Tesla Energy

Okay, I've been a customer since before the Tesla acquisition, since 2013. We have had to replace our solar inverter one time due to a malfunctioning part that actually burnt up inside the unit.

Recently, I was alerted to the fact that our solar had stopped working six weeks ago when I got a surprise APS bill. I tried to find a number to call and stumbled on all these negative reviews. After reading them, I was full of righteous indignation and I called prepared to do battle and wait up to 60 days for my system to be repaired.

I was super surprised when I ended up spending less than 20 minutes on the phone with them. They had been trying to contact me using an old number and had even tried sending a tech out to my house once while I was not home, so they weren't able to access my inverter. After my call, a tech came out two days later and was able to fix my inverter with just a software code change. He was here 15 minutes and my inverter is happily chugging away.

While I'm pretty sure they could have done a better job of trying to contact me (tech could have left a note when they were at my home, could have mailed me an actual letter, etc.) I'm very satisfied with their speed of service and diligence. Each person I spoke to was professional and polite and made sure to stay on the call until they were sure I'd been successfully transferred to the appropriate party. I hope I don't need more service for a while, but it seems like they were on it this time.

My solar panels have not been producing solar since March 2021. I'm billed monthly for solar services and have received nothing. They came out the first week of August to complete An order that was never fulfilled and told me they needed to order another part for my panels. They said it should only take a week to come
In. It's now a few weeks into September and they can't give me an answer as to why they still don't have the part.

I signed up with solar city. They kinda gave my a not so great deal BUT they monitored my system for problems. Tesla bought them and their service is horrible. I had a problem last July and again this year. I had to monitor it. Took them forever to remedy.  I want out but I have a lease that goes up faster than APS. It's taken 4 weeks to get them to come to my home and I had a scheduled meeting a month ago for today. I called I emailed that I wouldn't be home but could have the garage access to reset replace fix my inverter
Elon a genius but your service people suck

I've been waiting approximately two years for replacement panels. I was told after my RA shorted out during a rain storm that it was known that they were defective and that they were going to be replaced. Here it is two years later and I still have not received my panels. It seems that they're all well and good upfront during consultations but after you spend thousands of dollars or lease their product you're not a priority anymore. It seems they're all about getting the new business than they are taking care of the customers who have already spent the money and gone through the trouble of already having the panels.

So, Tesla didn't bother to make the placard that they knew was required, showed up to the inspection with SRP and then said, oh, I'll get it done today and bring it over.   Tesla guy did.  Kudos to him.  But here is the reality.  To get SRP to show back up to look at the frickin placard takes three weeks -- if they could get the appointment confirmed -- So, ANOTHER month of non-use of my system because of the incompetence of TESLA.  They have their hand out asking for their money... don't care whether what they sold you works or can be turned on.  What a bunch of grifters.   When I got a quote, one guy said, well, you could go with TESLA but, you might find that their follow through sketchy... Boy did he have it right.  

Hey Elon take a billion of that pile of money you have and invest in some customer service and commitment.  Fire these freek'n millennials, hire some boomers with some work ethic.

I am now convinced that anyone who gives TESLA 5 stars is fake.

No Customer Service! We bought a home with solarcity-tesla installed. We took over the payments.
Besides a couple of package emails, no explanation or operation instructions. No billing info, no operation info, no contact at all. You really cant call anyone, good luck finding a phone number to call. If you do find a phone number, no one answers, leave a message- no one gets back to you.
After 6 months finally got a bill for $700.
Tried to call and email for three weeks now, no answer from anyone. Don't fall
For the hype- hard sell. Its not worth the hassle.
I would never get solar again, at least form this company!! No Customer service!!!!!!!!!

I began with solar City with my solar service. I am leasing my panels and I have had nothing but issues when I contact customer service. As you can see by the picture they had to replace all my panels a little less than three years ago and these little knobs were left on my roof because these new panels were smaller than the original ones and when I called Customer Service I was told oh well that's the way it is and the customer service person hung up and didn't want to hear anything more about it there was nothing she could do. Today I spent about an hour being transferred to four different people regarding my Tesla bill because solar City sold a couple years ago to Tesla and they have been absolutely horrendous to deal with not so much the people I spoke to but the whole process with Tesla. I am on a fixed income and my interest for the lease goes up every year and I am now paying more for my lease than my average APS bill was with just using electric and no solar. Every month I get a bill from APS which averages around $40 give or take a few and when I called today to see if there was anything that I could do as far as freezing the amount that I pay the response was well you have a contract and there's nothing we can do and my contract is for another 12 years and by then I will probably be deceased. I do not recommend Tesla/solar to anyone they are not a good company to deal with and I am so sorry that I did go with solar City/Tesla.

I wish you would just install an inverter that will work. I am on my 4th inverter in 5 years and they keep going. Easy fix from what your techs say is for it to be put in my garage so the heat does not destroy them, but your management refuses to do that. Get off your rear and fix the problem.

My inverter is out and my roof is leaking! I can't get a hold of anyone and the stupid app just sends you in circles!!! More of a pain than what it is worth!!!

Worst Customer Service Ever! I called in to have a party removed from my solar rental account/contract after a divorce and refinance. Nearly two hours of hold time and three department transfers later, I'm back on hold, waiting to get transferred back to the last dept I spoke with. I was just told that it will be several weeks before they can do this because it will take that long to have my documents sent over to the right dept, and I will need to call back in again at that point. I'm looking at listing my home for sale this month and need the other party off my contract. What does it take to get anything done with this company?

WORST DEAL I EVER MADE!!!  I have had this system for over a year now and not only does it not decrease my electric bill IT IS COSTING ME MONEY!!  Tried to contact Solar City several times and only get told, "Too bad you signed a contract"
UPDATE March 2020
The horrible service continues! Inverter has quit twice, each time takes them weeks to fix it. Now trying to sell the house and no one wants to deal with Tesla's contract. Try and try and try to reach Tesla for three days finally get someone and they say they can't rewrite the contract, you are stuck with it, too bad you signed the contract.
NEVER NEVER NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT WITH TESLA!!!

Have had Tesla since they were Solar City here in AZ.  I got to say the service is awful... the waiting time to talk to a representative for billing questions is more than 30-45 minutes easy.  For Technical support issues, I hang up after 40 minutes of waiting.  They messed up my billing due to their error and they are making me pay for their mistake.  For a company that is a supposed leader in Technology, they are not very technologically advanced.  No chat options, long waiting times, not very professional when you finally talk to one of their "experts".  It was much better when my account was with Solar City before the merger.  Awful service, I would recommend staying away from them.  If I could give them a -5 star review I would.

You're welcome Andrew.

Please, don't be disappointed to hear about my terrible experience with your dishonest, disorganized and misleading "ever-growing company". If you don't want to learn about our negative reviews perhaps your company needs to change their conniving tactics. Also, I don't need to email my experience to anyone in your pertinent team. Yelp is more than enough.

Oh, speaking of "pertinent teams", maybe you can get through them and relay my message: I don't want anyone from SolarCity knocking at my door. No means NO!

