California Solar Systems

The Sales presentation was professional and was friendly and very informative with no pressure. We asked for references and  a look at design plans from other installations done by California Solar Systems (CSS). All information was provided with no problems and in a very timely manner. The inspection of the house and roof was completed very professional and was detailed so that I knew exactly where the inverter and wiring from the panels on the roof to the Inverter to the Power Panel was going to be routed.The install was completed in two days and the install team was profession and cleaned up their work areas after each days work. The installation went just as was explained to me during the inspection. The installation work was very clean and looks very good. The final step is that CSS did all the paper work that is need to get the Permission to Operate from our local Power Provider. This was very much appreciated.Great Team work by CSS from start to finish.

In June, 2009 we were contacted by California Solar Systems regarding installing a solar energy system on our roof. We had been considering doing that so we made an appointment with their salesman, Dan Hamilton to come out and evaluate the house. We provided a year?s worth of DWP bills for Dan to evaluate our energy needs. Dan looked over the bills, checked out the orientation of the house, the angle of the roof, and a nearby ash tree and told us there should be no problem. He assured us the system would provide almost all our energy needs and that DWP bills would run a maximum of 15 to 25 dollars a month. He told us that our system efficiency could be marginally improved by trimming one tree, but that even without trimming the tree, the system would still be able to deliver what was promised. The final system design would be done when a technician came out to the house to take measurements and instrument readings which would be fed into a computer software system  to determine the final configuration. Dan told us that feeding the data taken by the technician into their computer modeling software  would allow them to accurately predict what the system would deliver. We gave Dan a $1,000 deposit and signed papers.  Dan put through the paperwork to reserve the solar energy rebate that was being offered. A few days later a technician came to the house to take some instrument readings that were to be fed into their computer software to validate the efficiency of the proposed system. Like Dan, the tech told us that our system efficiency could be marginally improved by trimming one tree, but that, even without trimming the tree, the system would still be able to deliver what was promised. The final design, which was supposed to be done by their system engineer and validated by their computer software, consisted of 14 panels to be installed on our roof. Two weeks later we got a call from Steve, their head system designer who said the system would not deliver the output we were promised. We then tried reaching Dan to resolve this. Numerous phone calls and emails over a period of weeks were ignored. Since there was disagreement on their part as to whether the system would actually provide the output we were promised and we couldn?t get a response to our attempts to contact them, we decided to cancel the project and ask for our deposit back. We were then put in touch with Barry Wardak, the company vice president in an attempt to have our deposit returned. Barry offered to install 2 additional panels and assured us that that would bring the system output up to the level we were promised. Since the paperwork, financing, and rebates were already in place, we went ahead with the installation. Our first DWP bill covered 4 months and out of pocket expense for energy was about $50 a month, twice what we were promised. The second bill covered 2 months and averaged about $110 a month in energy charges, only a 12% reduction from our pre-system DWP energy charges of about $125 a month. Even allowing for seasonal fluctuations, this was most disturbing. I tried getting in touch with Barry but numerous emails and phone messages got no response. We decided to accumulate a years worth of bills to eliminate seasonal fluctuations. In 12/10 we finally reached Barry who apologized for not getting back to us sooner, saying his email address had changed. Every business email system has the capacity to forward messages to a new address or at least have an auto reply giving the new email address, so if Barry?s excuse was true, it doesn?t speak well for their organization. Barry told us a technician would come out after the first of the year (2011) and they would try and figure out what was going on. The technician did come out and take additional readings. When we didn?t hear back from them for over a month, I tried getting in touch with Barry with no luck. It took an email threatening legal action and complaints to various regulatory agencies to finally get a response. His response was to ask if we had any documentation of what we were promised by Dan and to offer to sell us additional panels at their cost. There was no mention of a performance guarantee. I replied that it wasn?t fair to ask us to pay for modifications to correct deficiencies in a system they designed. I also had 2 suggestions: 1. Angling the existing panels to catch the sun?s rays more directly. 2. Adding additional panels on the other side of the roof that gets morning sun. Despite numerous attempts to reach Barry by phone and email, we still have not gotten a reply. Their unwillingness to respond to our legitimate questions and concerns and their apparent lack of concern about the system?s low output are highly frustrating. There would seem to be 2 possible conclusions: 1. Since they feed the data they took at the house into some kind of computer modeling software, they knew the system would be deficient and went ahead and built it anyway. 2.There are major problems with their methodology. The 2 reviewers who were stood up for their initial consultation should consider themselves lucky. First year energy costs: Out of pocket energy charges for the year:   $ 733.72.  Average monthly out of pocket charges for the year: $ 61.14 Projected maximum monthly out of pocket energy costs (from Dan?s sales pitch):  $25.00 Projected maximum annual out of pocket energy cost:  $300.00 Excess DWP charges for the year over projected:  $433.72.    In their response, they indicate that I signed off on the original site survey, which I did. The site survey they refer to lists trimming or cutting the tree as a recommendation, not a requirement. Nowhere does it say, nor was I ever told, that trimming the tree was a requirement for the system to produce the output we were promised. In fact, I was explicitly told that the system would deliver the promise output even if the tree was not trimmed. Any trimming would be for the purpose of boosting the output over the promised level. If trimming the tree was required to reach the promised output, I should have been told that up front and I would think they would put that in writing, with a signoff from me, if only to protect themselves. They also say that they have tried many times to come to a resolution. That is not true. My emails and phone messages were generally ignored and they have never responded to my suggestions of angling the existing panels and/or installing additional panels on the northern end of the east side of the house.  

7/9/2012 - Update     California Solar Systems has recently completed a re-installation of our solar panels, angling them as I had requested. I am now seeing significantly increased output from the system. The company did an excellent job on the system and there was no charge. I am very happy with the outcome.

They never showed for presentation/quote.

CALIFORNIA SOLAR SYSTEMS, AS A PREMIUM DEALER FOR SUN POWER , PROVIDES PROBABLY THE MOST EFFICIENT AND BEST QUALITY SUN PANEL SYSTEMS AVAILABLE. I FOUND THEIR SERVICE FROM SALES TO FINAL INSPECTION TO BE TIMELY AND THOROUGH. THE CODE INSPECTOR SAID IT WAS AN EXCELLENT INSTALLATION. THEY ARE NOT THE CHEAPEST SOURCE OF SOLAR POWER, BUT YOU GET A COST EFFECTIVE, QUALITY SYSTEM. I SUGGEST THAT YOU ASK FOR OZ WARDAK WHEN YOU CALL FOR INFORMATION. HE IS A COMPETENT, LOW PRESSURE SALESMAN WHO KNOWS HIS STUFF.

They were terrible - they made three appointments and never showed up. They were also not very good over the phone.