Brighter Solar Energy (formerly Brio Solar Energy)

The installers themselves were great. However, everything else about this company is terrible. I had to contact them multiple times at every step in the process to keep things going, and there were a lot of delays. After about a year of trying to get the system turned on, someone came out and claimed it was good to go. 4 years later I find out the panels were never turned on. Thousands of dollars lost due to degradation of my system and lost savings.

Please PLEASE LISTEN its been over a year and I still do not have panels Working. They have been paid in Full!!!!!! they have not finished and I am all out of Options!!!!!!!!!!! please Dont use them they need to be sued but no lawyer will take the case!!!!!! this is ridiculous!!!!!! how can a company continue to do this to public. they have horrible reviews. someone even started a face book page just to try and force something to happen!!!!! and I still have nothing!!!!!!

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. We have had these panels for three years and I am just finding out today they never setup the site access. My power bill never changed. They have costed me thousands of dollars. I am seriously considering pursuing legal action against this company!!!

Panels installed. Power boxes incorrectly installed. Dead in the water for 4 months. Can't get through or anyone to come out and finish the install

I have been waiting for over a year to finally leave a review! The only reason I am leaving one now is because we are selling our house and they are paid off and I don't have to worry about repercussions from telling my honest opinion. This was the worst decision we could have made (to go with Brio). Our neighbors went with a different company and love theirs! We had nothing but trouble since the beginning. It took MONTHS, I mean MONTHS to get folks to come out and install/do anything at any point in time. I remember several occasions my husband or myself asked off work bc we were told someone would be there on a certain day and no one showed, no call, no answer, nothing! Then they would randomly come a different day....one time they left a trail of muddy footprints and a note that was written on the back of a McDonald's food wrapper saying they came. Then once we finally got them installed, the inspection process failed several times due to them messing up the installation. Again, MONTHS later , we finally got someone to come out and fix what they needed to to finally pass. We made the mistake of just jumping into it without actually taking the time to research different companies, so don't be us haha....do you research and find a quality company! The panels themselves haven't saved us anything...literally we have saved $0...in fact, we have paid more. Anyways, just don't use Brio please! Again, our neighbors love theirs... everything went smoothly for them and they even get a stipend to pay for Duke Energy, so there are some good ones out there, but not Brio!

I’ve been trying to get solar set up since early April and guess what? Still nothing. It has been months since anyone followed up with me and I have been tossed between 3 different reps and now none of them will respond to my emails . The company came out, did all inspections, left a massive hole in my closet that took forever to get fixed and that in itself was a whole other mess. I was told I would have solar by the end of July on the LATE end and now it’s mid September and no one will get back to me on what is going on. This company sure seems like a scam so beware. Really glad my full credit was pulled for NOTHING. You’d think they would want to actually give some customer service for over $30,000 of profit but apparently this company doesn’t value it’s customers enough to even give them an update or respond to calls or emails. I thought that getting solar was a good idea but I guess I should just stick with Xcel since they are at least reliable. I don’t even know how to cancel my loan since they never actually sent me paperwork after adding this to my credit load. This whole thing is a mess and I can’t even get anyone to talk to me to hope. Decided to leave a review to make sure others are saved the headache. Go with a different company if you can.

I signed up with Brio in March 2021, it took 4 months to get the panels on the house. As of this day I am still waiting for them to connect the panels to the house and I am getting no response from Brio as to when they will connect the panels. I have decide to cancel the panel system and I have not been contacted about how to cancel. I am working with the BBB on this and I would like to get this issue resolved. This company has poor poor customer service and can not be trusted. Do not use Brio for solar system.

Brio Solar was a 12 month nightmare. They had no clue about how to work with our local utility. Their staff turned over constantly and new staff just made things up to appease us. They told us our system was operational in early May, but when our bill came in late June it was not. After it was operating they stopped responding to our emails. Find a company in your home state. No matter what they say they are very dishonest and incompetent.

