Hawaii Energy Connection LLC (National Energy Connection)

We are in receipt of your letter dated February 20, 2016.While we understand your frustration with the challenges we both faced during the closure of your KumuKit™ Solar PV system interconnection, we don't believe your unreasonable financial demands; ultimatums and threats are justified in this matter.The past months have been a tumultuous time throughout Hawaii's solar industry with the end of Net Metering as well as Public Utility Commission and [redacted] changes to policy and compliance processes on almost a weekly basis.It was unfortunate these unparalleled challenges happened during the close your project, but we must remind you that your PV system was 'activated' on the day of installation and remained 'on' performing normally through the period in question.Saddened by any customer frustration , we offered to pay your entire "residual" electric bill including the base customer charge from the day of installation to the day Utility paperwork had been completed Your letter of February 20th clearly explained that you found this offer to be an insult.Apparently left with no options to achieve your satisfaction we will suggest the following ;Hawaii Energy Connection would remove your entire KumuKit™ pv system returning all loan disbursements back to [redacted] We will reimburse any interest paid on your loan through the date of this letter This offer will be available to you through February 29th after which time we will assume you wish to keep your system and consider this matter closedIf in the unfortunate case you exercise this option, we must be notified in writing by :OOpm on the so we will have adequate time to notify the [redacted] and start our removal paperwork before the end of the day I can be reached by email or mail at the addresses below.In alignment with your concern that the Revdex.com, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and [redacted] be aware of your dissatisfaction with Hawaii Energy Connection, we've taken the liberty of sending them copies of our mutual past and present correspondence We would be happy to provide you with contacts at each of these entities should you wish to express additional concerns If you desire legal action our attorney can be reached via the contact information provided below.To insure your receipt of our offer we are preparing a copy of this correspondence to you via registered mail that will go out by end of business tomorrow .at if they should make a claim that you are aware

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: The letters provided to you by Kumu Kit are only the most recent correspondence which still does not address the lack of response and/or severe delay from Kumu Kit to both myself and requests from [redacted] for information necessary in order for my system to be fully functional Pursuant to the evidence provided, there is written proof of Kumu Kit's almost month delay in responding to ***'s informational request and numerous non-responses to my financial requests and concerns I only started to receive responses when I notified Kumu Kit of my intent to file this complaint I was asked to delay the filing until they were able to find a solution The solutions offered were to either get paid what I would have been getting anyway had Kumu Kit not delayed the process or take the system completely off my roof I did a lot of follwork that was supposed to be done by Kumu Kit, which these offers did not address I asked for a discount off the system as a whole because Kumu Kit failed to provide the service I paid for in a timely manner The managing partner from Kumu Kit referred to this request as an "unreasonable financial demand." When Kumu Kit finally responded to my requests, Kumu Kit continuously blamed the changing policies or [redacted] for the delay when the delays were on Kumu Kit and Kumu Kit alone It is clear Kumu Kit doesn't feel they did anything wrong here and are unwilling to admit to same The purpose of this complaint is so an unbiased 3rd party could review all of the evidence provided and finally get a true explanation, not excuse, as to why Kumu Kit failed to respond in a timely manner to ***'s requests and why Kumu Kit failed to respond to me, the customer, either delayed or not at all I believe once Kumu Kit is forced to provide an explanation and truly review all of the correspondence that figuratively "slipped through the cracks" they will be open to a more reasonable solutionIf Kumu Kit still fails to admit any wrong doing, at least this complaint can be publicly viewed and future customers will be able to make a more informative decision when choosing a Solar System Company Sincerely, [redacted]

From: *** *** ***] Sent: Friday, September 15, 10:AMTo: [email protected]: Re: You have a New Message from Revdex.com of Hawaii Regarding Complaint #***On the evening of 9/7/Kumukit electircians came to my house to replace the two inverters
and fix the problem with the circuit breaker The system has functioned without a problem for a week now I will continue to monitor the system for another days.Allen Novak

