Sunrun

Southern California Edison flipped the switch in June, which was really timely with the high price of electricity during the summer. We are absolutely thrilled that we made that next step because of not only the cost savings, but my husband has a Tesla, so it helps to charge it. It was really a good decision. Our only regret was that we weren't able to afford it sooner.

Then they assigned me to somebody else who was also barely explaining. He doesn't even know what's going on in my case. He called me saying, "You have to pay us like $8,000." I said, "We already spoke about it. It's included in the breakdown." Then he said, "Okay. I have to review the file. I didn't know that. I have to see that." I said, "Why did you call me if you don't know anything?" I tried asking questions but he wasn't aware. I was aggravated with that and there was nobody to communicate with. That part was awful for me.

Sunrun is still taking their bill. They deducted the monthly payments direct from my bank. Plus, I'm paying the electric bill. I’m supposed to save but I end up paying double. When I tried to call and get a supervisor on the line or to help, all I get is a representative and they tell me stories and apologies. Sorry is not gonna work. They're gonna have to reimburse me for everything from June until October. That's the production month of the year, during the summer. And now, I get nothing. Sunrun better take care of it and if they don't compensate me good, I'm gonna sue them. Plus, winter is entering and I got zero credit production from their system for the winter. So, I will end up also being on Con Edison bill again and their bill. I'm getting the worst experience ever.

Before the install, there had been random moments where the electricity would flicker on and off. But since we have gotten the solar installed with a battery, we have not seen that happen at all. So it has really stabilized the energy for the home, not having to completely rely on the grid. We've been very happy with that. Sunrun was very confident that in the future, we would see a reduction in the energy production, or if our energy needs increases, we could easily add additional panels with the way that they set up and organized it. They also made sure that the panels they picked had the least amount of degradation over time compared to the panels that others had shown us.

Do not trust Sunrun and Costco. I only hired Sunrun because I trusted Costco. They are unethical companies and they are trying take advance of customers. They took my money and Sunrun caused me financial and emotional damages. I filed complaint against Sunrun and Costco with State Licensing Agency, State Attorney General Office, Better Business Bureau and Complain to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). I am going to provide bad review against Sunrun and Costco in Yelp, Google Review, Solar Reviews and others. My next steps would be to contact my local government and local media regarding Sunrun and Costco. **

Sunrun told me they want to charge me $150 per panel to take them down so I can get a new roof and put them back up. I called them up and I fought with them. The girl that was supposed to be helping me said, “All right, I spoke to the manager. They understand your problem. They said if you get a new roof and the next three years, they'll be responsible for taking the panels down and putting them back up.” I got a roofing company. They're going to do it. I was now going to get in touch with Sunrun because I read that it takes 45 days. We have to make everything work in timing for them to take them down. I said, “I didn’t get that writing yet. You told me you’re gonna send that to me in writing?” The rep said, “There’s been a mistake. They will not be responsible for taking the panels down and putting them back up. That is your responsibility.”

I fought with them again. She came back to me, because I said, “I’m gonna get a lawyer. This is not right. How did you put these up on an 18-year-old roof and tell me everything was okay? I’m on Social Security. I'm an 81-year-old woman. I don't know these things. I trusted you.” She said, “Okay. We'll pay 50%.” I said, “All right. Tell me how many panels I have and what's going to be my cost?” She said, “I have to get back to you. That's not my job.” But, I haven't even heard back from them yet as to what it was going to be.

Unfortunately, I signed the contracts for the panels to get Sunrun in August. That first guy didn't come out till January, and then he said, "Someone will call you in a couple of days." But I didn't get any communication. I had to keep calling them. They came out. They had to remove a gate that I had, and they weren't sure if they were gonna be able to replace it or not. Some of them said they could, someone said they would have someone else come out. But still, to this day, my gate is still off of my wall, and there's access to my backyard still from that, and that was six months ago. They had to saw the gate off because it was welded to the ground, to the cement and they took that off.

They did the panels and their electrical work was good. They asked me what I needed, what I wanted, and they tried to make it best to my request. They did a good job. They mentioned someone was gonna come out and paint the rods, the steel that they were running the pipe through the master house. But no one ever came out to do that. But overall, the panels work and there's no fire.