I would NOT recommend going with this company. I was told a 1-day install. They began the install on 2/9, which started the clock for payment on the loan. But the install wasn't completed. Over the next few months I made over a dozen phone calls to the company and was scheduled 3 different dates for the install completion. But each date no one showed and the installed wasn't complete. I would have to call the company, they would apologize & set up a new install date each time. I had to begin payments on the loan on 4/12 for a system that wasn't installed. I was told they would reimburse for loan payments made until the system was fully installed if I just submitted a claim. After weeks of no reimbursement I was told that I would receive the reimbursement after the install was complete. The install was finally completed on 5/21 - 3.5 months for a "1-day" install. I had already made 2 payments on the loan for which I am supposed to be reimbursed. I called the company today as it has been 5 weeks since the install to ask about my reimbursement. They couldn't tell me. All I was told is that it has been passed off to a reimbursement team, who they had no way to contact and that I was not allowed to contact. I do not regret getting solar. I absolutely regret using this company as they seem understaffed and unable to deliver on any promises.

We chose Brio after a rep stopped at our door. We signed the paperwork on 12/12/2020 and were ready to go. Fast forward 5 months and finally got the installation done. Now we are waiting on the inspection. We were told on 5/27 that the inspection would be the week of June 7th. We heard nothing about a date/time from Brio. I called and spoke with Joshua on June 10th. He gave me a name of Luke Chavez and told me he would be my main contact person from now on. I spoke with Luke and got a run around about all the "moving parts" in the company and how difficult it was to schedule a inspection because the city inspectors don't show up, etc. I told him that was not the case and that I had scheduled an inspection and the city inspector was at my house within 24 hours as promised. Luke then told me that he would reach out to the scheduler, who couldn't be contacted because she was working from home and was pregnant. I asked for someone above him in the company to speak with and he told me no one was available because they were all in a meeting. So, in a nutshell, today I was told that the inspection will happen within "two weeks." I still don't have anyone higher than Luke to speak with and who knows when this will actually take place. I feel a call to my attorney will be in order if I don't hear from them in two weeks. If you want solar, do your homework and find a company that prides itself on customer service. Brio Solar wants the money but doesn't want to finish the job.

When we were getting started with the project they were great. Now that funding is approved and done they have gone absolutely quiet. No communication, and they will not even reply to my emails. I had to google their number, had to leave a message, and naturally, no response.

We started this process in August and our panels still aren’t on. They have failed in this process each step of the way! Save your money and your time. Brio is awful! They make promises and break them. Customer service is non-existent. Beware!!

I chose BRIO to provide a solar generation system to provide 98% of my energy needs and got a system providing 62% of our energy. BRIO refuses to make it right. Want details? go to (redacted)

Very poor communication once they have you signed up they are gone and dont provide updates or progress reports. Been 4 months and still dont have the solar panels.

My panels were instaled Nov 4th 2020 and they still are not operational. i am paying for a full duke energy bill and a panel payment. not only thst my power bill has trippled since tge instalation. i got a useage alerrfrom duke saying my projected elsctric bill for march is $384. add tgst to the $162 panel payment and im paying over $500 a month for energy. this has bee going on for three months.i was told i would be rembersed for the panel payments by three different indeviduals at this company. i submiitted all the requested documentation amd nogjing ever becomes of it. i havr contactedthe state attorny general to open a case. the attorney general informed me that if mulyiple people have tge same issue with this company they prove a pattern of fraud and would take legal action against them. four indevidusls in my neighbor hood are on board. i invite anyone else who has had a simular experience to contact me do we csn seek justice. My name is jeromy 919-600-2496 jeromymacon112411@gmail.com i posted this yestrday and somehow they managed to take it down. i will continue to repost wveryday.

We purchased this system a year ago. 49 PANELS!! $67,000.00. Now, I am told they only cover 76% of my energy. Which results in 2 BILLS each month that equal DOUBLE what I was paying with Xcel alone. The person who sold me the system left due to their ethics. The person who was trying to help me is leaving this week again due to ETHICS. It is very CRAPPY to take advantage of a PERMANENTLY DISABLED PERSON.

