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Door-to-door rooftop solar array sales are mostly a scam, it's a high-pressure low-information sales tactic and a terrible deal for the average homeowner. Inst

by jpm_sd 4y ago

Door-to-door rooftop solar array sales are mostly a scam, it's a high-pressure low-information sales tactic and a terrible deal for the average homeowner. Installation issues are shockingly common. Lots of new, poorly sealed holes in the roof being the biggest concern. Here's a review I found of Spartan (employer of the man profiled above): https://www.facebook.com/dodgyjanet/posts/10158647440200887 https://www.facebook.com/dodgyjanet/posts/10158647440200887 In leaving this review I hope to save one family the frustration and financial pain that working with Alex Lake of Spartan Solar has caused us. Please feel free to reach out if you want specific details. We did not do enough research - and ended up fronting the money for the project on a loan that gave a kickback to Spartan Solar. In conversations with us (and in all their marketing literature), Spartan solar states that you will not pay anything until your solar panels are up and running. For us - this is not the case at all. The project is 10 months old and we are paying both hundreds of dollars a month for electricity and the full monthly payment for the loan (which inconveniently removes any leverage we might have with the installer if we had dealt with them directly). We have been paying both bills for the last six months - Spartan has ignored my complaints about this misleading advertising to date. Our Solar panels were installed 8 months ago and are still not functioning. This is a sellers market and it is hard to get time with the installer, the city, and utility company - so I’m not surprised about this insane delay- but I am literally doing 100% of the work I was assured I would not need to do if I worked with Spartan Solar. I was assured we wouldn’t need to worry about coordinating these events and the Spartan team would have our backs. Due to communication problems between Spartan and their subcontractors about the need for a new main electricity panel our project was delayed multiple months. Two days ago we finally received permission to operate our panels. When we turned on the switch, they are not working however Spartan have not returned our calls/emails about this issue and we have had to chase the subcontractor to try and fix the situation. The subcontractors are unable to come and look at the problem until next month, and so we are still stuck paying for a non-working solar system and racking up large electricity bills in the hot California summer months. I’m today’s market, solar installations are a commodity and the most important way to offer value to a customer is through effective communication. Here is where we were frustrated most with this whole experience. Make sure you do business with a company listed on the better business bureau.

NikolaNovak 4y ago
That's the thing. The article makes them implicitly sound like heroes - they sacrificed SO much for a dream, the dream of serving the customers. They're solar evangelists. The new generation of motivated do gooders. Wish everybody's child was like that! But it's bs, I'm sorry. There's a reason nobody trusts door to door sales people. There's reason they target the elderly. There's a reason why they have a book-rack of sales techniques. There's a reason they're pushy and persistent and chameleons. And they get a significant paycheque for no actual service to the client. I work from home with my father in law who's a curmudgeony grouch, yet once a week I have to leave a work call as I overhear them penetrating his defences. And then three weeks later there's an article in the local newspaper about X number of elderly scammed by door to door salespeople selling driveway repeir or duct cleaning or solar panels or roof replacement or whatever. There is NO alignment of interest between you and the door to door salesperson. They have one goal and one goal only and that is making the sale. Nothing else is real, they're not your new buddy, and they will not be there for you after you sign. (source - various ; I've been a home owner, have had family scammed, read a lot, and oh yeah, was a poor immigrant and went for several trainings to be door to door sales person and saw the insides of the machine)
- bwi4 4y ago
  My grandmother suffered Alzheimer’s, but wasn’t ready to leave her home, so my uncle moved in with her. She called him at work to ask for her checkbook… two men had knocked on her door, convinced her that a tree on her property needed to be cut down, proceeded to cut it and leave it there, then demanded $400. Uncle rushed home and ran these guys off, refusing to pay, but it was a dangerous scam. All it would have taken is one to distract her while the other helped himself inside the house.
  - rcpt 4y ago
    Tree removal and tree trimming are generally different services. And $400 to cut down a tree is pretty typical. Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.
    - 4y ago

by jpm_sd 4y ago

NikolaNovak 4y ago

That's the thing. The article makes them implicitly sound like heroes - they sacrificed SO much for a dream, the dream of serving the customers. They're solar evangelists. The new generation of motivated do gooders. Wish everybody's child was like that! But it's bs, I'm sorry. There's a reason nobody trusts door to door sales people. There's reason they target the elderly. There's a reason why they have a book-rack of sales techniques. There's a reason they're pushy and persistent and chameleons. And they get a significant paycheque for no actual service to the client. I work from home with my father in law who's a curmudgeony grouch, yet once a week I have to leave a work call as I overhear them penetrating his defences. And then three weeks later there's an article in the local newspaper about X number of elderly scammed by door to door salespeople selling driveway repeir or duct cleaning or solar panels or roof replacement or whatever. There is NO alignment of interest between you and the door to door salesperson. They have one goal and one goal only and that is making the sale. Nothing else is real, they're not your new buddy, and they will not be there for you after you sign. (source - various ; I've been a home owner, have had family scammed, read a lot, and oh yeah, was a poor immigrant and went for several trainings to be door to door sales person and saw the insides of the machine)

bwi4 4y ago
My grandmother suffered Alzheimer’s, but wasn’t ready to leave her home, so my uncle moved in with her. She called him at work to ask for her checkbook… two men had knocked on her door, convinced her that a tree on her property needed to be cut down, proceeded to cut it and leave it there, then demanded $400. Uncle rushed home and ran these guys off, refusing to pay, but it was a dangerous scam. All it would have taken is one to distract her while the other helped himself inside the house.
- rcpt 4y ago
  Tree removal and tree trimming are generally different services. And $400 to cut down a tree is pretty typical. Nothing about that story sounds like a scam to me.
  - 4y ago