Vivint Solar Reviews

Original Review: Sept. 27, 2021

We were excited to go solar and initially we had a pleasant interaction with the sales rep. We were told that the net metering rate would be 1:1 and that the cost for the loan would offset the standard electric bill we were used to paying. However, we later found out when receiving our bill from the utility company that they do not have a 1:1 net metering rate and instead it is around 40%. This is causing us to pay way more now as our electric bill is still 60% of what it was before and we have the loan amount on top of that. We tried calling the rep and he initially answered saying he was unaware of that and that he was going to contact the legal team. We have made several attempts to contact the rep since then and he hasn’t responded to any calls, texts, or emails. He is ghosting us and the customer support is giving us the run around.

We are having our roof replaced, I called Monday 8/16/2021 to schedule Vivint/SunRun come out to remove the solar panels for the installation of our new roof. Customer Care still has not opened a ticket, the team that schedule the panel removal cannot schedule the work to be done because they need a ticket. They have transferred me to customer care seven times and no response from customer care. I received a bill for $499.00 due Sept. 25th for the removal of the panels that cannot be schedule until customer care opens a ticket. First of all how can you send me a bill but you can't open a ticket to have the work completed? We have never experienced this lack of customer service before from any company....

This analysis should have been done when estimating my power coverage initially. The representative also told me that my electricity needs had changed because I was home more during the pandemic- I am a frontline healthcare worker and my work schedule has not changed one bit- not only insulting response, but a response that clearly did not involve a lick of analysis.

DO NOT SIGN A SOLAR LEASE AGREEMENT WITH VIVINT. If your system does not produce what the representative tells you it will, you will spend a ton of money and have absolutely no recourse, other than a legal one, for the next 20 years. The customer service is TERRIBLE. It is impossible to discuss anything with anyone on the phone and different people email you about the system problems each time- avoiding the issue at hand and basically telling you that, since you signed the lease, you must deal with the system you have.

I also found two empty bottles of vodka in my attic after the roof was stabilized to accommodate the system and there has been NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THIS by Vivint. In addition to the gigantic expense of having a Vivint lease, I can also not be confident in the structural integrity of my roof after the work done by the Vivint contractors if drunk people were doing this job. I could not be more unhappy with my experience and my lease. I could not regret the decision to sign a solar lease agreement with Vivint more.

Several months later, I checked, and a second inverter was failing (heat related). I emailed the Customer Rep and the general email address… The rep got back to me and said that the issue was not serious (ok… It was shutting down parts of my system, according to the status provided on the website… and thus, costing me $$$). She also indicated that they did not have stock in the replacement inverters. Hmmm. “Fly by night” came to mind. She also told me I did not need to contact the general support site. I never received another call or email from her. I did pursue the general support line. We scheduled an appointment 2 weeks out. On the morning of the appointment, I receive a message from the field technician indicating they just found out they have no stock in the inverters, and someone will contact me to reschedule. This is my only service experience with Vivint… But on this one, I would not recommend Vivint as a Solar Provider.

The panels were placed and I waited for my refund. After a few months I followed up in a text with my salesperson, as that is how we communicated, inquiring about the rebate it was getting close to the holidays and it would have been helpful. He responded that he would look into it and get back to me. He confirmed that I should be receiving it. Time went on and my roof started to leak. Not the portion that had the old or new panels but the contractors stated the whole roof needed to be replace as there were many missing tiles.

According to my contract I would have to pay for the removal of my panels and I was not pleased that new panels went on a roof that required to be replaced. I needed the refund that never came to pay for the removal of the panels. I was considering it a wash. I called my salesperson and unlike before he never return my call or texts. So I called customer service and that is when my real frustration began. The customer service is abhorrent, nonexistent, you spend hours with services representatives that do not listen to your issue or tell you that you are being transferred to the appropriate department which is the original phone tree you just spent 45-60 minutes on hold or to a line that is disconnected and you are listening to a deadline.

Twice in the multiple times I called as now I was calling to have the panels removed permanently I was connected with a.person who saw that this was an issue and I was owed the refund and it would go up to the next level. I on two separate times I received emails that I would be given a response within 2-3 business days It has been months. I am still waiting. I now have a chain of emails that state that I am due this refund and I have been told multiple times I will have my refund in two weeks. It has been months and I am once again being ghosted. This is not customer service and before you sign a long contract I would think twice about signing with this company. I looked at the online reviews in my area and the company has really taken a downslide especially for customer service. It is unfortunate as I really did have a good experience initially.

