SolarCity

Made the mistake of making an inquiry. Long interview supplying data, looking up bills, till they got to my shake roof which disqualified me. Why didn’t they ask that first? But that was a minor blip compared to the barrage of emails and phone calls to «follow-​up.» No matter that I tell each caller to take me off the list cause I don’t qualify. They are a tar baby, and even if I qualified I wouldn’t trust such hard selling people to do anything.

After signing a contract with SolarCity I cancelled because their lease terms would have tripled my utility bill by the end. It simply wasn’t worth it. They pitched it as a cost saver, which I felt was mostly a lie. It also required me to pay them to remove the panels if my roof needed repairs during the 15 year period, which it most certainly would have.

Avoid solar city. Still issues with my system since August 2015. Solar City keeps over ruling the tech who keeps telling them that my invertor needs replaced and they keep sending him out to do a band aid fix. Every time the fix last 2 to 3 days and then the system goes out again. When I ask to speck to someone that can correct what is going on I get told there is nobody. I am paying SRP and Solar City so I am double paying on my system and the 2 year make good is crap since right now what it will pay me is less then 10% of what I have already had to pay the power company. They need to reimburse me for what I have had to lose to SRP and replace the system.

After reading the negative reviews I wonder if we are using the same company. I have had my system up for the better part of a year. I live in Maricopa and made the rush to get the system installed before ED3 changed the rules back in July 2015, effectively shutting solar city out. In our experience we called the rep, Jim Gackle, and he arrived on time as promised. He and I spent the better part of 2 hours going over a laundry list of questions I had for him. He was really nice and answered every question I had, even discussed things I hadn’t thought to ask.
Installation of the system went smoothly including Solar City doing almost all the work with the HOA to get details ironed out. It took about 4 – 5 weeks from signing docs to system on roof. As soon as the system was flipped on the saving started.
On a sad note… After seeing the savings I was enjoying my sister, who also lives in Maricopa, asked for a referral. I was saddened to find that because of the changes ED3 had made Solar City is no longer doing new installs in Maricopa.
I would recommend Solar City to anyone, and have to numerous people. But like any major investment you need to do your homework. Download a copy of the contract and read it. Ask a lot of questions. You should always be satisfied with your decision before you sign on anything.