I was approached last spring by a really nice young man about installing solar panels and since I want to be kind to our planet, I thought it was a great time to get some solar panels. In working with the team, I had my solar panels installed in July 2020. Here I am now, in March of 2021 and I still have not had my solar panels turned on. It first began with my solar panels being installed too early because the agent over my account didn't read the paperwork to see that my roof needed to be reinforced first. Each time they sent someone to my house to do it, I was not told of when they would show up, so I hadn't made plans to be at home during that time. That happened twice. Next, when Brio hired an outside contractor to do my bracing, the contractor said the engineering plans created by Brio's engineering company weren't even conducive to my roof and he had no clue how they came up with those plans. Finally getting the plans right and the contractor to brace my roof, the county inspectors were called out to approve it all. They've been out here twice now, and I've not passed twice because my paperwork from Brio does not match what they've done to my house. I've been passed to FOUR different agents, only one of them doing anything in my favor, and I am nine months with non-working solar panels, six months into paying for them and a super high energy bill. My only pleasant interaction with Brio was the salesman for them I met last spring, who is no longer with them. But who was willing to reach out to the president of Brio for me, with no progress on my end. I'm a patient person, but this is ridiculous.

This company should have negative stars. Installation took 10 months. Holes in my walls. Failed inspections. Falsified loan documents. Had to begin paying both Duke Energy and Mosaic Loans. Still is not operational. Brio refused to answer me untilI got NCDOJ involved. Write to them.

I wouldn't recommend this company to my worst enemy. We started this process in July of 2020 and have yet to have use of our system. We are now making payments on something we are not able to use and are also still paying a power bill on top of it. They have gone through 3 different names and no one will return a call, text or email. We were told that we would receive checks to pay our first year payments. We were stupid enough to purchase a second set and now have 2 payments. Both checks they sent us were for the wrong amounts and were short of what are payments would be. When I told them they were short I was told "no that's what your payments are". Excuse me, don't tell me what my payments are I have proof of what was drafted. We are now 6 months after we purchased them and nothing. Our neighbors, who purchased theirs after ours, is up and running while we sit here paying double our power bill because of the payments. DO NOT PURCHASE SOLAR PANELS FROM THIS COMPANY. Only have 1 star because it won't let me leave 0

We had a good start with Brio. Their friendly sales rep showed us how we would save because Brio's solar panels will cost the same as our current energy usage, loan terms were low, they'll do all our permit requests, even for our HOA, and help with securing tax rebates to offset some of the expense. After about 6 months of waiting for the various permit processing our solar panels finally arrived and were installed, and we were all happy. Or so we thought. Once Brio got our money and the loans started, things went pear-shaped. The panel array on our roof--supposed to cover our power needs--didn't even cover 30% of our needs. That power the panels generated also cost 2x the price than what we would've paid through our power utility. It took over a year of us repeatedly contacting Brio (most responses involved us needing to call a third party that was great in ignoring our pleas for help) before we got a defunct panel fixed. There is no contract where Brio lays out what our panels will produce--only a contract with a credit agency--so we're stuck with paying double the price of energy (once for the solar panel loan and again for the energy we have to purchase because the panels are insufficient despite claims they would meet our needs) for the next two decades!

The sales guy was thorough in answering my questions and the guy who installed my smart meter was awful and fast. But the next 9 months I cannot begin to tell you how many things went wrong. I have made over 50 calls and sent more than 3 dozen emails re: delays, workers not showing up, shoddy half done installation that sat for 3 months, poor communication, employees contradicting themselves, etc. Etc. The bottom line? I signed the paperwork July 31 2019 and the pa else were not activated until March 15. I asked for reimbursement for the loan payments that started in Nov and just got that in June 2020. Would not choose them again.

Howard who came to my home convinced me of the options and savings I will get.

Brio Energy sends sales people to the door promising that your electric bill will be the same of less than you're currently paying. They also tell you that you get tax incentives and that when you put those tax incentives towards the solar loan, it will reduce your payments after the first 18 months. Well, I am 18 months in and the solar loan payment plus the electric bill is double what I was paying with Duke. My bill never decreased because we didn't owe enough in taxes to receive the full incentive in the last two tax years. Not only that, but since they installed it, we've been getting errors that have required us to reboot the system every few weeks basically rendering it useless for periods of time and causing our electric bill to be even higher than it should be. It has NEVER worked properly. And, now they are telling me that the parts are covered by warranty, but they're going to charge for labor. This company gets worse every interaction I have with them.

My son referred me. Liked what they had to offer.