My bill has been much lower. I was under the impression that I was not gonna get a monthly bill with Edison anymore, but I've gotten two, so far. They said I was gonna get a yearly bill. I even had them change the contract to say that. Because that was what they were telling me the whole time, "You won't get a monthly bill anymore. You'll get a yearly bill and then the credits will kind of balance themselves out. If not, you'll either get a positive or a bill." But my last bill before panels was $400, and the one that just came in was 60 bucks, so much better.

I got two batteries through Sunrun, and one of the big reasons why I got the batteries was because there's a rebate that is worth about $4,000 that the consumer is supposed to get. But, Sunrun is telling me that Sunrun gets that rebate. So I pay for the panels, I pay for them to get installed, and then Sunrun gets the benefit of a $4,000 rebate.

I talked to a sales rep about the rebate and how I would be able to be 100% not relying on the grid, and he said, "You need to have a battery." I said, "I use my AC a lot." He said, "Well, you need two." I said, "Okay. That's good, but it's expensive." So, he mentioned the rebate. Even on Sunrun's website, it says, "SGIP rebate. You can qualify for it." Then, on the contract, it says, "All state and local rebates go to Sunrun." When I asked the rep about that, I said, "I don't wanna give my rebate to Sunrun. I need that to help me pay for the bill." He said, "No, that is regarding the federal rebate that has to do with the loan." It was a completely different state rebate that I qualified for.

What we informed him was, we were in the process of buying a pool for the house, and that we are gross wasters when it comes to electricity inside the home. We like to run our AC 24/7. We bought an AC that's rated over what we needed for the house just to ensure that it stays cold. We want to pay for it, so let us have it. Oversell us on the panels because I wanted to ensure everything would be covered, and we'd never have to pay an electric bill. Because we don't want to pay electric and solar. We wanted everything on one bill. We wanted the solar to zero out the electrical bill.

We were a month or two in, and he sent me the plans where my panels are on the front end of my house. I told him, I'd seen people in my same neighborhood with the house facing the same way and the panels are in the back of the house. I told him that it was not what I wanted. I wanted mine in the back. Solar panels are an eyesore, regardless of the cost. If other people have it in the same direction, that must mean that solar works just as well on the other side. He continued to tell me it was absolutely not going to work that way. I said, "But if you look, my house is facing east and west. So it's either gonna get it at the back end of the day or the beginning of the day."

He informed me that that was not an option. It has to go on the front end of my house due to weight capacity. My husband said, "Just sign off on it so we can get it over with because of COVID, because of everything just falling behind. Just do it." That was November, and then even at the beginning of January, I heard nothing, zero communication. I was sending out emails and texts to said person, but nothing. Finally, my husband said, “We signed a contract. They already ran our credit. We were good to go. So contact customer services.”

We contacted customer service and spoke with a customer service rep/manager. They said, “We're going to fix it and send out another salesman.” They did. But the same thing happened again. 30 days, no communication. Reached out again, “What's going on with my stuff?” The rep said, “Oh, the salesman doesn't work here anymore.” I said, “That happened with my last one.” The company should have some continuity. The next salesman should be informed. But there was none of that. I reached out again and I said, "Why am I doing this? This is not my job. This is what I'm paying you to do. You guys are supposed to be reaching out to me and letting me know where I am in this entire process of getting solar put up." We were looking February timeframe already.

I was on salesman number three at the end of January timeframe. I am told the number of panels that this guy projected and that I need to over-project to cover said costs of a pool. So we even looked up online what it would cost to cover how many panels. The salesman said, “No, you're good. Whatever you have projected is correct to cover everything, plus this new pool coming in, plus your new lights on your back patio, plus, your little house running in the backyard. Everything is covered.” Okay, I said. Now another issue is, he tried to get the permits. I didn't even have permits yet. They hadn't even moved on to the permitting portion. We're six months in and I'm still nowhere. My credit was approved. That's as far as we had gotten at that point.