Sent an email July 2, didn't receive a response so called them. Had pigeons living in and under solar panels, as I did about 18 months prior. 18 months ago they came out and fixed netting around panels to prevent birds from living there. At the time the installers said the birds would probably be back again. This time the customer service rep said they would charge me for the service. I talked to his boss Dennis who was rude and refused to let me talk to his boss. He finally told me their names, Ashley or Lauren, but said I couldn't talk to them. They weren't available. I asked who would call me today. He said no one. Further he admitted that their customer service procedures had changed since my last call.

Terrible customer service. I do not recommend this company. What good is a company if they cannot speak to their customers respectfully and offer a supervisor? What good is a company that never responds to their emails?

Really slow to respond support wise. Refuse to provide any detailed usage information. The app is literally useless. No web site for showing detailed power consumption. Refuse to install required components. Would never recommend them.

After reading the negative reviews I wonder if we are using the same company.  I have had my system up for the better part of a year. I live in Maricopa and made the rush to get the system installed before ED3 changed the rules back in July 2015, effectively shutting solar city out.  In our experience we called the rep, Jim Gackle, and he arrived on time as promised.  He and I spent the better part of 2 hours going over a laundry list of questions I had for him.  He was really nice and answered every question I had, even discussed things I hadn't thought to ask.  

Installation of the system went smoothly including Solar City doing almost all the work with the HOA to get details ironed out.  It took about 4-5 weeks from signing docs to system on roof.  As soon as the system was flipped on the saving started.

On a sad note... After seeing the savings I was enjoying my sister, who also lives in Maricopa, asked for  a referral.  I was saddened to find that because of the changes ED3 had made Solar City is no longer doing new installs in Maricopa.

I would recommend Solar City to anyone, and have to numerous people.  But like any major investment you need to do your homework.  Download a copy of the contract and read it.  Ask a lot of questions.  You should always be satisfied with your decision before you sign on anything.

Do not get solar panels from Tesla. When they installed they have a Denteley broke some tiles on my roof never replaced them I have a section that was open for several years finally it was pointed out to me by someone it was hidden in the corner. I've now been waiting over two months for the repairs I've had a leak in my roof I've called them four times in the past two weeks and was told that they would call me back every time I have yet to receive a call back. Also I am not receiving the savings promised. Think twice before getting solar panels for Tesla.

Update to update that not a single thing has changed. Once again they keep denying my payments. I use a different credit card, payment goes through plenty of days before... they still deduct money from my checking account, so now I'm making two payments a month. It's unreal. They literally screw up every single month of billing.

I know what you're going to say... don't use a credit card. Well, they shouldn't allow them. Also, we pay much more than what is due so we can pay these off early. If you rely on their billing system, you'll never pay these off. Many times, especially in the winter, the minimum due doesn't even cover the interest they charge. The ONLY way to pay off these panels on time is to pay more. I like to pay my bills as soon as I get them and Solar City is the ONLY bill that has ever been a problem. Even Cox, who seems to raise their amount every other month, is better at this.

Also, if you rely on their paper bill, good luck. You'll get it the day before your bill is due. I've received the bill AFTER the due date a couple of times. DON'T sign up for their paperless alerts -- YOU WON'T GET ANY! I don't get any emails from Solar City showing me what is due. I have to log on every single month to find out what my bill is.

Even then, it'll say $150 due by 7/1/2018, and a couple of days later it says $174 due by 7/1/2018. I'll pay the bill on 6/10/2018, payment goes through, 7/5/2019 I'm charged $165 on my bank account. Seriously... WTF?

I absolutely hate Solar City now. We're currently looking for other means of financing to pay these off because I cannot stand them. APS, Phoenix City Services, and even the corrupt utilities in California -- all superior to Solar City... and that's just pathetic.

I know it's easy to write a review when things are not going well.  So - I'm doing the opposite.  We have nothing but good things to say about SolarCity/Tesla.  We did a lot of research and talked to a number of firms, beginning in February of last year.  We chose SolarCity in May, and began the process which I expected would take 5-6 months (which is exactly what it did).  Our system went live in November 2017.  Our 4200 sq ft house has not produced an APS bill higher than $30 to date.

They are a big company, that's true, so do you have to be diligent in your questions and follow up, yes.  There were a few times when I had to wait a day or two for an answer, which is the only reason I am not giving 5 stars.  But I am in the service industry myself, so I set a high bar for customer service.

Overall, we would make the exact same choice:  buy not lease, and use SolarCity for our solar.

We are 3 months into this process of getting solar panels and power walls and so far it's been all delay delay delay, no ones ever available by phone, they actually tell you when you do get ahold of someone that they have so much work that they don't know what to do.  They can't keep the design straight, it changes every time we talk, they can't keep the signed documents straight, at this pace it will take 6 months to even get to the installation. Right now I would recommend a company that is local and actually wants the work.

Subscription-based solar with no costs other than a set monthly fee? Perfect, and here's why... 1)Brilliantly-structured program enables us with clean, cost-efficient, no hassle energy. We can now play a part in helping our environment.
2) Platinum+ pre- and post-sales customer service. Just incredible.
3) Outstanding installation crew - the coolest, smartest, and most refreshing people to have on our property. Loved their energy and pride in their Tesla brand to bits.
3) Our roof is actually very sexy now - Absolute truth. Solar panels can be quite forgivably unsightly because of the overall good they bring to our environment. But Tesla solar panels are gorgeous, sleek, discreet. Classy classy classy.
4) Our Tesla teams took care of every single thing, every step of the way, and remained engaged and communicative. Even our electricity provider said "Tesla made our end Easy and awesome ... from the permitting and inspection processes to the grid-to-solar cutover".

Tesla ... thank you, thank you.

Buyer beware if you buy a house that has solar panels already on it and it set up for somebody else electrical use and the fact that you need more panels you will not be able to add them on so basically you're screwed like I'm paying $100 for the panels and $242 for electricity so I'm paying $342 a month and tesla will do nothing spoke with a supervisor and I was told there is no benefit to have solar panels in Az because of APS so as he says it's waste of money

Lies, lies, lies.
I was told I needed to do some tree work before they could move forward.  I was shown which trees had to come down and assured it would be worth it. After spending 60,000$ removing trees I was told more had to be removed.  
Had I realized what was confirmed was not actually adequate I would have added more insulation in my attic and replaced my windows instead of removing trees

Disappointing experience with Solar City!!!
They don't deserve a star!!!
BEWARE!!!!
I wish  I read the reviews here prior to signing the loan to purchase my 48 panels.
I had my initial consultation with the Sales Rep Charlie Rickets in Nov 2016 and was promised for a Jan installation.  They finally installed the panels 6 months delayed in 06/01/2017 (19 broken roof tiles)
I received a call this morning from Solar City concierge Erica that they have to resubmit my permit which could take up to 2 weeks.  On top of that I will have to wait another 2-4 weeks for APS to inspect and turn the power on.  We are on 3 digit heat and I'm sure my APS bill will be higher and I'm starting to pay the loan.  
I tried to call my Sales Rep to no avail (voicemail is full)
I should have used SunRun via Costco and might have a better experience.