Thank heavens for Unilocal,a formal place for snitching!
**IF YOU’RE CONSIDERING SolarCity READ THE LEASE. I POSTED PICTURES OF IT**
–SolarCity puts an UCC-​1 Fixture Filling on your home and that might cost you the sale or the refinance. They claim it’s not a lien but whatever they want to call the filing it’s parsing words to a ridiculous degree. They claim that the UCC1 Fixture Filling is for your «roof only». What’s on your location? Your home. What’s your home holding? Your roof. What’s your roof holding? Their system. So, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck; ITS A DUCK!!! The UCC-​1 is a lien on your home. They are mincing words and they are being intellectually dishonest.
–THEY SECRETLY RUN YOUR CREDIT!!! SolarCity does not need your SSN or DOB. They are that sneaky!!!
–That hefty $ 5000+ government credit… kiss that bad boy goodbye! You’re leasing NOT buying and since SolarCity made the purchase, they get to enjoy ALL government credits because they purchased the solar panels for you, therefore you’re entitled to NOTHING!
-$ 7.50 monthly fee if you do not enroll for automatic payment.
–You must have an internet connection at all times… no exceptions.
–They claim there’s zero taxes. On the lease it states: ESTIMATED taxes. Basically they are saying: for now we won’t charge you taxes but that’s not a guarantee and it can change any second and you’re ok with that.
-$ 35 APS fee to keep the meter running. APS is planning to increase their prices by 400% to all solar customers. $ 35×4= $ 140. But is that increase guaranteed? Who knows but I’m not willing to take that risk. Just ask SRP customers how their price increase is going.
–Every year SolarCity increases their prices by 2.8%
–If you don’t produce enough solar energy, APS will charge you if you use their energy.
–After the 20 year lease, you can’t buy the solar panels.
–If you sell your home, the new owners have the choice to keep the solar panels and take over your lease BUT if the buyers do not want the solar panels, you have to take it with you and pay your new installation. Also, if your new home does not qualify… you’re stuck paying a system that you won’t be using and on top of that, you have to go back to APS. You’ll be paying double to have electricity. You’ll be paying APS and SolarCity.
–SolarCity claims that we have up to 10 seconds before they install the equipment to back-​out; that’s donkey crap because the contract clearly reads that in the state of AZ we only have 3 business days after the date of the signed contract to cancel.
Do your homework BEFORE they come to your house.
–Ask APS to give you a TWO year electricity report. After Add the 24 months of the electric bill and divide it by 24. That total is how much your average APS monthly bill is.
–Ask trusted friends or neighbors to show you their SolarCity bill, specially if they have been using it for over 18 months
–Call your mortgage company and inform them of your plans
–For new homes, call your roofing contractor and ask if your roof warranty gets voided if panels get installed.
–Technology changes on a blink of an eye. Are you willing to be stuck with a solar panel that will start losing efficiency in five years?
–Are you willing to pay for electricity that you’re producing?
–Bottom line… if you lease, you will not be paying for electricity (because you produce it) you’ll be paying for solar panels that after 20 years won’t be able to keep.
Here is my story.
We signed our contract and WITHOUT reading it! Who does that?! Please don’t judge us! All I remember the rep saying: «initial here, here and here and then sign right here» no explanations nor we asked and the meeting was a wrap.
The next day I called APS and ask to give me a neutral advice; which in fact APS did.
I explained that we have a new home with high efficiency appliances, 3 people live in the home. We did the math with our 2 year history my monthly average bill is $ 128.36; with all fees and tax.
The next morning I had time to read the 23 page lease. I was BLOWN AWAY and decided to cancel our lease. What took me 30 seconds to sign; took the following to void out our lease; 37 different phone calls, transferred me 17 times and waisted a total of 2 hours on the phone but after 2 days of hell and after sending a certified letter with a signed copy of the lease dissolution I was able to get out of the lease.
Ok, just because it didn’t work out for us it doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.
Please, do what your mother says; do your homework and DO NOT SIGN ANY CONTRACTS WITHOUT READING IT! Don’t be this girl!

I have been a happy SolarCity customer for the past 5+ years. However, In January of 2016, I decided to sell a vacation home in Glendale, Arizona. I had the system installed in March 2010 and have been very complementary towards their company and their representatives. I decided to move the system, on the advice of my Real Estate professional, to my new Phoenix estate. They were initially very receptive and helpful in getting the system removed from the Glendale house while the property was in escrow. However, the roof repairs that they hired a sub par roofing company to make, cost me the sale. We entered a second escrow and they were able to obtain a transferable roof warranty for the prospective new owners and escrow has proceeded along with an expected close. The problem, has been with Rita Sosa | Asset Control Specialist — Relocation. After each step of the process, there has been a lull in any attempt to connect my system to the grid. The system has been on my roof since February 29,2016, but I am not getting any credit for anything generated due to a: lacked APS inspection, which they initially failed, a lack of completed application to APS for solar generation, etc. It has been one thing after another that I should not have to be involved in. TWO MONTHS that she cannot get her job completed– and she is a relocation specialist. This is very unsatisfactory. The initial install in Glendale was hassle free as have the past 5 years been. I would assume that the level of professionalism and training has vastly degraded since 2010. I have been a huge public fan of SolarCity, but will no longer be with this unacceptable job performance. I would have been let go for such sub par performance in my profession. Good luck to anyone looking to do business with them. I may just buy out the contract/​system and be done with them.

The money that I’m going to have to spend to fix the damages to my house will not be made back for the money I save on the solar panels for a while. The first day that they came they had to rewire my outlet box and when they did the whole back part of my house didn’t get electricity. They came back a second time that same day couldn’t fix it so I had to wait until the next day for the electrician to come when she came they were here for hours the shelf of my closet got broken and at the end of the day they were able to get electricity to my bathroom and my master bedroom but not my second bedroom. I had A pack rat (they new that cuz i had traps up there incase i had more than one) when I first moved into my house a couple months before they came and they said that’s what caused the electricity problem not the fact that they rewired my box wrong not the fact that they couldn’t find where they put the wires to get to the electricity to the house so now I’m stuck with fixing everything and they never paid or fix the closet in my bedroom either. My electricity was fine before they came and they had problems getting my electricity back on in the whole back of my house I feel like they just got tired of working and just knocked my second bedroom off as it was my own problem to deal with.
I talk to somebody in charge in the Tucson are and he actually told me that they could not waste any more resources on trying to figure out my problem.