After some rather aggressive sales tactics, we agreed to go with Brio for solar. After several delays in getting a permit to perform the work, we received a notice from the City of Fort Collins that the company's license had been revoked. Naturally, we cancelled our contract with Brio, but they did not return the money to the loan company, and are demanding that we pay a 15% cancellation fee despite the fact that they cannot actually complete the work they were contracted to perform. We will now need to hire a lawyer. I wish we had stayed away!

The crew was excellent and they completed the installation of 23 panels within 2 days. The crew was hard working, polite, and professional!

Professional, friendly service, customer oriented.

This company is dishonest and targets the elderly and people who are struggling financially and feeds them false promises of not having power bills and will tell you whatever you want to hear to trap you into signing, including incentives for signing that day. Extremely shady sales tactics. My husband and I were scammed by Brio. Just about everything they said to convince me to sign that contract was a lie. They came into our home and lied to us repeatedly and completely ripped us off. WE HAVE REACHED OUT TO AN ATTORNEY. For those that were speaking of a potential lawsuit, feel free to email me at dustinangelhemrick@yahoo.com. You can also join my FB group concerning complaints/potential lawsuit https://www.facebook.com/groups/201800357704863. I refuse to let them get away with continually taking advantage of people that already struggle financially. We were told there was 100% coverage with panels. That was a lie. It's about 65%. We were told there's no way we'd receive a bill before panels were functioning. That was a lie. Instead of reducing $17,000 incentives from cost of panels, they add it to it to make the loan more and then make you use your tax incentive and rebate to pay down on loan. So they take money you should get in addition to overcharging $20,000. They said we were guaranteed to get the tax incentive to keep our bill from going up $100 more per month. Didn't happen, so our bill will go up. Almost 5 months later, panels are still not functional and we're paying on the loan for panels that aren't functional. (we've since told them not to go any further since we are working on a lawsuit.) Panels were installed incorrectly. Dimming and surging after electrical came and wired the panels up. They got their money from the loan company and all of a sudden they slow down and are unconcerned and unresponsive. Installed panels and did electrical without obtaining permits which is ILLEGAL. Now they refuse to go back on the contract that we signed on false pretenses. Terrible company.

We finally elected to go with Brio mainly because of the consultant Brendan W. He was patient and very detailed in his presentation. Still to this day he has been reliable and professional; even though he is no longer affiliated with Brio. He addressed the same concerns on their lack of follow up and expectations.

A sales rep came to my door so I thought I'd check it out. I'm always skeptical of door-to-door salesmen, but these guys were helpful, and I decided to buy on the spot (my first time ever). Fast communication with my rep throughout the process, and the system is up and going now!

I went solar with Brio in May of last year, and we were fully installed and turned on by July. I now get all my power from the solar panels, and recently received a credit from Xcel energy for the extra power I had since my system over produced. Brio was extremely professional throughout the entire experience, and have quickly responded to any questions I had about timelines or Solar in general. I would definitely recommend them to anyone.

The entire solar process was smooth and saved my mother and myself thousands of dollars on my power bill. Thank you Brio

Decided to have Brio help us go solar even though we hadn't really considered it before. The process did take a little longer than we expected (6 months) but communication was always excellent. As of two weeks ago we are cooking with solar!

I had my panels installed on November 19, 2018 and they are actually paid in full because I refinanced them into my home 12/31/18 but got a call from the loan company 1/23/19 saying my first solar panel payment is due 1/27/18...... but another story. It is February 10, 2019 and the solar panels are yet to be fully functional. So now I am paying for solar panels that are not operating and also paying a light bill with no estimated resolution date or completion date on sight. I have had to reach out to everyone several times just to get a live voice because nobody ever calls back any voicemails you leave. Sometimes talking to a live person doesn't help because I am still waiting on a return call about ROPC information that the power company said was submitted incorrectly by Brio 3 time since 12/8/18. There are no updates ever given to me without me calling for them on the project this company does not have a SPOC Special Point Of Contact to keep customers aware of the status. I have yet to receive my check from Brio that was promised to me by the sales representative. My rebate is on hold that is offered by the power company because they are pending info from Brio. The power company has a limited amount allotted rebate funds to give to customers and now with this incorrect information given to them this is lessened my chances of getting my rebate. This process has been painfully slow and pushed along by me a paying .....excuse me a paid in full customer to keep things moving. I am very disappointed in this entire process and at point don't think I would recommend anyone to do solar panels. I have had so many neighbors ask me about it even my coworkers have asked because I was initially so excited about it I was telling all of them. I tried to be optimistic when I was letting them know how the project was going but at this point I have to tell them how time consuming this is and the promises of rebates and checks my be delayed or not delivered.

