Liz M.
5/5
TL; DR: This small start-up company is amazing, with white glove service who treats you as a person, not as a quota. They are competitively priced, but also super awesome. The City of Waco is slow on issuing permits (which is 100% Waco, 0% the company).
I have been wanting to get solar for some time now. We finally did it this year!
I did a LOT of homework, trying to find a company. I went to a website where multiple companies can send you quotes, and you can have all of those quotes to look at at the same time.
Of all of those companies, Eclipse Solar was far and away the most impressive.
Eclipse Solar is a smaller company, which means you get treated like a person, and not someone's quarterly goal.
Nick, the president of the company (I THINK; his title may be CEO) has prioritized running his company as a person working to help other people. This showed over and over again with every interaction with Eclipse we had. Solar can be scary and overwhelming. It's a lot of money. Eclipse Solar wants to make sure you know that you are taken care of.
Nick has a lot of energy and is very excited and passionate about his company and what he offers. He really, really prides himself on his company's quality of service and product (as well he should!).
Eclipse Solar's quality of service includes:
1. We NEVER felt pressured. He didn't put the arbitrary timeline guillotine over our heads to act like we HAD to sign with him THAT DAY when he came out to the house.
2. He's upfront about the entire process. He will answer any question truthfully, even if the answer isn't "pretty". He never tried to sugar coat something or spin something to his company's advantage.
I also never felt like I was asking stupid questions. All questions were welcomed, all questions were answered. Sometimes, my questions were (very patiently and kindly) answered multiple times, because I kept asking the same questions.
3. We got a text message every single Friday updating us on the status of our solar.
4. Once, I had a question at 6:30 am. I emailed Eclipse so I wouldn't forget, thinking I would get a response sometime in the next 24 hours. I got a phone call at 6:33 am addressing my question. Now, in no way do I think it's fair to EXPECT a business to be that responsive. However, I think it's a good example to illustrate how important customer service is to Eclipse Solar.
5. I had a quote from another company. Eclipse took the time to work to match the quote. I was told upfront that they may not be able to match it (which I really appreciated the honesty). Eclipse then worked to see what could be arranged to match the other quote.
6. If you are in the Waco area, head's up. The Waco city department in charge of issuing solar permits and the Waco city department in charge of inspecting the solar system is very slow. Very, very slow. I actually reached out to Waco, and was told yep. Waco is slow.
Eclipse worked really hard behind the scenes to make sure ALL of the paperwork was put in order. This is actually not a small task.
If you are wanting solar, and the solar company promises you to have your system up in a month (in Waco), you are being scammed big time. The City of Waco will NOT be that quick to issue permits. And the City of Waco inspector will NOT NOT NOT sign off on the system unless it is PERFECT.
If a solar company is getting your system up that quickly, that means the system is going in before any permits are issued. That could cause massive problems for you.
7. Eclipse Solar actually hires someone full-time to analyze all of solar buy-back programs in Texas. The best company to go with (TXU, Chariot, Green Energy, etc.) changes from week to week. It is overwhelming to try to figure out which company offers the best incentives for your solar system.
They do the heavy lifting for you.
8. Our system is awesome. Even with some rainy weather recently, I am exporting more electricity than importing for the month. My electricity bill will be only the fees Oncor charges.
