SolarFix treated me like family....
When an error message and a red light appeared on the inverter screen of my 12 year old solar system indicating the inverter was not working, I called the manufacturer to see what to do. They suggested changing a couple of printed circuit boards in the inverter which was easy but did not solve the problem. After further analysis by them over the phone they told me the inverter's mother board was "fried" and that I needed a complete new unit..... about $5000, but they were "out of stock" with a six month backlog for a replacement. That's when I called the original system installer (who happens to be the largest solar installer in AZ) to see how soon they could replace it with another brand. They told me they were so slammed with requests for complete solar systems that it would be about 9 months before they could get to a repair like mine! So upset was I that I had an expensive 12,000 watt solar system on my roof that I couldn't use, I called the two other largest installers. Never heard back from one of them and the other one was supposed to send me a quote for an inspection and never even did that! It seemed to me that the big companies were more interested in selling a complete new system than repairing an existing one. After a lot of research, I found five smaller companies who are certified for solar work. I called them all and heard back from two. One came out and gave me an extremely high quote. Another had a somewhat lower quote, but still in the $6000 range. I never heard back from the other three. Fortunately, one of the managers at my original installer felt badly about the 9 month wait and directed me to SolarFix LLC in Surprise, AZ. From the moment I spoke with Laura in the service department and Mike Craig, one of the owners of the company, I knew I was in good hands. Mike came out to inspect and test the system at no charge. He and his partner, Cameron, asked why I wasn't re-furbishing my faulty inverter. I told them I had spoken to the manufacturer several times and they never suggested that nor did I think it was possible. It was then that they called and spoke with the inverter manufacturer from my home and told me after the call that their electrician, Miguel, would remove the inverter and that I should contact the manufacturer and make arrangements to ship it back and get it refurbished. The bottom line was that I shipped it back the next day, had it repaired and returned in a little over two weeks. Miguel and Cameron came out to reinstall it and start it up the next week. The readings I have seen on it tell me it is producing energy like it was new. I recognize that I don't have a 10-year warranty that a new inverter comes with, but when I learned from the manufacturer that when one of their inverters under warranty goes bad, they often ship the homeowner a refurbished one, I felt that I was likely to get many years of good life from the refurbished inverter at one-third the cost with a replacement time that was almost immediate compared with waiting months for someone to generate a quote and install a new one. The work by SolarFix was quick, efficient and they treated me like family by directing me to a much less expensive solution. These days, it's almost impossible to find a company that acts and responds like SolarFix did for me.
