Poncho's Solar Service

Disappointed from the start. Give your money to someone else! Terrible communication skills when we did hear from someone, and terrible on-site communications. We bought a town house that had a solar water heating system installed, by Ponchos. We have the paperwork that states the warranty carries over to new ownership... but, of coarse Ponchos does not recognize the transfer. SOOO, we wanted a check-up and preventive maintenance done, and they charged us the full amount. Id be ok with that if ANYTHING else had gone well. The 2 that showed up to perform the work did not explain anything. Including what their doing, condition of the system, who we pay, how much or when we pay. Left me feeling like they cut corners and gave me an incomplete, dishonest job. Oh yea, they also p***** in our bush out front. Welp, there goes professionalism. Last, but certainly not least.... We gave them our credit card over the phone, and yep.... couple of weeks later, up popped multiple charges. Google... Taco Bell and other crap. In Hawaii, on a card that we have only used 1 time, with 1 company in the last 6 months. Coincidence... nope. This is business. You better be working for your company to MAKE IT, or somebody out there will be working to BREAK IT. (if I could give a negative rating, I would. Be warned.)

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Took 4 months and numerous chase around phone calls to get work done.

the installation went OK, but the roof leaked at the water heater pipe and still does even after it was supposedly repaired, twice. We are still waiting for another repair.  Very difficult to reach the company, but better in reaching the broker who also had a hard time reaching the company owner.

Quality panels and installation.

It went well

Overall Poncho's is the worst company.  I think monkeys can do better work.  They are very rude and they admit that they just want your money.  They are always late and don't show up when they suppose to.  I would suggest that Bu la ia is the President of their company.  Poncho's reminds me of a circus with clowns running the show.

Water as cold so call Poncho Solar. They guided us through the process of resetting the heater. I didn't work so
they arrived the next day on time to fix the problem. Good service and good results.

Delivery occured on time ..installation crew was 45 minutes late.  2nd crew arrived on time (electricans) and finished early before the roof crew finished.  Switches were in off position and I did not know for 10 days system was not operational.  The came and checked it out the were next day when I called in a problem.

Overall, I was satisfied with the services.

I had a mixed quality of service with the purchase/installation/follow-up of these system.
The sales person that responded to my request for information/quote was very knowledgeable.  I initially wanted just a PV system.  I expected it to power the existing water heater.   He computed the cost of a system to meet my monthly power requirement would cost about $38000.  He then suggested I instead also get a new solar water heater system.  He said this would reduce my daily power requirements by 25-30%, and thereby reduce the number of solar PV panels needed to generate adequate  power.  He showed me that this change would reduce my overall cost by $6000.  I agreed to this two system installation.  A couple days later he called to say the tentative installation was going to be on Monday Feb 6, about 3 weeks in the future.  I expected to get a call to confirm the date in early Feb.  Since I had not received the call by the Friday before the Monday install date, I call the company office who confirmed that my installation was still on for Feb 6.  In the evening of Feb 5, my salesman finally called to confirm the next day's installation.  He said he would come by about 3 pm to check on the progress of the installation.
The next day, six people arrived to do the install:  2 PV installers, 2 solar water installers, and 2 electricians.  These six individuals worked extremely efficiently and did a very professional looking installation.  Each member seemed to know exactly what needed to be done and they were able to complete the installation in one day, despite the intermittent rain.  The last installer left about 3:30.
At 4 pm, the salesman called to say he was running late and asked if could come by at 7pm.  I agreed.   At 7:30 he called again and he had just finished with another client and asked if could come at 8.  When he arrived at 8, he gave me the documentation for the installation and briefly showed me how to monitor the new water heater.  I wanted him to show me how to monitor the PV system on the computer but said the system specs had to be added to the centralized monitoring system data base before I could get that info could be available.  He said he would have one of his technician come back to connect the monitoring device to the internet.  A tech never showed.  I did find a document that showed how to do the connection and I connected the Envoy gateway to the internet. 
A few days later I called the office to see about activating the monitoring system.  I was told there was about a one week delay in getting new system configurations loaded.  After I made another call a couple days later, I was finally able to get my system configuration uploaded in the nationwide monitoring data base and I can now see reports.  My system seems to be operating in an extremely efficient manner.  My salesman never contacted me after the system was installed to verify that I was satisfied with the installation.
 

Well, It was a good experience. I felt well taken cared of. Need I say more?

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Sales rep was punctual and very responsive, and he took care of all required permits including the application with my homeowner's association.
Installation crew did a great job, were courteous, clean and professional.
But I'm giving them such poor marks for 3 reasons:
1.  The Design/Engineering work was shoddy.   They could not fit all of the panels on the South facing roof, so they changed the design and installed the additional panels on the front of the house.  They changed the design without informing me, and without clearing it with my HOA.  Installation of the panels on the front of the house is expressly forbidden by my HOA, and this fact was clearly communicated to Poncho's before the installation.  When I raised the issue to Poncho's the Sales Rep gave me a copy of some legislation that states that HOAs cannot dictate the location of Solar panel installation...a moot point since they never got the design change reviewed and approved!  They stuck me in the middle between them and my HOA.
2. Once Poncho's removed the panels, they were not able to fit them anywhere else on the roof, so they discouted the remainder of my bill according to a "pro-rated" cost of the panels.  Pro-rated!  It was their mistake, not mine that resulted in the removal of the "used" panels!
3.  The brackets for the mounting system were left in place on the roof.  Poncho's has scheduled and not shown up 3 times to remove those brackets and replace the missing shingles.

In short I spent over $30,000 and got a smaller system than I wanted, a roof that needs repair, and I'm still in hot water with my HOA.  If you hire these guys make sure they measure your roof BEFORE they recommend a panel size,  get design drawings before they install and make sure the installers follow the plan.

The crew showed up in a timely manner and moved the solar panels as we had agreed, and then put them back.  Everything was functional when they put them back, so in that respect I felt they did well. My only complaint is that there is an electric line going up to the solar hot water heater located on the roof.  There is a junction box to the line on the underside of the roof which is very accessible from inside the house. Rather than look into whether they could pull the line from an existing junction box, they cut the conduit on the roof and put in an extra junction box completely exposed to the weather.  Since then we have had numerous instances where water has actually gotten into the conduit and dripped out of the juntion box underneath the roof.  A very little research, or even asking me about it could have prevented that whole problem, which is now a continual safety hazard...not to mention a problem because now I have a leak into my house.

Although it's an ongoing process at the moment, I must say that Im impressed with the level of tax knowledge and the ease with wich the entire finance process has been handled.

excellent from estimate to completion. Had to remove old system, so workers called owner (Poncho) who explained slight change in plans which required more time and work. Impressed with workers, Poncho, estimator. Fast, efficient,...all good.

Very prompt, very professional and very innovative. The installation technicians (particularly Andre) were super-responsive to my concerns about an aesthetically pleasing and "invisible" switch-over from a conventional hot water heating system to solar, and worked closely with me on problem-solving and creative solutions to a tricky job. They were great!