10/12/2015
Anonymous
CA
I did my due diligence & researched several solar companies. I chose Sungevity for many reasons, 2 of which I'll make mention. I really appreciated their ability to provide prompt & accurate pricing via a single web meeting by Sungevity's ability to leverage Google Earth in conjunction with their expertise. I particularly appreciated this because in my profession I use Google Earth for similar reasons, but for a different type of business. I also felt this was far less salesman pressure than I experienced from Sungevity's competitors, i.e. a salesman coming to my house & pressuring me to sign a lease then & now. The second reason is their plethora of options for me to fund the project, i.e. 100% purchase with no lease, or a 20-year lease with a down payment size of my choosing, or the option for a 20-year lease while making all payments up front (completely eliminating the finance charges). I picked the latter option as I wanted Sungevity's services to support the solar system for the next 20 years, without incurring any finance charges that I would have incurred if I made monthly payments during a lease. The Sungevity services I'm referring to being the solar system/roof insurance, solar system performance SLA, solar system reporting, free solar system repairs, etc. for the anticipated life of the system (20 years). Plus by me paying for the lease outright I won't have any issue if I decide to sell my house within the next 20 years, i.e. the Solar Panel system is a guaranteed asset due to Sungevity's Performance SLA & not a liability with me having to transfer a lease to the new owner of my residence with an outstanding $ balance to due.<br /><br />The installation was a little delayed due mainly to the solar panel manufacturer's inability meet the demand of the market. At one point Sungevity tried to use an alternative solar panel brand to resolve this delay, but we ended up staying with the original manufacturer. When I purchased the system from Sungevity I was told to expect it to take 4 to 6 months until the system came online, it took 7 months.<br /><br />The physical installation went fine. I think this point I'm about to describe is just one more reason that I'm so pleased with Sungevity. During the installation about 18 of my roof tiles broke. Broke meaning anywhere from just being cracked to being broken in several pieces. Sungevity had trouble finding replacement tiles to match the remaining tiles on my roof. Sungevity ultimately had to have a batch of tiles made just for my house. This took a little time to occur. Resulting in 2 months after my solar panels went online Sungevity returned with a small pallet of new roof tiles that were custom made to match my existing tiles. Sungevity got my roof 100% back its proper state & I even ended up with a dozen spare tiles. I feel this shows how they will go all the way to insure they 100% delivered on their commitment.<br /><br />Now that I've had the system online for 2 years it's been working great. This summer there was a problem with the solar production, i.e. it wasn't producing the anticipated amount of power but was still producing above the amount Sungevity guaranteed in the lease. Before I noticed the problem Sungevity did. This resulted in me receiving a call from Sungevity's local installer letting me know that Sungevity noticed an anomaly on my solar panels/inverter & he wanted to stop by to take a look. He came by that same day without me having to be home, he made some sort of an adjustment to the inverter that resulted in my solar panels producing 20% more power. This all took place automatically, without me having to make a single call or wait at home for someone to do something. This kind of service is the reason why I wanted the Sungevity lease, as I mentioned above. I am VERY happy with Sungevity's service, from the beginning & throughout the operating life of the system.