Review for Energy Solutions Direct (ESD Solar)

Office location: 6076 Park Blvd N, Pinellas Park FL, 33781

01/05/2023
Adam Cupp Ocala, FL

Trust the Bad Reviews: Be Prepared to Wait

If you're reading this review, I recommend you find someone you know with solar and ask them for a local referral in your county. I wouldn't believe any positive review about this company based upon their work for me. I started looking for companies a year ago. I signed contract with ESD on 3/28/22. Over 2 weeks later a tech came out and walked on my roof; didn't take measurements and left. A day later I get an updated contract with less panels because he thought they couldn't get them all on. 3 weeks later they submitted permit which was approved in 2 weeks. Another month until the panels were installed. I looked at the roof after the installers were done and they ground down to asphalt a huge amount of shingles. Electrician was scheduled to come out 1 month later to connect panels to breaker, but the week before ESD called me to say they needed to resubmit plans based upon the change back in April, but waited till then to do so. 2 weeks later the Permit was issued and another month passed before the electrician showed up to connect. Oh, but we're still not done. Electrician left the solar on when he left. The Electric Company told me that since i had an old meter, I was paying them for all the solar that was collecting since the old meter couldn't tell difference between usage or collection. Thanks ESD; now i'm paying for the solar energy that i'm collecting too. Another month and i get a new meter thanks to my Solar Company checking on me. Electrical Inspection failed because the plans didn't match the install, so waiting for another month due to ESD incompetence; then permit approved in 4 days. ESD waited a whole month to schedule the inspection again (for no possible reason). Once approved (after 8 months), they submitted paperwork to my Energy Company which was denied because their designs were wrong to the installed system. (Seeing a pattern here?). ESD wanted to schedule a tech to come out 2 weeks later to take a picture (yes, really), I said i will take the picture and sent it to them. Then ESD said they needed to update a diagram because it was wrong to the installed hardware; another 2 weeks turnaround. Finally I helped push this to conclusion and after nearly 9 months i'm producing solar. (Oh, but i'm not done yet) I get a call asking to schedule for next week for someone to come map my panels to the online Enphase system. This entailed dismounting every solar panel again to check each serial number. I told them that the installers mapped it and took the mapping with them; After getting the run around they said they were no longer working with that company and didn't have the mapping. Fortunately I had taken a picture of it and sent to them. Still no mapping. Two weeks later they called to say they were sending someone out to connect the system to Enphase. The guy they sent had license plates from half way across the country, was nice, but spoke NO ENGLISH and spent 4 hours trying to connect it to Enphase; on the phone with Enphase tech support the whole time. It appeared I was his first ever connection. Everything’s working for now. Contract states they will accomplish in 3 months (120 days), but took almost 9 months so far; Time outside their control was 40 days in permitting because they had to update the plans 3 times due to their errors. I was a rather proactive person here, calling and emailing them throughout this process. I have a long list of names and phone numbers of people i interacted with. They were all just following their little piece of the job and NO ONE follows these through to completion. They do their little piece, submit a ticket to their team, then wait 2 weeks, and do it again. Save yourself the trouble and find someone else!