SolarSME

Once the county and HOA approvals were done, we were awakened by the doorbell early on a Saturday with the panel delivery with no advanced notice. We had to quickly clear an area in the garage, where the panels sat for a couple of weeks before they could start installation. Prior to installation, we discussed a plan to minimize the visible wiring conduits on the roof. We knew we could not completely eliminate wiring on the roof, since we do not have attic access above our garage. (It would require removing the ceiling in our master bedroom.) They told us that one conduit would be run along the ridge of the garage roof and either into the attic or over to the back side of the main roof, where it would be tied in with the others. We had stated several times that I did not want any wiring run on the outside of the house between the garage roof and the main forward-facing roof because the wiring would be conspicuous. This was apparently never conveyed to the installers and they installed highly visible white PVC pipe haphazardly on the roof, plainly seen from the street. It looks awful. They told us we could paint it. When we asked to have it done in a better way to make it look cleaner, they refused. Throughout the planning process, we were insistent on keeping clean lines and minimizing any exposed wiring conduits. The workers also left a mess in our yard every day. Plastic bottles, plastic wrap, and other trash that we picked up after them (even after asking them to do it) so that things wouldn't blow in other people's yards, keep our dogs safe, and frankly, prevent our yard from looking like a dump site. Trash continued to wash off the roof the next week during the rain. What we thought would be a 2-3 day installation took over 2 weeks. When we insisted that we wanted our garage back, they worked until 9:30 that evening and left all the trash and remaining materials in our garage. I asked if they would pick up the next day, they told me no, they are 2 hours away. So we moved the materials ourselves onto our front porch. When a worker came with the inspector, he commented that he thought we would be ready to turn on after we passed inspection. He assumed that we already had an app and could do it ourselves. He also assumed that everything had already been cleaned up and came in a small sedan, unable to clean up the large items. It took a few more days before they came back with a truck to clear off our porch. I was still finding trash on the roof, in the yard, and in the garage 2 months later. We waited for a month to get activated. Then when they came out, they asked about a box that should have been left with us but wasn't. So that meant more delays in activation. When we were finally activated, we had problems with the app, and nobody seemed to be able to help us. We’ve since figured it out, but the post-activation communication is not there. They never did anything to rectify the poor visual display of the PVC on the roof AND they also have never sent us the gift card incentive that is part of the contract we signed. We have tried contacting them multiple times about this, and they have ghosted us. In addition, nobody ever told us that we should cancel budget billing with our power company because they don’t account for the solar generation in budget billing.