The project on my home began back in September of 2018. It is now almost 6 months later and my system still has not been connected. They make all of these promises about how you can reduced your energy bill if you apply all of the rebates. What they did not tell me was that, the rebates are of no guarantee. In the beginning, communication went well but as time passed, they no longer respond to emails; which is my preferred method in communication because it leaves a paper trail. I have emailed them when I was wait listed for one of the rebates that they said I would receive, no response. I have emailed again, just to see if my paperwork was received; no response. I am paying more for electricity than I EVER have because I am paying for a load for a system that is nothing more than decoration (ugly decoration at that) on top of still paying a full priced energy bill. I honestly regret the day that I opened the door and entertained the first representative; And I definitely regret ever meeting and speaking with the representative who goes by the name of, Max. I wouldn't recommend doing business with them at all. If you want to go solar, find another company because BRIO DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS!!!

I was not planning on having solar at my house, until I had one of Brio's sales show up on my door. I was really impressed with his presentation, the company, and the benefits of having solar. I have had a great experience with everyone I have met with, talked over the phone with, and have had any encounter with. I would recommend them to anyone interested and not even interested in getting solar at their house. Troy Robison

Great product so far. We haven't had any problems with it. Loving the low energy bills!

We've had our system running for about 6 months now, whole process took a little over 2 months, other than submitting a form to our HOA and reviewing/signing some docs, Brio took care of the whole thing. The system works great, one month after it was running our power bill with Duke went to $0! Even in the summer when it's usually really high, honestly we were kinda skeptical but it's worked as promised. We're in NC and mainly worked with Brendan, he explained everything clearly and has been very responsive whenever we had questions.

I have waited a year to provide this review to make sure it is not an emotional response and see if anything improved. Brio seems to have a problem with communications after the contract is signed. For example I had no idea when they were going to start install. I called the salesman and he called me right back and provided me the information. They did the install and I heard nothing. I called again and was told I had to set up net metering with the power company. We got that done. I called the sales man back and asked if the install was complete. He said yes. That is when I discovered there were three panels missing. I called the sales man and he had them come out and install the rest of the panels. Now we were done. I noticed the system was not turned on. So I turned it on myself otherwise now a year later it would still be off. I have had solar water heater in the past and based on what I have had for the past year I would say I am happy with having solar. I even think Brio Solar is a good company they just need to work on their post sales communications. I had to call them today because I was concerned the system may not be working as it should be. They answered quickly we checked a few things and he confirmed it may not be generating the right amount of power. We rebooted the system and we are going to check again on Monday. If it has not improved they will send an electrician out. One other thing I wish they had told me that for an additional cost I could purchase the ability to monitor the health of my system. I would have happily paid that at the time of the install.

It's been great working with Brio so far. They seem like a pretty stand-up company. Had a young gentleman knock on my door pretty early on a Saturday, let me know they were having technicians provide people free proposals. My husband wasn't home but I set up a meeting for the same day later in the afternoon. A girl stopped by the house later that afternoon, ran my husband and I through all the numbers and it just made sense. We've had the panels up for about 2 months now, and we haven't seen a single bill from Rocky Mountain Power.

So I signed up with Brio before the beginning of the summer, it was right around the beginning of March. I was a little skeptical because some of my friends here in Utah have had trouble with other solar companies not delivering on promises made. Not the case with Brio, they told me after getting my sight survey completed they would have the system up within 3 weeks. Sure enough, almost exactly at the 3 weeks mark (1 day early) the panels were inspected and turned on by Rocky Mountain power. My bills been WAY less than what I was paying last summer and i've been recommending Brio to all my fiends since.