Fast forward again, the third salesman got fired. Now, I'm working directly with and only with managers and customer service representatives. Finally, my customer service manager got someone to work with me. I finally got someone to put my panels on the back of the house like I initially wanted. We're moving forward. We got permits and we're fully ready. We signed our third entire contract with Sunrun. I am on my third contract, completely resigned with Sunrun.

He said, "We're gonna move forward with this one. It's all done, we're good." We had to get the electrical because they were going to upgrade my panel. Because of whatever the case, it was thrown into the package because I needed it. They got the company out. Then the company completely forgot to come out. So, now we're sitting at the beginning of May of 2022. I called the electrical company that was going to be upgrading my electrical panel and they said, “Oh, yeah, we're not even tracking to be doing this.”

I called Sunrun again, and I called the electrical on three-way. I said, “Can I get my house finished?" That weekend, they came in and installed the panels. They upgraded the panels and did the digging. Because permits were good, finally. They had done permitting through April. But then fast forward two weeks, this company didn't call back. I got a big hole on the side of the front of my house that I have just had re-stucco in 2019.

I called Sunrun and they said, “You got to deal directly with that company. They're the ones that did it.” I called them and they told me, “No, you need to deal with Sunrun.” I said, "I’m done. I'm not playing. Y'all get your ** out here and fix my house.” So they finally brought themselves out. They fixed my house, somewhat. There's no color match. It doesn't look good. My electrical panel wall is supposedly done, but it looks like trash. It’s in front of my house. I spent so much money and this is how the front of my house looks right now.

They came and sent the electrical panels. I called Sunrun back and I said, “They finished the electrical panel. Y'all coming out?” They said, “Oh, we weren't notified that it was completed.” I said, “It's completed. Can you all come to put my panels on?” They said, “Yeah. We’ll set up an appointment.” Fast forward, we’re into May now. They put the panels up. That was quick. It was all done in one day. But, for whatever reason, they still stuck the pipe up through the front of my roof, and ran the big old pipe through the front on the top of my roof, even though everything else was in the back. So whatever the case, I wasn't gonna fight it. It's done. Took about three weeks to get operational.

I don't get an electric bill and I don't get a solar bill through the month of June. Everything got finally set in July, and I got my first bill in July. I get a $500 electric bill in July, and I still got my regular $127 solar bill in July. So, I freaked out. I was on the phone with both customer services. Southern California Edison told me, “It's Sunrun’s deal. You got to deal with them.” Sunrun said, "No, it's Southern California Edison." I figured out it was both of them.

I got to the bottom of it. It was May’s bill that they had miscalculated, so they had to send my money back into my bank account and then recalculate. But then, since they had to recalculate the bill, I had to manually submit the bill in May, which I was never notified of by email or told. Now we're looking at May, June, and now July’s bills with Solar all added together. I broke it down. Solar kicked in sometime in June and then all of July’s bill was on there. I said, "Why are my electric bill’s still $200 a month? I'm paying for solar. They should be zeroed out, or at least close to, when my normal bill should be $300. This is still more than half of what I would pay." I found out I don't have enough panels, not even remotely close to covering my electricity, let alone if I had a battery even charging.

I called Sunrun, and I said, “Y’all miscalibrated, jacked up. Now what?” Fast forward to last month, I finally got an answer from someone in customer service and Sunrun and I've been making these calls since July weekly, to get an answer. My call last month was, “We can't add to those. They're yours. So you'd have to go through a whole new contract, a whole new bill, a whole new everything, a whole new salesman. We have an extra branch in Sunrun that deals directly with them. But we can't touch those. You'd have to go with a whole new everything to add that on. And yeah, you're about 25 panels short.”

Now I can't do anything to my own roof until December of this year, because I have a new solar panel system that does nothing for me, except add an extra bill and an extra headache if anything goes wrong. If I could rip these panels off and throw them at every single person I've dealt with in Sunrun since I started, I would throw one panel one by one at each person.

“Thank you for contacting the Sunrun Damage Department. We have reviewed your damage claim submission and have determined that the scope of damage reported does not fall within the warranty of your Sunrun contract or does not indicate solar involvement. We advise you to seek consultation from a contractor or roofer for the damages listed. Please contact our Customer Care department at 1-855-478-6786 if you need to have panels removed for your roofer to make repairs. Please do not reply to this email, it is not monitored.”