An initial Technical Support Case was opened in our system on July 25, to look into Mr*** ***’s concern. It was concluded that his *** gateway system needed to be replaced. The slow responsiveness to replace his *** gateway was due to the equipment warranty from the
*** manufacturer *** *** and the delayed delivery of the replacement to us. We finally received the replacement from *** ***. Be it known that the manufacturer’s warranty on the *** is one-year During the time when the Revdex.com received the actual complaint letter from Mr*** on October 11th, we were already working with Mr*** to arrange to get his *** working. We did replace his inverters as well we discovered which one’s were not working Customer is now in a good place. We went above and beyond when we replaced a one-year warranty product that failed after the warranty AND provided Mr*** with an upgraded ***-S

RE: ID #[redacted]Dear Revdex.com Hawaii,We do not wish to close this case and please find this letter in response to Hawaii Energy Connection's recent letter to you.1)"This is a long and tedious process" - I fully understand the complexity of submitting forms and following protocol and filing for permits, however Ialso know the difference between long and tedious versus going beyond time constraints. What should've been 1-2 months process is now going on 9 months. It took from April to August to install, August to the present date, Meter has not been installed. This is not long and tedious, this is insane! Other customers that we know of only took less than a month for this process, their salesman knew and fought for their process all the way through.2)"I have not responded to their phone calls" - in my previous documentation on 9/28 Idid request that communication be all through email for documentation reasons and availability reasons. This was reiterated on 10/26 (see original letter) and acknowledged by the Hawaii Energy Connections representative. Since they still haven't complied to this request Ihave had to call them a few times to let them know of my findings to help move them along.3)The [redacted]s (not the [redacted]s) have been informed along the process - I would like to correct this statement and say that we have had to do our own inquiring and have had to dig deep for information along the whole process to keep ourselves in the know. More recently I have had to make my own phone calls to [redacted] etc. to find the information HEC needed to move forward because they "didn't understand the process and the response from [redacted]". I relayed this information to HEC because she kept saying she 'didn't understand'. My response to her was "if you don't understand, ASK someone." So I showed her how simple it was for me to pick up the phone and call to get the answers that I needed.  [redacted] was very nice and willing to tell me what needed to be done and how to understand even if I didn't know the jargon, they took the time to explain it until I did.4)HEC received and placed placards necessary and sent in completed FORM B to [redacted] on ll/21 - The phone message by HEC that was left on my phone stated that as soon as they received the placards they would fly their electrician to place placards, take the pictures and walk the FORM to [redacted]. When in fact they received the Placards, sent it to an electrician here in Maui,took their pictures and sent back to HEC to put in the form. Form was mailed (not walked) into [redacted] and rec'd ll/25. [redacted] has estimated l0-15 business days for their own inspection and 1O business days for net metering to be installed in order to flip the switch on. Given that their receive date is 11/25 this process may take us into the new year.5)Restitution - they have offered to pay our PV loan from the beginning until the net metering is turned on. This is what was offered and accepted, however in my original letter I have also mentioned at this time it is not enough to make up for their unprofessional and incomplete work.  We feel like we have had to do thejob of managing our own project for a good majority of the process... This needs to be discussed further.6)No where in their response have they admitted to dropping the ball. They have dropped the ball on almost every step of they way. They have admitted to me in conversation but not to you - Iwould've expected that as they are responding to a formal complaint. Instead the tone of their response almost insinuates that we are a client who mis-understood the process.a.On the contrary, we feel like we have been more than patient and we have had to educate ourselves on the process and all that is involved to fully understand and consider everyone's point of view. In the beginning we even gave them customer-based consultative advice and tips for a more effective service to their customers instead of complaining right off the bat. At this time our patience has run out and the complaints started. Even if our metering goes in before the end of the year, we do believe this is far from over.b.This type of response (non-admitting and blaming) happened on several occasions in our experience with HEC (they blamed a former employee, [redacted] and now us). So unprofessional. I have customer service experience and have handled many complaints to know that the faster you can identify that you have done wrong and see what you can do to make it right, the higher the chances that your actions will be seen as more noble and higher the chances that you will gain a more favorable reaction from that client. Blaming does just the opposite and makes matters worse.Revdex.com, I ask that you please review all my documentation and their documentation. Please feel free to contact me if you need further information.  Iam still dissatisfied with their service and only hope that others do not have to go through the same fury

