SolarMax Renewable Energy Provider

We are sorry to learn of our customer's negative experience and hope to find a resolution that works for everyoneWe are attempting to contact our customer to address each of the complaints mentioned in her complaintSince our customer does not speak English and is Chinese speaking, we are having a Chinese speaking associate here reach out to her to obtain additional informationWe will respond once we obtain more information

I apologize for the delayed response Please find our response to our customer’s most recent response below: Our Customer has two properties that are referenced in his complaint For the property in [redacted] Park, we scheduled an appointment with our Customer on 4/13/to address a claim, and our Customer was not home when we arrived We rescheduled for a later date when our Customer was available and could be present, which meant dispatching our technician an additional time When our technician arrived for the rescheduled appointment, we discovered that a tenant of the residence had taken some of the communication equipment necessary for monitoring that system’s production We replaced that equipment at our expense, which would normally be billed to the customer We scheduled a technician to visit that property again to troubleshoot an inverter, and we determined that it needed to be replaced under the manufacturer’s warranty The manufacturer had a long delay in delivering the replacement, which was at no fault of our own Solarmax is not responsible for the manufacturer warranty that is provided by the manufacturer for the customer We agree to provide installation services under the applicable manufacturer warranties that are provided to our customers While waiting for the replacement inverter to arrive, our Customer emailed us demanding that we cancel his contract That is not part of the agreement that our Customer and Solarmax agreed upon when the contract was signed We are holding up our obligations under the contract We do not try to renegotiate, change the terms or conditions of the contract, or make any other alterations after the contract has been signed and agreed upon by both us and our customers We expect our Customer to do the same A Home Improvement Contract is not a returnable service, and our Customer’s demand that we cancel the contract is not reasonable Our customer’s other property, in San [redacted] , appeared to have a roof leak proximate to the solar panels We warranty our roofing penetrations against leaks for years We evaluated the leak, and determined that the roof leak at this property is not from the penetrations The roofing contractor that the customer hired to evaluate the leak did not determine the leak is due to “faulty workmanship during the installation of the solar panels” as our Customer states Our Customer’s roofing contractor states “there appears to be something wrong under the tile, probably where the solar panels are located.” Without taking any steps to investigate and determine the actual source of the leak, the roofing contractor speculates that “the solar company probably cut or tore the felt or did not do the subflashing properly.” The roofing contractor further speculates that “to repair the leak, probably have to remove the solar panels to determine what is wrong and repair it properly.” That means that they have not been able to determine the source or cause of the leak, as our Customer incorrectly states In order to fairly resolve this matter, we recommend the following: We will remove the solar panels and underlying tiles, so both Solarmax and the roofing contractor that speculated the roof leaks were due to the solar installation can inspect the roofing Depending on the conclusions from the evaluation, the following presents a fair and reasonable resolution of the roofing issues: A If, after removing the panels and tiles, both Solarmax and the roofing contractor agree that the leaks are due to the solar installation work performed by Solarmax, we will repair the roof and reinstall and reconnect the panels at our expense B If, after removing the panels and tiles, both Solarmax and the roofing contractor agree that the leaks are not related to the solar installation, our Customer and/or the roofing contractor will be responsible for our charges of performing the removal of the panels and tiles as well as any charges for subsequent reinstallation work to repair the roof and reinstall and reconnect the panels C If, both Solarmax and the roofing contractor cannot agree if the leak was due to the solar installation work performed by Solarmax, our Customer and Solarmax agree to neutral arbitration of this matter under the Arbitration provisions of the existing Home Improvement Contract We will provide pricing and scope of work quotes prior to any work being done for our Customer to review, approve, and sign-off on

An electrician was dispatched to the customer’s home on 2/28/to correct the wiring issue The electrician confirmed that the necessary repairs were made and the issue has been resolved

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 8, 2016/07/15) */ We have reviewed the customer's complaint and have reached an agreement to settle their issues and concerns We are adding additional panels We are moving existing panels to improve production The above changes were made to address the production issues that our customer was experiencing The check for $was prepared on 6/15/It was cashed on 6/29/2016, so we believe it must have arrived shortly after our customer's complaint We apologize for any delays and dissatisfaction this may have created for our customerWe pride ourselves on providing top quality products and services for our customersWe are sorry that our customer did not have that experience, and will work harder to regain our customer's confidence

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The responses from Solar Max have been spotty at bestI would be told that I could expect to hear from them, and then would hear nothingI would follwith them, and they would still not have responses or solutions to the issuesThe first tech who came out to diagnose the issue stated that the junction box, wiring, and inverter should be replacedThe second tech who came out five days later to attempt to restart the system (who was four hours out of window of when I was told to expect him) stated that the junction box, wiring, and inverter should be replaced; an error code was received and it was after hours for the issue to be resolvedThe next day, someone was sent who was unable to answer basic questions regarding the system, and kept repeating "I was told to come out and get the system restarted, nothing more"This was after I had been told that the sysytem would be replaced at the cost of Solar Max based on the recommendations of the first two techs sent out I had been told that I would be compensated for my time, trouble and inconvenienceI was offered $300.00; which when one subtracts the cost of the true up at the end of the year with SDG&E, plus the additional months of June and July of payment for electricity costs, the sum offered in settlement for time, trouble, and inconvience is actually $182.16, which seems to be very little considering how much time, trouble and inconvience there has actually been for a system that cost over $16, I have asked that I be provided a list of the work that was done, and there were holes, delays, and evasive language around the documentationWhen asked again about the documentation, I was told that the "affected wiring has been addressed" but not confirming that it was replaced, as was discussed in conversations I have asked for $in compensation, and considering that I pulled together the paperwork, provided the billing from SDG&E, and have had to repeatedly leave messages and reach out to find the status of the repair of the system which was not installed correctly from the beginning I hope that we can come to a conclusion on this without further action

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/08/28) */ Mr ***, I apologize for the inconvenience caused by the pigeons choosing to make a home underneath your solar panels, I can understand how you are upset by this.SolarMax is dedicated to helping it's customers however we can and within reason Last year on 10/14/SolarMax installed pigeon spikes as a courtesy to Mr***, he was agitated by the noise the pigeons were makingSolarMax customer service management decided they would install spikes in locations where the birds might be entering.The cost for material and labor was not charged to the customerThis was done as a courtesyNine months later on 7/18/later Mr [redacted] called SolarMax again about the pigeons making their way back underneath his panels and nesting again and knocking off clipsOur records show that we made a service call on 07/31/to check for lose wires or missing clipsOur techs removed all the panels and only found a single wire that had a small amount of slack in it, the issue was addressed and correctedOur techs did not find any missing or loose clips, the entire array was inspected and re-tightened Mr [redacted] is asking us to do something to eradicate the pigeonsI have given Mr[redacted] the name of a company that installs a "critter Guard" but he did not choose to pursue that optionWe will add additional spike the "top " of the arrayCurrently the rail system underneath the panels prevents the birds from entering from but we will go back and add spike regardlessWe have agreed to add additional spikes to the top sections and have already scheduled the date for 09/03/ As a show of goodwill SolarMax agreed to your request to add pigeon spikes around the perimeter of your solar panels at no costAgain this was done as a courtesy and is not a standard practice