UPDATE:
As mentioned my initial consultation with Charlie Rickets was 10/26/2016
Panels installed 06/01/2017
Permit approved on 7/17/17 (breaker)
Permit  approved on 7/20/17 (inverter) after 3 corrections
APS 7/28/17-8/17/17

I received an email dated 6/27/17 from the Regional Sale Manager Brent Lewis and replied to his email and finally received a phone call on 7/6/17.  (The only phone call with a promise to get back to me with status update)

Still very disappointed because by the time I finally generate solar energy, it's summer time. If they installed my panels in January like promised by the useless consultant Charlie Rickets then I would have generated and accrued enough solar power to pay for the summer months.
In short I'm hit with 2 payments until the temperature goes down and we don't use the AC anymore.
Also, just an FYI, the so called rebate that was offered will not be available until 45 (I think) days after you are connected to APS.  Figures!!
Solar City/Tesla never failed to disappoint me.

file complaint s with the state attorney generals office! !
ive talked and read others having problems with tesla.  worst in the business!

The worst....my system was put in last July but not turned on until December.    Solar City blamed APS but when I contacted APS they hadn't received my lease paperwork from Solar City.   Since I work with APS in another capacity, I knew they were telling the truth..    

Now, with the summer heating up in AZ, my airconditioner turns off when I'm not home because of the NEST thermostat which is a piece of garbage.    I am trying to get it removed and a traditional thermostat put in so the air stays on when I'm not home.   Right now I come home to a home at 90 degrees or more, and it takes 2 hours to cool down.    

Lastly, the sales representative was a complete liar.    I just recently got a bill with a $7.50 service charge.   When I called in I was told "it's in your lease".    It is in the lease, however, this was never discussed with me.    So I have to set up automatic payments with them (which I don't like because my paydays are not the same each month) in order to avoid this charge which is just about 10% of the lease.    

My APS bill is down to around $25.00 so I like the solar, however, I wish I'd gone with another company.   Live and learn!

Solar City is the worst company to deal with.  My system has not been producing since August and last week, Solar City finally is going to do something (so they say).  I verified this through APS and the powerguide from Solar City.  Solar City claimed APS cannot see of the system is producing.  This is a lie. There are other ways to verify with APS through your bill with the credits.  
Solar City will sell you a lousy product and rip you off by taking your money.  The power inverter went bad and I have panels that got water intrusion.  So I have to question the integrity of the overall installation.  STAY AWAY FROM SOLAR CITY.  THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF!!!

Tesla bought out Solar City and now you don't get a phone number to call, none on their website or your invoices, everything is done through a stupid webpage submission and via email. SO if you have a problem with your system, even an emergency, you can submit and expect an email in like 24 hours of course that probably means the auto email that comes right away telling you how busy they are and that you can check out their enhanced support website yeah right... you know... the one that you filled out the form for... I hope that their support of their cars is better - Make a different choice for Energy / Solar - Tesla Solar doesn't give a beam about their customers - they certainly don't want human beings to be involved... let's just email...  ZERO customer service here. DON'T use this company for your Solar

I bought a 20 year contract through SolarCity, but Tesla bought them out. The craftsmanship caused a leak in my living room after the installation.  I contacted Tesla...Nothing. Then they said $200 to determine if it was their fault.  In addition to the leak my unit converter went out causing an ark in the second converter.  Tesla turned off the system.  They said they were going to replace the entire system.  3 months later.  Nothing.  I've called numerous times and told they are waiting on the new system get to the warehouse.  I keep getting the runaround.  Why am I still paying for the monthly service charge when NOTHING is being done? Their answer,  we are waiting on the system to get to the warehouse then they will set up a install date. Meanwhile my roof is leaking.

Do not do business with a company that does NOT fix things for months, yet continues to charge your account. Terrible customer relations on the part of Tesla.  Terrible customer resolution.  Too many excuses. Do not buy solar through this company. You will regret it.

Have had two bad experiences with them.  First time their Sales Rep outright lied to me and refused to answer my questions via email, my guess because he didnt want proof of his lying.  

After I got a lease with them on the first system, again based on him lying to me, met with their rep to 'expand' my system and was told it has to be a different system.  Fine, so I decide to move forward with a loan, 'We are designing your system, you should hear from us in a week', its been about 6 weeks, the very few responses I have got are like pulling teeth and then follow ups are non existent.

Beware.

I really really want to be a fan of this company.... Unfortunately my experience with them was terrible.

Did the first call with their team over the phone, they pulled up satellite pictures, figured out roof sizes, etc etc.... all good so far.

First red flag - Sold out of batteries.  Could easily "bolt" one on later.  Based on what I've learned about solar installs... there's a big difference between grid tied and hybrid/battery installations.

Next came the site visits:
Visit 1:  Solar City team member showed up, walked around the building, roof, etc.  Then said they wanted to drill 5 or more holes in my ceiling.  I declined because I was waiting to hear back about battery availability.

Visit 2:  Still waiting to hear on battery, but agreed to allow them to come back and check a few more things.  At this point they agreed to only do 2 cuts in my ceiling.... but the guy that cut them couldn't patch them.... great.

Visit 3: They sent out a separate contractor to fix the holes... but he won't patch them because solar city told them my house had asbestos.  (it does not).  Contractor took a sample and left.

Solar city contacts me and says they can't proceed because I have asbestos.  I tell them I do not and to wait for the contractor tests.

Visit 4: Contractor returns and patches the holes.  Asbestos tests came back negative.  Due to the location of the cuts by the solar city employee, the contractor wants to repaint my entire ceiling across several rooms.  I declined... opted for a few yellowish spots on my ceiling over having to repaint a house that had just been repainted not 2 months before.

Solar city contacts me and says they cannot proceed with the installation because I HAVE A FLAT ROOF!!!  Which they knew from day 1.  Amazing.

I am a customer since October 2012. I bought a second property in Sun City, AZ and requested Solar City to move the panels to the new property 8 blocks away in June 2016. The panels were not removed until July, where they sat in a warehouse until September 2016 when they were installed at the new location.  Maricopa County approved the installation Sept 28th,.  Due to several errors I STILL HAVE NO SOLAR TURNED ON!!  UNACCEPTABLE!
[email protected]

It's great to have one payment on a lease, But try to get service. The app is virtually useless. It is great that they monitor your production and send you an email if the system goes off, however getting service is really awful! First you can send a form online once you find the right one and can actually find the support page which you cannot do from logging into your account. Then your form is submitted and you get a message that says someone will be responding in the next 3 days. Or you can hold for literally hours on the phone to try and talk with someone - good luck that. If you can mange to get someone they will not schedule you nor will you get a number to call and schedule. Instead you are told you will be scheduled and notified as to when that is. Sorry if that's not convenient and maybe you work..... Hope your system is completely outside. AND to top the whole experience off you are told not to worry that you're bill will be adjusted to reflect the days the system isn't working because you have a guarantee.Good luck with that one too. My system was off for more than 4 days and my next bill was exactly the same as always. I figured by the time I wasted hours more of my time to try to get that corrected it would be a wash. Your time isn't important to Tesla unless you want a car....