Sales rep called after I inquired on their website. After introduction and asking how much my electric bills were, he then told me the call may be monitored for blah, blah, blah. After explaining I understood it was difficult to give me an estimate of savings without a year’s worth of bills and I have only lived here 2 months. He said no problem, what were those bills. I told him and clarified since moving in, we replaced all lights with led, put in new multispeed pool pump, so those are probably not accurate reflections. After all this, he then asks me who my electric provider is. I said SRP and immediately told me I should consider switching companies if I can as SRP is hard to work with and very anti-​solar. He could not get off the phone quick enough which I found rude and unprofessional.
I have since searched out SRP and Solar City and see Solar City is suing SRP. Why not be up front and state we are in litigation with SRP over X and we are not currently taking customers until it is resolved?
Do you really think I’ll listen to Solar City’s sales pitch once they resolve the lawsuit? Not now and I know they’ll be calling.

We are a current customer of Solar City. From start to finish we have been very pleased with the education and most of all the service. We researched all the major AZ solar players and decided on Solar City because of their «actual» track record and business model. It’s very customer service driven in my opinion. With anything new you need to ask questions to better understand the change and how it will work for you. Once you have all your questions answered you will feel very in the know and thus very confident that solar is the best option for energy. Looking through these reviews (negative) it comes down to people not asking questions. Solar City is very upfront and wouldn’t be as successful as they are with a poor business model and service to their customers. Do yourselves a favor and get a good solar city rep and have them walk you through. It’s very transparent and makes a lot of sense. Thank you Solar City. Ethan.
Update — I dropped the review to 3 stars only because of some broken promises related to referrals. We have been waiting for over 4 months to get a referral kick back that we were promised. We also lost one referral due to misinformation provided by our rep. The system is nice the BS they tell you about referrals is unprofessional.

At one point I was a big fan of Solar City, and a client for almost 9 years, however their reliability and service is awful. I have had 4 inverters fail since installation and 3 over the past 2.5 years. Their Solar Guard system monitors the health and power production and both recent failures went unnoticed until months later. My system has been down for almost 10 weeks, and only producing 10% of its capacity.
Solar City monitors this systems and 10 weeks later we are still waiting for the inverter to be replaced. In both instances, I have paid SC roughly $ 300 in fees during the most recent outage, not to mention the extra APS payments. SC will not credit me back for lost production, or credit my account for their defective equipment. Shame on them. Heck even Cox Cable is better.
I can not longer recommend them. Go seek other companies before you consider hiring them.

What I understood about solar panels before I talked to SolarCity was that they were too expensive to make sense. But my consultant explained that with SolarCity you can «lease» the solar power just like you «lease» power from APS or SRP without the expense of buying and maintaining solar panels.
SolarCity installs panels on my home for free and maintains them at no cost and my energy costs go down. I’m so excited about this! I hear the wait time can be long to get the panels working, but I think it’s worth the wait.
My experience with SoarCity was fantastic and I think solar is a great way to save money and the planet. Call Kevin at 602−499−3190 and take a look at solar!

Up until today, I would have given them 3 stars. They dropped to 3 because during the sales process the rep told my wife and me that we’d be able to monitor the solar usage in order to save more money on our monthly bills. Come to find out, that’s not true (unless I wanted to pay more monthly to them). Seems like it’s a gamble to spend more money monthly to see if I can save more money monthly…
But, there’s at least one other post that mentions the lien that Solar City puts on your home. While they are entitled to lien to protect their equipment, what they don’t tell you is that if you do refi, you can pull no equity out. Long story (3 months long now) short, we’re about to close on our refi, we get a call that the $ 1,200 we were going to get back, in order to paint our home’s exterior, we can’t get.
The Solar City lien does’t just protect their equipment, it keeps you from touching any of your home’s equity… for 20 years…
Before you sign; Google — SolarCity Lien

