Vivint Solar

Vivint Solar Reviews

A SunRun Company

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Written by Ben Strauss
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Edited by Justin Martino

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About Vivint Solar

Vivint is a home technology company that offers a wide array of tech-forward devices, including solar panels for various homes and budgets, in partnership with Freedom Forever. Together, the two companies offer a smart energy system equipped with Vivint’s Essentials Kit for comprehensive home security. Its panels include a 25-year production guarantee.

Pros
  • Owned by Sunrun
  • Three financing options
  • Free security system included
Cons
  • No transparent pricing info

Featured Reviews

Fresno, CA
Verified purchase
The customer service reps were great and very informative. They helped me get my answers and what I needed. They were easy-going, very informative, and what they promised was what...

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Plainfield, NJ
Verified purchase
Everything is great with Vivint Solar. ... [The representative] talked in detail and explained to me everything, and I understood. He was very precise and understanding, and a nic...

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Vivint Solar panels and equipment

Vivint’s solar panels are made of photovoltaic silicon semiconductor cells. Its panels are Tier 1, which means they adhere to the highest industry standards and offer high efficiency and long-term reliability. Vivint also offers a 25-year production guarantee, which ensures your system produces a specific amount of energy during that time.

The Vivint Home Energy app also tracks your energy production and consumption, which helps you better understand how it’s working and when your system generates peak energy.

To learn more about Vivint’s panels, contact a representative directly. The company doesn’t share any information about specs, efficiency or ratings online.

Vivint Solar installation

Vivint offers professional installation. The cost to install your system varies based on several factors, including how much energy it produces. Before installation, a Vivint professional visits your home to review your equipment needs and finalize your system design. From there, its team handles everything from permits to the actual installation process.

Vivint Solar services

Vivint Solar offers bundles that combine solar and home security services. The bundles include a Vivint smart hub, security cameras, a smart thermostat, home automation devices and 24/7 monitoring. You can track both your solar and home security devices through the Vivint app.

Vivint Solar cost

The cost of a solar panel system can vary widely based on a number of factors, including sun availability, the size of your system and home, and the materials you use. The company doesn’t share general cost information, but its representatives can provide a free estimate.

There are a few tax incentives available, such as the federal solar tax credit, to help cover some of the costs of going solar. Your city and state might also offer incentives; a Vivint representative can help you determine if any are available.

Financing options

You can pay for a Vivint solar energy system with a solar loan, solar lease or cash purchase.

  • Solar loan: Vivint offers solar loans starting at $0 down, and some loans have no prepayment penalties.
  • Solar PPA/lease: With a solar power purchase agreement (PPA), you pay for the power generated at a fixed rate per kilowatt-hour. Installation and setup are usually included at little or no cost to you.
  • Cash purchase: You can pay in full upfront and own your system outright.

Vivint Solar warranty

Vivint Solar offers a 25-year production guarantee, which is fairly standard among solar industry leaders. This guarantee promises that the system will produce a specific number of kilowatt-hours of power annually. For more information about the equipment warranty, speak to a Vivint representative.

Vivint Solar FAQ

What is the Vivint Solar app?

The Vivint Solar app lets you access your accounts via an iPhone or Android device. The app features billing information and details on your home's usage and energy production. It also shows performance data for your system.

How does going solar with Vivint work?

To start the solar process, you’ll need to speak directly with a Vivint representative. This person will help you navigate your options, design a customized solar energy system and establish a payment plan that works for you.

How does a Vivint Solar PPA work?

Vivint’s solar power purchase agreement (PPA) is a financing option that lets you go solar with little or no money down. You just need to pay a specified price for the power that's generated. Ideally, this fixed rate is lower than the cost of local utilities.

Where are Vivint Solar panels available?

Vivint Solar is a subsidiary of Sunrun, which operates in the following states as well as in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico:

  • Arizona
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Florida
  • Hawaii
  • Illinois
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • Texas
  • Vermont
  • Wisconsin
Is Vivint Solar legit?

Yes. For those who want a smarter, more tech-forward approach to solar energy, Vivint might be a good option. Each solar energy system includes a free Vivint home security system kit and access to the Vivint Solar app.

