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report scam| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| City | San Mateo |
| Address | 3055 Clearview Way |
| Phone | (650) 638-1028 |
| Website | http://www.solarcity.com/ |
[SolarCity’s] lease model depends largely on uninformed customers buying the unattractive lease/PPA products. The supply of this class of customers is likely to be plentiful as the company targets new geographies, but we expect the supply of gullible customers to decline as solar penetration increases.” In other words, SolarCity preys on fools — but fools will be harder to come by once word of this scandal gets out.
In my own case I have piad 3X what I use to pay my local utility. Their answer too bad you signed the contract. You WILL have a lien on you home for 20 yers. Just try to refi or pull out equity. Basically if their lips are moving , they are lying. No-one will save what they say , and most will save nothing, while the majority will pay more.
They need be stopped. It is the wild west of solar and they are scam artists. The last straw is that they lie about the value of your home doubling, when in fact it will be worth 25% less with a lien on it, and the desireability will be 50% less. This company is Alone in the most scummiest that I have ever run accross. All one has to do is yelp them in thir home base of san mateo. Ther eare a few good ratings, but according to glassdooor the company offers prises for good reviews from their own poeople. 90% are 1* run don't walk away from thes snake oil salesmen. It's 100% a scam!!!!!
This company will promise to save you money. You will sign a one sided 19 page contract that locks you into paying them more than you currently pay your electric company. They will delay and not rectify the problem. They have put my complaint on hold since 2014. I have yet to see any savings.
Since the contract states that you have no recourse other than to arbitrate and you have to hire an attorney to accomplish that. Therefore, you are screwed for the next 20 years. Good luck if you use this company. Solar can be a great idea with a non deceptive and dishonest company. Unfortunaely, I learned the hard way that Solar City certainly does not fit the bill.
They were in my home after work and traffic and I was relaxing in my chair with my slippers on when it all began. these are the following things that they blaitenly lied about: the tax credit is refundable it is not, there will be no lean on the property, there is, there will not longer be an electric bill there is they stated that the loan amount will stay the same if increases by $60 in 17 months. I tried speaking to rep and he was purposely obtuse, reported to BBB a guy named Ryan was purposely obtuse. I told him that I wanted to return the panels, get a full refund and put my roof back in the condition that they found it in. He said that was not going to happen, I asked how he intended to make me happy and he said that was not his intent.
This company will promise to save you money. You will sign a one sided 19 page contract that locks you into paying them more than you currently pay your electric company. They will delay and not rectify the problem.
Since the contract states that you have no recourse other than to arbitrate and you have to hire an attorney to accomplish that. Therefore, you are screwed for the next 20 years. Good luck if you use this company. Solar can be a great idea with a non deceptive and dishonest company. Unfortunaely, I learned the hard way that Solar City certainly does not fit the bill.
My wife and I were looking for homes to move our family to and after months of being beat out by other buyers on our offers a seller finally accepted. The only catch is it happened to have a solar lease with Solar City.
After inquiring about the lease with Solar City, sales rep Prescott Dunn, I was assured that the lease in no way prohibits the sale of the home. I thought: great, I can look into the lease and if I don't want it I can still get the house. They will just have to remove the system or something, I guess, since it doesn't prohibit the sale of the home.
2 days after my due diligence period my lender tells me that there is a straight up lien on the house by Solar City and if I don't sign the lease my family will be homeless. Turns out the lease isn't all that great, costing almost 1/3 more what it would have cost had I gone with a smaller company, or double if I were to pay in cash upfront.
I don't understand why it's legal for Solar City to lie to customers. They told me I had a choice, but I did not have a choice. And this is a big deal because this is about whether or not my family will have a roof over their heads or not. Solar City took advantage of the situation and threatened to bring significant and material harm to my family by prohibiting the sale of the home.
Their sales team offered no solutions and spewed only boiler plate or aggressive responses "this is a good deal for both parties why wouldn't you want it?" (because it's a bad lease and your forcing me to sign it, lest my family becomes homeless) , "we have a right to protect our investment" (and apparently impoverish Americans in the process), and my favorite "you don't have to buy the house" (we are past the due diligence period, I'll loose my deposit and fees because you lied to me about the process, so yes I kind of do have to buy it).
Some years ago I had solar city put 19 panels on my roof after the work was completed I took pictures I noticed the holes that they drilled in my roof was wrong I noticed that 1 of the panels was touching a vent pipe coming out of the roof and this vent pipe area is now where I'm having problems with a leak because I mean bankruptcy Tesla is refusing to come out and look at it.
