Patricia Mills | Round Top, Texas | 07/24/2023
Maintenance
This company’s response to problems with their equipment is terrible-no response to email/texts. 2 weeks of contacts before a real person responds. Our inverters have stopped working at least 3 times since installation.
The Rail Guy | San Marcos, Texas | 05/16/2023
Jameson Dillon, Sales Manager
My experience Jameson & Longhorn Solar Inc. was great. I would recommend Longhorn Solar to others. I am more than satisfied with there performance and cooperation. I originally had a 42 panel system installed with out batteries in 2017 (based on 80% average usage). Problem was when the grid goes down the panels are useless. System upgrade: Longhorn Solar installed a TESLA (2)battery system last fall and then 8 additional panels this spring. Love the system and on most sunny days I am able to operate 100% self powered! Wow...
Bruce Cardwell | Austin, Texas | 09/27/2022
10 percent won't buy you time of day
I signed my contract with Longhorn Solar at the end of August 2021. Here it is September 27, 2022 and my system is yet to be installed where it will pass even a simple test of turning off the Grid power and seeing how long we can live on our Sonnen EcoLynx20 battery. Test FAILED at one hour and it powered down the whole house with 86% battery charge showing remaining. Attempted to address this issue with Sonnen, whatever changes they made powered down the battery completely. I was told I could power the battery back up and all should be well. Not a chance, battery will not power up, we are dead in the water as far as battery backup goes. Sonnen said that given it would not power up I needed to talk with my installer to remedy the situation. I contacted them over 10 business days ago and copied in everyone I had an email address for and all I have heard is crickets. Today we heard reports that thousands of folks in Austin are without power, luckily not us, however my wife heard that story and she is not at all happy and called Longhorn today to receive a message that the tech support folks had forgotten that we were down. If you decide to go with this company demand a 40% 30% 30% payment schedule, holding 10% of their final payment is not enough to even get the time of day from them with their standard 20 40 30 10% schedule. So as it stands now they have 90% of my money and I have no battery backup, no solar feeding into the system when the Grid power is turned Off and a very unhappy wife. I'm not very happy either and today my patience has ended also.
Alexandra McLarty | Grapevine, Texas | 09/26/2022
Could have been worse, but that's the best I can say
I would love to leave Longhorn a good review, but unfortunately I just can’t. The sales process was clear and smooth, but installation was, frankly, a nightmare. I’ve had many companies work on my house, and Longhorn is by far the least responsive and least reliable company I’ve worked with. I regret selecting them, especially since I’ll need to rely on them to service the system in the future too. I should have canceled my contract at the first sign of trouble. Don’t make my mistake. My install date was pushed back multiple times over two and a half months with little to no communication. I didn’t even know our late May date was canceled until no one showed up on the day the project was scheduled to start, even though I’d called and emailed my project manager multiple times that week to confirm it (she never returned my calls or emails). When installation was finally set to begin, there were issues immediately. Despite claiming they only use in-house teams, a subcontracted company installed my panels. The battery team from Longhorn and the subcontracted panel team were not on the same page, and in fact didn’t even know about each other at first. It took over a month and a half from the panels and batteries beginning installation to finally being completed. During that time, my voicemails and emails were almost never returned. I learned that I had to catch someone in the office if I wanted a response, but that I had to call outside of their daily morning multi-hour all hands meeting, where no one in the office is accessible at all. Even when I was rarely able to catch my project manager on the phone, she was almost never able to tell me anything other than that she’d ask her manager at the next day’s all hands meeting and call me back. Which, of course, regularly didn’t actually happen. When someone would finally be scheduled to come finish installation, usually 1-2 weeks out if I was lucky, they often failed to show up at all or didn’t send enough people to complete the work, meaning things would be pushed out another week or more just to get another appointment scheduled. It took over 3 weeks (and multiple missed or canceled appointments) just to get someone to come back out to commission the batteries when the panels were finally done. When my system failed the QC inspection, I almost cried out of frustration knowing it would take weeks and dozens of calls to get things fixed (which it did). I spent hours every week just trying to reach someone and get on their schedule. Fortunately, Danny became involved in the project towards the end. While he wasn’t able to single-handedly fix all of the issues Longhorn has and things haven’t been smooth even with his help, it was refreshing to be able to reach someone reliably and to be in contact with someone with the ability to get things rolling. I appreciate his efforts. I can’t imagine how much longer my project would have taken to finish without his help. When installation was finally complete, I was told someone would walk me through my system and that I’d receive an owner’s manual. It’s now been over two months and despite several requests, I haven’t received either of these things. With all of these issues, I’ve received a few vague apologies but no other efforts to make things right. As a business owner myself, if a customer had experienced all the issues I had, they’d be looking at a hefty discount at a minimum. Unfortunately, one of my batteries is already broken. It took over a month from reporting the issue to get someone out to work on it, and now a new battery has to be ordered, which will take at least another month. I understand that Longhorn has staffing issues currently. I would hope that a responsible company would adjust their project schedule to only take on the work that they can handle, but it feels to me that Longhorn’s goal is profit first, customer satisfaction dead last. I hired Longhorn for my project despite them being one of the higher quotes I received due to their formerly excellent reputation. I wish I’d gotten what I paid for.
