Paul Passarelli
1/5
I'm a well informed price shopper, because PV systems are basically commodities, and I owned one by Sunrun when I was in CT. Yes, there is customization, but all the hardware is cookie-cutter or standardized, even the permitting process is almost automatic. If you can sell & install one system, you can sell 500 more using the same template. We negotiated[1] a good price, which wiggled up[2] by ~10% while the commodity prices of panels & inverters was falling.
Despite my repeated warnings to the salesman, he kept leaning on the crutch if the 'tax incentives'. From day one, I made it perfectly clear that I would & could walk away from the deal if it appeared to be uneconomical. Ultimately, it was the three weeks of ghosting on a question[3] right before the 4th of July holiday that wasn't addressed until August that made me walk away from the deal.
The original price of ~$2.35/Watt for ~14kW + ~9kW was more than I wanted to shell out, especially since I purchased my Sunrun system for $1.98/Watt back in 2014 when panels & inverters were a lot more expensive, and the labor rates in CT were a lot higher too. But when it jumped twice, I wasn't getting any happier.
Last week I was re-contacted by the cleanup-girl in an effort to re-close the deal. Later that day Ryan (co-owner?) short-circuited her efforts. He called and left a message that my call-screener cut off, long before he finished. I called her back leaving another voicemail about "the Ryan call"[4]. I've not heard from them since.
[1] Getting a simple price quote in $/Watt of installed system was like pulling teeth. I hate "The Sales Game" and I was upfront with that. What amazes me is the lengths they went to to *AVOID* telling me that price. I really don't see the point. And that's why I'm putting it up in this review.
[2] The first price jump was because they ran out of the Enphase IQ-7 inverters, requiring me to 'upgrade' to the IQ-8. The next increase was because I have a mix of asphalt & steel roof. Apparently they charge more for steel, even though the mounting hardware is less expensive and the flatter steel is easier for the boots on the roof workers to negotiate.
[3] The question had to do with discrepancies in the 'picture' of the plan of the panels and how the roof space was being allocated. Because I'm shopping two essentially independent they provided two separate quotes. They use an online s'ware package to do their layouts, and it's not the best so it required manual tweaking. It also doesn't provide a granular analysis to the customer, or a BOM, etc. (gotta protect those sales figures).
[4] the last thing I heard was Ryan saying: "... we have a signed contract ... {click}" when he exceeded the call screener's 60 seconds of: "Please say why you are calling." Anyway, he does have a pair of signed e-docs (letter of intent), but we never got to the deposit[5], or the finalized plan of work.
[5] The Deposit. When the invoice for the deposits arrived they actually had the nerve to include the $35 "courtesy fee" in the requested amount. That dog don't hunt. I don't blame them for trying, but in the end the game was theirs to lose.
Congratulations Ryan, you snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Given all the time & effort I wasted pursuing this contract, I think three stars is generous. {original: 2023-09-27}
{edit}
Now DBA "Lunex Power" and I just posted a one star review there. {2024-10-30}
This is the old "SolarWise" with a new name. Buyer Beware!
I thought I was done with them, but they reached out unsolicited this time. Ryan contacted me with a story about some surplus panels from a commercial job, and that made them think of me. They put together a proposal that was still over-priced, but not horribly... Until I realized that is was under-powered for the price. They tried to sell me a 23kW that was only an 18kW
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