I signed on for solar energy. I like it but I take exception to the non ach charges of 7.50 per billing cycle. I am a disabled senior on a fixed income. Companies should not be allowed to charge us JUST BECAUSE THEY CANNOT AUTOMATICALLY GO into our accounts and remove money. Because I did not agree to setting up AUTO PAY now they charge me 7.50 per month. FOR THAT REASON. Is this even American?
I know, it does not sound like much but to people on fixed incomes, it matters. What if the other companies decided to start doing this? Can you imagine needing a job just to cover these fees?
When I spoke to them, they said that alot of banks, mortgage companies and cable companies do this. I have not seen it....just from them.
A while back, THEY AGREED TO WAIVE THE FEE IF I PAID MY BILL ON TIME. A couple of times, I called in my payment, reminded them of the agreement and they waived the charge. NOW SUDDENLY this has disappeared. Hmmm interesting. Such liars. Someone went in and removed that because it used to be visible when I paid my bill.
I used to recommend them NO I DO NOT. I cannot endorse a company that I do not have trust in. A company that has questionable business practices when it comes to billing.
They take advantage of those who can least afford it. I stand with my opinion and sign my name LINDA RICHTER to this report because I am sick of companies like this and no one should stand with them and their shady / greedy business practices.
First, as consumers we have been called Cheats, Thieves and Liars by Solar City Representatives. This is a company that is quick to state they can provide consumers savings over coal, oil and natural gas, but they state they did not include "electrical power". So, initially we were sold a Solar panel system that was too small to provide us with the savings we were looking for. Since this is new computerized technology we wanted to lease the technology so Solar City was responsible for the upgrades in technology for better service (we were told was similar to new generations of pool service technology, for us to better understand). We were told we could log-on and monitor our technology, but as part of the service it was being monitored for us. So, when we did not receive the value we were sold, we questioned about more panels. in 10/2015 our property suffered roofing damages in excess of $60K, so while coordinating the roofing, the initial panels had to be removed and replaced after all repairs. For the past two years we have been called Thieves, Cheats and Liars because Solar City could not find our panel removal/replacement payment. After sending them numerous copies of our banking documents we had to ask for our banks help against further Solar City collection representative harassment. On 11/27/2017 we received a call from Solar City stating they had finally found our payment and applied it to our account. We have never received a written document from Solar City providing an end to this issue. This from a company that handles customer financial transactions daily, and obviously without a daily, weekly, monthly or annually financial balance trail.
Additionally, when our roof damages were repaired and the Solar City panels were replaced we contracted another 32-38 panels as a separate contract with Solar City, in order to boost our electrical power savings to maximize our solar benefit. We were told there was no problem with adding panels, but it would be a separate contract since the lease was for 20-years, and we were already going into the third year of our initial contract, but that the contracts would mirror each other for terms. Just, another Solar City misrepresentation! Now, as we entered the second year of the second contract the pricing increased by up to 2.9%. We continue to question this annual increase on the second contract, to be told the Solar City contract always changes from year to year "based upon what the market will support", and at least we were fortunate to have a contract that would not increase more than 2.9% each year. We had decided to relocate now that we have retired and we also chose a Solar City lease in order to keep the cost of our home reduced to a buyer. We felt with a Solar City lease we could show the savings due to our previous "electric bills" as opposed to our current "electric bills", plus the Solar City lease payments. However, we have removed our home from the market since our real estate agent stated buyers were having a hard time qualifying for both the mortgage and the extra inflated value of the Solar City leased equipment, even though we can show the savings to the buyer above regular monthly "electric bills" without the solar lease. So, never before have utility bills (water, sewage and power) been included in mortgage "debt" assessment, now with Solar leasing it is considered a "debt" assessment, and we found to refinance our home we found "no property lien", but as a property sale it may actually exist?
So, in further actuality Solar City has cost us the sell of our home with their misrepresentation. We were told to sell a home many sellers have had to purchase their Solar City contracts out-right so a buyer could get through closing. This has been a huge Solar City misrepresentation by Solar City. Our real estate agent stated Solar leases are a growing problem for the real estate industry as well as the seller, and the buyer. This is a huge fraud against consumers.
