We just had solar installed (yesterday, actually!)
I worked with 3 companies; a local large-ish San Jose company, a much smaller local company, and SunRun (national).
Ultimately most of the quotes and sizing came back near identical; the very local company had a really nice guy come out and pitch pretty convincingly and ultimately tell me "even if you don't go with us, don't use SunRun, please.." and showed me some negative Yelp reviews and stuff.
Well, I was leaning towards that guy because I liked the idea of using a local company, but after a fair bit of digging I started finding some suspicious stuff.. I had contacted one company, but he presented a business card from another contracting company, and so on. Ultimately there were 3 company names, it was hard to find reviews, the address looked more like a freight forwarding company.. and when you start digging into contractor licenses the guy's associated with companies in SoCal that had been apparently sued out of existence.
I think the problem is, there's such a gold rush in solar, that everyone is just jumping in. The margins must be good, and demand is high. I don't actually think the guy was an outright scammer, I just think there are a lot of third rate contractors trying to set themselves up as solar experts and just over-promising and under-delivering.
Thankfully, this helped me end up with the larger, reputable local company that seems to have the size and professionalism that comes with it, while still helping me feel like I'm able to support a local company, with real local employees, everything under one roof. But you have to look.
I worked with 3 companies; a local large-ish San Jose company, a much smaller local company, and SunRun (national).
Ultimately most of the quotes and sizing came back near identical; the very local company had a really nice guy come out and pitch pretty convincingly and ultimately tell me "even if you don't go with us, don't use SunRun, please.." and showed me some negative Yelp reviews and stuff.
Well, I was leaning towards that guy because I liked the idea of using a local company, but after a fair bit of digging I started finding some suspicious stuff.. I had contacted one company, but he presented a business card from another contracting company, and so on. Ultimately there were 3 company names, it was hard to find reviews, the address looked more like a freight forwarding company.. and when you start digging into contractor licenses the guy's associated with companies in SoCal that had been apparently sued out of existence.
I think the problem is, there's such a gold rush in solar, that everyone is just jumping in. The margins must be good, and demand is high. I don't actually think the guy was an outright scammer, I just think there are a lot of third rate contractors trying to set themselves up as solar experts and just over-promising and under-delivering.
Thankfully, this helped me end up with the larger, reputable local company that seems to have the size and professionalism that comes with it, while still helping me feel like I'm able to support a local company, with real local employees, everything under one roof. But you have to look.