I got an email yesterday telling me my solar was off and thus far I have been on hold 42minutes and counting.....

They seem like they acquired a solar company and really had nothing set up to run or service a new company. Really poor form.

Tesla solar in Chandler Arizona:  Gotta be honest, I was really excited to have Tesla Solar Panels on the house we bought back in November 2018. They were supposed to be top-end panels and a good lease price. After dealing with them, I'm Not so happy with Tesla Solar for service or ease of use for the website. The website is not so easy to navigate and with the technology of Tesla, I expected more. Customer service is HORRIBLE and the original product installed was defective. Once it was discovered that there was a problem, they took a year to correct the panels. I had to call 11 times and sent 14 emails to get this done. They NEVER initiated a call, nor responded with a call back with a follow-up date. When I called and waited on hold for 40-60 minutes each time, (sometimes getting disconnected and had to start over), the responses were always the same with "we will forward your concerns to the scheduling/design team and someone will reach out to you", but nothing was resolved. Finally after a year of calling/emailing/complaining they finally scheduled the install replacement. Although they did break some tiles on the roof (which was discussed and expected), they came back out and corrected that in a short time. However, they left metal parts, plastic ties and trash all around the house grounds. I discovered this when my dog brought a tie strap to me that was on the side of the house. I wouldn't recommend getting Tesla Solar for future services because it took so long and they are so unprofessional. Elon Musk would be so disappointed if he knew how bad the service was.

Never ever will we ever make the mistake of buying in to solar! It sounds wonderful at the time but it is the most frustrating thing to have to go through when selling your home. SolarCity was a good company in my opinion before Tesla bought them. The transition to transfer the contract over to the new homeowners that purchased our house was horrible! NO CUSTOMER SERVICE whatsoever from SolarCity-Tesla. The "rep" assigned to us was the worst! It left such a bad impression on us that we will never take the risk on ANY solar company again!

Don't do solar with Tesla My roof  the Tesla solar panel have harbored pigeons They say they will take care of it They won't You will not get the advantage of solar on your roof You will be spending more money no savings with solar because your solar will stop working in August not to be fixed until late September  You will have pigeon infested solar panels with them telling you go on the the roof and clean the shit yourself we don't care about the contract

WAS a happy SolarCity customer for 9 years. Sold our house and transferred the lease to the new buyer in May 2016. SolarCity proceeded to pull 2 (!) payments out on the same day in June...for??

They screwed me over by taking several unauthorized payments out of my bank account and refusing to refund them. Even with a signed agreement, they still won't refund me.  

Really too bad. Now I wouldn't recommend them to anyone! If you transfer your lease make sure to call your bank and block any further payments from SolarCity. Sad that that is required from this public company.

After reading some of these reviews, it's like we didn't deal with the same company.

I started talking to SolarCity first (I was waiting on something at BestBuy, and so chatted with the sales person in there about it -- I had been thinking about solar, anyway), but I also got site evals and bids by 9 other companies.  SolarCity was in my Top 3 the whole time, but what was preventing me from pulling the trigger was their lack of a financed purchase option.  In May 2016, they finally announced that as an option, and with the ultra-cheap interest rate (2.9%), the monthly cost was $3 more per month as the lease...except it's paid off in 10 years instead of paying for 20 only to have it removed!  So after 10 years, I just have a huge source of free juice, but still with all the same power delivery guarantees and warranty and whatnot as the "normal" lease arrangement for 20 years (and then after that they're hands-off, but the system will obviously still work).

So, that was enough that I was willing to make the call to go with SC over the other companies I was considering.

My main service panel was a measly 100 amp -- so, before the panel installation, they contracted to upgrade it to a 225 amp panel at no cost to me (!!!!), and even took care of all the permits and inspections for that.

I had an 8.89kW solar panel system installed.  The install team showed up on time, were all great folks (who were in a noticeably jovial mood over the entire day and a half of my installation), and were extremely safety-conscious as well as very concerned about doing a clean installation.  My install was a particularly tough challenge, as I have totally open (but finished) rafters, so they had to be very precise to sink every lag bolt and screw into a beam.  They said they'd never had to deal with this before, but did a great job on it.

Literally today I had the system inspected -- no issues from the county inspector.

So, I've not turned the system on, yet.  But I will update if anything changes that would cause me to not feel that this was a five-star experience end-to-end.

Run! If the home you are thinking about purchasing has solar panels maintained by this company, don't buy it! I really wish I would've researched this company before purchasing our home. I can honestly say, that at this point, I wouldn't have purchased the home. Yes! Over the solar panels.
The home we purchased, we have only lived in for a little over a month and in our contract, we agreed to have the solar panel lease transferred from the previous home owners to us. In the beginning, we thought, "This will be a great asset to our new home! We will save money with our energy bills!" WRONG! A week after we moved in, I received a call from a SolarCity tech, letting me know that the panels weren't producing enough energy and that a tech needed to come out to assess the situation. Three days later, a guy comes by, looks at the inverter and tells me that it needs to be replaced, that he has to order it and that someone will come back out to replace it.
A week and a half goes by and I haven't heard a thing. I call the tech department and speak to a gentlemen that tells me, "Oh I see it's been ordered, I'm sure it'll be in soon and as soon as it comes in, we will be right out to install it." As we get off the phone, I start to wonder about how our bill is going to work since our panels aren't producing what we are paying for, so I called back the same number and speak to a lady and I ask that question. She tells me that the company reviews the usage EVERY TWO YEARS and that if the equipment didn't produce enough energy, we will get some money back. What?! Two years!!
Meanwhile, we are suppose to be getting a "welcome" call from customer service. Which to this day we haven't received. We have however received a phone call from customer service but only because I emailed our sales reps and explained what was going on. When CS finally called, the guy said, "I'm understanding you're wanting a call from us." SMH. And don't bother calling their customer service, when I did call, I waited 35 mins. I did get a prompt that told me that I could continue to wait or that I could email and the response time for emails was 7-10 business days. Holy smokes! How is his company in business??
So currently, we have solar panels as decoration on our roof and no clue in sight of when they will be working again. Not excited at all about having to pay not one months lease but two because that's how they do things in your first month AND pay a much higher electric bill bc our panels aren't working.

UPDATE 8/31: I called the tech support with SolarCity and spoke with a woman that explained to me that the inverter that is currently powered off is the one to be replaced. I told her about the other inverter still having a communication status light on it, so she had me go outside to read her some numbers and I did. Have no clue what the numbers mean. She then told me that the status communication light was bc I didn't have the monitoring device plugged into the modem.
Ok, here's where the frustration lies 1) I had no clue what she was talking about. The previous owners did leave a device for us to plug into our modem BUT the sales rep told me that someone from customer service, during my welcome call, would explain how to set this up. 2) the woman I spoke with acted as though I should've already known to do this and that that was the reason the other inverter was showing the communication status. FYI, that would've been nice to know...the first time the tech department called me and told me there was a problem! She continued to tell me that I too can check what the solar panels are doing, through my power guide. I literally have no clue what that even means. I tried to ask what she meant and how exactly my modem is connecting to their panels AND that I still didn't understand what she meant by me being able to see this through the power guide?? No reference to a website or app or anything.