In August of 2015 my wife and I made a decision to go solar for our home. We encountered a very nice man by the name of Chris Williams in Tucson Mall manning a kiosk. We eagerly exchanged numbers in hopes to learn more of the product. This gentlemen Chris Wiliams approximately a week or so later met with us at our home. He frequently bragged of his extensive involvement in the LDS church. I've never considered myself to be very niave when it came to dishonest sales people but this man stuck it to me. He thoroughly had my trust!!! My wife and I stressed that our time in this home would be short lived estimating 4-5 years on the long side. I stressed that I would not be interested in a product that could save me a small amount of money and then a monster bill when I move in 4-5 years.
Chris Williams proceeded to tell me that when I move the solar equipment stays with the home. If the new home owner was not interested in the solar equipment despite a 99% success rate they would remove their equipment after 2 months of missed payments with no recourse to me. THIS WAS ALL A VERY BIG LIE! 2nd Chris Williams stressed to me that installing the panels came with a 10 year roof warranty gifted and purchased by Solar City. He made specific examples such as if my home was 60 years old and long out of warranty it would still gift me a full 10 year warranty. THIS WAS ALL A VERY BIG LIE!!! Prior to installing the equipment Solar City sent out a roof surveyor/inspector. The inspector said that the roof was in great shape as was the attic and should forsee no problems.
2 days after installation I had 4 buckets in my living room and kitchen catching water. Living in Tucson we have extreme monsoons. My home went from never seeing a drop to buckets of sometimes pouring water. When I contacted Solar City I was told on the phone that they did not do it. They insisted on sending out the installer and big surprise he said that there was no leak at all. Solar City sent out a licensed roofer at my request (Economy Roofing) that they assured me they had a long standing relationship with and were very thorough.
2 weeks later a kid in a pickup pulled up at my home with no business name on his vehicle, shirt or business card. The roofer Gama said that they had only dealt with Solar City for 2 weeks and were very happy to have established a relationship with them. The roofer Gama told me immediately after inspection that the roof had some issues that should have been identified prior to installation. Gama told me that the area was likely weak and 7-8 guys on my roof installing panels likely disturbed it causing the leak. Gama told me that the leak was very bad and impossible to miss. The leak was most obvious where the roof meets the fireplace approximately 2 feet from the panels. AFter reporting back to his work and relaying this information with Solar City I recieved a call from Solar City clearly telling me that they were in no way responsible for the leak per the roofer. THIS WAS ALL A VERY BIG LIE!!! LAst major complaint was that the sales person had sold his product by bashing our local electric complany TEP. He told me that rates were certain to continue to increase and I could protect myself by having a very reasonable fixed rate for 20 years or as long as I owned my home. We discussed a fixed rate of $119 and signed agreeing to this amount.
After installation took place I spoke with a friend at work and he seemed as though the rate was low. He asked if I had the rate that increased or the fixed rate. I told him that I only knew of a fixed rate. I shortly after this conversation contacted Chris Williams to confirm that I had the fixed rate as this is the only thing that we had discussed. He told me that he made the personal decission to put me on the "accelerator plan" because of my short time in the home. This rate he signed me up for does increase 2.9% per year. This was NEVER discussed and he absolutely lied.
After all of these issues I was connected to Gabriel Duran the regional manager out of El Paso. This manager is not a decision maker and was merely bounced around and lead nowhere for a few more weeks. I have sent 6 requests instructing him to remove the equipment from my home. He at this point has bounced me back through the 800 number customer service people where nothing has been done. Everybody at Solar City simply bounces me to another to hear the sob story and do nothing. I have turned the information over to my attorney to deal with but we are holding off briefly in hopes that they answer my plea and make a deal right. I will deal with my roof troubles even though they share responsibility but I will not lose 25k in equity on my home so that they can bank my rebate check from the government. I am very likely to go solar but not with this very dishonest and misleading people. My strong advice is to avoid SOLAR CITY at all cost! Any company is capable of trouble but how they have dealt with it or lack there of is quite shameful.
This company will promise to save you money. You will sign a one sided 19 page contract that locks you into paying them more than you currently pay your electric company. They will delay and not rectify the problem.
Since the contract states that you have no recourse other than to arbitrate and you have to hire an attorney to accomplish that. Therefore, you are screwed for the next 20 years. Good luck if you use this company. Solar can be a great idea with a non deceptive and dishonest company. Unfortunaely, I learned the hard way that Solar City certainly does not fit the bill.