Solar City has the biggest liars that I have ever dealt with I have dealt with some pretty shady used car salesman but I’ll tell you what SolarCity will rip you off blind once you sign on the dotted line that’s it you’re done it’s official my one full year of using solar I have spent $ 30 more a month on my utilities and they do not want to do anything about it all I was told is too bad anybody looking please beware do your homework go to consumer affairs look at some of the reviews stay away from BBB they are in bed and paid by SolarCity for their ratings

We’ve had absolutely no issue with SolarCity so far. Our sales rep (Dan Vanderven) wasn’t even slightly pushy. Actually had a great talk with him about unrelated stuff. Nice guy.
From initial contact to installation was a few weeks. After that, it’s APS that took their sweet time to approve, then another 2 weeks to install their meters. Most people blame SolarCity for the utility company’s failure to process fast. SolarCity contacted me several times saying they were still pushing for APS to approve our contract and do their inspections. They told me up front it could take APS 8 – 12 weeks, and they were experiencing the latter lately. It took 12 weeks. Finally, our panels are up and running, no thanks to APS. Our #2 reason for going solar!
We aren’t producing what the system is capable of, but that’s because we have some trees that need to be trimmed. SolarCity told us this up front. I really don’t understand how all these people are so surprised with their bills or the fact that trees were blocking anything.
SolarCity answered every one of our questions before we asked them, and then answered questions we hadn’t even thought of. They guaranteed us a production and then reduced it because of the trees. They said if we had the trees trimmed, they would reevaluate.
As far as roofs collapsing and homes cracking, please. These systems weigh nothing! It’s the new built cheap home you bought! Our home, 30 years old, has had no issue with the panels that have been up there fore 4 months. We used to actually get a lot of crackling in the house, after the panels we almost never hear it. Not sure if that is remotely related, but something weird I’ve noticed.
We’ve now had several heavy rains — it’s raining right now — and no leaks.
I added this review and my experiences based on the bad reviews I read that I feel were unjustified. SolarCity has one of the best customer services I’ve seen. It think the people complaining would complain no matter who they used. Look at any other solar company and they all have bad reviews, reviews that look fake, or very few, if any reviews. SolarCity has thousands upon thousands. I had other companies trying to sell their panels and their #1 thing was to bash SolarCity. They didn’t talk about any other company! And, SolarCity didn’t mention any of the competition. They said, if you want to get a quote and compare, please do. It’s a 30-​year commitment, we want to make sure you’re comfortable.

Horrors. I am an environmentalist and plan to install solar panels at my house and I will not be using this obnoxious company. I really didn’t expect this. I feel blindsided. The «specialist» was so very RUDE patronizing and obnoxious that I was compelled to actually hang up on him! I am in a state of fear now that they have my contact information. Instead of information, he was only interested in my credit score. Weird and obnoxious. Did I say patronizing? I will be looking elsewhere for my solar panels.

Scheduled an appointment with Solar City and the guy never showed. I rescheduled and an hour after he was supposed to be at my house he called and said he forgot the power cord to his laptop, he could come anyway, but would have to come back, so I rescheduled and he didn’t show again!
Then he sent an E mail telling me he had been out of town most of the summer (WTF?) and did I want to reschedule?
I would not ever hire this company! The employees are flaky!

Called Solar City to obtain a quote for a complete home solar system. I spoke to what sounded like a new sales rep in Las Vegas. She gave me a quote and then the fun began.
The high pressure sales calls started. On the first call I told the supposed «closer» that Solar City quoted me the highest price of 4 estimates. He didn’t offer to review the quote he just said «Do you want the best system or the best value?». I told him I wanted a competitive quote so he hung up.
A few days later the «Super high-​pressure» closer called. I told him the same thing about Solar City having the highest bid. He said «I guess your one of the ones who buy based on PRICE and NOT VALUE». WHAT A RUDE THING TO SAY WHEN YOUR TRYING TO MAKE A SALE.
SOLAR CITY $ 29,000 (AFTER tax rebates) 9.44kW System
SUN RUN $ 21,400 (AFTER tax rebates) 9.62kW System
***COMPANY X WHO I PLAN TO USE*** $ 17,817 (After tax rebate) 9.5kW System
I guess Solar City should hire professional sales people and not EX-​TIMESHARE high pressure sales reps.
I am sad that Solar City acted this way. AS A SHARE HOLDER, I HAVE DECIDED TO SELL MY POSITION. I will use the profit’s to buy a system from another company.

