Synergy Conservation Solutions Inc

The service was very professional and timely. I received a federal government rebate (approx. $19,000).

So far, not very good. Communication from the company is extremely poor to almost nothing. Will show up and want to get into the house to look at some things without making an appointment or even calling. No actual work on the house has ben done so far.

Follow up caller insisted wife be present - which tells me there will be a hard sell and inducement to sign a contract rather than an estimate or bid on the customer's needs. This is not what the salesman outlined. I don't recommend anyone do business this way.

No problems: quick and efficient installation

We sign to have the work done back in January 2013, Here it is the about the end of March, and no work done yet, I would like to know when the work will begin. It take to long to get it started. Or Did they just not wanted to talk to us. I would like to know what went wrong.

This company has poor customer service. The bureaucracy and hoops they have you jump through are unnecessary and for the convenience of the company (not the customer). To make an initial appointment, just to be introduced to their products, they insisted that all house owners be present. They are unwilling to spend any time with a single homeowner just in case down the line the other homeowner doesn’t want their services. This would be understandable when it comes time to sign documents, but not really for an initial visit as at an initial introduction visit no one is going to sign a contract. I was available to meet with them any day, but as my husband works long hours and travels we had a challenge in arranging a time for both of us to meet with them. Nevertheless, to accommodate their demand, we cancelled an important social event to schedule the meeting. Quite unfortunately, they DID NOT SHOW UP for the appointment nor did they try to contact us. This is surprising as they had insisted that we reconfirm our appointment with them on the phone on two occasions before the meeting (lots of failed bureaucracy). When they did not show up, it was difficult to reach them as their offices were closed. After 45 minutes I finally reached someone at their office and the one good thing here is that the customer service person I eventually reached, Christian, was very nice and apologetic. Nevertheless, if an initial visit is so difficult to arrange, and the processes of the company are both bureaucratic and centered around the needs of the company and not the customer, I would assume that each step can be difficult for the customer and believe this does not bode well for further interactions.

Installation done in one day. They got the city permits, had their own inspector check the work and be present for the city inspector's final inspection which was passed with no problems. Took longer from contract signing (in late November) to start of work than we expected, but that was partly the result of our schedules.

Our experience with this firm was of a hard sell. The salesperson came to our house and flipped through a binder of printed brochure pages and testimonials, gave a scripted pitch, hand-wrote a quote on a sheet of paper, but <b>left nothing in writing</b> regarding the products, the quote, the installation process, liability for problems that may appear later (the solar panels are roof-mounted, after all) or for other damage. The price she quoted was, she said, specially discounted for this and that reason, but since we did not have a written quote, it was an unreal number; without a written quote and proposal presented either on the spot or in immediate follow-up via mail, we decided against using this company. The salesperson was rather on the spot when we asked for written quotes and documents. She was unprepared to give us those, by company policy clearly.
Subsequently, a manager made a follow-up call to offer a discounted price on whatever price it was she had quoted (a price that we no longer remembered and that he did not know!), and after we insisted that we would not proceed without written quotes at the very least, insisted that he would have another manager call us back (but why?) and when we said firmly that without a written proposal and quote we had nothing to discuss, said goodbye. And we do hope that is the end of it.
Other energy firms we have talked to were happy to hand us reams of information before going to contract. We have very low energy usage and we have previously been told quite frankly that it is not worth installing solar panels, as our bills are so low. We suggested this to the Synergy salesperson and she insisted solar panels would be a fine investment for us, though her own numbers showed otherwise.
Synergy may well be a reputable company, but this is not the way we expect a reputable company to do business. If you decide to go with them, do push for written quotes, written materials, throughout the process; an oral quote or promise is meaningless.

Synergy has a person come to your door and ask if you have an interest in finding out about putting solar panels on your roof to reduce the cost of your electric bill with PGand E. They then make an appointment later over the phone and a man comes out to give you a price ( If you get other company's prices and information you'll find that this company's prices are extremely high). Then they put on the HARD SELL.

After they give you an initial price for a solar installation to help pay all or part of your electric bill they then lower the price because, they say, you would get a discount for the first visit but after that visit there's no discount. That first discount is about 10% of the original price they give you. If you don't jump at that price they then give another discount which lowers the price again but if you still don't buy ...They then ask you if the person who first contacted you (the door knocker) gave you a "special code" that entitled you, if the company approves, to a big savings provided you allowed them to advertise your property. This is their BIG SELL.

Next the sales guy will call the manager (he says) and make a big deal about being an advertising center for them but they will only make the call if you agree to go ahead with the project beforehand. The final outcome is that their price is still MUCH HIGHER than all of the other prices that you can get from other solar companies.

WARNING: don't go with the lowest bid. A low bid doesn't mean good work, good products or service. Make sure that they've been in business for some years (Synergy is about a year old as far as can be seen), has insurance, NO SUBCONTRACTORS, and a good reputation in the solar market. It's just my opinion but I think that to get a good installation you will pay about $7-$9 per Kwh or even slightly more. Just be satisfied that the company you'll be dealing with is reputable, honest and above-board.

First we made an appointment so that this company, Synergy, could come out to my home to see if my home would qualify for a solar installation, and also to see how many panels I would need. We made the appointment for a Monday evening at 7pm. They were on time and I didn’t have to wait for them. The sales person was dressed in business clothes and seemed quite professional.

Having seen two other company’s representatives before Synergy came out I was surprised at the professional way that their representative approached me. I must admit that I was impressed and eventually came to learn that this is how their company does all of their business; in a highly business-like and professional manner. It was something unexpected but very welcome. The interview took some time to finish but it was worth every minute because it was like getting free education on how having the correct solar panels installed for us helped save us money on the installation and the monthly bill, too.

We had a lot of questions which the representative answered easily. It helped that he had over ten years of experience in the industry. Plus, all of their employees are licensed, bonded and insured. I don’t think that all companies are. One thing, their prices were not the lowest we found but the companies that had a lower price either weren’t insured, were not general contractors like Synergy is or were as professional.

When it was all added up the small extra cost of using Synergy is worth every penny, especially when they will service our system should anything go wrong ever, for no charge to us. That, plus the 25 year warranty on the system is irresistible and I know that this is the organization that I can trust and do business with.

At the end of the interview there was no "hard-sell" by Synergy's representative. But remember to ask if they have a discount available for advertising because this can save you a lot of money as it helped save us on our quote. I also made my decision that night because I trusted all that they brought to our table plus it also saved me more money, too.

When we finalized our agreement our representative didn't just run away with the new order for business but stayed and continued to help us further, kind of like a new friend. I like the way that this company does business and would like to see other companies do the same.