ION Solar

Overpriced, major misquotes/mistakes, bad customer service

A current customer, some of my panels were damaged in baseball-sized hailstorm. Ion provided a quote, which I submitted to my insurance. After insurance payout, Ion Solar came back w/a quote 3 times the first quote. I submitted it to insurance for adjustment, but the additional payment didn't come close to covering even a portion. When I told Ion's rep I was going to look at changing solar companies, he said Ion charges more than other companies--for the same products/equipment--because they provide better customer service. LOL. Their mistakes, lack of quality control, and bad customer service have caused a big delay in replacement of my roof! I'm looking for another solar company and suggest prospective customers avoid Ion Solar!

Pressure

First, I HATE salesmen & I HATE it when they solicit me at my home...my sanctuary. I am totally in favor of renewables, but I have never been so pressured to buy something before. It started when all I was doing was changing a light bulb on my garage exterior & ION's salesman approached me. It was cold out & I didn't have a jacket on. Besides, I hate to be bugged when I am in the middle of something. The salesman went as far as to talk me into giving him my Xcel info. & scheduling a meeting with me. He was a nice kid. I ended up not showing up for that meeting. Then he called, emailed & texted me. So I decided to give him a chance to show me his proposal. It was basically the same as when I got a quote 2 years ago for panels. Because I liked the kid & he didn't ask me if I wanted to take some time to review the proposal, I signed up. Stupid me. I was later angry at myself, because I let myself be taken in. My home is an Energy Star home & my electric bills are low...lower than the payments for the panels would have been. It would take me years just to break even. I am 60 years old. I don't have that kind of time. And I had a concern as to what I would do if I sold my home & the buyers didn't want the panels. ION had no real answer to that. I ended up cancelling within the 3 day cancellation period. Because I didn't want to get the kid in trouble, I just told him that I lost my job. I thought they would leave me alone, but my story didn't work. Obviously, they didn't care that I no longer had the income to pay for the panels...much like the banks did to people back in 2008. The salesman showed up several times at my door (I didn't answer), called, emailed, texted me, & even his boss texted me. And did I mention, the first 16 payments were going to be only $50, but they would not apply to the principle or interest. And if I ever needed to replace my roof, then I would have to hire a solar panel contractor to remove & re-install my panels. Also, I opted to have my payments automatically deducted from my checking account, because I would receive a .5% discount on my payments. The payments weren't to begin until 1/17/19. I had signed up on 11/6/18. The lender made a small withdrawal from my account on 11/8/18 & didn't return it to my account till 11/14/18. I had cancelled on 11/8/18. They said they were just "testing" my account to see if it was valid. I have NEVER experienced that before. My account has been tested both ways many times, but there was never a withdrawal with the test. Like I said. I have never been so pressured before to buy something. But I am more angry at myself than ION. I allowed myself to be pressured. One other thing you may consider...The type of panels I would have gotten retail for $237.60 ea. & the inverters are $119.80 ea. My system design was for 11 panels. So that is a total of $3,931.14 for the majority of the equipment. ION's quote was just shy of $15k. That's a heck of a profit in my opinion.

Bad idea, steer clear

We were already considering solar power when the salesman stopped by. We had extensive questions and had done quite a bit of research. The whole process of getting them installed was fairly simple and smooth. Unfortunately, that's when the problems started. We'd been promised it would be easy to transfer the loan if we decided to sell the house. Not true. In order to transfer the loan you have to pay off 30% first, which means that when life happened to us and we had to move sooner than planned, that included shelling out almost $4000 to be able to transfer the solar loan. But that wasn't the biggest issue. We had the panels installed in late March and they worked for about the first two weeks. Apparently, they threw the breaker and were shut off for almost two full months after that, prime sunshine season for us. When I realized that our electric bills were not getting any lower I investigated and discovered this issue. It was a simple process to reset the breaker but by that time we'd lost two full months of solar power. This meant that we were paying two separate bills for power that wasn't even working. When I tried to approach Ion about this it became an even bigger headache. I couldn't get through on their customer service line and when I did, the person I was supposed to speak to never seemed to be there. I finally stormed into their acutal office but of course, the right person wasn't in that day. I was helped by another manager who said that if I sent them copies of my bills, they would reimburse me for the time we weren't getting energy. Lies. First off, the finance company they use make it nearly impossible to get online and check your account. I got locked out literally every time I tried to log in and it was constantly telling me that my username wasn't correct, despite having checked it multiple times. When I finally managed to get the copies of the statements and forwarded them on to Ion I was promised a response within a day or two. Here we are, a month later and they are still MIA. Haven't heard from them despite multiple more email and phone calls. At one point I asked if I could just return the solar panels since they aren't producing correctly and haven't been since we had them installed eight months ago. They said they could take them off the roof but we'd still have to pay for them. What?! This is ridiculous and so extremely frustrating. I can't believe how much Ion has tried to avoid us and ignored our pleas for assistance. Our panels are still not producing correctly and we are only receiving about half the power we are supposed to be getting due to faulty parts that they just can't seem to get right. They refuse to answer my calls, they won't reimburse us for the months we went without power. It's such a nightmare. Do not buy from them.