Leo | Plano, Texas | 09/04/2022
Broken inverter 2 times in 3 months, system still down
Terrible experience with longhorn solar, got an inverter broken 2 times in 3 months. System still down. Total uptime for the system is not even 75% a year, which pretty much renders a 16kw battery useless. When offered them to amend to contract to account for their lack of support/warranty, they rejected it. Worst investment was not solar, when it works is great, worst investment was picking longhorn solar as the installer. Just stay away. Remember, my system is still broken. It was a $37,000 system paid in full in cash. But they don't care about that since I already paid. They claim there are logistics problems, with supply chain issues. However they continue to install new systems while mine is down. So it is not about a supply chain, but about priorities. Again, just stay away from them.
Leo | Plano, Texas | 05/19/2022
Do not honor warranty
Update: Installer corrected the problem by installing a new inverter, 26 days after reported.<br /><br />I paid a system in full with longhorn solar, the system did not last 1 year, a broken inverter.<br /><br />Longhorn keeps claiming chain supply issues while still getting new businesses, but not repairing mine.<br /><br />Their support system is basically none, one email contact that might or might not reply you in 3 days if you are lucky, and never gives a clear answer.<br /><br />I have a dead system, including a 16kw battery.<br /><br />Lesson learned, Look somewhere else, and force them to put a specific repair time window in your contracts.
TOO LONG INSTALLATION | San Antonio, Texas | 03/31/2022
7 month installation and still not complete
Longhorn Solar Inc., services San Antonio out of Austin. Signed contract in Aug 2021, panels installed Dec 31,2021 but not hooked up and today is March 31,2022. Lame excuses all over the place as to why the delay. My advice is use company with service people in your city, not serviced remotely. My probable guess is Longhorn has only have 1 certified electrician to service San Antonio, traveling out of Austin. They have missed promised appointments without a phone call . When I call to ask why not showing up? Admin girl says she does not know why and resets. Here is one example of miscue: The onsite certification inspection meeting, final step before solar meter is installed, with CPS, failed because paperwork did not have an stamp. Inspector stated he would lose his job if he approved install without the stamp on documents. Seems like Longhorn is cutting corners. Inspector found other issues and was kind enough to help new electrician know what was missing. I am now glad someone is reviewing Longhorns work because I do not know the codes; 3 weeks later and still no resolution only missed another scheduled meeting.
Eric | Elgin, Texas | 03/11/2022
Professional and Thorough
I was hesitant about getting solar installed from the horror stories I’ve heard. Well I have to say there is a reason Longhorn Solar has been around for as long as they have. They didn’t try up sale me on a system I didn’t need were very thorough every step of the way. Even when through no fault of there own when weather conditions prevented them from installing my system on the scheduled date. They made up for it by coming out the next day with double the crew to install the system. Now I am looking forward to geeking out with monitoring system and watching my system safe me money. Also continued work with Longhorn Solar in the years to come.
Wayne | Cedar Park, Texas | 03/11/2022
Forthright Solar Installer
Longhorn Solar is a local company committed to customer satisfaction rather than growing larger. The sales rep knew her stuff. The original proposal was scaled to our current electric consumption. After we checked out some reviews, people said they wished they had purchased a system to accommodate increased energy needs over time. The Longhorn rep put together a new proposal to cover 120% of our current usage. I am glad we went with the larger system and battery. Everyone we interacted with at Longhorn was trustworthy, professional and personable. It's a process. Things don't always go as planned, but Longhorn kept their promises. The service, expertise, quality and value are there. I would highly recommend Kathie Millen and her team to set you up with the right solar system.
MB | Austin, Texas | 02/23/2022
Super helpful to new owners!
We purchased a home a year ago that had panels installed by Longhorn Solar - but we knew very little about whether they were working as they should or what maintenance they might need. We reached out to Longhorn and talked with Jameson, who responded really promptly to my inquiry. He was able to view our panel's performance remotely, and let us know that there were a few components that needed some repair/optimization. (It is an 8 year old system.) Then he informed us that the repairs would be covered under the warranty, which was a big surprise, as warranties don't always transfer to new owners. We are really happy to have panels installed by a company that stands by their equipment and installation no matter who owns the property - and were really grateful for Jameson's excellent customer service!
