their representatives.
Update:
SolarCity’s response to our complaint to the Better Business Bureau is disappointing. They are not taking responsibility for the problem they caused. They are either incompetent for not knowing of the preexisting regulatory cap or intentionally deceptive for installing a solar system they knew would not be turned on without legislation from the state government.
SolarCity could have easily avoided the entire issue by installing a 10 kw solar system or smaller. All systems of this size are exempt from regulatory caps.
They have offered no solutions to the problem.
Avoid SolarCity at all costs. Don’t trust them.
Here is SolarCity’s exact response to the BBB:
On July 27, 2015, the business provided the following information:
We apologize for the frustrating circumstances regarding this customer’s experience. Massachusetts ACA does have a cap for certain system sizes and the cap was met shortly after this installation was completed. SolarCity is working with the entity that has enacted this cap to resolve this very pertinent concern. SolarCity benefits in no way from this situation and we are working to rectify so that we can meet the contractual obligations in our signed agreement. Any change to the system size will affect the production of the system, thereby changing the terms of the contract. Please call 888−765−2489 with any further questions

I tried to engage solar city to receive two items. One to understand how their most popular product works, and the other to have a quote on solar installed with no financing. I heard bad things about solar companies in advance that they keep all the profit, and customers are ripped off, but was going to try. I filled out their form on the website, and they called me back within 10 minutes! Setup an appointment.
A «sales rep“called my last night, and the purpose of the call seemed to be get my credit rating score or run a credit check on me. I repeated several times «I just want a quote, you don’t need a credit report.» He wasn’t listening to me. After another 2 minutes of the same stuff I hung up on him. I don’t know how many of you have been to time share sales meetings, but this sounds EXACTLY LIKE THAT. Push Push Push Push Push Push Push.
I’m going to keep looking for someone who can do solar who doesn’t think a customer paid solar installation is a time share.

very upset with this company, Came to my house last year 2015, I have a roof leakage, I have made numerous complaint, No one is stepping up to fix my bedroom has to ceiling damage. I wish I have never put this up. The crew that came did not install the panel right.

The interaction with these people was below mediocre. First we started looking into the lease the roof and fix your energy bill rate, but quickly learned, after reading their contract, that Solar City (as well as with NRG, Vivint and other companies that ofer this lease option) will be getting ALL the money from the federal tax rebates, state programs and the SREC bonds; if you don’t have the money to buy your solar array or cannot get a credit to finance it, this might be your only solution. This wasn’t an issue if you were willing to accept their conditions, they are in business to make money and they are not a charity or are doing this for the good of the planet either, we understand that.
The big issue was the demeanor of the customer representative from their central office in Las Vegas, NV named Cristina. We get better customer service from the guy who pumps our septic system! My wife who is very patient lost it with her condescending treatment and borderline rudeness.
Every question we had about the contract or details about instalation, warranties, etc. was answered with a dismissive, at times scripted and unprofessional non sense «Sweetie let me explain you how solar works…», «Do you understand we are better than NRG and any other company?», «you know we are the leader in Solar, Elon Musk is on our board and his cousing is our CEO…» Good information for a trivia night at the local pub but far from the answers we wanted and needed.
We called their HQ requesting another customer representative. At this point we were considering buying the Solar arrays. We got a couple of phone calls after 10 pm at night or at 8 in the morning, very inconvinient times and when we kindly requested to be called during normal hours they just stop calling back, so we finally went with a different company (Direct Energy Solar) and and bougth a 12Kwh solar Array.
As a side note The people at NRG were great but not what we needed.
We finally decided to go with Direct Energy Solar because of their competitive prices, superb customer service and their 120 day guaranteed installation (if they miss the date, they pay you for energy not generated). We also wanted to go with PV2 (PV Squared) a local fantastic coop in the Pioneer Valley but we were told that they will be installing our system by the end of fall 2015 missing all the sunny days, the energy savings and the money in SREC for this year.

I was called by Solarcity and asked if I was interested if I wanted to have a representative come over for a quote. I said «No. I wasn’t interested»
Then I thanked them and hung up. That was about 2 months ago. Since then they have called my house about 2 times a week asking when I want to schedule my consultation. I have explained over and over that I did not ask for a consultation, that I am not interested and I want them to stop calling my house. Yet, they continue to call my house.
The last call the representative was very aggressive and he was badgering me to make an appointment. Seriously? I felt so uncomfortable. I am starting to feel harassed and I am way beyond annoyed.
I feel that a quality trustworthy company would not have to use such gorilla tactics to get new customers.

I would highly recommend SolarCity to anyone that wants to save serious money and our environment. Their forward thinking business model has spurned a solar explosion and our checkbooks and environment will be well served going forward. They use all their own in house installers, electricians, and engineers unlike many other solar electricity firms out there and I found the whole team from sales to survey to installation awesome to deal with. A+++ experience all the way.

Amazing company, Solar City lowered my electric by 30%. I went from using coal generated electricity to using 100% Renewable energy. I would highly reccomend them to anyone.
Disclaimer, I am now employed by this company. However I do have there product installed on my own house.