Just say no!

Initially I was ready to support solar on my home, but was wary with the slick sales. That was the easiest part of the whole process. It began with the initial install date where the installers never showed up. I called the project manager after waiting an hour, who informed me they should be there - she checked her schedule - and then realized they had already called to say they couldn't make it due to weather. Well no duh! Then we had continuous calls from said project manager to re-sign multiple contract sheets repeatedly that she was supposedly not receiving went sent. After install we began experiencing a pigeon problem, which they knowingly don't mention when selling solar panels, and they notify us it would be $700. Ok, I will price check and investigate options used. Fast forward to 9 months later I inquire about some type of critter guard again and they tell me it is $750 and they use whatever the installer has on hand. Wtf?!?! I research options and find many who are willing to install but at a slightly more expensive rate. So, I call 1 week later to ask someone else in customer service about installing the critter guard and what they will be using. I receive an answer that they are on back order and don't know when they will be receiving any and to search around for someone else to install it as they are probably more expensive than most anyway. No, they are not in backorder, they don't want to sell it or install it. They have project orders to meet and critter guard doesn't fall in that project timeline. Could have been a great thing, but everyone that asks, I advise NOT to go with Ion solar. ALSO, we have not received any discount on the use of the 19 panels installed, soooo.... Definitely not a happy customer!

Take your business elsewhere!!!

Salesman seemed like an alright guy at first...he didn't disclose a lot of information or other available options for us with our panels. Once we closed our loan and all was said and done is when we found out that ION's warranty does not cover damage to our panels done by birds but yet didn't mention that they offer guard rails to keep pigeons from going under your panels to prevent them from getting damaged?! Called customer service 6 months after install to see if they would come out an install the guard rails we were never told about but desperately need on our home, we were told by our salesman that if we ever needed any additional equipment to call and they would come out for free, customer service told us it would be $500 to install guard rails now. Called customer service to inquire again on 9/25/2018, spoke to a supervisor who said she would contact me within that same day or next day...never called me back, I called to check in on 9/27/2018 with no resolution. Installers showed up almost 2 hours past the arrival window given to us, they left black marks all over our ceiling in my laundry room where they needed access to the attic, failed to install proper badges TWICE to pass inspections, it took 3 inspections to pass and finally get my panels turned on. Installed in October 2017 and not turned on until January 2018. Long story short.. although ION is cheaper on panels, pay the extra buck and go with a reputable company that will treat you right! You get what you pay for I guess.....?

Great at the beginning but horrible experience

The salesman was awesome and so did the product I was so ready and excited to go solar but afterwards I had a few questions about what would happen if I moved so I put it on hold. Unfortunately as a construction worker my phone broke during the week so went without a phone for 4 days when I finally got the new phone I turned it on and I was blown up with voicemails and harassing text messages from Erik Rash about fines and calling me names and this guy is supposed to be the “VP” for their resolutions center. That made me realize this company is a joke and desperate if their “VP” acts like that... WARNING do not deal with this company!!!

Ion solar

I was very excited about ion solar. Until they did terrible on our home. We had wires sticking out and a partial bird guard around our stuff. The only thing that looks good is the pipe on the side of the house that is painted the same color as our house. When they installed the boxes on the side of the house it was also not level and looked terrible. It failed inspection by the city too. Not only that they dont call you to check up on you, they text you. When they text you they take forever to respond. They do not communicate with each other, so we still do not have all of our stuff promised to us. Not satisfied at all with this company.

Worst

This place is a ripped off stay away bad descion i ever made.. my energy bill is crazy high i contact them and all they do is gove me a run around..

If I'd have only known....

