ComplaintsforSolis Energy Services

• Initial Complaint

  02/01/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  They lied to me about solar energy and how it would keep me from having an energy bill each month. They told me it would take 3 months but it took 8. I tried to get out of the contract at 4 months but they told me I would have to pay 20 percent so I let them finish. Then once it was installed, no one spoke to me I called multiple times and have not heard anything from anyone there. The person there now has no idea what is going on. I have talked to this person and they have still not helped me in any way or came to my house to resolve this issue. This may be one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with in my entire life.

  Business response

  02/08/2023

  In response to the complaint from ****** ********, I need to address key inaccuracies in his statement. Firstly, this customer’s project took slightly less than 5 months from contract signing to interconnection – contract signed 4/18/2022 and ****** ** meter swap occurred on 9/13/2022. This is far less than the 8 months this customer claims. Secondly, our standard cancellation fee after the 3 day right of rescission period expires is 10%. This is standard across most companies to recoup monies spent on Engineering and other steps in our installation process. This customer has been in constant contact with our company. He received bi-weekly emails with status updates the entire pre-installation process, starting in April. Once installed, this customer was set up in the monitoring program promptly. Our sales rep went in to inspect and commission this customer’s system August 31st. On October 14th, the customer complained that his system was not working correctly. He stated that he spoke with ******* and they told him an inverter was missing and his system was not installed correctly. We immediately followed up with *******, they have no record of this communication (no case number was ever opened, as per ******* standard practice) nor would they tell a customer a system was incorrectly installed. This prompted us to call ******* ourselves and troubleshoot any issues. We were told at that point nothing was wrong. On October 18th, our installer contacted the customer to see if he could help provide resolution and was told that our customer service rep was ********* ***” due to constant follow ups to make sure everything was working correctly. Again on November 17th, the customer complained something was wrong with his system. We promptly followed up with ******* and were again told the system is performing properly. At no point was this customer left in the dark. We have provided a constant stream of attentiveness from every level of our company, customer service rep all the way to installers. There are documented conversations surrounding install and commissioning on the following dates: August 24th 2022, August 25th 2022, August 31st 2022, September 27th 2022, October 14th 2022, October 18th 2022, November 17th 2022. This does not include the numerous phone calls made back and forth with this customer, nor does it include the bi-weekly pre-install emails starting in April. I have attached a screenshot of the customer’s production, showing the system is functioning normally.
  
  

  Customer response

  02/08/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ********

• Initial Complaint

  10/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Signed a contract on 8/16/22 for a solar install. Was told it would take about 2 months. 3 months later, supposedly still in engineering phase and cannot get a single person to answer a phone, return a call, or return a text. The couple of text that I have received back said that they would call as soon as they were out of a meeting, but that has never happened. They have basically ghosted me at this point . Similar recent reviews online about this company. At this point I would just prefer to get out of this contract with this installer and find a professional company that serves their customers needs.

  Business response

  02/01/2023

  **************** was contracted in August 2022 and we had resolved and cancelled his project by the end of October 2022. This customer does work with the Utility and the senior engineers which he had consulted for information regarding his system. I understand **************** is very knowledgeable regarding solar and what he wanted his system to be able to do. The original contract price did not include the extra controller and labor costs to allow the system to produce power when the grid was down by the iq8+ inverters he was being sold. The power stored in those inverters are minimal and we do not want to falsify or promise the customer the back up power in these inverters are anything comparable to Battery back up power. I believe there was a misunderstanding during the point of sale at which time Solis management made the decision to allow *************** out of his contract with no fees. We had plenty of communication with **************** including emails, phone calls, and text message exchanges. We did incur project fee's during the two month period and staff man power to coordinate a resolution that was fair to the customer and ******************.

  Customer response

  02/01/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  10/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I am filing a complaint against Solis Energy Services. We had solar panels installed to have low electric bills as the quoted us $16 a month . We paid all of the solar panels charges up front. On 12/17/2021 we paid $19,970.00 and on 05/17/2022 we paid the other half of the solar panels which was also $19,970.00. You had to pay the 2nd half 3 days after installation of the panels. One panel doesn't show it has worked for 6 months on the app. We told 3 different people that it wasn't working and it still is not working. Three panels do not produce because they are shaded by the chimney and don't produce properly. The panels aren't producing enough electric to pay our electric bill. We've had to pay a total of $887.00 in electric bills. They don't return our phone calls and we have had terrible customer service and they won't fix the problems so it could be settled. We've called numerous times and no one seems to helps us or they just don't answer the phones or texts. We would like this resolved by fixing the problems and paying our electric bills that we paid for with the use of our solar panels. They need to add enough solar panels to produce enough power as we have already paid them for the panels.

• Initial Complaint

  09/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contracted with them for a solar system installation. It was completed June 30. At this point the system is still not on. They also did damage to me brand new building. They did not comply with Ameren's installation instructions. They have already received full payment. They advertise as being highly experienced in installing these systems and that is more than obvious to me that they are not.

