ESD Roofing & Solar

It has taken five years and multiple visits from ESD to my home to teach this point. And, I am still unconvinced that my system is functioning correctly given how many visits have been required to "correct" your substandard installation of my solar energy system. Beyond the functional issues, your customer service is horrible. You do not respond to phone calls or emails without repeated follow-ups on my part. You threaten to charge me for service calls, or demand deposits prior to scheduling service to correct your own mistakes. This entire experience has been wholly unsatisfactory and frustrating.

Scam of a company

I do NOT recommend this company at all. They installed our panels incorrectly which caused a leak in our home. They DO NOT acknowledge their contract that states a 25 year warranty against damage and water infiltration at each roofing penetration made by ESD. It further states that they will repair or compensate you for the damage. They do not answer the phone or return emails.... Once they have your money good luck getting them to respond to any issues. They also do not care if your roof is 1 year old or 20 years old, they will do the install anyways. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

Solar Scammers

In August of 2024 solar panels broke down. Esd Customer service manger Olivia Diaz is a liar and should be Fired! They didn’t properly fix my panels when they are supposed to be under warranty are still only producing 50% efficiency. I contacted BBB to put a complaint now Olivia refuses to have someone come back to my home to fix my panels. She told me to take the complaint down from BBB and she will send someone to my home . Now she’s telling me my service Warrenty is invalid cause I bought the home from the original buyers She’s a bad person.Solar panels were under warranty until I complained to Better Buisness Bureau Stay away from this company.

Worst company I have ever worked with

System was installed July 2022. It was not installed right and has never worked. They continue to bull shit their way thru this and my patience and kindess is no longer in existence. They won't reimbursed us for the 26 months we have paid for a system that is not working. They keep telling me they will fix it and over 2 years later they act annoyed that I'm upset. Our local news station wants to do a story on them because NO ONE can believe what they have put us through. It's absolutely appalling.

15 months, 5 failed inspections, and still not done!

This is by far the worst company we have ever dealt with, and the manager Olivia is completely worthless! Our project has been going on for 15 months and we are still not online. Olivia is like a kindergarten that just nods her head and accomplishes nothing, you might as well be talking to your pet! Five failed inspections, and one where the tech was a sleep in his van while the city inspector failed the inspection, I had to call the office and tell them their tech was sleeping and we fail yet again! If you want solar, go anywhere but ESD!

Complete dishonesty

Signed contract with salesman Alex Lafata 14 months ago and still waiting to complete it. Do not trust salesmen Alex Lafata, his associate Brian Smith and ESD customer service manager Olivia Diaz. All have said they would resolve issues but still have yet to do so. Originally was told project would be completed in 3 months, but again still waiting after 14. Apparently they pay salesmen for work before it is done, thus they have no incentive to finish the job. Have been promised by ESD that I would be reimbursed for double payments for loan while still paying for electric bills, but that has not been done either. Lies upon lies from all. Have waited to post bad review in hopes they would fix it, but now it looks like I will be taking legal action for breach of contract.

Terrible Experience

I cannot recommend ESD Solar. This has to be the most unprofessional, incompetent business I have ever dealt with in my life. The owners (Nancy & Jared Yagmin) and staff make promises they do not keep, everything from scheduling installation, to someone will call you back, to the size of the solar system agreed upon is not what you paid for, to removing the construction lien placed on your home after they have been paid. Anyone considering solar should think long and hard before entering into any type of agreement with this company or be prepared to retain an attorney.

Nonexistent customer service

Since ESD installed an Enphase system I average about one microprocessor failed per year. Each panel has a microprocessor and when it fail lit produces no electricity. ESD charges $250 in advance for the “privilege” of making a warranty service appointment. However, even though they’ve had my money for weeks they still have not set an appointment to replace the defective part. They repeatedly refer to some mythical character named Alfredo, who is supposedly in charge of scheduling. Of course, you can’t speak directly to Alfredo and he seems to always leave early. I’m losing money every day the defective panel is inoperative. Go with any other company, just not ESD.

Liars and thieves

They installed the wrong panels in the wrong place. misled us, the monitoring company and the state of Florida by not installing to the terms of the permit. They have put us in a tier two situation with the power company, causing us to pay for insurance to protect the power company. The panels are operational but not producing correctly because of placement. They falsified my signature. lied to the loan company, and do not communicate or follow through on their contract. They are in breach of contract. Do not fall for their excellent salesman Killian, he is either lying or naive. The only reason they have 1 star is there was not a negative option.

Poor response

I started this process in May 2022, now in April 2023, still no installation of the solar panels. The sales rep is awesome and thats where it stops being awesome. Installation process is awful from permits to upgrades to existing electrical systems to the actual install of the panels. Customer service is unresponsive.

Horrible company to work with

ESD does not honor maintenance contracts. My system has been down for four weeks. The installer, Green Light Solar, is incompetent, not qualified, does not care or all the above. I am proceeding with sale cancellation through consumer protection and attorney general office.

