ComplaintsforSolar Help Hawaii

• Initial Complaint

  09/28/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Not all my solar panels are working. I contacted solar help, they asked me to send them a picture of the ** monitoring unit. I did and they asked is plugged in, I said yes. Since then I havent heard from them. I e-mailed two or three times and nothing. I called left a message for the person I was working with and they never returned my call. In my last e-mail I asked what is going on and could he please contact me. Still havent heard.

• Initial Complaint

  03/27/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This company is billing for a job not done. Then when their is a dispute, instead of going to small claims court, they hire a company to destroy their customer's credit. What a cheap and terrible company.

  

  Business response

  04/25/2023

  Regarding complaint #******** filed by ******************* the customer, the work was performed with the customer's agreement, and she was billed our standard costs, so there is no adjustment applicable or warranted. As of current the customer has 2 outstanding invoices.

   

  To clarify and correct any misrepresentations and omissions, here is the situation for both outstanding ** and Solar Hot Water invoices based on our records:

   

  Photovoltaic (**) system work

  The following information outlining the work to the ** system was provided to the customer in an email on April 7, 2021:

   

  There seems to be some confusion as to the status of your ongoing ** repairs and what payments are due on your behalf. This is to clarify what was done, what needs to be done, and what is due.

  1. [Solar Help Hawaii (SHH)] responded to your original inquiry on Aug 31, 2020, with an offer to service to try to get your monitoring back up and running so we could see the status of your system. 

  2. On 10/22/20, [SHH] came to your house and was able to reconnect the Envoy on the very last outlet and location we tried. At the time [SHH] mentioned that the best solution was to have the Envoy installed in a box directly on the ** circuit, and that hopefully it would be able to function in the garage location. This service call was $[xxx]+tax to which we applied a $25 courtesy discount and was paid on 11/3/20.

  3. The Envoy was able to connect and provide data in the garage location at that time, so that we were able to see how many inverters were reporting and how many were not functioning. We also determined that the layout of the system had some question marks regarding removed panels and panel locations. At that time, we determined ***** inverters were out (shown below) with several panels having question marks that the crew would check when they did the initial work.

  [A snapshot was included showing 15 inverters greyed out]

  4. On 11/9/20 and 11/16/20 our crew replaced 14 inverters and confirmed the status of the layout, determining there were 51 inverters. [SHH] removed the extraneous inverters from the layout and confirmed all 14 replaced inverters were working as of 11/18-19/20 (shown below). This job was $[xxx]+tax ($[xxx] for the first inverter, $[xxx] for each additional swapped at the same time; we considered the rainout as one visit).

  [A snapshot was included showing 1 inverter greyed out]

  5. There was one panel in the layout that did not have an inverter assigned to it in monitoring, which only showed 50 inverters assigned (it was one of the question marks mentioned in [SHHs] first emails). The crew determined that panel did exist in the array. [SHH] assigned an old inverter to it as a placeholder and it was approved for RMA replacement (the 1 pending inverter as of now). This job would be $[xxx]+tax if completed.

  6. We received a call from you reporting your monitoring was having issues 1/26/21. To avoid a possible service call charge, [SHH] emailed some steps to try and advised that if the monitoring was unable to run in that location, we had no other options than to install the Envoy on the ** circuit. As of 3/15/21 [SHH has] not received further response to that troubleshooting effort.

  7. Because the Envoy is connected via Wifi, a loss of that connection will take the Envoy offline. This can be caused by changing your Wifi password, or if obstructions between the Wifi router and Wifi extender near the Envoy block the signal. The location in the garage was quite far from the router. It appears to have lost the online communication fully on 2/7/21.

  8. Because the Envoy reads the inverters through the house's power lines, electrical distance and noise from other appliances in the home can cause the signals to deteriorate or get blocked entirely. Any single added appliance can sometimes cause enough noise to cause issues, which is why connecting the Envoy directly to the ** circuit outside is the best solution. The communication with the panels appears to have started deteriorating around 12/27/20 (new appliances from Christmas?).

  9. As the current monitoring issues surfaced more than a month after the last work at your home, these appear to be new issues related to changing site conditions.

  10. Monitoring does not affect the function of the inverters, and they will run without being monitored. As of the last stable monitoring 50 of your 51 inverters were working.

  11. Payment for our work is due 30 days from invoicing, and your current outstanding invoice is only for completed work. We do need to pay our workers in a timely manner and only invoice for work that we complete.

  12. [SHH] strongly recommend[s] having the Envoy installed outside on your ** circuit ($[xxx]+tax as previously quoted), and in fact it might be the only option to get monitoring with your current site conditions. However, we need you to clear your past due invoices before we proceed with any more work.

   

  It should be further noted that:

  1.      The customer was quoted the exact amount billed prior to the work, in an email on 10/26/20.

  2.      The proposed repair of the 15^th inverter was 1) determined as a result of the initial 14-inverter repair, 2) filed as a separate warranty request with the manufacturer, and 3) an additional service to the initial quoted service. The inverter was improperly assigned online as the result of another company touching the system before our 2020 services.

  3.      The customer was invoiced 6 times over 6 months and informed multiple times that the invoices were 1) for completed work, 2) overdue, and 3) would need to be paid for further work to be scheduled.