  Business response

  02/01/2023

  I want to thank Mr. ********** for his overall patience during the process of communication between Solis and the utility company. When a utility inspection fails we do not get a formal report right away from the Utility. Once we do, we must go fix the errors and then provide documentation and photos to the utility everything is fixed. Once that is approved they send another utility rep out to complete the bi directional meter process. During the summer months the utility is especially busy with solar installs. I do understand the frustration of the timeline Mr. ********** had and we did reimburse his billing fee's for those months he waited to be interconnected. 

  Regarding the metal roof that was damaged by our installation team, this was fully reimbursed to Mr. ********** as well. The crew that did this specific installation has been terminated and we have quality crew members that are completing our current and future projects. I spoke to Mr. ********** and sent the reimbursements to clear up this matter directly.

• Initial Complaint

  08/02/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  They have a rebate program through the state of Illinois. A rebate is promised within 6 to 9 months. I had my system put in December 2020. I still don't have it. I called the company and they said that it is a two part application. The first part was filled out by the company but not the second part. The rebate program has been shut down until November and there is no way to submit the second part of the application for the rebate until that time. The rebate was going to be for about $15,000.

  Customer response

  11/21/2022

  I have not heard from Solis Energy and they have not resolved the issue. I have called the person that was my contact and he no longer works for Solis Energy.    Thanks, **** ****** 
  

  Business response

  02/01/2023

  The rebate program being referred to is the ******** ***** ****** ********** ***** ******** The amount of state funding and the details of the program are not controlled by Solis. If Mr. ****** had contracted with any other solar company they would have went through the exact same shut down from the Block Program being placed on hold until the state received more funding. Every Illinois customer that signed up for solar during this time frame went through this experience. Thankfully the Block Program did open back up allowing us to continue with Mr. ****** application. Nothing is pendng on Solis' end of the application process, we have done everything we can to move Mr. ****** process along. He is in the final stages of review and should be receiving his rebate shortly. 

   

  Like any state funding program, you are talking about thousands of dollars they are rebating to customers for 15 years of bulk electricity up front. It is a long process and they have the power to make changes at anytime which is out of our hands. We at Solis are here to support the customer through this process and work through any changes they make to the program. The rebate timeline used to be approximately 1 year, we now tell customer 14-18 months because that is what we were advised from our aggregate. Not every state offers this rebate which allows Illinois customers to really be able to capitalize on savings. This is a key factor in lowering costs on renewable energy in the state of Illinois and even with a lengthy process it is worth the wait to receive a rebate of about 20% of the system cost. This combined with the 30% federal tax credit save Illinois customers a huge cost on solar. The return on investment in the state of Illinois is much quicker than most states that do not offer this rebate. 

• Initial Complaint

  04/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The original owner of the company passed away about 4 months ago. There are things that he committed to me that the new management does not want to do. They are supposed to rewire my garage in addition to finishing the hookup of my solar energy.

  Business response

  04/22/2022

  All work has been completed per the contract with the customer. 

• Initial Complaint

  03/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On July of 2021,Solis energy came out to sell Us solar.sales representative by the name **** made appointment.at that time,talked about solar, took info about house.at that time,**** made it sound really good.. about a week later,**** came back out with info,bases on power usage,we told are power bill, would never be over$8.30 per month,also we would receive credit for the power that was put back into grid,by check monthly or quarterly.we also was told we could claim a tax credit of26%.26%of $55,000.00 would be around$14,980.00.i have all on paper.this was all furnished by **** that was representative for SOLIS.wellllllllll all of the above ,is not true.power bill is between$150.00 to$175.00. along way from the promise of $8.30, credit on power into grid,they don't give credits,if there are any credits due,it will be on your bill.each month I have to purchase power.on the 26%tax issue.its based on your personal taxes.for example if you are going receive $4,000.00 in your taxes,this will be all you will receive,as credit on $14,980.00, credit not to be greater than your personal taxes.this will take 3 to 4 years to receive.this was also money that we was going to put towards the $55,000.00.we also was to receive $15,000.00 credit from Illinois,this was also to go toward $55,000.00,this would reduce are bill by$25,000.00.so are monthly payments would be $183.00 per month.with out these two dollar amount,are solar bill increased by $361.00 per month.tried calling SOLIS an **** never return calls.once in awhile if you block number,they may answer,but it's all promises,we will check out get corrected,and call you back.they never return calls nor complete promises.called BRIAN LITTLE area manager,back to no return calls and never complete promises.NOT SUGGEST YOU US THEM... HORRIBLE, BUSINESS

  Business response

  04/22/2022

  The customer has up to 5 years to claim all of the Federal Tax Credit if they are not able to collect in in one year.  The bank will refinance the loan each time the customer collects portions of the tax credit and pays it toward the principal balance.  The SREC Credit has been fully submitted and is out of our control when the check is mailed to the customer directly.  Due to the pandemic, there were delay's in the SREC program.  The system is fully installed and functioning properly.  The customers utility is not giving the customer a $1 to $1 credit for energy created.  We have suggested to the customer that a backup battery will allow the customer to not return the energy into the grid for a .035 credit and being charged for the energy that they created at .115.  The battery suggestion would also give the customer the benefit of having backup power when the grid goes down as well. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