ION Solar

Worst company for issues after sales

We had solar installed in 2019. We have had problems with production not reading for years and cannot get it completely corrected. Last summer(the highest production months) we were down resulting in paying high energy bills, not being able to sell srec so we got hit double. One of the ones who came out after waiting months said it has to be in our wiring because it keeps blowing fuses. He also recommended a new combiner because he thinks mother board is overheating during high production days but never looked into it, replaced 30 amp fuse with 60 amp and it got us through winter, but now we are at the same point with more sun we have blown fuse. I would never recommend this company to anyone.

Terrible customer service

Once insrallled, customer service goes down the drain. Have been having production issues for months and they haven’t reached out despite numerous request and phone calls

Horrible experience

I hated my experience with Ion. I don't recommend their services. I wish I could provide negative stars. I was promised Benefits that will not occur and despite the representatives that I spoke with. My grievances were dismissed, and Ion made no effort to make things right. I was the guinea pig for my cul-de-sac, because a few of my neighbors want to go solar. I will not recommend Ion. I understand mistakes happen, but no one tried to make it right. If that was an example of the service I will receive in the future, I'm not looking forward it.

Complaint

It’s a total rip off! We bought the solar system about seven months ago, we were told the monthly payment would be fixed at $120 for the 25 years term of the financing agreement. Now we found out that $120 is only for the first year, $176 will be the payments for the next 24 years! We will pay much more than what we promised! What a big rip off especially for a couple of senior citizens like us with a fixed income!

Only Interested in their Bottom Line

During solar panel installation, our roof was damaged causing a leak. The panels were removed and the roof repaired. Now they want us to buy new panels because the original ones were "damaged". Even if the panels were damaged before removal, had it not been for Ion Solar's negligence in the first place we would have panels working, as they claim, in a diminised capacity, but we would have SOMETHING. Now I have $18000 worth of panels sitting on my deck and they want us to pay another $4000 to fix their negligence.

Big rip off

Do not purchase this product. Everything I was told at there pitch is untrue. I am paying more now than before I purchased this.

Terrible Experience!

This was absolutely the worst company I’ve ever dealt with! The salesman sold a product and made guarantees about a market he knew nothing about. They are not upfront about any cancelation fees, and their communication both within the company as well as externally is HORRID! I started this process 6/8/2023 and did not get everything completed to operate until 2/9/2024. The initial site survey should have been completed on 6/13 but ended up being rescheduled multiple times for various reasons. They blamed the weather, but it was a sunny day, the guy did not show up another time, and eventually an entirely different technician took over to get the site survey completed which was some time around August. At this time is when I requested things to be canceled and was bullied with this cancelation fee despite the issue being with ION and their technicians. This was the overall trend with everything else that followed, the actual installation was rescheduled, the inspections were rescheduled, check for permits was sent to the incorrect place, etc. This led to me missing a lot of work/money and it was just an entire mess. I'm still not satisied with ION as the salesman guaranteed my panels would be on the front of the house instead of the back. Overall, I regret every giving ION the time of day.

Do not get

In the beginning of the process, the salesman does his job and is extremely nice and convincing and has you buy in to what they are selling. The installation had a few hickups but overall no complaints. It's the after that I do not like. I was told I'll be paying approximately $85 a month for the panels but would be getting $40 from Dominion Power monthly for having panels that was a lie. Now my payment for the panels is increasing to $130 a month which I totally missed (but that's my fault for not fully reading the document, just listening to the rep) My electricity bill seems like its getting higher. I see no benefit to having panels. With my electricity bill and the cost of panels, I'm paying so much more than I was before! DO NOT DO IT! No matter how good they make it sound!!!!

Poor service and no empathy

Horrible experience once the Panel were installed and money was paid to them through bank. My yard is trenched since last 4 months and every time I follow up they say the scheduling team messed up with inspection scheduling or field agent cannot come. So far I have 2 failed inspections from county and 3 reschedules including one that happened this morning where someone scheduled it wrong. Also every time I follow up and then they try to schedule VS rescheduling should be done by them.This is my second month of paying Monthly installment for my Solar loan without generating a single unit since we can not turn it on until inspections are done so I am paying my electricity bill and this which is double cost to me every month. At this point I cannot do much just wanted others to know how it went. Attaching my trenched yard photo for reference.