NO means NO — not maybe! I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating and simply maddening my contact has been with this company. I called them to get a quote about going solar simply out of curiosity and to get some information about exploring the available options. Within minutes, I was strong-​armed into signing a contract for a site visit. (I was told by the salesperson, Ken, not to even open or read the email until I had him on the phone, and then he pushed me to sign it. Thank god it included a cancellation clause!) Once I spoke to my husband about this, my husband wanted to cancel immediately. He did not want people on our roof without our being sure about our desire to go solar. Well, here is where the headache begins… I sent three separate email to the salesperson to cancel the contract and the site visit. I needed to send three separate emails because the guy simply would not listen to me! Finally, on the third email, sent on Friday morning, he agreed to my demands. You would think that it ends there, but it does not! On Monday afternoon, I get a call from a technician saying that he wants to do the site visit today, and then I called him back, and I sent him a text stating my request to cancel. Then, about 3 hours later, I receive an email from them saying that they will be out to my house soon, and then I respond to the email in writing, stating my request to cancel for a fifth time. Then, I get an automated response back with a number. (At this point, I have five separate requests to cancel — all in writing.) Then, I call, and for the SIXTH time, request that my site visit be cancelled. I think it may be cancelled now, or at least I hope so! But should it be that hard to cancel something? I don’t think so…
Please be forewarned about this company and its tactics. As an environmentalist and a person who support renewable energy solutions, it is sad that there is a company out there like this that pretends to be doing the right thing with such unethical business practices. I feel like the salesperson lied to me several times such as when he said he did not see my first email to cancel and when he told me I had to be on the phone with him before opening up the email that contained the contract. Then, after such duplicity, I could not get him to listen to me. Shame on you, Solar City! After this experience, I would never want a long term relationship with this company as one needs with solar.

Don’t use this company everything was good to get us in the door. After 4 months the waiting time we had them on the roof. Then about 1 – 2 no this later we noticed our ceiling cracking called the company and they said they would send someone out. A month later some one came and said it was not from the panels. Glad we had pic of our house we have only owned 6 months. We called again and they sent out the crew to fix the roof «more support» not put on right. They ended up sending out a guy to fix cracks inside but did bad patch job a 5 yesr old could ok done bette. Paint did not match and no texture, we called yet again and said they would send someone they did and he said wow this is bad apologized and did a amazing job. We also seen cracking on the house from roof to bottom of house. Our hone is past the settling stage we checked other houses around us some but not like ours. We called said they would send someone they came said they would fix cracks. There contractor can out fixed said we were Told to fix 20 but ended up doing 96 wow that’s a lot. Said he was taking a sample and would be back to finish well 1 week nothing we called and said they will not be painting our house… what!!! Then they said they would send out a paint estimate guy he came out and took a big sample out of our wall for paint. OK hope… well nope we got a calk and said they will not paint the house cuz when the crack guy came «the persons» here got a ladder out and pointed out all the cracks um… not true they told us we were lieing and they have done all they can but if you say you are going to fix and paint do it. Now we have to paint the house we have talked to a lawyer and said we have pic and the home inspection from the buy of our home less than 8 months they will have to fix it… DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY…

Wow, great customer service and everything went super quickly as well. My wife and I never thought this would go as smoothly as it did. All in all about 3 weeks from first contact to installation of our 7500 watt system.
Renee our salesperson here in Phoenix was really instrumental in making sure everything moved forward behind the scenes and communicated as things progressed. I think what surprised me the most was how quickly the City of Phoenix came out and approved the work, I never thought that would happen.
We can’t wait to start saving and making an impact in our pocketbook AND the environment.