4. Very hard to communicate: customer service lacks in professionalism.

We decided that we still wanted the house and that we would have to take the solar panels, however I wanted to speak to someone regarding the rate. I called customer service multiple times to see if I could renegotiate the rate as I did not want the panels in the first place and to just put me at ease about taking on the lease. Every time I asked to speak to a manager but they were never available. I left messages for them to call me and I never got a call back. I reluctantly signed the transfer agreement just because I wanted the house. I was signed up for Vivint auto pay to pay my monthly bill. After realizing I could not determine my own date to pay the bill I decided to simply pay the bill manually with my bank's bill pay feature. Once I started doing that I noticed a $5 loss of discount charge on my bill. I called to complain and the customer service rep told me that they offer $5 off a bill if you use Vivint's auto pay.

I do not think it is fair to make people who pay their bill in full and on time more money just because they do not want to use auto pay, especially since I wanted to pay the bill 7 days sooner then when it was due. Once again no manager to speak to. I reported this practice to the BBB. Vivint did end up reimbursing me for the loss of discount charges, although Vivint never contacted me to let me know they would. One day I noticed that the lights on the system were not working. I looked on the app to see if the system was generating anything and it had not generated anything for over a month. You would think that they could tell when a system isn't working and contact the homeowner to see if everything is OK and send someone to fix, no. I had to call and schedule someone to come.

I was told I would receive a call when the appointment was scheduled. I never got a call and had to call back to make sure someone was coming to fix the system. The tech that came was very friendly and replaced the necessary equipment. Even he said, they should have noticed the system wasn't working and that he should have just been dispatched without me even knowing there was an issue. The tech is the only good thing I have to say about this company. Now, I want to add a generator lock out panel to hook a generator up to my house in the event of a power failure. While doing this I figure it is also a good time to replace the entire main electrical panel. I decided to email Vivint to see if there is anything I need to know before doing this upgrade as I do not want to damage the system. I get a reply the next day with a ticket number and I am told someone from the solar performance team will be in touch.

Three weeks go by, nothing. I reply to the email and say I have not been contacted. I even get a survey asking how my experience was. I gave the lowest marks because I was never contacted thinking anyone who reads this survey would want to make sure my case gets resolved, nothing. After a month of no contact I call the customer service number and get the number for the solar performance department. I speak to Sara who said she would speak to her manager and let them know what is going on and that I would get a call back from either them or herself. I say that I am doubtful I will get a call back and even she sounds like she knows she works for a horrible company. She assures me she will call me back that day.

Two days go by and I have no response. I call back and Sara picks up the phone again. I go through the entire story again with her, she doesn't even remember me! I said, "We spoke two days ago and you said you would call me back". She said, "Are you sure it was me because there is another Sara here". I said, "Yes it was you because your voice is pretty distinct and you said all the same thing as you did two days ago".

I told her, and also emailed to original reply a month ago, I am going to do the upgrade and if the system gets damaged I am not taking responsibility as I have done my due diligence to find out how to make the upgrades but have gotten no response. Looking at the other posts on this site I see Vivint replies to bad reviews "Oh no! please email us to resolve this." It is funny how they seem surprised by their bad customer service practices. I have already emailed the review email address they reply with to see if my requests gets anywhere but I am not hopeful.

I have covered the issue with at least three different online customer service reps. Each CSR telling me a Vivint/Sunrun rep would be calling in the next 1-3 days. As of yet we've received no response. The call I made today with an online CSR, ended with him telling me he would put the issue thru as "URGENT" and he would ask a manager to call me in the next few days. With warm temps and sunny skies, I am hopeful this new system will be operational soon. One of the main reasons we went to solar was to offset the energy costs from PG&E. We are currently at a wait & see point and hoping that someone with the power to "get something done" will actually follow through and give me a call. All that said, I would be VERY hesitant to refer anyone to Vivint/Sunrun for their solar needs.

I tried calling customer service and was left on hold for 40 min after explaining I wanted to speak with a manager. I call back later and was told I can’t get into the manager queue and I would get a call back. Do you think that actually happened? Now it’s late May and over 100 degrees and my system has yet to produce 1kW. But good news is that I get to keep paying the super high utility rates because no one at Vivint cares about the customer, especially once they have your money. My advice is to run as far away from these guys as you can. Unless of course you don’t actually care about your money.

Every single time I contact this company it's like pulling teeth to get accurate, up to date information - almost like the left doesn't know what the right is doing. In fairness this COULD be due to the system internal Vivint folks are using, who knows.. Now having been in the house for a few months my bill for April is 4X higher than it was for the month of January/February with very little change in production. As I write this review I have been trying to understand what caused this with the billing department who transferred me to the customer care department who then transferred me back to billing who then transferred me back customer care who then finally transferred me back to billing where nothing was resolved and ultimately the call was dropped and cut short.