UPDATE: 9/18: New inverter was replaced.
The customer service, timeliness of product service/maintenance and ease of paying your bill with SolarCity is simply unacceptable.

We had Tesla  leased solar and it worked fine.  However, we sold the house and transferred the lease to the new owner.   Tesla continued to take monthly payment from my account.  Notified them and they agreed they should not have taken the payment and said it would be refunded within 5-10 days.  When I called again 3 weeks later, whoever answered said I owed the money and they needed one more payment.  After asking to talk to a supervisor, they agreed that I should be getting the refund, and once again in 7 to 10 days.  I checked with them again today and after a little research they said my refund had been approved and I should get it within 6 to 8 WEEKS.  If this is how they take care of their finances, I'd be afraid to see how they take care of problems with the system.  We will be putting solar on our new house, but will not trust Tesla again.

Buyer Beware!  In this case the lessee! Inverter was down for seven days before I realized no production was being made. I contacted Solar City. Had to wait over a week for a tech to come out and look at the system. Then I was told it would be 5-10 days for a new inverter. Still no contact from Solar City in that regards. They have a production guarantee they comes up after 2 years, but in the meantime I'm paying SRP for electricity and Solar City a lease payment which they will not reimburse. Bad! Bad! Customer service!  Totally wrong on every level. I filed a complaint with the BBB. Will be filing a complaint with the Attorney General's office and contacting various local news station's consumer advocates. DO NOT! I repeat DO NOT lease or buy from this company.

Update: It seems SolarCity is under the impression they have addressed my concerns. Actually, they have not. The inverter has been fixed, but my concerns and requests have been ignored in contacting their customer relations manager. When attempting to contact them again today, my email was denied as  spam. When I emailed using a different email it went through. Odd?  I'm not going away, as I'm sure they hope I will.

Solar City has been taken over by Tesla. Tesla has the worst customer service. My entire system has been down for over a month now and to date, I have yet to have a manager return my calls and to why they don't know what the heck is going on! I've spent hours on the phone with them and have gotten no where! If you are buying Solar Panels and want great customer service to go with it, then you should think about another solar company. They are the worst! Spoke to a representative today and they still haven't a clue and the system hasn't been working since 8/15/2018 and it's now 9/7/2018. Also leasing solar panels is the worst way to go. The leases can be as long as 25 yrs long, if you sell your home, the buyer must also qualify for to take over the lease on the panels too.

Sales rep called after I inquired on their website.  After introduction and asking how much my electric bills were, he then told me the call may be monitored for blah, blah, blah.  After explaining I understood it was difficult to give me an estimate of savings without a year's worth of bills and I have only lived here 2 months.  He said no problem, what were those bills.  I told him and clarified since moving in, we replaced all lights with led, put in new multispeed pool pump, so those are probably not accurate reflections.  After all this, he then asks me who my electric provider is.  I said SRP and immediately told me I should consider switching companies if I can as SRP is hard to work with and very anti-solar.  He could not get off the phone quick enough which I found rude and unprofessional.

I have since searched out SRP and Solar City and see Solar City is suing SRP.  Why not be up front and state we are in litigation with SRP over X and we are not currently taking customers until it is resolved?

Do you really think I'll listen to Solar City's sales pitch once they resolve the lawsuit?  Not now and I know they'll be calling.

My Solarcity experience was nothing short from being perfect. The Representative #KevinUnderwood kept me informed and honestly set the expectations on completion. Other than the State and APS taking longer than wanted!! My experience was Great. Saving Money, living a more efficient lifestyle with NY family and feeling wonderful. Thanks Solarcity Call Kevin today so he can show you how Solar will work for you. Tell him WilliamYeo sent you.

solar.solarcity.com/micr…

I bought my home with panels already on the home so we took over payments. They do not have a way to pay online. I have been told for almost 2 years they are working on it (once I actually get through after holding for 20 minutes of course). The pic below is the same message I get all the time. Even with online bill pay through the bank, the payment has to be mailed. Really annoying to have to mail payments in this day and age. Find a company with better and more up to date technology.

We had panels installed 8 months ago. They had a roofer come out to confirm the roof was in satisfactory condition to have the panels installed. We are now selling our house and have had three different reputable roofers confirm the entire roof needs to be replaced and that the roof did not suddenly degrade over the past 8 months, it was like this when the panels were installed. All three roofers confirmed that this is business as usual for Solar City; they don't care about the costumer, just the money. We're filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and filing suit.

I have had solar city for a few years I was told my electric bill would be alot cheaper first beware of pigeons will build huge nests underneath panels  solar city  was very good about fixing the problem .but my bill hasn't gone down at all infact its alot more when I called they said it was working fine I asked if there was supposed to be a red light on my solar screen all the time they didnt tell anything  about it ...just a bit frustrated

Called Solar City to obtain a quote for a complete home solar system. I spoke to what sounded like a new sales rep in Las Vegas. She gave me a quote and then the fun began.

The high pressure sales calls started. On the first call I told the supposed "closer" that Solar City quoted me the highest price of 4 estimates. He didn't offer to review the quote he just said "Do you want the best system or the best value?". I told him I wanted a competitive quote so he hung up.

A few days later the "Super high-pressure" closer called. I told him the same thing about Solar City having the highest bid. He said "I guess your one of the ones who buy based on PRICE and NOT VALUE". WHAT A RUDE THING TO SAY WHEN YOUR TRYING TO MAKE A SALE.

SOLAR CITY $29,000 (AFTER tax rebates) 9.44kW System
SUN RUN $21,400 (AFTER tax rebates) 9.62kW System
***COMPANY X WHO I PLAN TO USE*** $17,817 (After tax rebate) 9.5kW System

I guess Solar City should hire professional sales people and not EX-TIMESHARE high pressure sales reps.

I am sad that Solar City acted this way. AS A SHARE HOLDER, I HAVE DECIDED TO SELL MY POSITION. I will use the profit's to buy a system from another company.

You are seriously ruining people's lives with your dishonest business practices. Do you tell your new clients that you put a lien on their home and if they try to refi or sell their home that they won't be able to easily or without hassle from your company?!? I know I was never disclosed that information. You guys are corrupt and stealing from small families. It's a shame that being a single mom that you find no guilt in your deception!!! Consumers need to know what you are actually about. I'm trying to get the local medias attention now to try and help warn consumers!!! You are disgusting!!

