Solar Bear LLC

Bait-and-switch gimmick! I signed a contract based on the original quoted $117/mo payment - then was told by Troy two days later (their salesman) it was a "computer error" and costs would nearly double to $210/mo!. Plus, been repeatedly told to contact the financial company GoodLeap to cancel the contract to fix THEIR mistake! The whole thing is an obvious sales gimmick and the experience is stressful and frustrating. That?s not how genuine solar providers handle mistakes and do honest business. Thus, suggesting to stay away from this outfit!

I wish I could give this company 0 Stars or even negative stars. I will explain why. My wife and I met with Troy, a salesman from Solar Bear Tampa, at our home regarding a solar system to "REPLACE our monthly power bill". While Troy was very nice during the meeting and the sale, we now know he was just working to slam us with a worthless plan and a company that dodges their customers when there are concerns. The process of the installation was less than pleasant to say the least. It took numerous phone calls from myself to get them to finally get the panels and system installed on our home before the end of the year to take advantage of the tax credits that Troy informed us about. Again, this system was designed to REPLACE our power bill. They built the system based on 12 months of power bills from our power company. At the end of the sale, we were informed that our system was going to cost us $53,000 total and would be financed over 20 years. What they DID NOT inform us about was the requirement of a $1M liability policy that needed to be added to our homeowners insurance for the power company. Without the continuous liability policy in place, the power company will not give us the credits for the solar power that our system produces. We have maintained the required liabilty insurance at the cost of $900 per year in addition to the cost of our system. I reached out to get some assistance from our power company as well as Solar Bear Tampa. The power company came out and did an evalutaion of our system and informed us that our system was not large enough to replace our power bill. That's why we are still paying a $200+ power bill each month in addition to our monthly loan payment with Goodleap. I then placed a review on Google, just as I am now, explaining our frustration with this entire process. I received a phone call from Blake, the owner of Solar Bear Tampa. Blake informed me that he "would like to work with us to do whatever he could do to make us a happy customer." However, in order for him to work with us, I needed to take down the negative review. I did that feeling that we were going to come to a solution. I was WRONG. Blake provided me with his "personal cell number" and told me to contact him when I was able to set up a call with the power company for a joint discussion. He also stated that he had a contact for the liability policy that would cost me significantly less than what we were currently paying. I felt like we were going to get somewhere and thanked him for working with me. I never heard from his contact regarding the liability poilicy. I attempted to reach out to Blake again and again to find out what solution we were going to work on. After numerous calls, voicemails and text messages, Blake has completely ignored me and has yet to return a call or text. I stopped the automatic payment to Goodleap, the finance company working with Solar Bear Tampa. I now have recieved phone calls with a representative from Goodleap who states "we would like to work as a mediator and help come up with a solution for all parties involved." Nothing has transpired since then. I just received another call from a representative at Goodleap who now accuses me of "not wanting to work with them". I informed her that I sent a final text message to Blake to come and remove the solar system from our home, clear up the account with Goodleap and I would say nothing about the headache that this entire relationship has caused. In approximately 2.5 years of having a solar system, it has covered our power bill completely maybe a total of 6 times. Again, no response from Blake. I'm now being accused of "not wanting to work with anyone" by Goodleap. I'm certain I am not the only family that this has happened to with Solar Bear Tampa. Furthermore, the $53K cost that we expected is actually a $65K loan with Goodleap and at a term of 25 years. All that needed to happen was remove the system from my house and close out the loan. I have not asked for any money nor consideration for the aggravation with this entire process but I get nowhere.

They were efficient, knowledgeable, polite. Really pleasant people. there wasn't even single one of them that was not pleasant. I will highly recommend them.