Meraki

No solar company is perfect, we've had problems but we like them

Okay, so we had several solar companies give us quotes in the four years before we got our panels installed, and Meraki was the one that made the most sense, compared to Momentum and SunRun, for example. Everything seemed fine until Hurricane Ian in September '22, when one of the panels flew off. I called the company as the wind was picking up, because we knew something was wrong: it sounded like the roof was about to be pulled off of our house. The rep on the other end of the line assured me that was not possible, because of the secure way the panels were attached. But, before the wind got to hurricane levels, one of the panels flew off and landed on my neighbor's roof. It could have hurt or killed someone or it could have impaled my neighbor's roof and caused major damage, but fortunately, it landed flat and remained intact. Anyway, I called Meraki again a couple days after the hurricane, but they said I needed to inform my insurance company. I told them that shouldn't be necessary since there was obviously something wrong with the way they put that one panel on there because of the problems before it even got to hurricane level winds. I called again after it flew off and talked to someone else and they told me to send an email with a picture of the panel to their "onestop@merakisolutions.com" email address, which I did twice in October of '22, but no one ever called me back or emailed me back. So, in March, I was considering retaining a lawyer to sue Meraki for the cost of all the panels, since it had been six months and we'd heard nothing from them at that point. But, in April, we were contacted by Meraki because they thought something was wrong with one of our inverters (which I think was that missing panel sitting in our garage), and we told them that we had been waiting for someone to come out and put that panel back on, because it was undamaged. They responded that they knew nothing of the panel that had flown off and there was no record that I ever talked to anyone at Meraki, which is a huge miss. They apologized and said they'd fix it immediately, and they did, which is all we ever wanted, anyway. So, now we've got all 40 panels trucking along and I feel much better about Meraki, but for seven months, we were extremely disappointed and felt betrayed. I would rate Meraki higher, except for that experience. I honestly don't know if our experience would have been any different with another solar panel company, honestly. I have friends who got their panels with similar output a lot more cheaply than I did, so I feel like I've been overcharged; way overcharged if my friends are sharing the truth. But, the monthly amount that we were paying averaged out to $320/month for the previous year, and the solar panels are cheaper than that at $260/month, and we're now energy producers. Plus, our energy prices will never go up and the panels should be good for the better part of the next 25 years. And we've got all 40 panels going again, so it's a Win-Win-Win-Win. If that one panel didn't fly off, I'd be giving them five stars for everything.

Love my experience

I had solar on my other home, so it seemed a no brainer to get it on our new home! I selected Meraki because of a Facebook Ad, and the reviews I read. I was NOT disappointed! Ted Plenge was our sales rep, and he was LITERALLY an embodiment of the Tasmanian Devil! Can we say FAST and FOCUSED!?! He called, and we went through everything. Because we already had experience with solar, we opted to do everything by email and phone. Ted was very transparent, explained everything he would be doing, and was in contact EVERY step of the way. Got us approved for financing, got the permit paperwork filed, sent over pre- installation inspectors, and got our survey all within two weeks! Then there was some time, maybe two weeks, for the paperwork to go through, but Ted kept in contact the two weeks. Once it got approved, he had the panel crew out, and they were amazing and professional! They assembled everything, and were very respectful of our property. Unfortunately, they did not fill in the trench for the wiring to my hubby’s satisfaction. I called Ted and two days later they came back and fixed it! We have had the panels for one years, but we had an issue. Our FPL bill kept going up! We new from our previous residence that it should have been$20 at best! I finally said I think we need to find out what’s going on! So I went online to find a number for the Meraki office in Orlando. I called the number! It connected me to a gentleman named Diego Cabrera! I explained my dilemma- and how Ted wasn’t answering my calls. Well- Ted has been moved to Ft.Lauderdale and had a new number! (Lucky south Florida!) Diego offered to help me! He asked me for my bills, and when he got them he IMMEDIATELY spotted the problem. It seems that FPL still had me being rated and billed as a regular residential account- instead of a solar customer! So Diego went ABOVE and beyond, and did a conference call with me and FPL. He explained to the representative what the issue was, and that I was being incorrectly billed as a RESIDENTIAL customer, instead of a SOLAR customer! The representative had us on hold for about 35 minutes- when she came back, she confirmed there was a glitch in the system. I was being billed as a residential instead of Solar! Diego was on the mark! Then, because he told me it should happen- I confirmed with the FPL rep that after they corrected the issue- I would get a REFUND for all the money we had overpaid! Can we say “Yee ha!”? Diego and Ted are both incredible employees of Meracki and go the extra mile! They are an amazing public face of this company. The installers, and other support personnel are just as professional and amazing! I am highly satisfied with the quality of the service and products- but MORE impressed with their personnel. I would give 5 stars to Diego and Ted, and the personnel. The reason for 4 stars is to incentivize them to get with FPL and fix this issue! :)

Not enough panels

We had only lived her for a little over a year so not a lot of monthly electric bills to go by so Meraki should have taken that into account. We have not generated reserve often enough so overall we have to pay extra on our electric bill frequently. To be truly solar efficient as we were told we would be we probably need a couple more panels.