11/1/2019 Update: I had to refi my home to pay off my loan on my solar panels last yr. They wanted me to sign an amended contract that would lower my final payoff by close to 10k! It had many stipulated requests one being a gag order for what happened! I did not sign! I thought all my troubles were behind me in dealing with your company  when I paid it all off but surprise today I get an APS utility bill for 4x what it should be for this time of year and come to find out my solar which is supposed to be monitored has not been working for the last 2 months!!! When calling your customer service I am told it is a "courtesy for you to monitor my solar" and after my scheduled technician visit scheduled they will update my system so that it will alert me of this moving forward!! Are you freaking kidding me??? If my system that YOU installed was outdated why was I not notified and told I needed to have maintenance completed to avoid this extra out of pocket expense?!?!? I have not received any form of communication from your company to alert me of either my solar not working or my need to have my system updated!! Terribly disappointed with the constant let down in your service and performance of your company!!

Only gave one star because there is no lower. There hold times for existing customers calls are over 40 min.
They take advantage of senior and widows. Their prices are 3x then solar tops or harmon solar. Tesla is the owners, hell if he can put a $100,000 car in space he can hire more employees.

What I understood about solar panels before I talked to SolarCity was that they were too expensive to make sense. But my consultant explained that with SolarCity you can "lease" the solar power just like you "lease" power from APS or SRP without the expense of buying and maintaining solar panels.

SolarCity installs panels on my home for free and maintains them at no cost and my energy costs go down. I'm so excited about this! I hear the wait time can be long to get the panels working, but I think it's worth the wait.

My experience with SoarCity was fantastic and I think solar is a great way to save money and the planet. Call Kevin at 602-499-3190 and take a look at solar!

We set up solar power years ago when we moved to AZ. Solar City offered us a referral bonus of $200. Tesla now owns Solar City. They now offer $400 but will only honor the old $200.

Multiple calls were made and after months we still did not get our $200. We were even told that if we paid off our lease early that basically we were on our own. This is no longer the same company. Their customer service is horrible. We would not recommend this company.

Ps we still have not received our money for the referral. (The customer service rep was going to get back to us)

Up until today, I would have given them 3 stars.  They dropped to 3 because during the sales process the rep told my wife and me that we'd be able to monitor the solar usage in order to save more money on our monthly bills.  Come to find out, that's not true (unless I wanted to pay more monthly to them).  Seems like it's a gamble to spend more money monthly to see if I can save more money monthly...

But, there's at least one other post that mentions the lien that Solar City puts on your home.  While they are entitled to lien to protect their equipment, what they don't tell you is that if you do refi, you can pull no equity out.  Long story (3 months long now) short, we're about to close on our refi, we get a call that the $1,200 we were going to get back, in order to paint our home's exterior, we can't get.  

The Solar City lien does't just protect their equipment, it keeps you from touching any of your home's equity... for 20 years...

Before you sign; Google - SolarCity Lien

BEWARE- if all the bad posts didnt warn you. After 1 year my inverter went out. After a week of it not producing energy finally got a rep out to look at it. Found inverter went out and had to order a new one it would be 7-10 business days. After 7-10 business days called Telsa they said, it would be 7-10 business days after the inverter was received by their shipping department that I would receive for a tech to come out and install the new inverter - could be another 1 -2 weeks. So could be looking at 45-60 days of not producing energy. So after 2 plus weeks, I am still waiting for the inverter to be received by their shipping department.

Overall not happy with the performance of the system I was sold, it only produces about 50% of what I was sold- if you read the fine print that is normal and expected.

I would go with a local company do not use SolarCity- in the 1 year I have been a customer I am not happy with any part of their service or products. Not to mention the final install was not what they planned... I have metal conduit running up and down my roof and house. Looks like some hacks did they job, not clean like the designs showed. Again lies by by the sales team.
Update: 7-26-18 system is still up and producing energy. It's a hot one in Phoenix right now 116.

4/8/2018. Final Update!

Rebate check FINALLY received in April 2018 - system installed November 2017 and 100% payment was required before system was operating.

I suggest Costco!

Scheduled an appointment with Solar City and the guy never showed. I rescheduled and an hour after he was supposed to be at my house he called and said he forgot the power cord to his laptop,  he could come anyway, but would have to come back,  so I rescheduled and he didn't show again!
Then he sent an E mail telling me he had been out of town most of the summer (WTF? ) and did I want to reschedule?
I would not ever hire this company! The employees are flaky!

I am so confused by all the negative reviews that I am seeing on Yelp.  I have been a SolarCity customer since 2011 and I have had nothing but a great experience.  Here are a few things I have noticed with them;

1)  Every year my system produces more energy then I was told/guaranteed.  This just means that my APS bill is lower than predicted too.

2)  Last month my system went down due to apparent grounding issues.  Before I noticed the issues, SolarCity called me and sent someone out to fix it.  Needless to say they fixed the system quickly and I am up and running again.

3)  When the service rep was on my roof to fix my grounding issue, he mentioned to me that he noticed that pigeons were nesting under my panels.  He took pictures and forwarded them to someone.  The next thing you know, I was contacted by a pest company who installed netting around my panels so pigeons could not nest.  Oh, and they did this at cost to SolarCity and not me.

So as you can see, I have had nothing but positive experiences with SolarCity.  In fact, I can honestly say they have gone above and beyond for me.

I'm sorry to those who have had bad experiences, but I find it funny how their experiences are so different then mine.

I called the 800 number and worked with 3 different people, I felt as if the information they sent me was meant to confuse me, it was hard to understand and follow, they were only interested in leasing me the panels when all I wanted to do was buy it, after about a month of tons of questions and not getting clear answers they wanted to charge me 46k to buy a system.

The power of the Internet

I call a competitor and it was easy to get information and they didn't care if I wanted to buy or lease the system so I bought a system the same size solar city was proposing for 20k

I would not recommend solar city at all

Solar City is now of course, Tesla Solar. I had Solar City in my previous home(solar panels), in another State and never had a problem getting any service from them is the need arose. Now Tesla bought Solar City. I had Solar added to my home here in AZ before Tesla bought out the company. Now the service is horrible. I had referred a neighbor to get solar and they did, I was due a $200 referral fee. That was over a year ago and have contacted Tesla customer support many times over the last year and have NEVER received a response from them. I think if I stop making my monthly payment to them it might get their attention, but I am not betting on it.
There are other Solar companies in the area so check them out before you ever go to TESLA...

Initial calls for a quote created immediate follow up and some interesting technology (email, text and phone call during the period of availability I identified on the website).  Unfortunately, the salesperson ghosted after that, without acknowledgement of receiving email, nor text response when queried there.  So I have to assume that all of the current one star reviews here are pretty accurate, and conclude that this company is too busy with the endless stream of solar customers, and that most customers are probably disposable to them.  What else would you conclude?

I installed 7KW systems on two rental properties through Tesla/Solar City
The first system was rejected at inspection by the county and took 3 weeks after first inspection to get paperwork sent to the power company so they can turn it on. Giant pain in the butt. Paid first half when installed and tried to pay second half on my credit card as instructed by Solar City to use their Paypal link after installation. Paypal charged me the whole amount again on my credit card so I am having a giant dispute to get my $8,250 back. No matter what you do avoid Paypal and call a human at Tesla if you are paying by credit card. Tesla says it was my and Paypal's fault. Paypal said they would try to get me a refund in about 60 days Tesla talked about sending me a check when verified ??? Who knows when. Trying to resolve thru credit card cork with and don't care about problems and will do NOTHING to help-- except blaompany.

danger danger they are a pain in the bottom to work with!