On September 11, 2022, the solar panels were removed and the active roof leaks were repaired by our personal contractor. On September 20, 2022, the home went under contract for sale and the closing is scheduled for Friday, October 21, 2022. One of the conditions of the sales contract states that the home is “in the progress of roof and solar panel repairs”. Myself, my husband and our real estate agent have collectively called customer service, the Transfer Department, the Damage Department, the Removal & Reinstall Team, and the Escalations & Prevention Team at least a hundred times typically getting disconnected, sent straight to voicemail or ultimately just told that there is no one available that can help.

Case manager, Alejandro ** (**), repeatedly promised to send emails that were never sent/received and promised to make phone calls to “corporate” that were never made. When I told him I had no choice but to purchase replacement solar panels from a third-party company, he begged me not to do so “because it would affect my credit”. He also called our real estate agent to ask her to call me and make sure I didn’t purchase replacement solar panels from a third-party company. He never did call me back with a solution or resolution. When I could no longer reach him at the direct number he provided; I once again started calling customer service to speak with a supervisor.

On September 23, 2022, I obtained two (2) estimates from third party companies to replace the 12 damaged panels. One said they could replace the panels within the next week and the other had a 2-week timeframe. I was finally put in touch with supervisor, Vince ** (**) who listened to our complaints and pleas for help. He said he would try to help, but after over a dozen phone calls to him with no resolution, we were finally passed on to Carissa **, Case Manager Supervisor, Customer Care (**).

On September 30, 2022, Carissa ** called and apologized for all the runaround and terrible customer service. She also admitted that our solar system has only been performing at 47% for the past 12 months and we are owed $2,247.03 for a performance review refund. She provided two (2) options to present to the buyers of the home: 1) replace the 12 damaged solar panels, or 2) cancel the solar panel contract. Carissa asked that our agent present both options to the buyers and get back to her with their decision. The buyers decided to cancel the contract and that was relayed to Carissa via email on October 2, 2022.

On October 3, 2022, Vince communicated that he would no longer be involved in the case and our permanent point of contact would be Carissa going forward. Despite numerous phone calls and emails to the Transfer Department, Vince, and Carissa, we were stonewalled. Carissa finally responded via email on October 4, 2022 at 3:22pm. Her email read as follows:

“To clarify, when I talked to Tom, I was under the impression that there were ONLY 12 panels on his home and all of them were damaged by a tree falling onto his home. I had approved for a 12-panel cancellation. I did not approve a 90+ panel account cancellation. It was a misunderstanding that has been communicated to the potential buyer already. I do admit I should have checked the number of panels on the home before confirming the option but I cannot submit an insurance cancellation of the account if only a portion of the system is damaged. I would be happy to personally call the buyer's realtor to discuss options for transfer and to greatly reduce the monthly payments made for the solar system. I also would be happy to offer an appeasement for the confusion.

Vince should have given options to permanently remove the 12 panels of the existing system with a payment reduction to reflect this. If accepted, we can get the document for that sent out today. If refused, cancellation will need to go through my legal department here at Sunrun and can take weeks to finalize without a full system insurance claim. Please let us know what you decide so Vince can action this as quickly as possible.”

We responded with a list of questions that are still unanswered by Vince and Carissa. Carissa’s response on October 5, 2022, at 5:48 PM: “Here is the answer to your concerns with the proposal. The release letter acts as the agreement between parties. There is another document that will be signed after agreeing for the adjusted payment that is the amendment you are looking for. The $148.30 was a calculated payment removing the 12 panels and taking in consideration your system's production patterns. The performance guarantee was $2,247.03. This guarantee gives a refund for the production that was paid for in the lease payments and was not produced at a rate of $0.111 per kWh. The total $2,700 included additional appeasement beyond the guarantee. I can offer $3,000 total including the guarantee payment.