Information prior to sale

I was told when I had the solar panels put on my house that my bill would go down. They worked with Mosic Financial for the financing. This is what I have found out. With the payment I am paying 3x's the price of what I paid when I only had PEC. If it is too hot the system is taken down. I was told that my bill would be less with the solar panels. The back up battery I bought with the panels is always sending warnings it is below 30%. If I had it to do over, I would NOT put solar on my house!

Worst decision

I thought going Solar was a good idea but this company has changed my mind they are incompetent And don't care once you sign the contract they care less going on 7 month no solar then keep failing inspections. Call and all you get is the same corporate bs do yourself a favor if you go to solar don't go with ion if they come to your door tell them to kick rocks

Pushy Salesman

Young salesman has been to our house 3 times. He’s been told NO all three times. I told him this last time to stay away. He yelled at me thru closed door. If he is stupid enough to come back, police will be called.

Buyer Beware - energy costs have INCREASED!

I signed with ION Solar 4 months ago and have had panels on our roof for 9 weeks (doing nothing) and I have no idea when my solar system will be powered on. ION have ignored many of my messages and escalations have led nowhere. When they have replied, they provided half-truths. For example... they told me the City of Henderson has asked for 'additional documentation' when, in fact, their submission was rejected by the City and ION had to resubmit again. They then told me inspections were complete just to tell me, the next day, that another inspection is necessary! These clowns don't seem to have a clue what they're doing. And for the cherry on the cake... I have now been charged the monthly finance fee for the panels - so my energy costs have INCREASED with ION Solar. This is not what I was sold or signed up for. I don't recall the Sales Guy mentioning my costs will go up during his sales pitch. Not sure of the legal terminology when you are sold something opposite of what you actually get. Tried to get out of the contract a month ago to let another company take over but was told breaking the contract once panels are installed is not an option. Hope he didn't lie to about that as well. Am currently seeking other dissatisfied customers to gather evidence for a possible legal claim against ION Solar.

Cancellation Fee

I had a sales representative visit my house, and told I would be receiving a “Free Estimate” for Solar on my residential home. I was talked into signing an agreement to get the process started on the “free estimate” on 6/27/2023. It wasn’t until 7/13 did a tech come to survey the home to determine the requirements and design of the project. On 7/14 I received a text msg stating the application to the electric company was being submitted, which I immediately responded to the same day, that I did not want to move forward with the project, because the solar design on the loan would be approx. $180 per month, whereas the house I had just purchased and still adjusting to, the electric bills were coming in under $100 per month. I also spoke with my rep on the phone stating I did not want to move forward with the project, to which he assured me we were done the process. Fast forward to Sept 15th, I received an email from ION asking for my electric bill records, to which I said I had canceled this request, but was then told I would be responsible for a $1500 cancellation fee. Why have I not heard from anyone with IONSOLAR for 2 months, thinking the account was closed, and now being told I am responsible for, “ All of that costs money and Ion is just getting repaid for the work we've done to this point.” I feel I was more than upfront, honest and responsive to all correspondence in this matter, however being mislead and scammed in this transaction. Because I signed an agreement in 6/27, I am being told that I needed to cancel by 6/30 to avoid any cancellation fee’s. How would anyone be able to make an informed decision in three days, when they did not receive the estimated design and/or cost until one or two weeks later. No labor was conducted, and no items were purchased or ordered. Then express the desire to terminate, and be reassured, only to be harassed 2 months later. In efforts to try an resolve by email, they said offered to settle for $500 to which I also refused to accept.

Terrible company and even worse customer service

Do not use Ion Solar. Had the salesman show up to my house and it is the worst purchase I have ever made. First the electrician they had messed up on their measurements and put an extra hole in the side of my house that took them 3 weeks to fix. They left hundreds of nails all over my property and it took me weeks to find them all. I explained that i have two small children and pets so this was important to me. The whole time Ion customer service and managers assured me they would have someone come out and thouroughly clean my property. That was 4 years ago now and it has never happened. Then they failed inspection which took them longer to come out and fix. I actually made a payment on the loan before my solar was even turned on. about 8 months ago i started the process to get a new roof. Before I could get one I had to do a Lift and Replace of my solar panels which cost my insurance company over $7,000. The salesman when i first bought my panels promised me that Ion would store and safely handle my solar panels if that ever happened. When I mentioned this to Ion they said that is not part of their policy and I would have to store my panels in my garage for however long it would take. It took me months to finally get them to agree and to honor their word. Ion then ended up breaking 4 of my panels and it has been over 60 days and my panels are still not back on my roof. I have spoken to just about everyone I can at that company and nothing. All they do is apologize and then apologize oh and one more apology but then they do not follow up with you or call you or do anything about your complaint so you are forced to make a poor review.

