EnergyAid

I had an inspection of my solar system done by Energy Aid. The first issue I got is with the inspection scheduled: It was scheduled on a Friday between 12pm and 4pm. Around 2pm I got a text message saying something like "good news you can schedule an appointment for an inspection". That message looked weird since I already had an appointment scheduled with them. I contacted the company and talked to 4 different people and got different excuses about the technician not coming on that day. Finally the dispatcher manager was able to find a technician in my area to come at 4:30pm. The technician came and was very friendly and checked everything. The technician told me that everything was working fine and that my system was producing very well. I paid the fee of $299 and he left. I got the inspection report on the next Thursday. In that report they didn't report any issues and there was details about what was checked, the results and many pictures. The next week a sales person contacted me to go over the inspection. I asked that person if they could help me to be able to connect on my system with the manufacturer app: the original solar company that installed my system in 2016 went bankrupt a few years ago so I didn't have any more access to monitor my system. That sales person looked at what could be done and called me back a few days later with some quotes. He said that in order to get communication with my system that they will have to install a new cell card on the inverter and it will cost around $3500. He also gave me another quote with a promotion for a new invertor since my invertor is almost 10 years old. With that new inverter the wireless connection will be included and it would be around $6500. I was very surprise with the high price just to be able to communicate with my system through the app. In those quotes he also said that they will need to change some connections that were defective. This was new to me and I asked him why it was not in the inspection report. He said that it was in an internal note. He could not answer me why it was not in the inspection report and I told him that the technician said that everything was working fine. I did research on the web and I saw that it is possible to connect the invertor with a physical network cable to my router. I talked to the manufacturer to see if I could connect with their app and they said that I need to make business with a new solar company in order for them to proceed for the connection to be given to me. I talked back to Energy Aid sale person and asked for a quote to have a network cable connected to my box and after 2 weeks he didn't give me a quote. I went back on the manufacturer website and saw that they had an online form to request to transfer site to another house owner and I tried that even though it was not a changed of owner but rather that the original solar company was not in business anymore. I paid $99 for that service from the manufacturer and I was finally able to connect to my solar system! In the manufacturer app I saw that my system was producing and that 1 solar panel was not working. I emailed back to Energy Aid sales person and told him that I saw that 1 solar panel was not working and he replied to me that they saw that my invertor was not online anymore. I called that sale person and ask him why do they say that my invertor is not online anymore since I can see that my system is on and producing based on the manufacturer app. And he could not answer me. I can also see on my Edison account that my system is producing electricity. So, I decided to drop completely that company and told them that I was very dissatisfied with their service. In resume, bad service from many employees. Sales person is trying to sell me things I do not need and he said different things over a few calls. Base on that experience with them, they are not honest and they are trying to sell something that is not needed to make more money. I paid $299 for an inspection that didn't detect that a solar panel was not working and they didn't provide me quotes for exactly what I wanted to be done. I do not recommend that company at all.

I was a potential customer of energy aid and deemed them to be professional and knowledgeable. I agreed to the diagnosis which took a few days to schedule, and when I wanted to move forward found scheduling and timeliness of getting work done was unacceptable. Additionally, I felt their diagnosis led to an inflated cost to repair. I had not worked with this company before but upon agreeing to move forward I got lengthy contracts that had to be signed before they would move forward. Did not have this with any other company. I was uncomfortable enough to where I gave up my $299 diagnosis fee that would have been applied to repair as I felt their repair costs were just too inflated. They required two technicians to be on site when I see no reason for two technicians if they know what they're doing. Despite my objections they insisted on two technicians as that's how they do their business, that of course is being paid by me. Have not had that with any other service companies. Be wary of excessive cost.