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Vivint Solar Reviews

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    Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10

    Reviewed Dec. 10, 2024

    I contracted my solar system through a Vivint solar agent. He lied about covering my early termination fees and also lied about no delivery fees from the utility company on electricity I produced. Although the system is doing what is should, I would recommend going with the best price and just get any fees they promise to cover deducted from total cost upfront.

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    Customer Service

    Reviewed Aug. 8, 2024

    “In the beginning of May, Seth ** came to my door and I explained to him that I was upset that I have to pay Citizens Bank 3,000 plus for the equipment. He continued to tell me about solar and that the payments for Citizens Bank would be taken care of. My son was with me too so I have a witness stating that Seth said the Citizens Bank bill would be taken care of. Now that all is done, Seth is denying it.

    I have tried to reach out to him via phone and text but no response. My son has tried. As well and no response. Joel from ESD Solar has been wonderful in trying to help me. ESD Solar also sent messages to Seth and he has yet to get in touch with. Had I known I would still be paying the Citizens I would have never gotten the Solar. So now instead of having one bill for security and one for solar. I now have 4.”

    This is one of replies that I received from Vivint: "I spoke with your sales representative, Seth, regarding the concerns you mentioned. Here's a quick update: Seth recalled that during his visit, you mentioned the Citizens account and expressed that you were not interested in keeping it. As a solution, he offered a rebate check to cover the remaining amount owed on the Citizens account. However, accepting the rebate check would have increased the monthly solar payments. Seth mentioned that you opted not to proceed with the rebate to avoid the higher rate."

    This is the last reply I received. I just feel something should be held accountable for the misinformation. The rebate check is affiliated with your solar project, not with Citizens Bank. You would need to contact the solar panel installer to see if this is still an option. From my understanding, the rebate can only be added at the time of sale, so I'm not sure if it's available now. I recommend reaching out to the installer to confirm. Energy Solutions Distributor Solar: 800-425-1175

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      Customer ServicePrice

      Reviewed Nov. 9, 2023

      If I could give this company 0 stars I would. They do not explain everything to you about cancellations. Their reps are very rude, lazy, they never come on time. Definitely don’t not make a one time payment on a card that’s different than the one you have set up for autopay. They will take it among themselves and charge your card that’s not the one you have for auto pay. PLEASE. I WARNED YOU. DO NOT I MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY WITH THIS COMPANY.

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      Customer Service

      Reviewed Oct. 18, 2023

      Stay away from VIVINT Solar! They let their people canvas neighborhoods on "a no notice" basis in order to catch you off guard. I signed up, not knowing all the details - some of which were not told, according to my electric co. No mention of cancellation period. I cancelled within a week, but only received part of my payment back with no explanation of the remainder. Call after call for over 4 months (sometimes they will answer the phone and get back to you, but this has never happened) and this issue is still not resolved. Very poor customer service! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

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      Installation & SetupSales & MarketingBattery

      Reviewed April 27, 2023

      I started my solar journey in May/June of '22. Our solar was just installed in Feb of '23. This has been a grueling progress. I'm still unsure if the fault lies at the feet of my city or with Vivint's team. In the beginning we were sold on the idea of not relying on the grid, in an event of a power loss we would have the battery to power our house overnight and during the day the panels would produce what we needed. We live in FL so our PRIMARY purchase decision was based on the fact of having A/C in the event of a grid outage. We were told some stuff about being locked into some deal with the city electric for 15-25 years for getting some sort of better rates and other things that have proven untrue.

      After SEVERAL months of conflicting information and getting closer to buyers remorse came the install date. Freedom Forever nailed it, they were on time, super polite and did a great job installing everything. FF's electricians informed me that my AC, Stove and Water Heater were not on my battery that I purchased. Upon learning more from that electrician I found that I would need a second battery to operate the AC during an outage.

      This is the literal reason we decided to go solar, and upon more conversations I found that in the event of a grid outage, the solar would ONLY power things linked to the battery even during the day. So not only were we sold on the fact we would have A/C in an outage, we were sold on the fact that we wouldn't need to rely on the grid unless we overused our panels/battery. This turns out to be completely false. In the event of an outage ONLY breakers linked to the battery will be useable AND the panels can't power non-battery linked devices during daylight if grid is down.