They come across as great at first but after working with ten other companies for quotes, in the end it was the least professional person/company to work for.  Their quote system is un-detailed and slow.  Also, the quality of their solar panels are a joke.  Go with a local company or Sunrun if you want a better experience and a much higher performing system.  Their quote was a print screen with no detail and came 4 days later while most companies reply within a couple days. A joke - stay away.

Instead of waiting until the very end of the process, I thought I'd try something new and do a review of my SolarCity experience from the very beginning of the process, and then update as the process moves forward, and up until the very end and then afterwards as the system gets up and running.

I originally talked with a very nice gentleman named Frank last week who explained the process, the product, etc.  He put together a proposal based on the information he could gather, knowing that only until there was an actual site survey could we get the actual and final results.  We went over the design, the benefits (including tax credits), costs, etc.  

Today, we talked again and I talked with Frank's manager (Jeremy), who then got another gentlemen on the phone who scheduled my site survey for this Thursday (in two days).  Again, very nice - made sure all of my questions were answered.

So that is where we are now.  So far, excellent communication.  They understood that my key concern is that in order to get the tax credit for 2014 the system would have to be completed by the end of the year.  I will have a huge tax bill this year, but just the opposite next year, so if it doesn't get done this year, I would need to cancel the whole thing.  They promised that until they are actually up on the roof and installing, I can back out at any time.  If it's late December and there is nothing on my roof... then it would be unfortunate to have to cancel everything.  

After the site survey I will update again, but at this point - 5 stars for great customer service.

Update - 10/30/14.  Everything has been moving forward fine.  Site survey was done.  One gentleman came out and spent a couple of hours climbing around, getting up in the attic, taking measurements, etc.  He then sent the information off for the final design which I received within a day.  The final design increased the total cost, an estimate of the tax credits, a diagram of where the panels would be placed, etc.  

Solar City can finance for you (at a low interest rate, at least in my case) but if you finance with them they do have a balloon payment due the following year which is about 30% of the cost.  The reason is that since there is no down payment, this balloon payment basically makes up for the 'no down' program.  The theory being that the tax credits (which are not insubstantial) can be used for the balloon payment, which brings down the loan balance substantially.  I can understand why their financing would require this, otherwise they would have a lot of risk up front financially.

Next steps is getting HOA approved and permits.  I sent my HOA the documents they need and I hope to hear back from them soon.  AZ has a pretty stringent solar law which prevents HOA from getting too restrictive, however it doesn't mean they can't come back and ask for changes - but I'll have to wait and see.  I don't expect any issues with permits.

The only thing that has become clear to me, and this has nothing to do with Solar City, is that unless you have a substantial tax burden (middle or high income folks who pay some big $$ tax dollars), then solar just wouldn't be feasible.  It's a valid argument that probably prohibits lower income homeowners from getting solar.  

So far - still 5 stars, but we will soon be getting into crunch time to finish by the end of the year.  If not installed by the end of the year I will need to cancel the whole thing.  So far so good, though.

Update - 11/24/2014.  Received approval for the permits. Solarcity is ready for the installation as soon as I hear from the HOA, so my concerns of getting it up and installed most likely will not be a concern.  So - 5 stars still for Solarcity.

Update 12/2/14.  Installation was completed today without a hitch.  They showed up bright and early as planned.  So system up, just need to get sign off from city inspectors and APS (utility) and it gets turned on.  Still 5 stars for Solar City.

Update 1/14/14- system was finally turned on this week, however some of the paperwork from SolarCity evidently didn't get sent to utility.  Utility sent someone out today and did something and now I don't think my solar is working.  Rating is now at a 2 as I'm now stuck between the utility and Solar City.  Not good.

Update 1/26 - SolarCity and APS must have figured out their differences.  I'm scheduled to have my new meter from APS which is the final step and will allow me to also feed any additional electric back into the grid.

Update 1/29 - Project done and working smoothly.  Solid 4 stars.  The only thing stopping this from being a 5 was having to play the middle man between APS and SolarCity.

We are planning to go solar before summer and this company was one of the ones we were looking at. No longer. You'd think when they send someone out to survey neighborhoods they would send people with a personality and some semblance of friendliness. Not the guy they sent to our block! Unfriendly, rude and combative. Not the way to sell product. Years of potentially poor customer service over rides any cost benefit always. The obnoxious salesmen they place in Home Depot are not an anomaly and more par for the course apparently.

This was what Solar City said after I wrote a review on Yelp; "It is truly unfortunate to know that you went through that.  Thankfully, we have a detailed account of what happened and who we have to escalate it to.  We want you to know that we have not forgotten about you."

Then what? That's right, they forgot us. First they sent us a message saying they were busy and that we should try to contact customer care for further assistance. Customer care lectured me, saying six months of delays is not uncommon at Solar City, so I should not be asking them to compensate us for the solar credits we lost out on the past two months, during needless delays. He also told me we wouldn't have earned much in credits anyway, because it is winter in Phoenix. I told him I get tired of being dumped from one representative to the next at Solar City, with none of them showing any concern about what happened to us. I replied their social media representative and told her she can continue to ignore me and I would continue writing Yelp reviews of Solar City, warning other potential victim's to avoid doing business with them.

This is an update review. I have had solar panels from Solar City since 2011.

On August 8, 2013 I noticed that my SolarGuard was going down and not reporting electricity being generated mid-day many times a week. The sun was shining, no clouds were overhead. Also, my graph started to look really odd, so odd that I thought they had changed the software. -Basically, all of my bars were all the same height, and low. I no longer saw a bell curve as the daily report of my output. And, my reported output was lower than usual, about 10kWh less a day.

I sent an email in to customer service and got a canned reply that the reporting wasn't always accurate due to software glitches and data transmission issues. But, they assured me that my output was going to the power company just fine and the graph was in error. They also offered to help me read and understand the graph, as if I were a child.

I sent several more emails regarding the mid-day gaps in output as they were still happening (3-4 times a week) months later. I was also wondering why my output total in December, when APS does an annual bill that clears banked hours, was so much less than the prior year. -Going in to August I had banked more hours than the year before.

Finally, on March 12, 2014 (seven months later) a technician called me and had me read the inverter, reboot the inverter several times and check a few other things. He made an appointment for a visit on the 14th, where it was discovered that my inverter was faulty. It was shutting down and/or rebooting once energy input to it hit certain numbers. This was why there was no production at mid-day, the inverter was turning itself off. This was also why my online chart was so flat, when the input hit a lower than mid-day number it would re-boot itself.

So, it was very clear that I had lost a lot of output over a seven month period. And, while I had notified SC about the problem on several occasions, customer service did not pass my reports on to tech support; they chose to treat me like a child who wasn't understanding that there could be glitches in internet reporting of data.