The problem is that when transferred to a different department it's a blind transfer so I have to re-explain everything from the top and even re-validate myself as a customer. Andre in customer care explained that Vivint made an "honest mistake" when they billed me double than what should have been billed. Reggie in Billing said the charges "seem accurate" but cant confirm because she doesn't have visibility to my actual production for the month. Jay in customer care agreed with Andre and assured me that the mistake would be corrected in 1-2 billing cycles and I would have to wait for the correction despite Vivint having my cold hard cash..

Honestly, do yourself a favor and pass on Vivint if you're considering using them. It's not worth the headache and certainly not worth having the hold the bag when the company makes error after error after error. Perhaps Vivint will focus their attention on better training and tech systems for their reps. Sorry to the reps that I called out here, I realize you're doing your job and maybe with limited visibility into other departments but my goodness please listen to customers and stop blind transferring and forcing customers to have to restate their case each time - it adds insult to injury.

In conclusion, I feel I should not have had to pay the full $3,075.00 upfront for something that couldn't be done for 56 days. The people who answer the phones should be more knowledgeable and helpful. The work should be done in the given timeframe or at least call and inform the home owner of a delay. The panels should have been taken and stored in the warehouse as I was told that was part of the fee I was paying.

They requested a copy of my current electric bill (which is sent to them). I was contacted by Marisa and she agreed they needed to put more panels in place because that true up was way over the norm and she would get on this project immediately. Two week passed (No response). I called in and spoke to a Christian ** and sent him an email per his request June 25, 2020 of my PG&E bill. He agreed, several more panels would be needed. Right at the end of the conversation he said a credit check was necessary. Then he said because my credit at the time was below their threshold they would not be able to help me even though the performance issue was on their end and had absolutely nothing to do with my credit score.

I received a letter of denial from Vivint a week later denying my request for additional panels even though it was not my request, it was Vivint's recommendation. Again I get another email from Vivint's rep Shauna ** on August 19, 2020 letting me know they are aware of several people receiving large True-Up bills & they want to help me. Foolishly I replied to Vivint thinking this time I would get the necessary relief requested. I sent in another copy of my electric bill, called and again, ZERO FOLLOW UP! No help whatsoever! Last week I was at the store and a Sunrun rep started talking to me about solar. I said I have Vivint and have been having many issues. He offered to help and had a rep come to my home.

The rep said the reason I'm having such a large bill is because half of the panels are facing the North, he said this is the worst possible location because the way Vivint works you pay for production, so even though the panels are producing I'm not getting any reasonable benefit from this production only they are! He said, "Panels should only be placed on the South side, the West, East. If you're still needing more panels, as a last resort you place the panels on the North side." I have a bunch of room on the South portion of our roof. On April 26th I called Vivint again equipped with this new knowledge & spoke to a Luisa. She put me on hold several times needing to ask her superiors and the sales team questions.

Eventually she told me there was no more room for placement on any new panels and they would not be able to help me at all. I thanked her for her help and asked for a manager's name and number since she could not help me, she refused to give me any names or numbers and said they are just going to tell me the same thing, again I thanked her and said I want to talk to them myself since she was unable to provide the necessary help. Then she said, "I'm not allowed to give out their numbers or names."

DON'T ALLOW THEM TO PUT PANELS ON YOUR HOME! ZERO SERVICE AFTER THE SALE! There were more phone calls made prior to all this. I did not want to type it all out. I have emails, letters, phone records of all my conversations and online chats to support Vivint's lack of customer service and support. Find another option! God Bless Y'all, Pastor Michael **

They drilled holes into our ceiling... You would think they would measure beforehand, but nope! One guy came in to try and assist the person on the roof to aim his drill points but it didn't make it better. We overheard something like this repeatedly "Oh you missed by an inch, try again. Oh you missed again, try another inch." All the while, the guy inside had his mask under his chin... By the time they left, we had a couple dozen holes in our bedroom, living room, office, and a ceiling board, complete with debris and dust.

Another thing to note is that they were throwing stuff off of our roof to the front of the house without warning, and seemingly without looking because I nearly got hit by a cardboard box when I was leaving to run an errand. The electrician apologized profusely for the holes and promised to report the damage before they had left, and would get a repair team out to us ASAP. It's been nearly a week now and we haven't heard anything. We still have a bunch of debris to clean up on the inside, and they left caulking and other bits of trash and garbage laying around the outside. This was a two-day install, and, to their credit, the panels, battery, piping, and electrical boxes look great otherwise.