Review for Sullivan Solar Power (out of business)

07/06/2018
Anonymous Poway, CA

Poor Service - Beware!!!!

Unfortunately, my family has made a huge mistake going with Sullivan. We love solar, but if you are considering this company please think again.<br /><br />Friendliness - 5 Stars. Everyone I have spoken to including their installation subcontractors, front desk personnel and service techs have been courteous and respectful.<br /><br />Reliability of Equipment - 2 stars. So far the panels have operated as advertised on our 9kW system. The inverter however is a different story. Last August it died and a replacement couldn't be secured for over three weeks (during the hottest month here in Poway). The tech said that "if they fail, it usually happens in the first year". Ok... fast forward to this June, it's down again. As of this Friday I will be 3 weeks since I last put a kW into the grid. Sullivan apparently keeps very few parts in stock as their standard answer is "it shipped from the manufacturer, but is not here yet".<br /><br />So called Monitoring - 0 stars. Last March the comm with Sullivan was down. I track my net usage regularly through the SDG&E portal... so I was generating, just no info was going out. When I called Sullivan they had no idea my system had not been reporting for over 2 weeks... and it took them another week to get it back up. Last August when the inverter went down I discovered (on my own after 5 days) that I was not generating. Called Sullivan... they had no idea. Three weeks ago, again the system was down... they had no idea. Don't you think "monitoring plans" should actually include "monitoring".<br /><br />Service - 0 Stars. This company has the worst customer service of ANY COMPANY (with the exception of Delta Airlines). Last year when the tech came out and diagnosed the bad inverter, he said we would have the replacement in a week. Literally, after 9 days no one had even called us. They gave me a song and dance on parts, and I waited... and waited. I called again on day 12 and 15 and still no call back.<br /><br />A complete black hole.<br /><br />I finally left messages for everyone I could contact via their web address. Project Managers, Service Techs, you name it. Finally, I had to message the owner who was a FB acquaintance of my wife. 3 1/2 weeks after we went down we were finally back on the grid.<br /><br />Three weeks ago tomorrow the system went down again. The next day (Saturday) I went to their customer service page and submitted a service ticket via a web form. No response. I called the service number.... voicemail. It says service is open from 9-5. I'm guessing that is actually just M-F. Just to show you how they distrust the quality of their own service... the voicemail says "If we don't get back to you in 24 hours please contact my supervisor at..." Wow, put the policing of your lousy service back on the customer! Of course no one calls back, so I call on Monday morning 1st thing. Had no idea the system was down. Had not checked the messages. <br /><br />No kidding.<br /><br />The tech said he would try and "reset the system remotely" and if that didn't work he would call me back and schedule a service appointment. Fine. 5 hours later, no call back... so I called back. Had to describe my situation all over again to the new voice on the phone. He was able to get a tech out to do the diagnosis and we were looking at being down "2 or 3 days". I waited 5, and called in.. "Sorry, the part has not arrived". I called on day 10, then again on day 12. Same answer. <br /><br />How is it I can order a part for my car (from Germany) and have a shipping PO and delivery date by day's end. Want a ornate doll from Russia? I can give you a date when it will be at your door. But Sullivan has NO IDEA when their parts will arrive. Isn't this the 21st century?<br /><br />Mind you, to this point EVERY CALL WAS PLACED BY ME. No one at Sullivan reached out to give me an update. Day 15 Sullivan calls with an update.... "Sorry no sign of your part yet". I call again today, day 20 of the outage, day 17 since my 1st contact with Sullivan. I ask for an update. "I will track this part down and call you back in 5 minutes". That was 5 hours ago...<br /><br />Crickets<br /><br />Our lesson is clear. Friendly people, iffy equipment, any replacement parts take forever to get here (or the vendor doesn't think Sullivan is very important), they are asleep when it comes to monitoring and don't believe a word of what service department tells you.

Sales process
Price charged as quoted
On schedule
Installation quality
After sales support