A while ago, I was asked on the Fan Club website to chronicle our solar installation. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball. I have been a little busy lately. The good news is that we activated the system just a couple of weeks ago.
I ended up getting quotes from about 8 solar installers. The prices were fairly comparable but the level of service was amazing. We ended up hiring SolSource Energy out of Arcadia, California. Jim Cahill and his crew worked very hard to keep us happy, and believe me, this is not an easy task! Here is a quick summary.
1. If a contractor wants more than a $1000 deposit, do not hire them. Contractors are legally bound by the state of California to limit the amount of a deposit to $1000 (Business and Professions Code, Section 7159.5). One firm wanted 20% of our system price. When I pointed out this state statute to the contractor, I was told that it was not a “deposit;” it was a “reservation fee;” therefore it did not apply to them. There’s a difference? Not in my book, so I did not hire them.
2. Contractors who show up and give you an estimate without getting on your roof to examine the sun and roof space availably should not be taken seriously, no matter how low their bid.
3. If the contractor can not give you a firm start date, do not hire them. There is a huge chance they will take your money and run. I had a well-established contractor refuse to give me a start date. When I questioned them on this issue, they told me are so big and busy, they can not schedule very far in advance. When I pushed them about this, I was told that they would get to me when they could. One of my friends hired them, and four months later he still did not have a start date.
4. If a contractor can not lock down the panel price for you, run. The contractor, who would not give me a start date, would not lock down the panel price either. If it took them a year to get to me, who knows what the panels would have cost. I suspected that they would purchase our panels right away, but charge us the going rate for panels at the time they finally installed them, provided it was higher. This would allow them to make money playing the panel commodity market.
5. Solar contractors seem to make their money in the rebates from the power company. One of them wrote in the contract that if they underestimated the amount of the rebate, we would owe them money to make up the loss. However, if they overestimated the amount of the rebate, they kept it. I did not hire them!
6. If you are not familiar with construction contracting terms and conditions, check with an attorney. I am quite experienced with construction contracts, but still I ran one of the contracts by an attorney. It was so bad, that I could not believe that I was reading it correctly. Well, my attorney confirmed that I could still read. Yup, it really was that bad. His comment was “Run far. Run fast. Run now!” There are bad contracts written by larger installers. Just because a company is large and established, do not assume that they have written a contract that is fair to both parties, especially the homeowner.
7. Be suspicious if a contractor admits that they have not worked with your building department. If they do claim to have experience with your building department, go check with them to make sure you are not being told a story. No explanation necessary.
8. SolSource had a drawing of our roof showing the panel location back to us in 2 days. They gave us a firm start date that was 2 weeks away. The panels arrived on time and at the price promised. Even though they usually do not install the SunPower panels and inverter that we wanted, they were able to get them for us. Since we are doing major construction at our house, they were willing to work with us on the timing. I needed to wait for the roof penetrations to be completed for the kitchen and the bathrooms before the panel frame went up. After the panel framing, then the new roof needed to be installed. Then I needed SolSource to return to finish installing the panels and do the final hookup. Not a problem for a company that is really interested in your business.
9. Another selling point SolSource was that both of the owners of the company showed up at our house driving their RAV 4 EVs! How cool is that? When I started talking to them about the power requirements of the Tesla Roadster, they had all of the numbers already. One of the other installers that I did not hire required that I contact Tesla to get the power requirements for the car myself and give them the numbers. Luckily I knew who to call at Tesla. What was amazing was that the sales representative was not even embarrassed by his lack of knowledge! Had I been in his shoes, I would have crawled under the table if my client had to give me information on a product that I should have known about. When I talked to him on the phone earlier, I told him we were getting a Tesla, and still he did not bother to get the information before he came to my house, and he knew that at the time I was the wife of the CEO and founder of Tesla.
10. One of the solar companies had the stupidity to try and snowball Martin. When we were investigating installing solar at the house in Northern California, they tried to sell us a system that would not work. You can all imagine how this part of the story ended! No solar panels purchased from them! I strongly advise anyone dealing with Martin to NEVER try and snowball him. This is never a good idea.
The rest of the remodel is going extremely well. The only minor problem we have had is with the roofer. He did a decent job, but at the end of the job, he tried to suck me into a payment scam. When it came time for me to pay, I made the check out to his company, per the contract terms and conditions. Well, his foreman wanted me to make the check out to him. I refused and pointed out that my contract was not with him; it was with the company he worked for. He got the owner of the roofing company on the phone, who tried to push me into paying his foreman in lieu writing the check to his firm. He gave me all sorts of excuses why I should do as he was asking, and I kept resisting. I informed him over and over that I was not comfortable with his request, and if he wanted me to pay the foreman directly, it needed to be in our contract. Had I agreed to his scam, I would have run into all sorts of warranty and other legal issues. The conversation finally ended when I told him to hold the check until I could talk to my attorney. If my attorney approved of this arrangement, then I would write him a new check. Suddenly, the check I had written was just fine, and I was not required to pay the foreman. The bottom line is that if a contractor asks you to do something that is not in your contract or that you are not comfortable with; tell the contractor that you need to check with an attorney. If the contractor changes his tune at the mention of an attorney, you can assume that he is up to no good. The most irritating part of this story was not that this guy asked me to participate in his scam, but that he thought I was so stupid that I would buy into it! I guess I must come across as an idiot. (And yes, I know the scam he was trying to pull, and I wanted no part of it.)
I also fired the painter last week. See my above comment about being difficult to work with.
Anyway, all is going well. We hope to be moved back in the house by Christmas. I hope we are moved back in, since we have 5 friends coming for the Rose Parade and game. Go Illinois!
