01/21/2019
Anonymous
Des Moines, WA
I love Tesla. I own their stock. I believe they're changing the world for the better and I want them to win. In the end, I hope this critical review will benefit them and their cause.<br /><br />Pros:<br /><br />1. The pricing was great<br /><br />Things I believed were Pros at the time of purchase:<br /><br />2. The skirting and low profile install seemed aesthetically preferable (see notes below)<br />3. The warranty seemed great (I didn't read the reviews on this site from people trying to get warranty work..which have since changed my mind)<br /><br />Cons:<br /><br />1. No one pointed out that the panels would not be black on black. All of their marketing material shows black on black panels. I was very taken back when, upon confirming myself very late in the contract process, they said they could not provide black on black panels. I believe they would never have told me this before they were on my house had I not brought it up.<br /><br />2. They were very good at saying what they needed to say to make the sale even though they wouldn't be able to honor the promises/expectations they were creating. For instance:<br /><br />- We needed to hit an install deadline for our state incentives. Tesla told us they could install within a month of signing the contract. Several weeks after signing the contract, they were still unable to provide an estimated installation date and said this was normal (even though I had previously been told that I would have scheduled install date within a week of signing the contract).<br /><br />- Looking at several photos from their installs, the panels are rarely installed in the appropriate place to create the symmetry required for a favorable aesthetic. Their designs showed my panels would also be mounted poorly. When I pointed this out, they said these were just the remote drawings and the guys on the site would do what needed to be done to make it beautiful. They said they wanted me to love it. [Great, I thought]. Upon further reflection and reading other peoples' experiences, I think I was being naive. I suspect my panels would likely have been staggered with inconsistent spacing between each other and my roof edges...just like their design showed and just like the photos of their other installs.<br /><br />- The sales person said they would request that the conduit be run through the attic, such that I wouldn't have ugly conduit tubes going over the peak of my roof. Then later, the designer/engineer couldn't figure out how to add this in.<br /><br />- The sales person was super responsive, right up until the sale was made. Then everything ground to a halt. Then my sales person was transferred to the vehicle department, before anyone was available to replace them, and then a week later, the person who replaced them did not understand the urgency of my situation (which was the same as everyone else buying solar in my state). She told me I should expect my install to be completed within many months (rather than one month) and that my project was moving faster than she had ever seen before (we were crawling or stopped). Basically, Tesla didn't have any installers.. and they were trying to contract it out, but they couldn't locate anyone who was available to perform the install because they were calling on companies that had their own work lined up. I emailed her boss and called and spoke to other people, but it seemed there was no one there to provide any assistance other than my new sales contact who was telling me to forget everything I was told and not to expect them to deliver in a viable time frame.<br /><br />3. Their 15yr roof quote was more than double other quotes from local companies that included a 50yr warranty backed by the manufacturer. Moreover, they wanted to use water and ice guard on the whole roof, which I've since learned does not allow your roof to breath and will likely last 15 yrs but will cause major problems in our climate in a 50yr time span.<br /><br />I fired Tesla and found a local installer who had a Certainteed system with a comparable warranty installed within a few weeks. It is more beautiful and has a similar warranty, but backed by a 350 yr old company. I paid 10% more money. The moment I fired Tesla, I was contacted by a customer support team that said they could fix all of my problems. Unfortunately, I had ran out the clock trying to give them every last minute (literally) before I switched providers. Had I known cancelling the project would have inspired possible support, I would have done it a week sooner.