Review for SolarMax Technology

04/01/2013
Anonymous

Thanks For Your Concern Mr Hsu

I contacted the HERO program after reading about their government solar program in the news. They recommended I contact SolarMax for the installation. My sales person was at my home on August 21, 2012. Today is April 1st and this is not an April Fool's joke, no one at that company is calling me to status me why they are unable to complete the install. They do realize how upset I am with them regarding this situation. I have been promised multiple times that I will be statused on the delay, but they RARELY call. Last Wednesday I was apologized profusely to for not being kept up to date with what is going on and was promised a call the next morning and daily thereafter until resolved. Not one call since.<br /><br />I had received a notice from WRCOG Hero funding congratulating me on completion of the install. I quickly e-mailed them back to advise them of my issues that have not been handled. That day HERO left a message for me to call them back for status. I did not return the call, but she was consistent and called daily until she reached me 5 days later. I explained my issues with her and asked if she could help me get it resolved. She advised she would e-mail them to let them know funding would be held until after this issue is resolved. <br /><br />How did we get here? Two days after our initial meeting, I received an e-mail with the preliminary design of the system. I immediately approved it. I was hoping the system would be installed by Christmas, but they actually started the install on January 31st. The panels were installed in two days. <br /><br />On February 13th, my salesperson advised me to contact HERO. He "wasn't sure why they wanted me to call them" but wanted me to do so as soon as possible. When I contacted them, I was advised my contract had expired because SolarMax paperwork had not been turned in on time. A new contract and credit check would have to be completed.<br /><br />I contacted the sales person after receiving the new documents. He then proceeded to have me mail the documents to him. He didn't offer to pick them up but spend my money and mail the documents to them. Even though my back had gone out that day and I was in great pain (but he was unaware), I went to MailBoxes Etc to mail the documents. Prior to mailing the documents I told the sales person that I didn't like signing the document when the work isn't done (told common practice) & the Completion Certificate specifically states that the document must be sent to him first. He advised me to just mail the document to them and they will get it to him if required. I mail the documents.<br /><br />Not 10 minutes after returning the sales person calls me and says that he needs to have the Completion Certification and that "he was in trouble since it needs to be signed first." I asked me to mail that to him. Wants me to mail it for his error, again! I asked who was going to pay for this. Then he asked me to fax it to him. The good thing of this is he then asks if they have been out to install the system monitors and I advised that I had not been contacted. A few days later they were out and that was handled.<br /><br />On 3/7 I receive an e-mail stating that the Completion Certificate has not been received. Soon after the e-mail I received a call from my sales person asking me to complete the certificate and fax to him. I advised him that I had already sent that document to both him and HERO on 2/13. He said he would look into it and call me back. A couple of weeks back I had advised him that another neighbor had from another company had their system turned up by SoCal Edison in a couple weeks and that it was considerably longer than that. He said he would look in to it. <br /><br />On 3/7 he contacted me to let me know that his boss wants the system turned up even without Edison's approval to operate. He asked me to turn it on so that he would not have to drive all the way over. The installer had instructed me on how to turn the system on and that was a non-issue. It was just what was said that I took as poor service but I happily agreed to turn they system on. On March 12th I noticed one of the panels (inverter) was not reporting as working, and that's where I am today. I have sent messages to everyone up to the CEO and as it was in the past, no response. NO ONE CARES!! If there were someway that I could give a company a negative scoring, this is the company. The absolute worst customer service I have ever had with any company. Really... I am not exaggerating.<br /><br />So as I wait, my only solace is that I know the funding is being held until the system is working. But if this is what happens before they get paid, what will the service be like after they have been paid in the event it is necessary.<br /><br />You can go with SolarMax if you like.<br /><br />Thanks for your concern Mr Hsu