Carolyn
I ended up getting quotes from about 8 solar installers. The prices were fairly comparable but the level of service was amazing. We ended up hiring SolSource Energy out of Arcadia, California. Jim Cahill and his crew worked very hard to keep us happy, and believe me, this is not an easy task! Here is a quick summary.
1. If a contractor wants more than a $1000 deposit, do not hire them. Contractors are legally bound by the state of California to limit the amount of a deposit to $1000 (Business and Professions Code, Section 7159.5). One firm wanted 20% of our system price. When I pointed out this state statute to the contractor, I was told that it was not a “deposit;” it was a “reservation fee;” therefore it did not apply to them. There’s a difference? Not in my book, so I did not hire them.
2. Contractors who show up and give you an estimate without getting on your roof to examine the sun and roof space availably should not be taken seriously, no matter how low their bid.
3. If the contractor can not give you a firm start date, do not hire them. There is a huge chance they will take your money and run. I had a well-established contractor refuse to give me a start date. When I questioned them on this issue, they told me are so big and busy, they can not schedule very far in advance. When I pushed them about this, I was told that they would get to me when they could. One of my friends hired them, and four months later he still did not have a start date.
4. If a contractor can not lock down the panel price for you, run. The contractor, who would not give me a start date, would not lock down the panel price either. If it took them a year to get to me, who knows what the panels would have cost. I suspected that they would purchase our panels right away, but charge us the going rate for panels at the time they finally installed them, provided it was higher. This would allow them to make money playing the panel commodity market.
5. Solar contractors seem to make their money in the rebates from the power company. One of them wrote in the contract that if they underestimated the amount of the rebate, we would owe them money to make up the loss. However, if they overestimated the amount of the rebate, they kept it. I did not hire them!
6. If you are not familiar with construction contracting terms and conditions, check with an attorney. I am quite experienced with construction contracts, but still I ran one of the contracts by an attorney. It was so bad, that I could not believe that I was reading it correctly. Well, my attorney confirmed that I could still read. Yup, it really was that bad. His comment was “Run far. Run fast. Run now!” There are bad contracts written by larger installers. Just because a company is large and established, do not assume that they have written a contract that is fair to both parties, especially the homeowner.
7. Be suspicious if a contractor admits that they have not worked with your building department. If they do claim to have experience with your building department, go check with them to make sure you are not being told a story. No explanation necessary.
8. SolSource had a drawing of our roof showing the panel location back to us in 2 days. They gave us a firm start date that was 2 weeks away. The panels arrived on time and at the price promised. Even though they usually do not install the SunPower panels and inverter that we wanted, they were able to get them for us. Since we are doing major construction at our house, they were willing to work with us on the timing. I needed to wait for the roof penetrations to be completed for the kitchen and the bathrooms before the panel frame went up. After the panel framing, then the new roof needed to be installed. Then I needed SolSource to return to finish installing the panels and do the final hookup. Not a problem for a company that is really interested in your business.
9. Another selling point SolSource was that both of the owners of the company showed up at our house driving their RAV 4 EVs! How cool is that? When I started talking to them about the power requirements of the Tesla Roadster, they had all of the numbers already. One of the other installers that I did not hire required that I contact Tesla to get the power requirements for the car myself and give them the numbers. Luckily I knew who to call at Tesla. What was amazing was that the sales representative was not even embarrassed by his lack of knowledge! Had I been in his shoes, I would have crawled under the table if my client had to give me information on a product that I should have known about. When I talked to him on the phone earlier, I told him we were getting a Tesla, and still he did not bother to get the information before he came to my house, and he knew that at the time I was the wife of the CEO and founder of Tesla.
10. One of the solar companies had the stupidity to try and snowball Martin. When we were investigating installing solar at the house in Northern California, they tried to sell us a system that would not work. You can all imagine how this part of the story ended! No solar panels purchased from them! I strongly advise anyone dealing with Martin to NEVER try and snowball him. This is never a good idea.
The rest of the remodel is going extremely well. The only minor problem we have had is with the roofer. He did a decent job, but at the end of the job, he tried to suck me into a payment scam. When it came time for me to pay, I made the check out to his company, per the contract terms and conditions. Well, his foreman wanted me to make the check out to him. I refused and pointed out that my contract was not with him; it was with the company he worked for. He got the owner of the roofing company on the phone, who tried to push me into paying his foreman in lieu writing the check to his firm. He gave me all sorts of excuses why I should do as he was asking, and I kept resisting. I informed him over and over that I was not comfortable with his request, and if he wanted me to pay the foreman directly, it needed to be in our contract. Had I agreed to his scam, I would have run into all sorts of warranty and other legal issues. The conversation finally ended when I told him to hold the check until I could talk to my attorney. If my attorney approved of this arrangement, then I would write him a new check. Suddenly, the check I had written was just fine, and I was not required to pay the foreman. The bottom line is that if a contractor asks you to do something that is not in your contract or that you are not comfortable with; tell the contractor that you need to check with an attorney. If the contractor changes his tune at the mention of an attorney, you can assume that he is up to no good. The most irritating part of this story was not that this guy asked me to participate in his scam, but that he thought I was so stupid that I would buy into it! I guess I must come across as an idiot. (And yes, I know the scam he was trying to pull, and I wanted no part of it.)
I also fired the painter last week. See my above comment about being difficult to work with.
Anyway, all is going well. We hope to be moved back in the house by Christmas. I hope we are moved back in, since we have 5 friends coming for the Rose Parade and game. Go Illinois!
Carolyn
