Longhorn Solar, Inc.

I bought 12KW solar panels from Longhorn 2.5 years ago, installation was ok. Since that time I have had 2 warranty issues, first was an inverter that went bad, it took almost 6 months of me asking them every week to fix the issue. Second happened almost 13 weeks ago, not sure what is and they won’t respond. I would not use them again

Longhorn Solar installed our panels a few years ago, and while we were still making payments, it was easy to get in touch with someone when we had questions. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case since the system was paid off. Over the past several weeks, I've sent an email, followed up with another message, and even left a voicemail, but I haven't received a single response. It's disappointing to see such a lack of communication with existing customers. If the company is overwhelmed, it may be worth dedicating someone to manage customer emails and inquiries so customers aren't left waiting indefinitely for a response. I'll gladly update my rating once someone from Longhorn Solar contacts me and addresses my concerns. In the meantime, I would rather everyone know what happens when you pay off your Solar Panels... If this is not suppose to be the experience, then I am dumbfounded by the lack of responses to my inquires recently.

I’d like to share both the good and bad sides of my experience with Longhorn Solar. First, I want to recognize Kathie Millen for doing an excellent job coordinating my roof replacement project. She handled the scheduling for the solar removal and reinstallation, and that entire process went smoothly and professionally. I truly appreciate her effort and communication throughout that portion of the project. Unfortunately, the experience after that has been extremely disappointing. During the installation process, the installers accidentally damaged my motorcycle, causing approximately $1,600 in damage. I was immediately told it would “be taken care of” and that it would not be a problem. However, it has now been over two months, and I have not received a single response from management despite multiple emails being sent to Delisa, Danny, and the main service email address. On top of the repair costs, I had to rent a trailer to transport the motorcycle over 100 miles to San Antonio because very few shops work on that type of bike. I also had Uber expenses to get back and forth. Initially, I wasn’t even planning to ask for reimbursement for those additional costs, but the complete lack of communication and accountability has changed my perspective. What’s most frustrating is the lack of customer care after the damage occurred. Promises were made, but nobody followed through or even responded. At this point, it feels like my only remaining option is to pursue the matter in court, including the additional expenses and lost time. Based on this experience, I would strongly recommend staying away from Longhorn Solar. If damage occurs to your property, don’t expect timely communication or accountability from management. John Christner-Drake

Greatly Lacking Customer Service

Very, very difficult to get in touch with a live person. Very confusing email traffic and MANY unanswered voicemails. Warranty is not a thing apparently, they came out on a warranty call and charged me for 2 hours when the guy was at my home LESS than 20 minutes! Then said it wasn't covered under warranty. THEN sent me a bill from another company for $329.88! AFTER I called and complained that the guy was NOT here 2 hours but 20 minutes! They argued that He had to drive here. Hmm, how else do you think he was going to get here? I am not paying him! he doesn't work for me! he works for you! Terrible company! The tech also showed up 2 hours late. Solar Panels (16) AU Optronics Model:PM245P00_250 $4,100.00 Inverters (1)SMA America Model:SB4000TL US-22(240V) $3,650.00 Balance of System $2,100.00 Labor $3,090.00 Sub-Total #1 $12,940.00 Thank you for choosing Longhorn Solar to install your solar photovoltaic (PV) system. You 4.00kW system consists of: 16 – AU Optronics Model: PM245P00_250 The Solar Panels have a 10-year warranty. 1 – SMA America Model: SB4000TL-US-22(240V) The inverter has a 10-year warranty.. The balance of system (fuses, wires, disconnects, etc.). We offer a 10-year warranty on our installation of these components If you have any questions, concerns and/or warranty issues, call us Monday – Friday 8:00am – 5:00pm at 512-837-4800.

