NATiVE Solar

Buyer Beware: Read documentation and believe nothing verbal!

A simple system add on of 13 panels, inverters, wiring, racking & critter guard. Quoted time: 30 Days, with worst case scenario of 90. Actual: 6 Months and a couple of days. Quoted Price: $17,749.00 Actual: $18,044.00 Their Lender Credit Human * Fraudulent UCC1 filing claiming - All Title Right & Interest in all solar photovoltic equipment and associated components..... For the addition to a preexisting Solar system! Meaning they leaned my 20 panels and all components while only adding an additional 13 panels and inverters plus wiring, racking and critter guard. They came with zip ties to install the critter guard! In Texas? Those plastic ties would last one season two is blessed from above, certainly not a permanent installation. The appropriate permanent hardware was supplied by myself! The installers were awesome, but it is very difficult when you decide to show up one day before the hiring of an attorney to represent you for the misdeeds! My system is performing wonderfully as should, Enphase really needs to look at their suppliers!

Production is down

My system was installed in March 2020 it worked great until August that year. Then half the panels went down. Issues was not resolved until Dec 2020. Since then my production has been down. In January 2022 i have 3 new panels installed. the new panels produce 15 % more production. There is a 5 watt difference in the to 2 different panels. All of the panels have been cleaned. I have been contacting Native regularly since January of 2022 to get this issue resolved to no avail. I have spent over 70 thousand dollars with Native and all I want is the for the system to preform properly. At this point I feel all Native is doing is giving me the run around. Needless to say I am not a happy customer.

Conniving

Said what they needed to to get the sale. Took way too long to get done and now they still owe me cash as part of their agreement they said would be paid in 3 months. I've received ONE payment! This might sound like a "no duh", make sure EVERYTHING is in writing!

Do not trust this company to install correctly or safely

I have used Native Solar for two large installations. The one on my home in Austin went smoothly for the most part and I felt comfortable using them again for a larger install on my new home with a solar carport installation. It was to be a 36 panel array with a rain panel installed underneath to collect water for a storage tank and was to be completed in 8 weeks. It ended up taking 8 months. ( This is 1/4 of the time it took to complete the Hoover Dam by the way). The company was lacking in the technical expertise to assemble the carport frame and a third party had to be brought in. Native forgot about it having rain panels until reminded and when completed a solar panel blew off in a 35 MPH wind rather than the 125 MPH it is supposedly rated for. It turned out all 36 panels were installed incorrectly and had to be removed and reinstalled. It is my feeling that I was not only misled about many aspects of this project but actively lied to. I cannot recommend them to complete a job safely or on time.

Constantly changing prices, never delivered

They changed their prices multiple times, charged me for an 8.8mw system and delivered 6.6mw. Took dozens of communications to get basic work done. Their 'done' didn't even include a working system. Didn't even check to make sure the system was delivering data before saying they were done. EVERYTHING was a fight with them. Entire system was installed in the wrong part of the roof. Don't do business with these folks. They said they'd put in the paperwork for rebates, they didn't, had to resubmit and work with the City/State myself. Countless of hours of work and watching them for them to still not do the basic job I paid for.

Horrible Customer Service

This has been a nightmare. The salesman was okay at first but we purchased two solar fans from him at his request to better cool our attic in the barn and in the attic of the house. It took him months to bring the fans with many different excuses as to why he had not brought them. They put the panels up and we were pleased at first because our electric bill was cut in half. So when the sales representative finally brought the solar fans for us to store he looked at the Solar System and said that light should not be blinking. So I called the company and told them what the sales representative had said and they said the system was working fine. When we received our electric bill and it had doubled again back to the original cost. We called many times but the sales representative would not call us back. We finally found someone, which is really hard with this company unless you call the sales department. In the meantime we had a hail storm that damaged the roof. So we called them again to remove the panels so the roofing company could put on a new roof. They charged us over $8,000 to remove the panel and put them back on. The insurance company would only allow $4,000 and we told them that but they would not do it for less. The roofing company even said that they were way out of line. When they put the panels back on it still did not work and our electric bill continued to be double. They finally fixed the system but last night I received an email saying they do not reimburse for downtime. It was a rude email from the Business Development Manager. He and the repairmen said the we had a bad optimizer but last night he said it is working now. We received our new optimizer in the mail today that the repairmen ordered so I guess it is not working. I will ask for a repairman but I probably need to hold my breath. I have never had this bad customer service for a major purchase. This is not a good company and I would never do business with them again. I would discourage anyone from doing business with them.

Great installers - terrible service and warranty work

After a successful installation one of the panels on a 15kw array shattered. I have been chasing them for months now after reporting and Native determining it was a warranty thing and not due to impact. Every email reply says they will get around to it to no avail.

Good Install.. EXTREMELY BAD at follow up

They installed a system about 3 years ago through the NRG solar lease. There had been some problems also with installation and phone calls did not cut it and unfortunately leaving a bad review on yelp was the only way I could get their attention. 2 years down and the systems output is way down (since February of 2016). I called NRG which has been trying to get in touch with Native. Its either NRG or Native that is not responding (NRG blames Native and now they advised me to directly contact Native). I think NRG is correct since after repeated phone calls and voices mails there is no response. Stay away if you can. The install was decent, but there are at least 2 things that are not working 1. The output of the inverter (as indicated by locus monitoring) is about 1/3 of what it is rated to be. 2. An outlet that was installed in case lights go out during the day (to directly get power or use my own backup battery) has never worked and never been fixed. Dont have much hope of fixing this, but hope this review would get their attention