Clary Solar

I now need service again and cannot reach them, nor can SunPower (who I lease the system from).  Every published phone number is disconnected.  Even their web site is down...I can only assume they've gone bankrupt.

Clary was one of 4 contractors that I contacted for proposals to design and install a residential solar electric system. I contacted them based upon reviews on Angie's List. After an email to them, they responded almost immediately to me by telephone to ask for some technical information and then made an appointment to discuss the proposal. The Clary representative, Sam, made an appropriate presentation and answered my technical and practical questions. After some technical research on my part and a comparison to the other proposals, I decided that the Clary proposal gave me the best designed and cost effective system at a fair price.
After contracting, Sam promptly provided me with all the necessary design plans and specifications so I could obtain HOA approval. After HOA approval was obtained, Clary moved immediately to obtain the city building permits and scheduled work immediately thereafter. The workmen arrived when scheduled and were courteous, competent, efficient, and neat. The work was completed in approximately 2 1/2 days and the city signed off on the permits without a problem. From the date of the contract to the certification of the system, the total time to complete the job was approximately 60 days which includes the 4 weeks it took to obtain HOA approval and building permits. Sam kept me to date on the schedule and I was very happy with the progress of the job from beginning to end.
The system has been up and running now for almost a week and it is performing as represented. I am very happy with the work that Clary did for me and would recommend them without hesitation.

It went smoothly and they were very good about following up and keeping us in the loop.

Their prices were reasonable. They worked well with me to configure the most panels on my house. Other companies did not do this as well as they did.

Very professional and responsive, no trouble at all from start to finish. Answered all questions and performed work on schedule. System is performing as promised.

They did a great job, they have really good quality products. I would definitely recommend them to others.

My experiences with the project managers, Jack and Steve, were extremely disappointing. At the beginning I was told that they would “take care of everything”. Unfortunately this was not the case at all. I felt that I was the project manager because I constantly had to do their job for them. Whether it was completing the permission forms for the HOA or contacting SDGand E to get the permit process rolling, I was always the one making the calls because they weren’t taking care of these things. When I expressed my concern to the company I was told that “they were busy” and this was why they weren’t doing their job. I could go on and on about all the issues I encountered with them but I will give you one example: When the roofing crew had installed the mounting system on our roof and it was time for the panels to be installed, Juven and Ruben told me the panels had not yet arrived in San Diego. I had previously been told that the panels had arrived and were here. When I spoke to Steve and asked him about this, he told me that the panels had been lost. Really? Can a legitimate business lose 22 solar panels valued at thousands of dollars? I guess Steve’s the kid whose dog ate his homework in 3rd grade. What was truly lost was my respect for Steve and for Clary Solar.
I also had bad experiences with Clary's electrician. On his first visit, I opened the garage door for him to do some
work. When he was finished, he left without telling me and left our garage door completely open. I was upset about this for several reasons: our neighborhood has had thefts from garages recently; our indoor cats who have access to the garage could’ve wandered off; and, a few days later, we found a rat in our garage. Since we never leave the garage door open I strongly suspect this was due to the door being left open that day. Even worse, a month or so after project completion, we had an electrical issue and the electrician who came to work on our panel told me that Clary Solar had used the wrong type of breakers in our electric panel which could result in an electrical short and cause a shut down of our solar production. I called Clary and told them about the problem and insisted that a different electrician come to fix the problem. To their credit, they sent an electrician from an outside company the next day to correct the problem and install the correct type of breaker.
I did have some positive experiences with individuals at the company. My initial introduction to Clary Solar was my meeting with salesperson, Eddie Alberton. He was very knowledgeable about the product and installation process which gave me confidence in Clary as a company. I only wish the rest of the staff there lived up to this expectation. Although the price was a bit higher than another bid, I felt that the price was fair considering the quality of the product. When it came time for the installation, I also had confidence in the two installers, Juven and Ruben. They seemed very competent and went the extra mile in taking photos of their work each day and sharing these with me since I was not going up on the roof to see what was happening. And, now that the project is finished, the system appears to be working well.
Throughout this process, I repeatedly expressed my concerns to Clary and although Eddie expressed his personal apologies, I was extremely disappointed that the management there NEVER contacted me to express any apologies, provide any explanations, or to assign a competent project manager. There seems to be a complete absence of communication between people at Clary. So many times, I was faced with problems due to their lack of communication either with each other, with me, or between them and SDGand E. Once the project was complete, I mailed Clary a two-page letter detailing all the issues we had encountered and even after that, the management still did not bother to get back to me. The bottom line is that if I were doing it again, I would choose a different solar installation company.

