Lifestyle Energy - Fresno, California

maaciass 2.

If I could give it no stars, I would definitely do so. I recently purchased a new home that came with solar installed by Lifestyle Energy. I’ve been in communication with its representative and have emailed and called the company WAY TOO MANY TIMES and yet no response… Their customer service is terrible!!!! I would not recommend at all... I’ve been struggling with who to contact. Because there are “errors” on their end to activate my solar but never gets resolved.

Rene H.

They think they are in the solar industry to stay? Lol, they are a joke of a company. I worked for one of their competitors as a service technician. They installed 7 panels on a home with 7 micro inverters and told the homeowner that "they didn't need to add an envoy because the system will just produce from the sun." I had to install an envoy into the system to get it to work properly. The homeowner had that system for a little over a year and was getting a true up bill. The homeowner stated that "every time he'd call, they wouldn't return his calls or messages."

I've been in the solar industry 11 years alone. I applied for this company and was let go within my first hour because the owner got mad at me for not knowing how to use an iPhone back at the beginning of this year (2024). I've seen the materials they have, and they are made in China and will not last past 10 to 15 years on your roof. The owner is some old Asian guy who thinks he knows solar. I personally think they should leave solar to real professionals and stick to selling furniture.

I ran into another homeowner who stopped to talk to me about the company I work for. He said he has solar on his house, and he was told that it would cover all of his energy needs. We'll, this guy needed an additional 18 panels to truly offset his consumption.

This company doesn't treat their employees right, nor do they treat their homeowners right. I'd stay clear. Just think, if an employee is unhappy, will they do great work? I wouldn't doubt they paid for their 5 star reviews.

Dale W.

So far not impressed at all. Near 0 communication since the beginning of purchasing a new home through San Joaquin homes. The sales person gave very ambiguous answers and danced around anything that resembled a definitive and solid answer from the beginning. After spending near 23k upfront because I refuse to allow a third party to own anything on or in my home, no communication still outside of Docusign emails that you hope to catch timely due to no warning you should be on the lookout for one. Fast forward to nearly 4 months of ownership the panels are finally active and producing. The app they have you download is lacking severely. Other apps you can see each individual panel and your battery storage/level. After 4 months of back and forth communication and being forced to purchase a battery because the builder refuses to put panels on the southern side of the home since it faces the street, the battery does not show up in the app. They scheduled a technician to come out, I needed to take the day off work to meet said scheduled tech and they never showed. If I hadn’t called to verify the tech was coming out and missed the window, I would have never been informed my appointment was canceled. When I call the office, the person who answers can’t even re schedule the tech for yet another ambiguous reason. Now I’ll have to take 2 days off work and this will cost upwards of $800 out of my pocket. The incompetence of this company is wild. Buyers beware of San Joaquin homes and this solar company. It’s a racket and extortion to even be required to have solar panels in the first place. As a buyer, I was told that the county code required a battery for northern facing systems. This too, was a lie. It’s just something they tell you in order to get you to purchase a $7k battery in addition to being forced into the panels they installed on the north side of the home instead of the front southern facing side. Lifestyle energy so far, sounds no better than Vivnt or Sun Run. Fly by night solar companies. Hope they can train the staff here to at least be able to schedule appointments. How are we supposed to get anything done if the person answering the phone can’t even reschedule a service tech to come out? I highly recommend further training of the staff in basic tasks like this. It’s unacceptable at any level for customer service to be lacking this poorly in any establishment. 11/22/2024 for the initial date of this review. I’ll update when something reasonable is done to rectify the situation. Hopefully it’s in a timely manner, but from reading previous postings, I doubt it. Waste of $23k that I didn’t want to spend anyways.

Jimmy P.

All right. So I just recently bought a home with San Joaquin valley homes, and recently became a solar consultant/broker.

After doing some further investigating and Kwh monitoring of usage and production, it would have to take 8-12 more panels that needed to be installed onto my house in order to offset my energy bill.

To anyone reading this, I hope this helps.

Nestor N.

"I'm extremely frustrated with this lifestylesolar. They refuse to provide any information about purchasing my solar panels and seem intent on keeping the tax rebates for themselves. Their customer service is terrible, as they never return calls. This entire experience feels like a scam."

Gabrielle D.

First Time Home Owner Here. Purchased a brand new house in Visalia at Tiffany Ranch, June 2020. Our house came with solar panels and the lifestyle energy box. We signed the leasing documents and that was it. We didn't get ANY other information provided to us by the seller or the solar company as to how these panels get turned on. August 2020 I called Edison to find out why we haven't got a bill yet, due to CA fires, etc. They were not taking any phone calls unless it was an emergency. I called Lifestyle Energy to see how to turn the solar panels on they told me they need the first bill in order to submit the application to Edison to gain permission. October still no bill still no solar panels. December I finally get slapped with a $1,980 Edison bill (JUNE-DEC 2020). I fwd that to Lifestyle rep who then submitted the application to Edison. The application had errors and was rejected. January 21, 2022 Edison sent Lifestyle email granting access. January 27, 2022 I called lifestyle to see how we move fwd w/ getting our solar panels turned on. Lydia walked me through how to reset the panels so that she could turn them on remotely. After several times of trying, she determined my solar box was faulty and a technician would need to come out and re-install another one. She's not able to give me an estimated time as to when a technician will be out. We are 1 of 75 brand new homes in our development and I GUARANTEE YOU none of the other owners have solar panels turned on right now! I will say that Lydia sounds like she's running this entire business and is doing the best she can with limited resources.

Through this entire process I WAS THE ONE calling these two companies navigating between their errors in order to speed the process. Without me spending hours of my own time I would be NOWHERE!

This has been frustrating, time consuming and exhausting.

L N.

Lifestyle Energy was responsive and helpful from the get-go and throughout the planning/installation of our system. They went over the options, answered questions, helped to plan the system, and recommended great contractors. The installation went smoothly and as planned.

They also followed up to be sure the system was working as it should. We are very pleased with Lifestyle Energy and would recommend them wholeheartedly to anyone considering a solar installation.

Jesse M.

Don't use this financial institution. After completing the project the funding is not paid to the contractor on time resulting in a lien on your home. The need to find a second source of funding after the project has started is twice as hard and can lead to extra expenses. Poor bussiness practices from this lender and now to get paid more money will be spent in a lawsuit. Stay away!