They finished the install in less than 15 hour they were very efficient but didn’t tell us anything on how it works or what they installed, have all these solar panels on the roof and a on/​off box right next to the electrical panel, I thought there would be some kind of electrical storage like Batteries or something.
When the electrician finished the connection I checked the Verizon internet and cable connections they wouldn’t work i spent 45 min. on the phone with a Verizon tech trying to remedy the problem and all it was is that the electrician left 4 breaker off one went to the plug that powers the main box for the Verizon system once he turned them all back on the cable and internet worked fine. The next day when they finished, they did a great job installing and cleaning you wouldn’t even know they were here, but the last guy who was checking the system told me he was going to give me a walk through, I was waiting around for him then I saw him take off in his vehicle, he should have told me he would be back but he didn’t so I didn’t know if he was coming back or not so I had to take a shower and when I was in the shower I herd the door bell, he must have come back but by the time I got out he must have left. they must have called back and my father told me they would be back Friday to get him to sign off on the work.
The guys who did all the work should communicate with the people who they are doing the work for, I have no idea how this works and my father won’t understand so know I have to wait around for them to come back and show me I hope they show up early on Friday morning.

This is an update to my last one star rating for Solar City tech support. After a prolonged wait and many emails to Solar city, the inverter that was ordered has finally arrived from Solar Edge who is the inverter manufacture and supplier. It appears that the delay in shipping was due to Solar Edge. I finally spoke with the Customer Service Manager for Solar City who was very helpful. We will have the inverter installed today ⁸⁄₁₅. My suggestion to the company is have Solar Edge supply stock backup inverters in the future which they apparently do not done at this time. I am giving the Customer Service Manager, Marlina, 4 stars for her help. I can’t go 5 stars due to all the time in emails and calls I had to make to get to her. So, until Solar City straightens out their supplier, Solar Edge, then extended waiting for parts and replacement will continue.

The rep my fiancé and I met at Home Depot seemed very nice and knowledgeable. So did the guy they sent out to explain the details and sign forms. The guy who came to look at the rafters and shingles was nice, too. TOO BAD WE GOT TURNED DOWN DUE TO OUR ASBESTOS SIDING!!!
Seriously, we knew this about our home, and I have no idea why we were not asked this up front. I am nervous to think of all the forms I signed for a 20-​year contract, only to get a call saying No Go. I think it was really rude to waste our time like that, not to mention the reps’ time. This should have been an initial question if it’s so important.

This is a terrible company and I would urge everyone to avoid them. At my request, they sent the local sales rep to our house for a consultation. My wife and I spent an hour with her. At the conclusion of the meeting, we expressed an interest in Solar City and she was going to set up a rooftop assessment. I emailed her a week later to arrange the assessment. No response. I did the same a week later. No response. I filled out a customer service form on their website. No response.
Don’t waste your time like we did. Choose a more reputable company.
Post-​script: co made a decent effort to win me back after my original review was posted above.

I have filed a complaint against SolarCity with the state of Massachusetts because their sales practice is deceptive (they lie). They are the new «Tin Men».
I understood their PPA revenue model and the reasons why the install is free my problem with them was very early. I was asked for my signature onto a computer tablet to authorize the energy audit only. That signature turned out to be more than an audit, it was also a 20 year service agreement. I found that out through the attachment included in an email. The sales person lied right to my face when he handed me the tablet computer with a page only showing a signature line.
Per state law I had 3 business days to cancel and I could have cancelled after the audit as well. I choose to cancel immediately because I can’t do business with any firm that lies.
The sales rep called me back to apologize and to reconsider. He told me I wasn’t the first to be upset in fact he doesn’t like the way that SolarCity deceives people but as he said «that’s the way they make us do it «. Buddy if you really have a problem with their ethics then get another job. He also told me I could cancel anytime before installation which is NOT what their contract states. Clearly they are trained to tell you what they think you want to hear.
Personally if they didn’t lie I still would never agree to a 20 year PPA at that rate per kWh with 2.5% annual increase. No one is taking over my roof for 20 years with the technology today. And if it is from China as others note it is probably crap. Sure they own and maintain it but what am I losing in efficiency? What happens to SolarCity when all the tax credits end?

I spoke with a Solar City sales person at a recent trade show and found their program to be predatory. Here’s how the operate; They offer a no cost solar installation on your home and in turn you pay Solar City for the electricity it produces for 20 years. How do they install solar on your roof for free you may ask… They get a bunch of government tax credits to install the system which in turn lowers you monthly electrical costs.
The sticking point for me was where your USA tax dollars go. CHINA!!! Solar City only uses Chinese equipment, so your tax dollars are literally shipped directly to China. There are several US manufacturers with better equipment at a comparable cost.
They also don’t allow you to own the system either and actually told me owning the system was a mistake because the state incentive is too risky. I should note that SC is happy to take this «risky» incentive.
Lastly, their installation quality is terrible. I looked at dozens of installation companies and found SC to be by far the worst!