ComplaintsforUnited Better Homes, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  02/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  In 2023 I signed a contract totaling $75,000 to get a new roof and solar installed on my property. Everything was completed and I got permission to operate on January 11th 2024.I repeatedly called the company and texted them once a week. Since that date and they told me theyre still working on it that theyre still working on it.And then they told me they never worked on a Tesla system before which I dont know how that makes any sense.Now they are not returning my phone calls, my voice, messages, or my text.My solar system is still non-operative and its the type of system where the installer has to turn it on. At this moment in time I paid $75,000 for a system that is non-functional.Its been over 30 days since when they were supposed to activate my system

  

  Business response

  03/06/2024

  Hello *******,
  
  
  
  We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with the activation of your solar system. Your feedback is valuable to us, and we are committed to providing you with a 5-star customer experience.
  
  
  Please be assured that we looked into this matter and found an issue with the ****** Voice number we used to accept incoming calls and texts. Your feedback taught us we need to upgrade our phone systems to accommodate every customer concern like yours **********************. In response to this we've begun looking into installing new phones in the building to improve our overall customer experience.
  
  
  We understand the importance of having a functional solar system and a member of our team has been in contact with you to approve a $500 reimbursement for the 30 days of solar production that you missed out on. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter. 
  
  
  If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at ************.
  
  
  Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.
  
  
  Sincerely, United Better Homes

  Customer response

  03/06/2024

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #********. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************

• Initial Complaint

  01/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  A door-to-door solar sales agent representing United Better Homes, LLC came to my residence to solicit my interest in getting solar panels on my roof. I agreed to a consultation in which the owner of the company went over a proposal with me. During this consultation, I was told by the owner that despite the legalese I was signing that I could cancel and back out of the deal before the permitting stage.Less than a week later, I used United Better Homes web portal and informed the original agent that I wished to cancel. I asked if I needed to send a notice in writing because I had read in the legalese that written cancellation was necessary. I was told that written notice was unnecessary and that the agent would inform the owner of my decision.A few days later, the owner knocked on my door around 8 p.m., totally unannounced, totally unscheduled. And he persuaded me to wait "until I had the final proposal and numbers" in front of me to review and that I would still be able to back out of the deal. My next contact with the company was today, 1/10/23, when I received an email stating that I could either proceed with the proposal or, if not, that I owed $2,800 in fees.I realize that the law my be on the side of the company, but I was definitely lied to and swindled - being lead to believe I could back out of the deal and being told that multiple times, until it was in fact too late to do so.This company is predatory and this practice should be illegal. I would like to know what options I have to avoid being scammed.

  

  Business response

  01/20/2023

  Hi **************,
  
  We are sorry that you did not have a positive experience with our company. Service, reliability, and integrity of work is of the utmost importance to us, and we take these matters very seriously.
  
  The first thing we would like to address is that the sales representative you met with is NOT the owner of this company. Although he does hold a management position on our sales team he should not be representing himself that way. If we find this to be the case then he will be reprimanded or terminated depending on the reasoning of that dishonesty.
  
  Secondarily, you are correct that at any moment in time you have the right to cancel your agreement for the project. As you were aware though there was a $500 cancellation fee if you had cancelled before permitting. The reason you were invoiced $2800 is because you signed the agreement on 11/28/2022 and the applications to the utility company, the engineering reports for the project, as well as the permits to the city were all submitted in December before you had cancelled your project in January.
  
  There was never any history of you cancelling this project on the portal like you are saying. The only cancellation on file on either text, email, or your customer portal was done on 1/10/2023.
  
  Therefore the $2800 was the appropriate cost due to the expenses we had incurred to that point.
  
  We see there were some misunderstandings on your part regarding the agreement you signed which clearly states all of this information. However, there were also clearly some misrepresentations on your sales reps side as well.
  
  Because of that we want to show you good faith and let you see that we are far from a company that would lie, mislead, or partake in predatory behavior. We understand you were willing to pay the $500 cancellation fee as we saw in your message to the representative. We plan to allow you to disregard the invoice we sent you for those costs but we ask you to please answer our calls to work this out for you.
  
  
  We have tried to reach you dozens of times since 11/28/2022 to have our operations team work on your file and the reason the representative came to your house unannounced was because you had ignored all calls and messages for over a month.
  
  For us to help you, you must be responsive so we could have worked this issue out months prior before we ever got to this position.
  
  
  Best,
  
  United Better Homes, LLC

  Customer response

  01/20/2023

  Better Business Bureau:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # ********. Please add your rejection comments below; if you do not provide any details, your complaint will be closed as Answered. 

  M****************** did represent to me that he was a part-owner of United Better Homes on two occasions at least. If he is in fact not a part-owner and only holds a management position within sales, then he should be reprimanded. It becomes even more apparent that ****************** is not an honest person.

  I did not cancel the project in January, but rather on December 10th in my email to *************************, who was the original sales agent that knocked on my door to solicit my interest in going solar with UBH. I have forwarded that email both to BBB and to *********************** of UBH.

  In response to my email, rather than getting a simple confirmation of cancellation as I have from two other solar companies in the past, ******************** said she was not familiar with the cancellation procedure and that she would notify ****************** of my desire to cancel. ****************** never responded until, a few days later, when he knocked on my door without any attempt to contact me ahead of time, surprising me late in the evening at my home. He then persuaded me to wait to cancel because I did not have the specifications of the cost of renewing my roof or updating my electrical panel, both of which would have been necessary to install solar (I also never received any estimate of these costs nor signed any paper to authorize roof or electrical work). ****************** again assured me as he had already done several times that I would be under no financial obligation until permits had been PURCHASED, not applied for, which they had not at the time and never were. It seems clear to me that ****************** is not an honest person given that he lied to me about his position within the company, lied to me about the cancellation process and my financial liability, and used a surprise visit to catch me off guard. 
  
  I tried to use the customer portal to cancel in an official sort of way, but I did not find any link to take that action. So instead, I used the portal to find ************************ email and emailed her directly. Again, I have forwarded that email which is dated 12/10/22.
  

  "Because of that we want to show you good faith and let you see that we are far from a company that would lie, mislead, or partake in predatory behavior. We understand you were willing to pay the $500 cancellation fee as we saw in your message to the representative. We plan to allow you to disregard the invoice we sent you for those costs but we ask you to please answer our calls to work this out for you."
  
  I have not received any calls from UBH since I first met with ****************** on 11/28. He sent me a few texts, but I have not had anyone call me to discuss the status of the project. It is not clear to me if the above statement means that we can amicably resolve this case if I pay the $500 cancellation fee. "Answer our calls to work this out for you" seems to imply that you still want me on the hook for something beyond the cancellation fee. We can work this out simply by me paying the cancellation fee and never hearing from UBH again.
  
  

   

  

  Business response

  02/01/2023

  We responded to ************** and we just simply wanted a phone call to let him know we do not wish to charge him the cancellation fee 

  Customer response

  02/02/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #********. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************
  
  
  
  UBH: I appreciate you waiving the cancellation fee. I think it would behoove your company to review how ****************** presents the process of going solar to new customers, because I do believe he intentionally mislead me.
  

*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. ↩