This Company SUCKS! Horrble Follow Up and Service

I regret making a purchase of a solar system with this company. They have no service and or maintenance support. My system is no longer producing the energy, and I cannot get ANYONE to come to my house to figure out what is wrong. And by the way, the initial installation was not done to the engineering specification.. I had to get Hillsborough County involved to get me an additional 10 panels to replace the 10 panels they incorrectly installed in the shade. They did not update Emphase with the information on these 10 -panels. I believe the 10 panels were not correctly added to the "grid." But I cannot get anyone from this HORRIBLE business to come to my house to prove me wrong. Run, don't just walk away from this company.

Trust the Bad Reviews: Be Prepared to Wait

If you're reading this review, I recommend you find someone you know with solar and ask them for a local referral in your county. I wouldn't believe any positive review about this company based upon their work for me. I started looking for companies a year ago. I signed contract with ESD on 3/28/22. Over 2 weeks later a tech came out and walked on my roof; didn't take measurements and left. A day later I get an updated contract with less panels because he thought they couldn't get them all on. 3 weeks later they submitted permit which was approved in 2 weeks. Another month until the panels were installed. I looked at the roof after the installers were done and they ground down to asphalt a huge amount of shingles. Electrician was scheduled to come out 1 month later to connect panels to breaker, but the week before ESD called me to say they needed to resubmit plans based upon the change back in April, but waited till then to do so. 2 weeks later the Permit was issued and another month passed before the electrician showed up to connect. Oh, but we're still not done. Electrician left the solar on when he left. The Electric Company told me that since i had an old meter, I was paying them for all the solar that was collecting since the old meter couldn't tell difference between usage or collection. Thanks ESD; now i'm paying for the solar energy that i'm collecting too. Another month and i get a new meter thanks to my Solar Company checking on me. Electrical Inspection failed because the plans didn't match the install, so waiting for another month due to ESD incompetence; then permit approved in 4 days. ESD waited a whole month to schedule the inspection again (for no possible reason). Once approved (after 8 months), they submitted paperwork to my Energy Company which was denied because their designs were wrong to the installed system. (Seeing a pattern here?). ESD wanted to schedule a tech to come out 2 weeks later to take a picture (yes, really), I said i will take the picture and sent it to them. Then ESD said they needed to update a diagram because it was wrong to the installed hardware; another 2 weeks turnaround. Finally I helped push this to conclusion and after nearly 9 months i'm producing solar. (Oh, but i'm not done yet) I get a call asking to schedule for next week for someone to come map my panels to the online Enphase system. This entailed dismounting every solar panel again to check each serial number. I told them that the installers mapped it and took the mapping with them; After getting the run around they said they were no longer working with that company and didn't have the mapping. Fortunately I had taken a picture of it and sent to them. Still no mapping. Two weeks later they called to say they were sending someone out to connect the system to Enphase. The guy they sent had license plates from half way across the country, was nice, but spoke NO ENGLISH and spent 4 hours trying to connect it to Enphase; on the phone with Enphase tech support the whole time. It appeared I was his first ever connection. Everything’s working for now. Contract states they will accomplish in 3 months (120 days), but took almost 9 months so far; Time outside their control was 40 days in permitting because they had to update the plans 3 times due to their errors. I was a rather proactive person here, calling and emailing them throughout this process. I have a long list of names and phone numbers of people i interacted with. They were all just following their little piece of the job and NO ONE follows these through to completion. They do their little piece, submit a ticket to their team, then wait 2 weeks, and do it again. Save yourself the trouble and find someone else!

5 months in and still wasn't not done. Do not hire these people!

I wrote the following close-out email after 5+ painful months of waiting for a fully operational system. If you are wanting customer support beyond voice-mail look elsewhere. If you are needing timeliness, be very afraid. If satisfaction is all you desire, run! So to review, not informing the customer of a major product change until the day of installation is not ESD's responsibility? Nor is having the appropriate paperwork at the jobsite for inspection on multiple occasions? Nor is having the correct paperwork sent to Duke Energy? Nor is management's, and apparently owner's, behavior in not wanting to listen to the customer's concern on multiple occasions? Nor is telling the customer it will take a few days to populate the array on several occasions even though the one piece of equipment needed to put it all together wasn't installed and wouldn't be installed until two plus months after the array was producing? Nor is telling the customer, "Yeah, some sort of remuneration is warranted for all these delays.", and then crickets (That would be XXXXX talking.).  When we talked the first time a couple of weeks ago after I received a backdated final notice I implied I was waiting for a managerial review of the installation and a statement in writing where ESD was not at fault for any delays in completion and no discount would be given, and with that I would pay the remaining portion of the bill. I reiterated that yesterday after getting a request for payment a second time from you with no corresponding denial of responsibility. I paid the bill after you replied you had reviewed the job and found little to blame ESD for in the extended installation process and there would be no reduction in the amount owed. At least I didn't wait two months to complete my portion of the contract. Finally, if you took my statement where I said you should fit in nicely with the management team as an insult then at least we are in agreement on one thing regarding this fiasco. ESD management is non-existent when it comes to customer service but all in when it comes to the bottom line.

5th, 6th, 7th? One of these times should be a charm

Just failed inspection #4 or #5…I don’t even know anymore.