Terrible.

DON’T DO IT! Terrible experience for myself and wife, however it didn’t start that way. This also seems to be the experience for everyone that has spoke up about their experience with ION solar in the Wimberly estates edition located near sw 29th and Morgan in OKC. Between the initial install day followed by multiple visits to fix issues from the install day. All of these trips delayed the time of the inspection request going to OG&E and approval request to the city of Oklahoma City. This process started in April. 4 months ago!!! It is now August and we still do not having working solar panels. Instead thousands of dollars worth of equipment sitting around doing nothing. Now we have paid two months of payments to the finance company without the panels ever actually being completely hooked up. Apparently it doesn't matter that we still do not have a functional system, payments will begin 60 days afterwards regardless of the status of panels actually functioning. Seems this would be a break of contract as a service was paid for and not delivered on the sellers end. This was supposed to be completed months ago. There has also been multiple scheduled appointments that myself or my wife have made sure one of us was available for and at the house just for no one to ever show up. From the initial sales pitch to first day install made it all sound great and that it was gonna be a quick smooth deal. Then that seems to hit a wall. Now communication with ION has gone down hill. This all seems like one of those too good to be true situations. I was gonna be more than happy to refer people dependent on our experience. However now I am actively warning all others I come in contact with to avoid the headaches and DO NOT go with ION solar due to our experience. Or honestly any solar company for that matter currently in Oklahoma due to the incompetence to properly schedule a complete install in coordination with the proper inspections with the jurisdiction of the install. There has already been several news stories over similar cases here locally showing this is a frequent problem with solar companies. Instead of fixing the issue they stick the customers with an essentially doubled electrical bill if not more, between their regular electrical bill plus the finance bill for the solar panels. Instead of making it a smooth financial transition. We have reached out to the finance department and pretty much been told sorry about your luck with no help there. We will be looking at reaching out to some sort of legal representation on possible options for the fact a service is not being provided that was sold to us. BUYER beware.

BAIT AND SWITCH

I was referred to Ion by another person in my neighborhood who recently bought solar with the intent to install a battery backup system once he worked it into his budget. I wanted to do the same to ensure our lights stayed on if/when the power went out. Also, EVERYBODY with solar in our neighborhood has a battery backup and it has worked out great and adding panels or a battery backup system is NORMAL and the whole point of getting these systems. We were told by our rep that this would not be an issue and we could call anytime to get one installed, so we went with Ion. However, we recently called Ion to get a quote and were informed they would void our parts and labor warranty if we added one to our system. They also gave three reasons for this: 1. They have no installers in Colorado who are trained to install them, and 2. They are too expensive so I would be better off going with a whole home generator. TOTAL BS. Where whole home generators can be less expensive they require the maintenance that I would prefer not to do that a battery backup system would take care of for me. Either way, both my neighbor and I were blatantly lied to in order for Ion to get our business. We are now stuck with a system we didn’t want as we could easily had gone with another company that was more honest and had the integrity enough to stand behind what their reps sold. Saying it is not their problem because it was a shoddy rep is not the sign of a good company. Very dishonest and really terrible to bait someone to get their business. Also, Ion not having a rep in Colorado to install batteries is not my problem and every company I have talked to that installs PV only systems have said they have never heard of this type of issue. So LITERALLY any company you go with besides Ion wont have this issue. Go with someone else.

Worse possible experience

It has been a nightmare from the beginning. Installed November 2022. Unclear loan options resulting in a loan with higher interest rate, trying to have you switch utility companies when Reliant is one of their preferred for solar efficiency (depending on the rep you spoke with which is another huge issue), design to have a few panels on the back roof promised by the worse sales rep who did not submit the correct design, Enphase outside box wifi chip needing replacing after 5 months which turned into another huge fiasco and misinformation, 2 microconverters are not working for 5 days now (but could have been longer since the wifi chip issue was not reporting usage, every support person gives you a different line and escalating just results in more miscommunication. Now I have a loan payment and still a high energy bill. The Austin locations are all closed (?) and it appears to be working out of Utah for support.

