SunPower

The sales rep was really great, too. It's a shame that he isn't doing it anymore because I have reached out since then wanting to add batteries. And since my original sales rep isn't available, I get put to whoever is doing it now in our area. But I haven't been able to come to an agreement to add batteries because the last call I made was about my inverters . They are over 12 years old and they don't match with current battery technology which is dissatisfying. I also wish that there were more advertisements for cleaning services to clean the panel, because at my age of 78, I don't want to climb on the roof to hose them down and squeegee them.

I researched a lot of companies and I realized there are only two American companies and everything else is fine China. SunPower came in at 24% in terms of efficiency. Their rep helped me along. The setup was the summer of last year and then it was six months later because they were booked up. We also had to wait for our electric company to come and disconnect the power from the post. Other than that, the job was done within a week once everything got okay.

December was when they installed the system. When the electric company came and did the final inspection, I didn't realize that the main panel switch for the electricity to turn on the solar panels was never on. A month later, I got a bill and I realized I was being charged normally. I called SunPower and they told me the system was not on. I thought they were gonna do that. They walked me through how to turn on the system.

That’s the only gripe that I had. SunPower dropped the ball on that. I'm an over-the-road truck driver. I'm gone two, three weeks at a time. I wasn't even home to even physically look at it to see where the switch says 'Off'. It's right next to the electrical panel outside. It's a small electrical panel and it's just a big switch, on-off. When everything is all said and done, go out there and take a look, because SunPower didn't tell me about that. So far, I've gotten my SunPower bill and it's going to be a doozy. They told me that I'm gonna have to pay it in two installments when they add it all up, which is horrible. If you're averaging $200 a month, times 12. And you're gonna have to pay it all in two shots."

I had an issue with the panels from day one. I had one panel that kept showing me it was offline on my app. I called my three-month representative and he kept telling me that it was data migration, this, and that. Everything looks good on the SunPower side. I wasn't buying what the representative said and I was insisting that they send somebody out. But he kept saying that was not necessary so I took it upon myself to call the 800 number for the first time. I was on the phone for more than three hours. Customer service told me there were times when the panel was not producing power, which really upset me because it wasn't what my representative was telling me.

It took another 10 days for SunPower to send a technician out. I said, "I paid for this. It's a $40,000 installation. It's not 100% working. Send him out with every possible part so this gets resolved." But the technician shows up with no parts. I wouldn't let him leave. He somehow he pulled out a microinverter from the back of his van and claimed it was brand new. He replaced that part. Lo and behold, the system's been working fine now for well over a month. On that whole, it was like pulling teeth just getting through customer service, convincing them to send somebody out because everybody wants to do everything remotely, checking the system, and sending an update. I was very frustrated. But I am happy now even though I have two minor issues going on.

I'm an engineer by trade so I understood the whole solar panel, power, and the apps. But I felt SunPower was dismissing that. It was almost like excuses, where they would check the system and say, "It was fine. We'll send a signal." They led me along for months and I really was upset about that. After giving my representative a 5-star rating, he just disappeared. I was really hoping he would be the guy to go and jump on somebody's desk and say, "Hey, we got to send somebody out there to fix this guy's solar system."

The installers, Mulholland Electric, were good. They came out, got on it and finished it quickly. There was one little hiccup though. And I'm not sure whether it was theirs or on SunPower’s end. I made it clear when I signed the contract that when I get the reporting data through the SunPower app, I didn't want to have to monitor a 5-kilowatt system and the new 4-kilowatt system. I wanted the data to be reported as if it was one 9-kilowatt system. They had to install a second inverter so there was a little bit of complication with trying to get the two systems to report as one. And it seemed as though that went back to SunPower corporate. It took a little bit more effort on my part to make that happen than I would have liked but it finally got worked out.

I'm not a big fan of the SunPower app. It's not very user-friendly in terms of graphing and the way that it graphically presents the information. I can figure it out but it's not as simple as it should be. I had a prior SunPower app with the first system, which was easier and better to interact with than the current one. But I'm also not somebody who sits there and logs into my app every day. I have friends that show their solar generating capabilities on their phones as if it's their grandkid’s pictures. Instead of working, just watching the kilowatts app. I don't do that. So, it's not a big issue.

The sales rep was fantastic. He talked to me about all the details that I needed to know. I really appreciated that he was honest and not salesy, like in a used car salesman kind of way, but more, "It's a great product. Let me tell you about it. Here's what you expect. Here's why it's a good product." For the price, it's a great product. They also worked with me through the rebates and the incentives they provided. They pointed me to the forms that I needed for the taxes. They really worked hard.

There were two things that we were working through. One of them was trying to get the installation done in the previous calendar year so I could apply for the rebates this year. Otherwise, if I had done the installation in January, I'd have to carry more of the debt to finance the cost of the install until the following year. They did the installation in a timely manner. They were able to pull it in and worked a little bit extra because it was right after the holidays. They tried to do mine and several others to try to get it in before the calendar year was over.

The other thing that we were working through was the cost. It didn't change. There wasn't any negotiation to coming down on cost. They were very honest that we tried to set things at a low cost. But it was the financing of it because it requires out-of-pocket expense. Very few people, myself included, have that sort of cash just lying around. But the sales rep was very good to help me understand what it meant if you were to finance through the solar power company or through someone else or if you were to put it on a credit card, to help me work through what would be the right option and the least costly for me and offering suggestions for me to consider rather than pushing me into a product, where I finance through them and they get the high profits off of the interests. I was able to come up with a financing solution that worked well for my family and didn't really cost much money at all to do the financing.

I've been able to read it through the app and I am net positive for the year as far as what's generated. The kids love to look at it. They try to monitor the power usage and it's been quite fun. I've only gotten one bill so far where the solar has been on it, and with the net metering, it's saving money. In case it goes up, I feel comfortable with how the power is coming through the panels and supplying it to my house.