I live out in South Carolina and at first when a my door was knocked on I was a little skeptical. However as the young man named Mark I believe explained in detail how we were going to save money and how it all depended upon weather or not we qualified my mind was a little more at ease. Still a tiny bit skeptical. However we decided to pull the trigger and go solar. I must say Brio was a fantastic company to work with. They took care of me from day one and got my panels installed within a month. I had no problem with my tax credits from the state and federal government and they took care of all the HOA stipulations. Very impressed with this company. Would defiantly recommend going solar through them or at least giving them a look at.

Signed up for panels in May 2017, there was not any communication on their part right from the get go! The panels did end up being installed on my roof at the end of summer, and then once again, no communication from them. Lots of dodging my calls, giving me the run around, and absolutely no information on why my panels were not turned on. I ended up having to make all their appointments for them, with Rocky Mountain Power, the city, etc. I am not sure why a paying customer had to do their jobs for them. It took me until December 31, to get someone out to my residence to turn the panels on! Side note: the tax credit, we signed up knowing we would receive at least 10k, back on our taxes to put towards our loan. Surprise, surprise, they did not tell us the full truth once again! We not only didn't get the tax credit, but no one at Brio could tell me why! Now the panels are not working like they promised, and our power bill has only gone down $20 instead of the full amount like promised! Paying the loan amount and our regular power bill has definitely not saved us any money!!!! And now no one will return my calls or emails, to get this issue taken care of! Don't waste your time with Brio, they are terrible communicators, and will swindle you out of money too!!!

A "new customer incentive" was promised at time we signed contract but they have yet to deliver. I signed under pressure of loosing the incentive...they didn't deliver anyway!!! They recently told me I needed to provide them with five referrals...I heard none of this at time of contract. They sent plans to county and energy company using wrong house plans. They are interested in getting contract signed and pay little attention to customer after that not to mention their lack of attention to details.

Installing solar panels with Brio was a great decision...the process from sale to install proceeded exactly like I was told it would. I feel secure knowing that my power bills will stay consistent in the future, regardless of the power company's price hikes! I love seeing my solar credits build up!

Overall, we had a great experience with Brio. The gentleman that sold us the system made us feel VERY comfortable and did not put any pressure for us to buy from him. He even offered for us to look around for a better deal and said he would price match any other company's proposal. It didn't take long for us to realize that Solar with Brio was a great fit for us. The process took some time but the installers did a great job and we couldn't be more happy with our system. They have a great referral program so we definitely recommend going with Brio!

We decided to go with Brio because the timing was right and I liked the option of interest-only financing for the first year until I got my tax refund. The salesman was very helpful and let the numbers do the selling. Some of his arguments for solar were a bit of a stretch when it came to the power company, but that is to be expected. For example, you can't accurately guess how much the power company is going to raise rates over the next 10 years, or what kind of financial decisions will be made in terms of net metering. My only real complaint was the months it took to get the system installed and turned on. I know this was primarily due to the backlog at the city and power company, but it would have been helpful to know that I would be paying 6 months of interest on the solar loan while still paying full price on my power bill. The funny part about it was how friendly and helpful Brio was every time I called them, and how quickly I was moved on to the next step in the process after I called. I get the feeling that they are spread a little thin, and have a damage-control policy of responding first to customers that start to get irritated with the wait.

Had fantastic interactions with the Brio sales crew. They were respectful and helped me to understand the benefits of solar. Would highly recommend dealing with Brio.

My husband and I met with a sales rep that came by and knocked on our door. I'll admit, I was a little sceptical at first because I don't like to jump the gun and be sold on things. We had been doing our research before meeting with him though and it looked like the best option so we decided to go for it. The sales rep was helpful and seemed to respond promptly whenever we had questions. The process was a little long, especially waiting for permits and all that but so worth it and their customer service is the best! None the less it was still a good experience. I'm not one to take the time to leave reviews but this company has been so awesome to work with so I have to give them a shout out. If you're thinking about going green and saving money this is the company to go with!

If you are considering solar panels for your home I would highly recommend Brio Energy - and specifically the sales representative I have worked with, Kelby Michael. Would highly recommend him to anyone looking to install solar; he worked with me to bring costs down while maximizing the value of the system that was installed. Kelby was very low pressure - he quickly completed a free quote and then let the numbers do the selling... after seeing the proposal it was an easy decision to move forward. The panels that were installed look clean, are efficient, and greatly reduce the amount of energy needed from Excel. I would highly recommend him if you're in the market for solar