Notes on customer [redacted]
 
Customer first met with our sales representative in October 2015, signing a sales agreement on October 2nd.  At that time she was informed that it was about a 5-week lead time from when all the paperwork was done, site inspections completed and funding...

secured to schedule the PV installation.
 
Our site inspection crew went to their home on Oct 19th and advised the customer that they needed to re-roof before we installed their PV.  Per Mrs. [redacted], the re-roofing is scheduled to be completed on Nov 30th.
 
We were notified that Mrs. [redacted] first filed for funding on Nov 13th, as of today that funding has yet to be approved.
 
Mrs. [redacted] called our office on Nov 24th to see about getting scheduled for her PV installation by the end of this year and also asked if she could still get tax credits in 2016.  Lynette K[redacted] (Pre-Installation Manager) and I, Joe C[redacted] (Sales Manager) both spoke with her on the phone and we were going to review the status of her installation.  Before we could get back to her, in less than 30 minutes, she called the office saying that she was coming to the office  to meet us.
 
Lynette and I met with her in person at our office.  She said that she couldn’t wait to install in the first week in January because her parents were sick and that she didn’t have time for us to install then.  She then offered to pay us with a check,  the required deposit so she didn’t have to wait for approval on her loan from the bank.
 
We advised her that our installation schedule was full for the rest of the year and due to the many rain-out days this past month or so, we had to reschedule many of our customers, which has become even more difficult to ensure those already on our schedule to be completed by the end of the year.
 
At no point was Mrs. [redacted] ever promised installation for this year, nor was any money asked for or taken to secure a spot on our schedule.  As of this date (Nov 25), she still doesn’t have a roof that we can install on.

Response to Revdex.com: HAWAII ENERGY CONNECTION CUSTOMER:
[redacted], [redacted] & [redacted]
[redacted] and [redacted] have been actively following the process of
their PV installation.
The process is definitely long and tedious.
Mrs. [redacted] ([redacted]) has...