      The sales rep claims "Your power will work, the main thing that I always tell people does not work on a battery is the air conditioning, so that’s something I would have gone over with you regardless of whether it’s on a separate breaker not, typically batteries are not going to power an air conditioner as they draw way too much power, it keeps the important things on like your lights, Wi-Fi, fridge, etc." I know this is not true as we would have full stop not made the solar purchase if we knew there would be no A/C in an outage. Living in FL that completely defeats the entire purpose of solar for us.

      I reached out to Vivint regarding this and they pushed me off to Freedom Forever in regards to essentially being lied to and not being given the items needed that we were sold on. Freedom tried to be helpful however there is nothing they can do as they are just the installer and they agreed Vivint needs to supply us a 2nd battery and FF will gladly work to have it added onto our system. Freedom told me to contact the Regional Sales Manager regarding this lack of transparency and poor sales tactics and we are going on 3 weeks of no answers or callbacks from this Vivint associate.

      The most devastating aspect of this whole scenario is that we've had Vivint Security for over 6 years now and they have always been good to us, anytime we have any device issues they are very helpful and great to work with. When we found out Vivint offered Solar my wife was excited stating that she TRUSTS Vivint to not rip us off like you hear so often about solar companies taking people's rebates and then filing bankruptcy to get out of warranties. So we were very glad to be going through Vivint and after this near year of issues and the end product not even what we signed up for leaves a very bad taste about Vivint in our mouths. I have stopped recommending friends and colleagues to Vivint Security as well due to this entire issue.

      I do not recommend Vivint Solar to anyone and for anyone looking to Solar companies, get what you are expecting in writing and read EVERYTHING they give you prior to signing. Vivint makes you sign a form that essentially claims you are buying solar because it is what you want and NOT based on what the sales rep is telling you what you will gain. Had I noticed that in the beginning I would have walked away. Very shady tactics and willing to withhold information for the sake of a sale. Vivint is not the company I thought they were.

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      Customer ServiceInstallation & Setup

      Reviewed Jan. 20, 2023

      Updated on 10/16/2023: My experience started off with an incompetent sales rep in Josh ** who identified I’ll need only 13 panels instead of about doubled the amount, just so that my monthly bill was low. I expressed concerns prior to Fastrac even being scheduled to install and I was told to not bother, if I needed more after install, easy to get done done.

      Fast forward a few months, my concerns were valid and basically based on my usage, it’s not even worth me having a panel. I’ve spoken to many associates of Vivint including Brandon ** and his boss who promised they’ll work on removing my panels. No one is picking up my calls. I got a text from a Sterling. He’s not responding to my messages either. I called on Friday, 10/13 and spoke to Jimmy, badge ID ** who said a supervisor will call.. still waiting. The lies telling is unbelievable and no accountability. Terrible customer service. If you all think, I’ll get tired of following up.. you’ve met the wrong person. Come and remove the panels and repair my roof.. it’s that simple.

      Original Review: I worked with Josh ** to install solar. He told me when he came to do the illustration that if I signed on that day, I'll not pay electricity for the first 12 months. Now, he is backing out of that. Very unprofessional and not trustworthy. Once the deal was signed and I had follow-up questions, he disappeared and was not responsive. I said I'll delay the process until I heard from him and my questions answered. I was worried that my number of panels will not be enough to provide coverage for my 300 sq ft home. He eventually got back to me after 2 months... saying I'll have to pay for additional panels out of pocket. While I pushed back on that, he disappeared again.

      I decided to forge ahead with the 13 panels as originally installed. Now I have to make a payment to Mosaic, my system is not turned on and the free electricity for 12 months cannot be fulfilled. I sent an email 2 weeks ago asking why Vivint isn't honoring the free electricity... After prompting, making calls to Annie with Fasttrac who claimed she'll connect me with Josh's manager... he came out of the woods to respond and say they'll lose money if they gave me that deal. That's not my fault. Don't lie to me just so that you can get a sale when you cannot deliver.

