Office location: 3200 Wake Forst Suite 206, Raleigh NC, 27613
07/30/2018
Anonymous
The first (and worst) thing is that they sold us something they didn't and seemingly won't deliver on. In the sales pitch, they make claims that you replace your power bill with a solar loan (if you're going the loan route). Truth is, it may work out that way for a few months out of the year, but what they DO NOT tell you is how the net metering credits work practically and in detail. For Duke Energy, they allow you to rollover unused energy credits ("store up energy in the grid"). But come May 31st of each year, they reset it to '0'. So any amount of rollover energy you have stored up, Duke energy ends up getting it for free. This is how it works practically: your electricity usage in the spring is less than it is in the summer. Your power generation is also higher overall in the spring than it is in the summer. Well, you lose all of that excess power you generated and stored up come May 31st. Guess what comes after May 31st? Summer - AIR CONDITIONING season. You'll be stuck paying your solar loan plus a decent size power bill, because the capacity of your solar panel system that they sell you will be about half of what you need to 100% offset the summer months (even though the quote they gave us claimed 105% offset). BLUE RAVEN DID NOT AND WOULD NOT TELL US THIS UP FRONT, even though we asked all of the right questions. They know what your usage is too, because you have to show them your 12mo usage broken down per month before they will ever even give you a quote. It's shady sales tactics, skirting very closely to a downright scam. Like I said, this is the biggest issue I have with them. When I confronted them afterwards about the credit reset date, they claimed up and down that they didn't know Duke resets it on May 31st. Well, we hired them trusting that they knew all of the ins and outs of solar generation and would look out for our best interests. WRONG. There are numerous things they misguided us on just to get a sale. Part of the problem is that every time you call them, you get a different person. That person will give you a different answer than the next, which leads me to the second thing... Their internal communication is HORRIFIC. The right hand does not talk to the left. If you call their main support number, their front line support is always very empathetic and tries to be helpful, but most of the time it has to go to the next level for support (a lead or manager type person), and they are awful about responding and making things happen. They will tell you that they'll get back to you by a certain date, and that date comes and goes, and a week later you still don't hear back. Then you follow up with them, and the same thing happens. You have to fight for yourself to get them to do something to help. Here are some specific examples of things we went through with them during/after install: <br />1) I made it clear up front that I wanted two Ecobee units (one for downstairs one for upstairs). When install time came, the install team only showed up with one Ecobee. When I asked the lead installer, he said corporate only sent them one and informed them that one should be installed. YET on my quote it clearly said two (so I paid for two, but they were only going to install one). After a few calls to corporate and after I told them I was not signing the "installation complete" form for the bank to release the funds to pay them until I got the second ecobee, they sent me the second one and I installed it myself.<br />2) The install seemingly went smooth. The install team was respectful and kept me updated through the whole process. Install was completed in a day (except for the second ecobee, of course). A day or two after install, I noticed that part of our ceiling in our master was bulged out and cracked looking (like someone had dropped a tool). I crawled up into the attic and found a big ding in the drywall. I took pictures and sent it to corporate. They agreed to repair it no cost to me, but there again, since their follow up is awful, I had to push them to finally get it repaired (which they did). Corporate told me that one of the install technicians dropped a hammer in the attic. Well, why did they not say anything about it leaving it for me to catch?<br />3) A couple days after the install, corporate called me and said they were going to schedule a technician to come out and do some "minor maintenance" on my inverter. Keep in mind, my system was not active/turned on yet at this point. I questioned why they needed to already do inverter maintenance. Anyways, the technician showed up and said that he was here to replace my inverter. They apparently installed a higher capacity inverter up front "just to get the job done", then when the lower capacity inverter (which apparently is the appropriate one for my system size) came in he came back out to swap it. I have a problem with this because corporate, knowing this, tried to pass it off as "minor maintenance". Replacing an inverter is not minor maintenance. Why couldn't they just be up front with me?<br /><br />We've had some other minor issues to date which they've resolved (whilst dealing with their horrible communication and follow-up). However, there's one big issue we're currently battling (which is in reference to the very first thing I posted about) which is the fact that they sold us a system claiming it would be 100% offset and replace our power bills, and it did not/will not for the months of May, June, July, August, September. They provided a "retrofit" design which would add more panels to further (but still not completely) offset our usage during summer months. I made it clear that I would not pay them another dime, and if they wanted to resolve this issue and live up to what they sold me they needed to make it happen at their own expense. What did they do? They called me and said the best they could do is offer me a discount. You can imagine that did not sit well with me. I promised to go online and be yet another person posting/reviewing everywhere about how they screwed us over (look at BBB, look at other reviewers online, they have experienced the same thing as we have). He asked if he could run it up the chain to the Director "one more time" and is supposed to get back with me, but I still have not heard back. I highly expect them to tell me they're not going to do anything based on my dealings with them thus far.<br /><br />I know I've outlined all of the bad. There is some good - the equipment they installed all seems to be high quality top notch stuff, and what we do have is producing power. Also, even despite their horrible communication/follow-up, they always showed up for each of the appointments they set (from the initial sales meeting, the property survey, the installation, etc.). Like I said, I do not regret going solar, I just overall regret going with Blue Raven. Just do yourself a favor and educate yourself on all of the ins and outs of solar generation, all of the details, how the tax credit works, how your power company's rebate works, how net metering works, etc. If you don't and aren't willing to understand this, you'll most certainly end up very unhappy going solar regardless of who it is with. You should also expect and learn how to monitor your usage in great detail (which most people don't do being on the grid).<br /><br />TLDR; Blue Raven has shady sells tactics that borderlines being a scam. They sold us something that they did not (and probably won't) provide, and are frustrating to deal with on top of that. Do yourself a favor and stay away from them!