expressed her dissatisfaction with Hawaii Energy
Connection as she felt she has had to follow up with Hawaii Energy
Connection to get her job moved along. She expressed her concerns with
paying for her PV loan and her high bills at the same time.
I tried to explain the process to Mrs. [redacted] ([redacted]) however, she did not
respond to my phone calls.
The initial Form B required from [redacted] was rejected due to missing photos.
An electrician from Hawaii Energy Connection needed to add safety placards
to her PV system meter box to take the required photos and send to [redacted].
We have completed the necessary forms, photos, and frequency settings
and sent them into [redacted] to get the customer Net Metered as of November
20th, 2015.
In the end, Hawaii Energy Connection has been contacting Mrs. [redacted] to
obtain a copy of her loan documents.  We are offering to provide her with a check for her loan
payments she has paid thus far and will continue to pay her loan payments
until her net meter is installed. Hawaii Energy Connection received a phone
call from Mrs. [redacted], November 27th, 2015 inquiring status and I have
provided her updates and also reminded her of her loan documents again. Mrs.
[redacted] said that she would send a screen shot of her loan. I have sent her
a certified letter requesting her documents to make the request official rather
than emails and conversations.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: The letters provided to you by Kumu Kit are only the most recent correspondence which still does not address the lack of response and/or severe delay from Kumu Kit to both myself and requests from [redacted] for information necessary in order for my system to be fully functional.  Pursuant to the evidence provided, there is written proof of Kumu Kit's almost 2 month delay in responding to [redacted]'s informational request and numerous non-responses to my financial requests and concerns.  I only started to receive responses when I notified Kumu Kit of my intent to file this complaint.  I was asked to delay the filing until they were able to find a solution.  The solutions offered were to either get paid what I would have been getting anyway had Kumu Kit not delayed the process or take the system completely off my roof.  I did a lot of follow-up work that was supposed to be done by Kumu Kit, which these offers did not address.  I asked for a discount off the system as a whole because Kumu Kit failed to provide the service I paid for in a timely manner.  The managing partner from Kumu Kit referred to this request as an "unreasonable financial demand."  When Kumu Kit finally responded to my requests, Kumu Kit continuously blamed the changing policies or [redacted] for the delay when the delays were on Kumu Kit and Kumu Kit alone.  It is clear Kumu Kit doesn't feel they did anything wrong here and are unwilling to admit to same.  The purpose of this complaint is so an unbiased 3rd party could review all of the evidence provided and finally get a true explanation, not excuse, as to why Kumu Kit failed to respond in a timely manner to [redacted]'s requests and why Kumu Kit failed to respond to me, the customer, either delayed or not at all.  I believe once Kumu Kit is forced to provide an explanation and truly review all of the correspondence that figuratively "slipped through the cracks" they will be open to a more reasonable solution. If Kumu Kit still fails to admit any wrong doing, at least this complaint can be publicly viewed and future customers will be able to make a  more informative decision when choosing a Solar System Company.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
See attached.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We are in receipt of your letter dated February 20, 2016.While we understand your frustration with the challenges we both faced during the closure of your KumuKit™ Solar PV system interconnection, we don't believe your unreasonable financial demands; ultimatums and threats are justified in this...

matter.The past 12 months have been a tumultuous time throughout Hawaii's solar industry with the end of Net Metering as well as Public Utility Commission and [redacted] changes to policy and compliance processes on almost a weekly basis.It was unfortunate these unparalleled challenges happened during the close your project, but we must remind you that your PV system was 'activated' on the day of installation and remained 'on' performing normally through the period in question.Saddened by any customer frustration , we offered to pay your entire "residual" electric bill including the base customer charge from the day of installation to the day Utility paperwork had been completed.  Your letter of February 20th clearly explained that you found this offer to be an insult.Apparently left with no options to achieve your satisfaction we will suggest the following ;Hawaii Energy Connection would remove your entire KumuKit™ pv system returning all loan disbursements back to [redacted]  We will reimburse any interest paid on your loan through the date of this letter.  This offer will be available to you through February 29th 2016 after which time we will assume you wish to keep your system and consider this matter closed. If in the unfortunate case you exercise this option, we must be notified in writing by   :OOpm on the 291 so we will have adequate time to notify the [redacted] and start our removal paperwork before the end of the day.  I can be reached by email or mail at the addresses below.In alignment with your concern that the Revdex.com, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and [redacted] be aware of your dissatisfaction with Hawaii Energy Connection, we've taken the liberty of sending them copies of our mutual past and present correspondence . We would be happy to provide you with contacts at each of these entities should you wish to express additional concerns.  If you desire legal action our attorney can be reached via the contact information provided below.To insure your receipt of our offer we are preparing a copy of this correspondence to you via registered mail that will go out by end of business tomorrow .at if they should make a claim that you are aware.

Upon receiving the complaint from the Revdex.com Hawaii, we forward the letter to  Leighton A[redacted], the manager of our Technical Support & IT department.  In conversation with the customer, he assessed the probable cause of Mr. [redacted]'s PV system as a blown fuse.  He then dispatched our...

authorized [redacted] installer on Maui ([redacted]) and they sent a technician out to the customers home to 10/20/17 to check his system and to make any repairs necessary to get his system running.  Mr. [redacted]'s system is now up and running.  Thank you.