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      Reviewed Sept. 28, 2022

      I had my solar panels installed last year in July 2021. Everything had been going well and my energy bill had averaged $13-$15 a month. Until I received a bill at the end of Sept 2022 in the amount of $429 from NV Energy. I reached out to Solar Edge the monitoring system and they stated that something was wrong with the inverter and they needed to send a new one out. Since June 27, 2022 I had no solar production due to this issue, they stated that they could not help with any compensation as it is not covered under the warranty but they will be sending the new inverter out and another 3rd party company will be installing.

      I reached out to Arcadia Solar and they said they are not liable for any compensation as well as it not covered under the warranty. I reached out to Vivint and the shared in email and over the phone that any compensation would come from Arcadia or SolarEdge. I've been given the runaround and because of this issue I will be having a bill upwards of $800+ for over 2 months. I've barely had my panels for over a year and I'm having this issue and need help in resolving.

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      Vivint Solar
      Response from Vivint Solar

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Eunice. We'd be happy to look into this for you and we will be sending you a private message requesting additional account information so that we can assign a Specialist to assist you directly.

      Reviewed May 16, 2022

      Everything went well until we filed our taxes and found out the salesman here in Henderson, NV lied about getting the $10K back from the government. You don't get the rebate in cash like he said, you get a credit. Also said I would have to pay the $10K to the loan company to keep my monthly payment at the same rate or it would go up. Being retired and not paying taxes on it, the credit is sitting at the IRS and I will never get it. My CPA said to either win a bunch of money or get a job to get the credit from IRS. Not amused.

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      Vivint Solar
      Response from Vivint Solar

      We are sorry to hear this, Don! Please send us a private message with your service address, and we will have a representative reach out to help resolve your concerns. Thank you!

      Customer ServiceInstallation & SetupContract & Terms

      Reviewed April 21, 2022

      I just had a top notch roof installed when Vivint came to my door. I mentioned that as a concern for having panels installed. The salesman assured me that Vivint would take care of any problems with the roof should any arise. A few years later and right after one of their equipment service calls, I have a leak. Reaching their customer service wasn't easy but I finally got through to them. They said they were sending me an email and to attach pictures of the leak to the reply. I did not get an email. I then sent them an email explaining my problem and still nothing. I definitely do not recommend them. They're playing name games now Sunrun Vivint. They are not an upstanding company. The contract that they have you sign is thicker than phonebooks were in 1980. I was suspicious of them from sight of the contract and the first issue that I had they confirmed my suspicions.

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      Vivint Solar
      Response from Vivint Solar

      We are sorry to hear this, Rick! Please send us a private message with your service address, and we will have a representative reach out to help resolve your concerns. Thank you!

      Customer ServiceContract & Terms

      Reviewed April 19, 2022

      Was convinced by Tyson ** Vivint solar salesman to go solar in July of 2021. Complete disaster. It’s April 2022. Solar system not online. Nothing has been done in over 6 months. Work I paid thousands extra for not even started. The big $14,000 I was to get back on Taxes (Tyson ** even had some fake paper that had this on it) was only to be $1,000. Every contact that lied to me has now ghosted me. City inspector has been sent to my house 2-3 times for final inspection and of course it does not pass. Recent email explaining to me that a mechanics lien is on my House. Due to loan company not paying for system. Contract clearly states no payment until work is completed. I’ve sent email after email explaining I want nothing to do with this company and they ignore that part. I do not believe there is one ounce of truth or integrity in Vivint and especially Tyson **.

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      Vivint Solar
      Response from Vivint Solar

      Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Lonzo. We are so sorry to hear about your experience. Please send us a private message so that we can gather more information and look into this. Thank you.

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        Vivint Solar Company Information

        Company Name:
        Vivint Solar
        Company Type:
        Public
        Ticker Symbol:
        VSLR
        Year Founded:
        2011
        Address:
        1800 Ashton Blvd.
        City:
        Lehi
        State/Province:
        UT
        Postal Code:
        84043
        Country:
        United States
        Fax:
        801.377.4116
        Website:
        www.vivintsolar.com

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