If you are looking at solar, look away from Ion!! Once the contract was signed, everything went down hill from there. The installers showed up on time the day of installation, however, their electrician was not with them. After a lengthy discussion with the project manager, I rearranged my schedule to allow the electrician in my home on a Saturday. I was told that this would only take 3-4 hours, in reality it took him all day Saturday and half of a day on Sunday which made me scrub all of my weekend plans. I was promised that the conduit on the side of my house would be painted to match. The electrician found a rattle can color that wasn't even close and half-ass painted the conduit. In addition to the poor paint job, the electrican had also taken down the large exterior cabinet he installed and replaced it with a small cabinet. This left holes in the side of my house which he put some dark gray putty in to seal them (my house is light tan) and never painted them. Ion then tried to start up my system and couldn't get all of the panels online, so fast forward several days later and another crew comes out to trouble shoot (which i had to ake another half day off from work). They found that the electrician had wired the system incorrectly into the breaker panel. This crew finally got the exterior siding and conduits painted correctly. Through all of these struggles, the project manager had promised me some extra incentive money for the extra days of work that I had to take off and the inconveniences for me having to constantly rearrange my schedules for them to fix the work that should have been done correctly the first time. My system has been on just short of two months now and I still have yet to receive the contracted incentive, let alone the bonus incentive. Their office just told me over the phone that I'm getting nothing for all of the troubles they put me through. Folks, it aint worth it. Find a better solar company than me.

Damaged home during installation, no response from company

Don't use ION solar, find another company. We had issues with them causing damage to our home, and they are now ignoring our emails and attempts to have them complete the repair work for the damage they caused (they stepped off the joist in the attic and caused damage to the cieling in our living room). Additionally, the electrician they sent was a new hire, who had not received sufficient training, and came to complete the job without any senior technician to supervise. After over 12 hrs in our home he left with the electrical being about half complete. Although they knew the electrical was not complete, they allowed the state inspection, and then when the incompetent inspector gave them the "pass", they said, oh well, at least we have the passed inspection. We have video from our Ring doorbell of the ION guy talking about the "passed" inspection, even though the electrical hadn't been completed.

Unprofessional company

This company was great at taking my money but really sucked at the service. Three times I had to reschedule because of excuses about my roof and the wind etc.... then no one contacted me I had to contact them with the installation crew didn't show up. If I could change to a better company I would this is so unprofessional. I give this company a 0 rating on professionalism.

They left UTAH. No response to BROKEN system

Panels installed 3/17. Problems started in 10/17. Emails, phone calls, no response My $220 presolar bill is now $180 with panels. Cost $23,000. It worked fine at first. ION solar left UTAH for what I can now see is Colorado. I'm going to stop here. More to follow soon pending their fixing my situation. BIG TIME DO NOT! RIGHT NOW CH

Horrible company, will not recommend to anyone

I had my system installed in August I believe it was and because this company did not give me the right size system I have been paying double for electricity. I am paying for the solar panels and a normal electricity bill which is just as high as my bill was prior to getting the solar panels. Absolutely f**king useless sales team and project managers. When the system was done, I had to figure out how to turn it on myself, work the app, etc because no one showed me, explained, and no one on the phone was smart enough to tell me how everything worked. I will not be recommending this company to anyone and reporting them to the BBB

*WORST COMPANY EVER!!! ***WARNING*** DON'T USE THIS COMPANY!!

I signed up with this company in June. To start with, ION Solar was supposed to go through my HOA but never did and so I got a violation from the HOA. It is now November and they are charging my monthly payments (so I'm paying double to excel and ION) I STILL HAVE NO PANELS ON MY HOUSE or a running solar system!!! I NEVER ONCE HEARD BACK FROM THE SALES REP and have never had the same person follow through on anything. I don't get contacted about updates and the project failed inspection 2 times and no one has ever called me or come out to fix it. NOW I'm trying to get out of the whole deal because I feel like I've been completely scammed and they want to charge me $7000 to take it all down. Please save yourself time and use a reputable company and DON'T GO WITH ION SOLAR!!!