very bed customer service

I would not suggest any one to go with ion solar, i had very bad experience with customer service , after paying money and schedule an appointment no one showed up and no follow up call at all, why they are not coming for your solar panel service , i understand it happen but in my case it happening 3 times and still my 7 panels are not working. I do not know where else to go other then the support, i feel like it is very bed investment with ION solar.

no one to talk to

As much as I hate to say it, look elsewhere. I got my panels, they are on and producing, support after the fact is non-existent. The initial phase is fine, and the sales rep is responsive. After you sign you go through an endless series of departments for each phase, but you will not have a single point of contact. Your sales rep will be less helpful at that point, they made the sale and moved on. Now that my system is one and they have been paid, getting answers for any question is impossible. The monitoring app from Enphase is glitchy, the app maker points to the installer and vice versa.

Great service and they keep me up to date on each step! This was my original thought. Sales person and everyone were great till the panels got on my roof and I started making payments. They sat there non-functional for 5 months while I paid for electricity and non-working panels. They only reimbursed me for 3 payments stating “…the contract that you signed we are not legally required to reimburse you for any payments. But that we are willing to give you these three to help with the frustration.” The wiring was bad on instal but in the end I paid the price for their mistake. They are expensive but the reviews were good so I went with them. I hope this will persuade someone like me from making the same mistake.

Mediocre product horrible company

They damaged my property, did more damage fixing it and $30,000 in solar panels is going to cost me $50,000. My BBB complaint was closed because they know how to manipulate the system. RUN AWAY or fight them for years. They frustrate you into submission.

Unbelievable

Recieved a call from an Ion guy and I asked a few questions. I guess it was wrong to engage at all with these guys. After that I started to recieve endless phonecalls and text messages that I had zoom appointments and other appointments that I had never even scheduled. I NEVER said I wanted any kind if service from this company and yet they continuously harass me through calls and text. Do NOT engage with them because they will relentlessly not leave you alone! This is supposedly a "free" service, but I cannot help but think something else is behind all of the calls and texts.

Probably good, if they don't screw up installation

I signed up for solar, after 2 positive reviews from friends. Install and everything went quick, efficient, and was up and running after 2 months or so. This is, apparently, the norm. My experience was vastly different though... Everything was on track, up until inspection by the county/city (whoever it is). I was told that the installation team made a mistake, skipping installation of a particular part that is NOT necessary, as of 2023, apparently. However, since install was for 2022 still, inspection failed. Install happened and was finished (had solar panels and electric box on house) in early Nov 2022. After that, I started to hear less and less from Ion. To the point that I wondered what was going on, repeatedly calling them, and getting the cliche "we're working on it" communication calls. Billing hit me right after installation was finished, even though inspection failed. THIS is where they got me. Why charge someone for something, when it's not even turned on? I get that they're installed on my house, and I will eventually need to pay for them. I also understand that I may have a transition period where I'm paying the solar loan bill, and my electric bill. But I was expecting only a month or two, maybe. Instead, I got 6-7 months worth of electric company and solar loan billing, while Ion rarely spoke to me. At one point, I had to reach out to the loan company, to see if I could stop payments until the things were actually up and running. It wasn't until that happened, that they finally started communicating with me more, and actually started getting somewhere... smh... At best, they're incompetent in various areas that can cause massive headaches. At worst, they don't give a flying F about you as a customer... Typical company/corporate BS. After calling the loan company, they transferred me to an Ion customer rep. He asked me "what can we do to make it better?" I replied: "I'm not really sure, at this point. You tell me what the options are?! I'd like to NOT pay you, until everything is actually functional, and I have a working product... What options do I, or YOU, even have?!?!" SHOCKER, they wouldn't stop charging me! Due to bad communication, I can't tell if Ion is "the bad guy" in this scenario, because I'm guessing that the regulations for the electric company and the city/county to do their inspections, is vastly under regulated. That said, I wouldn't really know, and was quoted 2 weeks for each, typically. That puts me at one month of time... Not 6-7 after install... So, nothing adds up, and no one could tell me what the heck was going on... But I still get to pay for it!!! SWEET!!!

Company is inefficient, unprepared, and untrustworthy

This company is absolutely horrible! They stopped responding before they completed the contract of work. Their only "electrician" quit mid day. We've taken multiple days off and they no showed. I can't over emphasize this...stay away from these scam artists! There are so many options within solar--pick anybody but these people. Have been waiting for them to finish the work for more than 8 months.