Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/05/2025

  Type:Order Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am filing a complaint against SolEnergy and ************ for fraudulent lending, misrepresentation, and breach of *********** August 2022, SolEnergy sales rep ****** **** claimed a solar system would eliminate my power bill, have a 25-year guarantee, and qualify for a tax credit. He arranged financing for $68,000, though the actual cost was about $35,000. I signed contracts in August 2022, and the system was installed at ******************** in January 2023.On January 16, 2023, I reported poor installation, including holes in my roof. SolEnergy admitted the issue but did nothing. That same day, they received full payment from ************ before the system was complete. From July to October 2023, my system was nonfunctional, and SolEnergy ignored me. After months of delays, I worked with ************** and got the system running on February 27, 2024.I was misled into a $68,000 loan with hidden fees. The system was supposed to eliminate my bill but has not. SolEnergy falsely claimed BBB accreditation, removed negative reviews, and used fake testimonials. They now deny ****** **** was an employee, despite his use of SolEnergy branding.SolEnergy installed the system without permits. A permit was not issued until September 2023, eight months after installation. The system failed inspections, delaying activation until February 27, 2024.The loan was inflated from $35,000 to $68,000, possibly violating lending laws. ************ paid SolEnergy before the system was operational. I never dealt with ************ directly, as SolEnergy handled all financing.I request an investigation into fraud and misrepresentation by SolEnergy and ************. I seek loan cancellation or compensation and plan to report this case to the Attorney General, CFPB, and ***. I also want legal guidance on a possible lawsuit.I have supporting documents, including the loan agreement, contract, communications, inspection records, and proof of misrepresentation. Two other families had similar issues.

  Business Response

  Date: 03/14/2025

  *** *********** claims several things in his complaint so I'll address them separately and show where he is correct, incorrect, and what other factors and considerations are involved. 
  
  People involved: *** *********** directs many of his claims against ****** **** in his complaint. *** **** is not an employee of our company. In *** *************************** *** **** was an employee of Conscious Energy Solutions (CES). Looking at ******************* profile (**************************************************) he states that he is the National Sales Director of CES. *** had an independent contractor agreement with our company to market and produce sales of solar energy systems that could then be sent to SolEnergy as the installing contractor. Attached are the proposals (*** *********** had two projects at different addresses) that we understand *** **** presented to *** *********** during the sales process. *** ***** who is employed by ***, independently created these proposals, not our company. SolEnergy does not determine the pricing of the system. That is left up to the *** or other consultants. SolEnergy also does not participate in the loan process. Once a sale is made by independent sales **** such as *** ***** and financing, as necessary, is obtained, the property owner enters into an installation agreement with our company, indicating the scope of our work on the project based upon the system recommended by the independent sales *** and accepted by the property owner. *** *********** mentions *** Hills use of SolEnergy branding. He is correct that *** **** utilized an email address with our company name in it, but that was simply for convenience of organizing which projects he was sending to our company for installation. *** **** could have sent projects to other installers. We are disappointed to hear the allegations that *** **** mis***resented his connection with SolEnergy and did not properly disclose that he was an independent consultant and sales ***resentative employed by CES. In SolEnergys installation agreements, there are no energy production guarantees or amounts listed on there because that can vary greatly over a year with weather and other environmental factors, but also because we dont propose the system size in this situation. Instead, we indicate the amount of equipment we will be installing and simply show that, if applicable, the property owner took out a loan from a third party lender. 
  
  Claim of poor installation and lack of communication: We disagree with any claims of poor installation and lack of communication.  Shortly after installation was completed, *** *********** expressed concerns about how the system was mounted.  We explained that for his roof type, a ribbed metal roof, the system was mounted correctly.  We understood this explanation satisfied *** ************ concerns. If there were other issues, *** *********** has our warranty with our installation and we'd be happy to make any ***airs necessary. We believe communication efforts to us were likely sent to *** **** and went unresponded to, without our knowledge. 
  
  Claim of not having permits: There are two approvals in play here. Building permits and Utility interconnection. We did have the required building permits that relate to the actual panel setup on the buildings. The building permit and land use permit were issued prior to construction. 
  For interconnection, we checked our records and do see that we made a mistake on the approval here with *******. Because *** *********** had two projects, the team scheduled the ***** ** project because the other address had approval. Our company submitted everything with ******* and then documents were sent out to be signed by both parties. We signed in late 2022 but *** ***********************' sign until August 2023. The signature was the hold up on final approval. So again, while a mistake was made due to confusion over which address had interconnection approval, ultimately, any issue was corrected.
  
  Claim of removing reviews and fake testimonials: Looking at our ****** profile page, you'll be able to see that we have not removed negative reviews. Several reviews specifically call out *** **** for his actions, of which we are disappointed to hear, but feel this unfairly judges our company. Several reviews of happy clients are in reference to projects where they worked directly with us instead of an outside sales organization. *** ******************* fake testimonial claim was in reference to a duplicate review left by the same person. A client by the name of **** M left a positive review after working with our company. Then, it appears he went under his wife's account (that's a guess because the name is ******** M) and left the same exact review, but signed it **** M at the end of the review. My guess here is it's a case of not understanding he was logged in elsewhere probably? I can't be certain of that because we didn't have anything to do with this or any client leaving reviews. 
  
  Claim against us receiving full payment from ************: This claim is based upon a misunderstanding of how installing contractors are paid when the project is financed. There are requirements by finance companies and we have to submit pictures showing we reached the point that they consider substantial completion, and then get homeowner approval as well (which *** *********** approved). In short, the industry refers to it mostly as "panels on the roof". It does not mean anything is actually operational. With the approvals, inspections, and so forth, that timeline to actually operate is pushed out further, but at this point, installers have a lot of cost put in so this is when the bulk of payment comes. We followed the contract and finance guidelines here and didn't request any funds early. It's in everyone's best interest, us included, to get the system operational as soon as possible. If it takes too long, there are penalties against installers that we wouldn't want to absorb. So, although it took some time due to various reasons, it's not due to a failure on our part to work on the system. *** *********** also mentions that he had no direct contact with ************* which may or may not be true. We can't speak to that because contrary to *** ************* position, SolEnergy was not involved with the financing beyond submitting milestones indicating the project is moving ahead. It appears *** **** coordinated and finalized the financing of the project, and according to our records, it was financed by ****************** From our understanding, there are several solar financiers in the industry that process loan applications and funding, but don't actually carry the loan themselves, but instead work with other banks or money sources. We can't be sure how the process works because we are not involved in it, but that may be why *** *********** claims no contact with ************* whom he may be paying now for the loan on the system. 
  
  Claim of system not producing correct power: After doing our own analysis, it appears that his systems are under -producing what *** **** apparently claimed in his proposal. We are disappointed to see this and understand the frustration *** *********** has related to this. We do want to be clear that the proposals created were created by *** **** independently through CES. Accepted sales don't cross our desks until the work of analyzing power usage and system proposals are completed. Then we install what was sold. Now that this was brought to our attention, we have dug into the information and made some estimates on power output of both systems *** *********** has. It appears that one system produced roughly 90% of his power based on last known usage information. The other system in question produced much less, but a big factor in play is a large tree that shades the panels, preventing sun from reaching them. We have since learned that *** *********** was going to have the tree cut down as part of the project (unrelated to the work we performed). With that tree there, the system will not produce what it was sold at.