
SolarMax Technology
About us
SolarMax Technology provides premium quality solar energy and home battery backup systems that are designed, engineered and assembled here in the USA with the best financing in the industry. We've installed solar on over 12,000 homes in California and have 25 year warranties on solar panels, inverters and workmanship.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Home Battery Backup, Solar Electric Vehicle Charging, Solar Panels
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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75% | ||
6% | ||
0% | ||
0% | ||
19% |
"Hi [Member Name Removed]! Thank you for giving feedback on your solar installation through your review here. I'm glad to hear about your positive experience and will share your words with the team."
"Hi [Member Name Removed], Thank you for providing your review. We are glad to hear you've had a good experience with your installation and we will send your feedback to our Operations team to let them know how they are doing."
"Since pigeon nesting under solar panels happens in less than 0.1% of solar installations sales reps rarely bring it up plus virtually all customers decline to add bird netting before installation because of the extra cost and the low risk of it happening. As you mentioned we did offer to install bird netting at your request once you began experiencing the issue - and like all professional services offered by every solar company there is a cost for it."
I was impressed with the speed and professionalism of SolarMax. The biggest negative is their responsiveness. Since they have been so busy with solar installation, they are not very proactive in notifying you of the project status in between milestones. In the end it really didn't matter since the whole matter took about 60 days from signing the contract to PTO from SCE (with 3 weeks waiting for the HOA meeting), but it can be frustrating not knowing if there is some hold up that you are not aware of. I spoke to SolarMax about this and I hope they can hire some more people to improve this part of their customer service. They are very responsive if you call them, but I tend to like to do things by email.
One final point is the financing that they offer. The best option is to finance yourself with a home equity loan or line of credit. If you cannot obtain a HELOC, there are several solar loan options with credit unions. However, they tend to have high fees which can increase the size of the loan by thousands of dollars. SolarMax provides their own loans with reasonable rates and no fees. There is no penalty for early repayment, and they offer a one year grace period for 30% of the loan (equivalent to the 30% Federal Tax Credit). When you take their financing into account, you'll realize that you will save quite a bit over the other loans with fees.
Dena Baldwin, the local sales representative in Thousand Oaks, presented all the options to me, responded to all my questions within hours of my e-mails, and was very proactive in making sure things were progressing as quickly as possible. When Dena found out the electrical panel would have to be replaced, which was not part of her original estimate, she arranged to split the cost! Dena continued to check in with me up through the approval to turn on the system.
All the planning and installation teams were wonderful - the person who came to inspect the roof and plan the installation site, the folks who installed the support structures, those who installed the solar panels and new electrical panel, Tony who installed the monitoring system and taught me how to review the function of the system, and Adrian who did the stucco repair. All teams arrived when they said they would, met the inspectors as planned, and explained exactly what they would be doing. This was the best possible sales and installation experience I could have hoped for! Wonderful customer service.
I spoke with the contracted electricians who installed the panels and they told me I was lucking to have the panels as quickly as I did because some people had been waiting up to a year for theirs. The electricians also told me that they were constantly having to apologize for Solar Max's poor service.
Not only is Solar Max's customer service horrible, they have no idea how to coordinate with city/county inspectors and the installation of the solar system. I had an inspector calling me about doing an inspection for something I had no idea about. The panels were installed on our roof, then literary sat there for two weeks collecting dust before an inspector could come and make sure everything was done correctly. Solar Max also failed to file the correct paper work with our electric provider, so we were simply giving power to our provider without getting credit for it. This was only discovered by my wife when she called our electric provider to insure everything was completed legally due to fact that we no longer trusted anything we were told by Solar Max. When we contacted Solar Max about this matter, we were told they had submitted the paper work with our electric provider and they were wrong. It always seemed to be some else's fault with this company.
One funny note, after the panels were had already been on my roof for about ten days collecting dust, I received a phone call to inform me that my solar panels were ready to be installed in the next couple of weeks. I started laughing at how poorly this company is managed, no one knows what is going on or who is responsible for what.
It is now six months since my wife and I were told this was a three month project and the installation still isn't complete. Please, save yourself a lot of heart burn and frustration and never, ever use Solar Max. Please pass this on to anyone looking to install solar panels for their home. There are many more companies out there and they have to be better run than Solar Max.
We signed the contract on 12/04/2012 and it is May 28, 2013 today, My solar system is NOT YET working.
According to the sales rep and the manager, SOLARMAX is a BIG company and so their service is extremely slow.
this is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard.
When we decided to have solar installed, I went to 3 companies, their quote is actually $5000 more than the other company.
But we went with them because we thought bigger company comes with better service.
We were so wrong.
On May 7th, I contacted the and quot; Main Service Managerand quot; in the corporate, HE promised everything will be turned on by May 23rd.
Again, Memorial Day just passed and it is still not turned on.
I cannot say enough that It is the worst company to deal with..
Just want to let all members be aware of this company..
SolarMax is also listed under City of Industry, but same address..
Their corporate is in Riverside..
Very frustrated and we have also decided to complain to BBB.
Licensing
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