  4.      The customer was also warned multiple times that the invoices would be sent to collections if they remained unpaid. Offers were made for waiver of late fees. The customer acknowledged receipt of the explanations and opted not to pay.

  Solar Hot Water system work

  The following information was emailed and relayed in a phone conversation to the customer on April 29, 2021:

  ******************* called SHH on 4/12/21 stating that she had a leak believed to be coming from the solar hot water system we installed on 12/10/20. At her firm request which included the statement that she would "light us up on social media" if SHH didn't come out immediately, SHHs technician arrived at her property promptly the following morning on 4/13/21. 

  The technician confirmed that the leak was in the attic coming from the original home plumbing pipe which was covered with both insulation and spray foam. About a foot of spray foam and insulation had already been cut off prior to his arrival. A bucket was also present catching the water that appeared to have been coming from a small pinhole leak. The customer stated to the technician that her handyman had cut the foam and insulation away looking for the leak. Replacement of this piping is not a usual part of the solar hot water installation unless it is specified and paid for at an additional cost, and had not been specified for this job.

   

  It should be further noted that:

  1.      It was explained in detail to ************ before the technician came out to the property that there would be a fee if the issue was found to not be a workmanship issue related to our solar hot water install. ************ agreed stating that she was sure it was from the solar because her handyman told her so.

  2.      This is not the first time ************ has called us after the installation reporting that the Solar Hot Water system was not functioning properly. The previous call on 2/19/21 was due to her handyman informing her that we installed the system incorrectly not tucking something under the shingle and she was not getting enough hot water. After accommodating Ms. ***** schedule, a service date of 2/25/21 was agreed on.
  The technician took pictures of the roof install, showed them to ************, and explained to her that he could not find anything installed incorrectly and not to code. She did not dispute this. The technician also looked over the hot water tank and could not find anything wrong with its function. However, ************ did disclose that she had visitors staying with her. The technician went over the function of the system explaining that the usage with her visitors is higher than what the system was sized for. As a courtesy ************ was not charged for this visit.

  Solar Help Hawaii prides itself on helping customers with their solar needs, but like any business, SHH is required to be paid for its work, entitled to collect on debts, and reserves the right not to do further business with a customer that refuses to pay. ************ was properly charged for completed work and received a significant amount of courtesy prior to being considered in default of payment.

   

   

   

   

  ?? Mahalo, 

       ********

  Customer response

  05/08/2023

  MESSAGE FROM CONSUMER:
  
  Regarding complaint on SOLAR HELP HAWAII #******** filed by ********************;

  Solar Panel System

  I dont need to write my life story to explain the simple facts of a customer/business relationship.  If the business owner has all of the power and strength to write this lengthy comeback, then she should have just sent her crew to actually complete the job!

  The basic business protocol is that a customer hires company to do x, when x is completed with satisfaction, then the company gets paid.  Because our system is screwed up and companies that dont do their work can just turn the customer over for collection and damage the customers credit is ridiculous.  But apparently, thats the way it is.  

  My system of 51 panels put in place by ***, was not reporting because many inverters were out and the system map that ties the inverters to the map was incorrectly done and BY WHOM?, ***, who installed my system!!  Nothing changed in my site since the day that the solar system was placed in operation by ***. literally nothing, same appliances, same everything, yet I always had problems off and on since day one that some of the panels did not produce or the reader could not read them.

  I made a simple request several years after installing the system, to please make sure all panels were working and all panels were reporting.  All, not some.  What the business owner fails to mention is that I told her that if she would send her crew to get the last panel working, I promised I would pay the entire bill on the spot.  

  Solar Hot Water system work

  Again, I called *** who had installed my solar hot water system when literally buckets of water were coming from my roof into my attic and on my ceiling and into my house!  The only source of water on the roof is the solar water heater circulation.  Their answer was a very casual we can come out in a few days.  What!!!  Water is literally coming into my house.  Even upon my insistence, they did not come until the next day.  I had to get someone else to go in my attic and basically fix the issue to keep my entire house from flooding.

  *** states that the problem was from a home plumbing pipe.  No.  there are no pipes other than for the solar system that carry water up that high. And, no, I asked several solar companies as well as the technician at *** who stated that that pipe should have been replaced when a new solar hot water system was installed.  The only reason that *** did not is because it had insulation on it and it was too much work, so cutting corners.  Again, *** wants to charge me to fix a problem that occurred because of work that was not done right.

  As a summary, the business owner failed to realize or even value that I have put in 3 complete solar systems with *** as well as a solar hot water heater.  You would think that there would be a little appreciation for a good customer and try to help them to keep their system working as the panels are under warranty!  This business does not have a customer service attitude at all or any loyalty to long term customers.  It is just based on what they can get out of the customer on the short term!  Even though you pay and pay, they still have the attitude that you are lucky that they even talk to you.  There is no customer service attitude.  I have to say though that pretty much all of the *** employees are not like that, its just the owner.  The only way they will stay in business is by being cheaper than others.  It will not be because of the customer service.  I pay my bills on time and I respect everyone who helps me, but sorry, no I will not respect this business at all.
  

  
  

*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. ↩