Review for Sungevity (Residential)

02/14/2015
Anonymous

Beware of snow

I had an amazing experience with Sungevity until I went to turn the system on in January in Upstate New York. When I first started looking into solar, I asked the questions, what happens when my panels are covered with snow, the reply from sungevity was WE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT. I asked this question several times before and after signing the contract and always got the same answer. So I went ahead with the lease. January 2015 the panels are installed on my roof again I asked what happens when they are buried in 3 feet of snow when I turn them on. the response from Sungevity - Call us and we will send someone to clean them off. When I got the email to turn my unit on January 30, I contacted sungevity and asked about the 2 foot of snow on my panels. Now they tell me the snow will shed. I live in Upstate NY. the temperature has not reached 30 degrees in 2 months, most nights are below zero. Nothing is going to shed off my roof. After talking to 3 different people - I got the same answer, we do not take care of snow removal. I tried to explain that Snow is very heavy and I cannot leave it on my roof -or it will collapse. They just did not get it. So I called back a few days later to get the phone number of the local installer, thinking I could call him and see if they do the snow removal. the customer service rep I talked to then told him that the Maintenance Department would be the ones to handle this. He told me that I would be responsible for paying for it. Not a problem for me. I never expected them to remove the snow for free, I just wanted the snow removed. The rep said it would be up to 5 days for the maintenance dept. to schedule this and contact me. I told him that in 5 - 6 days the solar panels may be in my basement from the collapse of my roof. He said he would put it in as an emergency. It is day 6, I have heard from no one. I have since handled this problem for myself and found an amazing local solar company. I could not make the customer service people understand that I was not upset that I was not producing any electricity- I WAS UPSET BECAUSE I HAD ADDRESSED THE SNOW ISSUE SEVERAL TIMES AND THEY LIED TO ME SO I WOULD LEASE THEIR PRODUCT. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY TO ANYONE IN THIS AREA AND IF YOU LIVE IN AN AREA THAT GETS A LARGE AMOUNT OF SNOW - DO NOT GO WITH SUNGEVITY.