ESD = Awful

Do NOT do business with this company. They will lie, and suck you in paying thousands of dollars for not doing their homework to find out you are on a rural cooperative that does NOT pay net metering. They have absolutely NO integrity.

Unbelievable

I have had my solar panels installed for 5 years. In the last year I noticed higher energy bills. I thought it may have been the pandemic and being home more, or the power company charging more. I even called ESD about a year ago to find out why my panels were producing so little (mind you I have 19 panels) and the woman on the phone told me I would need to buy more panels. She didn’t ask anything about me or my current account. I had new windows installed at the end of May and was excited to see if it would make my solar panels more productive. When I logged into my duke energy account I noticed there was no data for net metering. I called duke who told me to call the solar company. The solar company couldn’t find my account and took over a week and 5 phone calls by me to talk to someone and get scheduled for repair! Then they charged me $250 to have someone come fix this problem. The technician came this morning. He showed up without knowing anything about my system, what was wrong with it, or what he needed to do. Turns out my inverter is completely dead and has been. He said he ordered a replacement part but thinks I need a whole new inverter. ESD doesn’t even install this kind anymore and I now have to wait 1-2 months for it to actually be fixed. This is not ok! It’s cost me hundreds of dollars in energy bills and now I’m paying service fees on top of that! I don’t recommend this company!

Sorry for associating

Sorry I did not look around a little more before my selection, nothing but heartburn from begining. Crew on site weeks after were told they would be there. After install took a few months for them to get the as builts done then the turn on, what a joke, 3 months of wrong submittals to the power company right down to photos of another house, in the mean time I'm paying for panels and utilities, think I am/was not, pissed. An forget about getting through to their office/customer service. Think about other companies, this should be your last choice

Can't seem to get it right, difficult to deal with

I'm really sad to be leaving a review like this. I was thorough in my research of which company we wanted to partner with for our home solar. We moved forward in May of 2020. They "activated" our solar in August. Since then, we've had problems with our arrays and I've had technicians out to my house no fewer than five times. They keep saying it's fixed, but each time, a few hours later, I can see that it's not. More than half of our panels are effectively non-functional. It's about to be November, a solid 3 months that they can't figure it out. It's truly frustrating to have this experience, but what makes it worse is that the office staff is consistently rude when I request calls from a manager. They also don't respond to submissions on the contact form on the website, which means I'm stuck. I wanted to use a local Florida company, but sadly, I cannot recommend ESD for any solar project.

Total scam, instal never completed, bill is now double!

Instal was initiated over 5 months ago but 20% of our panels have never even shown up on the system and many of those that are reading have been underperforming. The company has never tried to fix these issues, but after we recognized the issue (due to TECO bill still at or around the same price as before the switch) and brought to their attention, the work orders are still unresolved. Our loan payment plus the TECO bill is double what we used to pay for this utility, and we have a 240 month loan now with a system that they won't fix or take back. AVOID AT ALL COST!!!

DO NOT MAKE SAME MISTAKE AS WE DID - GET A BETTER COMPANY

Inexperienced & unprofessional Will not return calls System does not perform as promised Company will not inspect system Very rude and insulting when you do get someone on the phone

Still pay the hight Energy bill same time with solar bill

I try to call the guy to help me to do the application, He told me wouldn't pay hight bill, and save 1 month. Now , I still pay my Energy bill $200 something + Solar bill. waiting working on my problem for a week and still wait.

8 months later...

Over promised and under performed. Now we have two high bills. The electric bill and the solar financed bill. I am so sorry we purchased this system.

It just gets worse

Was sold on a solar panel system from them with the promise that it would be installed and we would enjoy at least one months electricity free due to the billing for the solar system not starting until 4 to 6 weeks after we would be active. Instead we received the bill prior to our system being active. They claim that they had no idea that they would have to replace the meter can prior to city of Bartow changing the meter. My wife tried to discuss it with them but the electrical contractor was so rude she felt it necessary to leave the property. So after panels sitting on my roof for 7 weeks they finally come out to change the can. In the process they removed a switch that provides power to my main AC unit and did not rewire it correctly. Spent a very hot night in our house and called our AC tech to come out the following day just to make sure it wasn't the AC that was the problem. Also, their electrical contractor left all kinds of trash in our yard where they were working including wires, tape, electrical piping, and all of their trash and coffee cups!! What the heck? I wish I would have gotten reviews from other clients prior to using this company.

Service, project management and after installation service

We did purchased complete package with tree trimming service, ac replacement and solar panels installation. After signing the contract nobody from the company showed up at our property. Tree trimming service trimmed wrong tree and Energy solution Direct installers pointed that out to us. we did claimed that to management they promised fix it. Never happens, after year long discussions they trimmed again wrong tree. After that Dan M. stopped communicate with us. We need system serviced but no response for those requests too. We recommended 3 friends and customers who got sign contract with them and no promised referral was ever delivered to us. We asking for promised system monitoring and no response for those services too. project documentation is done for neighbors property.( can send pictures of it and all email conversation with this bs company to proove this review).