To clarify, this is $2,247.03 + $752.97 for a total of $3,000. I can get this check sent out this Friday and overnight it to you. Sunrun does not cover utility costs expressly stated in 10a. The $752.97 appeasement is in good faith for your experience with us so far. The $1,000 will be sent as a check directly to the buyers at this property address. As for the electrical equipment, I need to confirm with the removal team to see if we have a contractor available in the next week. If they do not, then we will go with the second option of your contractor invoicing Sunrun.

I will have a very experienced representative in our Transfers department contact the buyer as soon as possible to apologize and clarify the next steps of this transfer with them. I still do not have a direct manager and apologize if this is unconventional in your experiences. It is not a normal experience for me either and I hope to hear soon who they have selected for the manager above myself. Currently, I will continue to negotiate with you until we come to a resolution.”

We agreed on those terms and asked how to proceed with the next steps. No response. On October 5, 2022 at 2:20pm I received an amendment from Daniel ** to sign. I responded saying: “No, this is not good enough to move forward. This is a generic document that doesn’t outline anything regarding the new amended “solar facility” with the cancelation of the 12 panels, the new monthly buyer responsibility, etc. We are also waiting for a response to all the other unresolved issues described in our email last night.”

A Sunrun sales rep (Not Carissa as she had offered on 10/4/22) called the buyers and was not able to answer all their questions so they were left understandably upset and very leery of moving forward with Sunrun. Now we are at risk of losing the buyers because of blatant negligence, horrific customer service, and consistent misinformation made on Sunrun's part. On October 5, 2022, I sent yet another email begging and pleading for someone to help us find a solution and take action. This time I included Sunrun executives Mary Powell CEO, Lynn Jurich Co-Executive Chair, and Edward Fenster Co-Executive Chair.

On October 6, 2022, I received an email from Rachael **, Escalations and Prevention Specialist (**) titled “Complaint to Multiple Executives”. She indicated she would “be our primary point of contact until we are able to resolve our recent complaint. If at any time you can't reach me, you may contact my manager R.J. **, copied here. I have also copied our director, Jennifer **, for visibility”.

I was hoping she would actually be able to do something but her last email on October 7, 2022, explained the following: “The main problem at this point for me is that I am limited in what I am able to accomplish in such a short period of time. I am happy to help in any capacity that I can, but this is also somewhat tricky now that we are at the weekend. I can take another look at this in the morning or possibly on Monday when I will have more access to resources. When you say that you are wanting me to own this, can you be more specific in terms of what I can do to help?“

At 11:31pm I spelled out specifically what I was requesting. No response. No check received. On October 8, 2022 at 6:55pm, I sent another email entitled “URGENT - Complaint to Multiple Executives”. I said “I need someone from Sunrun to step up, take ownership of this terrible situation and do something to correct it immediately. We are running out of time”. Again, I outlined what needed to happen. This time I included Jeanna Steele, Chief Legal Officer and Chief People Officer and Danny Abajian, Chief Financial Officer. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

The first time they came in, the installation was really fast. They worked really fast. They told me they were going to make some noise and they did. It was fine because they told me beforehand. But, it didn’t pass the city inspections because they did it with the specifications for Phoenix instead of Tuscon. They had to come back and fix it later, which delayed almost three weeks the finish of the project. The installation crew came all the way from Phoenix. So, they didn't know the specific laws and requirements here in Tucson. But they were really professional in explaining everything. They gave me a really valid reason for why they didn’t finish, why it was rejected. The service has been great since it has been installed.

Sometimes, Sunrun is hard to get ahold of. We got all of the clearances down, and I tried to get ahold of Sunrun to find out when they were going to turn the system on, because the power company had also come out and left the door hanger on my door, saying that it was okay to go ahead and switch the system on. I couldn't get ahold of anybody and it was frustrating for a bit. Eventually though, they called me back, turned the system on and it's been fine. There is a Sunrun application I can get on, and it tells me how much I've produced the previous day, week and month. The system does its thing, and the power company is charging me less. My bills have dropped.

I'd tell people Sunrun is a good company. Installation was a breeze. There was long lag time between when we said we were going to do it and paid our upfront fee, and because of the process of getting everything okayed and getting all of the things from the county and the power company. There was a bit of a lag of a couple of months, but once everything was in place, it went fairly fast.