No real interest in providing quality service

Extremely poor quality work and supervision. Subcontracting out work to inferior and inept contractors. Would not return phone calls for service / warranty request. Keeps contacting me offering a reward to help them find new customers - like I'm going to do that based on how I have been treated and the poor quality of work they performed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No Calls Back

I purchase a home that has a warranty for ten years service. I continue to get an error on my machine for Solar and wanted to have someone come over for maintenance to see if is working correctly. My bill with CPS have been from $225 to $250. We are only a family of 4 at home. It took me 3 months to get someone on the phone after leaving several messages too. Finally, the following week someone came over to see but he didn’t have all the answers. Tim told me he reset my Solar because of the error. He was going to double check on things and get back to me the next day. It’s been 2 weeks and nothing from that guy. He told me I might have to upgrade for more panels. Okay, so my panels are not working and you are worry about selling me more of the panels. Don’t purchase from this company because they will not try to fix the problem.

fedup with no response and they don't know how to fix issues

they installed my plant about 4 years ago and for the last one year, my system is getting ground fault errors constantly every week. Sometimes 20 times a day. I probably reached out to them about 100 times. Its like blackhole with no response. Couple of times they responded and actually sent someone to look at it. But they could not figure out what is going on.

Bad Installation

They promised many thing to sell the system even the owner stated that they would respond quickly. Well only thing they responded is to money that was it. They did horrible job with installation to praises by Jeremy come to find out he did not care they did installation wrong they did not install the sleeves they just bolted the panels to the roof and the wires are touching roof. I contacted about the issues only thing I get from them is good luck. They sent tech outs because they covered a vent on roof and they are refusing to fix it. They also on install hit the vent for stove and leaked which required replacement of duct and repairing vent on roof. When contacted them they did not care. They drilled in to bricks and siding which basically damaged the items and they gave excuses. So basically they just did what they needed to in order to get money and they do not offer any assistance in fixing issues. They sent tech out and they were supposed to come back this week they no showed and no call. They will not send me a receipt for total cost but they already billed everything out. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with excuse was they closed the Dallas and San Antonio office because of issues if that was the case you would figure they would resolve the issue but no such luck. I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy.

"Buyer Beware"

This is the only online review I have taken the time to submit. Longhorn has provided me the worst customer service help I have experienced throughout my adult life which I am 46. No problems with the installation of our solar panels. Longhorn was responsive and attentive to our questions. However, early this year, I noticed that our system was showing a flashing red light. My subsequent call to the San Antonio office resulted in a promise of an appointment for a technician. After five months, numerous calls to the San Antonio and Austin offices I was told was that Longhorn was currently experiencing manning problems with their technicians. When I finally did get a confirmed appointment from the Austin office, they didn’t coordinate with the San Antonio office which failed to schedule a technician. Resulting in a lost a day off work while I was waiting for the technical. Once I called the San Antonio office, they said I should receive a call back but nobody ever called me back to explain what happened. Ultimately, I lost confidence in both Austin and San Antonio offices and so I reached out to the regional manager who I found on the Longhorn Solar website. At first, they were responsive and guaranteed to look into my problem. However, my issues were never resolved. Therefore, after six months of having no service on my solar panels, which I paid cash for, I requested service from a contractor on home advisor. The contractor came out and diagnosed my problem, which was an installation error on Longhorns part, and provided me with a solution and quote. The day that the contractor fixed our solar panels is the day Longhorn sent a technician to my house, without informing us after seven months of no service and throughout sporadic communication initiated by me. I would not recommend this company to any of my friends and I would caution anybody considering investing their hard-earned money in solar panels from Longhorn Solar to do your homework.

Are they still in business?

I have the same problem another customer posted about the SolarBridge micro inverters. SolarBridge sold out to Sun Power who turned around and sold that division to Enphase. I called Enphase to find out why it takes so long to get the microinverters under warranty, and they said it should take 2 months for replacements. I have had units out since March. Longhorn no longer answers emails or phone calls. They are not fulfilling their warranty obligations. My last contact with them they stated they were having trouble getting the parts. This was in May.

Good installation / poor support

They did a great job of installing the panels. A month later I still cannot get them to sit down and show me how the read the monitoring system so I know the system is producing the projected power they estimated. I cannot imagine the suportthey will provide if something actually fails.