UPDATE: After this review was submitted, Steve Munson from Clary Solar met with me to discuss the issues mentioned above. After talking with him, I believe that Clary has made a true effort to rectify the problems I experienced to avoid any repeat with future customers. I appreciated that he took the time to come and talk with me and that Clary recognized the problems and is making the effort to improve.

Their service was very good. They were very helpful and efficient. They got all the licensing through in a timely manner. We were very happy with them. Their follow up was excellent.

It is a high power solar panel system from Germany. We chose a leasing program with option to buy later. The only thing we lost by taking the leasing option is the rebate; so it potentially saves money in the long run. You can monitor it away from home at any time to see how much storage we would have in the home while we are away. We were very happy with their service.

From start to finish, Clary Solar was knowledgeable, honest, and professional. They were able to answer all of my questions, perform the work on time, within budget and when all was said and done, the system far out performed their estimates for kWh and in turn our expectations for the money we would save on our electrical bill.

I was always interested in Solar for a long time. I always thought that it would cost me a lot and the payback will be 20 years. Finally I called in five difference companies to come and give me an estimate. Three of them I wrote off immediately because they gave me prices that were twice of what Clary Quoted me. The fourth one gave me a price that was reasonable but once I did some research on California data, I found out that they had not installed even a single system.

With Clary, what impressed me most was the low pressure consultative approach of their sales team. They did not try to over sell me. They explained things the way they were. Clary had the best financing options of the rest of the companies. Their finance payments were lower than the lease payments by other solar lease companies.

I called up the list of references and all of them gave Clary one of the best recommendations. The most amazing thing was that when I called and left people messages, they actually called me back to give a recommendation.

So I signed up.

The install started in a couple of weeks of signing. The installers seemed to enjoy what they were doing.
They were respectful of our home. After the first day of work, I called in my trusted roofer to double check the roof work that they were doing. He took a look and told me that Clary had used some of the highest quality equipment he has seen. He told me that Clary had used only stainless steel equipment. He sees a lot of companies use cheap galvanized steel. He checked the attic and he was impressed that Clary did not miss even a single rafter.

The install took three days. The system was inspected and passed inspection. The inspector told me that he sees a lot of systems and Clary does one of the best jobs.

Their project manager Terry over communicated with us. He would call me every day to give me an update on everything and what to expect the next day.

After the job was complete, the company officer called in to get a feedback on my experience.

The monitoring for the system was setup and I can monitor the production from each of my module.

Their installers did block our driveway, but once I told them to move the truck, they did took care of it.

Overall I am very happy with my system, It looks much better than any of the systems I have seen out there. The panels look like they are integrated in the roof.

A couple of my neighbors have already signed up with Clary based on my recommendation. One of the neighbors got several estimates and came to the same conclusion that I came up with.

Junaid personally designed our solar installation, and oversaw everything. At our first meeting, he spent several hours with us, describing what would be done in exquisite detail. Then, we went and inspected the roof site. Our panels were made by Kyocera, and the frames were custom made in Germany, for our flat roof. The panel installers, electricians, and ballast installers were very professional, were hard workers, did a meticulous job, and left no mess to clean up. They installed the Eco-Dog (monitoring system) and sat with us for several hours while they trained us to use it. They followed up immediately when there was one solar panel which was not working to specs, and fixed the problem. They also took care of the application to the State for the rebate, which came in quickly. They advised us, too, on how to apply for the Federal rebate. Junaid was easy to contact, and very attentive to us. Our system has been up for 6 months now, and works perfectly. I would recommend Junaid and Clary Solar to anyone who is interested in any size solar system. The quality of their work is superb, and their attention to detail is well beyond what I expected.

We solicited a number of bids and proposals. Clary's original bid was very competitive and thorough. After some re-bidding to match the various proposals (materials, size and scope), Clary's bid was still the most attractive. The final decision was made on price and their willingness to work with us on the scope of work needed and some of the work we wanted to do ourselves. Because of some restrictive covenant details, we chose to submit our plans to the homeowners' association ourselves. Clary provided us with the necessary details to complete that process. That was very successful. Problems then occured with the county permitting process, and Clary worked very hard with our assistance to solve those problems. Because of that delay, we were worried that we might not complete the project by the end of the year (for tax purposes). Clary and their sub-contractor worked very hard to complete the installation within our time frame. They worked through much of the Christmas season, including during some inclement weather to make sure the project was completed on time. We really did not expect such a response from a contractor. We are pleased to report that everything was done on time and to our satisfaction and the system is functioning perfectly.