Install Oct 3rd 2017 of this year

On October 3rd I had the installation all dialed in for my home- One of the installers was nice enough to show me after the install was complete, how he pulled the power lever and then proceeded to show me that the SCE meter was going backwards, I was specifically shown that my solar was now working- Fast forward to yesterday- When my electricity was shut off- I contacted SCE and was told that my electricity was shut off- How can this be is what my thought was- I got the service turned on Oct 3rd and at that time I was expecting my final bill- Well, not the case- I was at no time ever told I had to get an inspection done and then and only then AFTER this inspection would I be able to file something with SCE and then finally have my solar working- Of course since I thought my solar was working I then decided I could afford to run my AC and my tenants of course did the same- At no time was I told anything about a final inspection and was also told by Doug on 2 possibly 3 occasions that I would NEVER receive a bill from SCE EVER- So, from the date of the 3rd of October, I was running up my bill and missed the deadline to pay, assuming I would just be getting a closing bill at the time of my eliminating the power use from SCE- I had to settle up on all the bills, and also having to pay the future assessed bill in order to get my power back on- I was also faced with having to pay a deposit to SCE of just under 1000 dollars in order to get my power back on- In addition to this debacle here is the latest- After I was told from SCE what I then needed to do (something I was told was to be taken care of by ION mind you) was to contact building and safety for Temecula- This was the inspection I was never told about mind you and then in a text sent from Doug yesterday which stated, “the city is what we are waiting for they are dragging their feet that ‘s all we need to hear from and they are the ones causing the delay.” Well I have an eye opener for you- I called the county of riverside, and got my own inspection scheduled on the 24th of October- There was zero wait, I was given this information in a 5 minute phone call to the county- The representative named Mitzy, told me this “at no time has anyone from ION contacted us.” Imagine my disgust in hearing this- I foolishly referred your services to friends of mine- They waited months for this so called inspection (oh and they were informed of the need for the inspection process btw) I let them know how easy it was to get this scheduled- Pretty sure you will also be hearing from them as well- So, in conclusion, I am extremely dissatisfied with the lack of communication from Doug- I feel like I was really pressured in signing the final documents and after this took place, they could care less- I was told by SCE that your company installed a system that bypassed you having to upgrade my electric panel in my residence- I explicitly told Doug, my system is not robust and I definitely need that upgraded- Of course it was not done- Your company would rather pay an additional 500 dollars to SCE than to get your customer what they asked for- And imbedded in the paperwork was the ok to do this- I would have liked to have had this explained to me and given a choice in this matter- But no, a slimey move on the sales persons part- This experience reeks of hurry up and sign this so I can get my commission- This is sad to find out- I would have been an excellent advocate to refer your company to others- This will not happen and in fact, I will be filing complaints with several organizations- The SCE rep gave me the proper channels to do this and is also going to lodge a complaint through SCE based on my information- She was appalled at the miscommunication as well.

Don't use this company!

During the sales and planning phase they were very eager to help and everything went just as explained by the sales person. After that though it has been a nightmare. I have had appointments for inspection and installation that nobody showed up to. I took the day off work both times to be home and they just didn't show up. When I called and complained there was no desire to make it right, just to schedule another appointment. The sales person had promised us incentives to purchase the panels and we have yet to see those (it's been 7 months). We were originally quoted 3 months from signing the papers to turning the panels and and it's been seven months and the panels are still not on. We have now made 5 loan payments while STILL paying an electric bill. I cannot explain how frustrated I am with this company. Look for a local installer in your city and use them. Or really just use anyone else. They would have to be better than Ion/Zing Solar.

TERRIBLE SERVICE

This company is eager to speak with you & call you before the installation but once that happens the service is TERRIBLE. I have been paying for Solar service that doesn't work set up by them through SUNNOVA & alos paying the electric company. Im disabled & live on a fixed income & they ONLY CARE ABOUT MONEY not helping customers. DO NOT USE THESE 2 COMPANIES YOU WILL REGRET THIS IN MY OPINION AS I HAVE

Don't sign their contract until you know what you are in for!

Post signing a contract with Vision Solar - now ION Solar the promises made me very excited. My contract post install is managed by an OUTSOURCED company also the financial corp. Meaning, if your panels under produce ION Solar is not responsible until they are re-contracted by Dividend Solar to check it out. This leaves a big gap in ION's post contract support or liability, frankly. Ion was notified by Dividend to check this out in October 2016 the panels they installed were under producing over 20%... I heard back from then Mid-January of 2017 or 3 months. Currently, Ion still has not metered or checked this production but they have bounced me between a wide range of people promising to correct this. The UGLY -No one has fixed our 20% decrease in production since it was noticed Oct. 2016 -You never fully understand who is responsible for faulty work (ION or the third party you are sold to) -Panels were placed on the WRONG part of our roof. -Installers never showed us where they were going to place before they installed ( I was home the whole time) -Took another couple weeks for their electrician to finish the job. -Took another few months before Rocky Mtn turned it on. -They placed our panels on a dilapidated roof (we trusted their engineers but our Home Insurance booted us off for bad roof) -(BTW they will make you pay to temporarily take the solar off and redo your roof, unless all your credit is wrapped in your solar, which you will be screwed because this company is okay placing solar on bad roofs.) -Post signing contract no customer service agent knew anything about install times and the 2month install mentioned at signing became 3X LONGER and 6 months later installed. -Sell your contract and support responsibility on a third party -Engineer/Surveyor will fraudulently pass your roof as a pass and quote higher amounts of electrical production just to lock in the sale. -Company and owners do not respond to issues with their product or poor customer service Other installers have reviewed my panels here are some of the points made: -Panels are unlevel side to side (aesthetics) -No end caps on the brackets and expose the tunnel in the center exposed and ugly The Good - -Deferred first payment for 12 months (however the ticker starts after signing not after install***BEWARE***) -Tax credits (if you need them, but it's not a guarantee you will receive more - its not a check for getting solar) -Financial company has an easy website to navigate and respond quickly. I do not recommend this company!