I emailed support to complain about the way I was treated, and about the loss of over 200kWh a month for seven months. Here is the entire email reply:
"Dear Bob,
Thank you for your email. This is Terri, with SolarCity Customer Account Management. I hope that you are having a wonderful day.

I'm happy to hear that we were able to get this resolved for you. If there's anything else we can assist you with, please don't hesitate to reply to this email for further assistance. Thank you and have a good day!"

No apology, no admission of anything wrong on their end, and no addressing the issue of my lost kWh = dollars.

I sent another email pointing out that there is clearly a serious problem with how customer service people handle tech support issues and how I had been repeatedly ignored when I had a real and serious problem with my system. And that problem had continued for seven months. I also pointed out that it was fairly annoying for them to tell me how happy they were about it all.

Here is the final response:
"Hi Bob, this is Terri again. Thank you for your patience and replying back.

First off, let me apologize for not immediately addressing the inverter issue that had just recently been resolved. I definitely should have, as I can only imagine that it was a very frustrating situation. More than anything, I was genuinely happy that the problem had been resolved for you.

In regards to the lost production during the time your inverter was not producing, that would be covered by our performance guarantee. We guarantee that your system will produce a certain amount annually, and if it falls short, we will compensate you for that. So, if your inverter not producing for that time period causes your system to not produce what we guaranteed, we will send you a refund check for the difference.

If there's anything else we can assist with, please don't hesitate to reply to this email."

So, in the end, I lost a chunk of cash. I got treated like a child for seven months for reporting a real and serious problem. Their customer service won't be trained to respond appropriately (by calling a service tech) to this issue in the future. They won't admit that there is a HUGE gap in communication between customer service and the technicians who work on the equipment. They also won't admit that seven months is a ridiculously long time to wait for a service call to get looked at then fixed.

I was unhappy for seven months while my equipment was faulty and underperforming by 30%. It was nice to have it finally fixed, but, nobody bothered to apologize until after my second complaint, and it's not a very good apology. The company shows no understanding of what went wrong, and has made no effort to fix the system that led to me being brushed off for seven months.

BEWARE: Tech support may take seven months to respond to tickets!

After looking over everyone's posts I figured I would write something as well.  As I have always been a fan of renewable energy I was happy when moving to Arizona because I wanted to look into it during my first home purchase.  When first looking into Solar a couple of years ago the cost was substantial so I could not move forward with the costs.  However after a couple of years, Solar City created a leasing program that allows clients to receive the lower energy costs without any upfront cost for equipment and worry of insuring as the product is always theres.  I was completely happy and signed right up after Stanford (my sales rep) came and talked to me about it.  

NOW THIS IS WHERE THE DIFFERENCE IS:::  What I've noticed in talking to many different people is it's all about your sales rep (if you have one) as to how long it takes to get installed.  I had a GREAT SALES REP that was on top of things from the beginning.  He was available almost anytime on telephone, looked up all of the HOA processes and literally gave me a packet that I had to just send in and get approved, which took about a week and a half to get back.  He was there through every step and it took about two months from beginning to end.  (He's actually put my best friends in in three weeks total time!)  The process for install is not just a Solar City issue but we also we are the mercy of SRP to get there ducks in a row, but luckily they were on top of it and I was installed quickly.  

INSTALL: My install was due to take a day however due to some vents on my roof being in the way it took two days to get done.  The install staff were super professional and helpful. They made sure to tape off areas and also were friendly when talking to them, the engineer gave me his number if I have any problems in the future if need be. I will say that there were some mishaps and things drop from the roof a couple of times but they took care of it.  Also, they found a couple of cracked tiles on the roof and replaced them.

As I've only had my panels installed for a couple of months I have not seen a drastic difference in the cost of energy but I am hopeful and am sure that if I have any issues then Stanford will be here to assist.  Unlike other sales reps, he has stopped by our house multiple times after install just to check in, which is great.  Also, super hilarious and educational as to solar.  

As I said, sales rep is really where the difference.  Although I am not knocking the reps that are in Home Depot or what have you, they do not compare to the personal service I felt with my sales rep. If you are looking for a good person to talk to about this call Stanford 480.688.6235!

After I've received a couple of bills I will post again - hopefully all good!

Thanks

Wow, great customer service and everything went super quickly as well. My wife and I never thought this would go as smoothly as it did. All in all about 3 weeks from first contact to installation of our 7500 watt system.

Renee our salesperson here in Phoenix was really instrumental in making sure everything moved forward behind the scenes and communicated as things progressed. I think what surprised me the most was how quickly the City of Phoenix came out and approved the work, I never thought that would happen.

We can't wait to start saving and making an impact in our pocketbook AND the environment.

The local rep was great. He was very knowledgable about the utility company and how solar works. I am so excited produce my own clean energy at my house. The decentralized model of power distribution is the best choice for me and my family.

I hope you all go solar.  I was very happy with Solarcity as my choice for an energy provider.

Was assured I would receive a call back for a scheduled appointment. Two days later, after agreed upon time..no call. Business must be great to blow off qualified leads for new business.
Amazing!! I would not recommend if they cannot even show for an appointment.

YELP needs to add a negative star review! Kyle M. And I have the same issues it sounds like. My inverter keeps going out and Solar City states they are monitoring my system, it apparently means I monitor and call them to tell them about the system going down..... I have had to reset my system 4 times today alone..... They were at my home Monday after over a week of no electric being produced and reset it in two minutes and left...... 3 hours later it stopped producing again and went for 4 days not producing electricity/ meanwhile they continue to take money out of my checking account monthly and I pay full rates for electricity........ Now, I am told, not until next Wednesday for a service call.... I guess they will come out and push the same button I keep pushing to reset and say it's all fixed again......
There service is equally compared to there crappy equipment they put in..... They did some work several months ago and disconnected half my system, so J was producing half power - it once again took my phone call to bring it to there attention, but they did say " we were just monitoring that and we're about to call you@ Yeah, BS!!!!!!
If you are looking for Solar - DO NOT GO WITH SOLAR CITY they are a horrible company and you can't get the opportunity to talk to anyone except people who keep telling you how sorry they are - yeah, then sorry that Fing sorry into my bank account for dollar for dollar what I am losing when this crap system doesn't produce, and I'm not talking .03 cents for electric power - I want line fees, taxes, every single fee that I am being charged for electric power I am am losing because of your crap customer service and crap equipment!!!!!
I know, I know Solar City - Your Fing Sorry - yes you are the sorriest company I have ever dealt with, pathetic actually!!!

So I have been with Solar City/Tesla for over 4 years.  About a year ago my system went out and coincidentally my mother's system went out on her house around the same time.  Neither of us were notified of the outage and we couldn't understand why we were not getting the same savings. After spending hours waiting to get through, my mom got notified that her system was off and they ended us sending her the part with instruction on how to install  it.  This is ridiculous to expect someone who is leasing your product to be responsible to fix it.  Do not get your solar through them.  They clearly won't notify you when you system goes down even though they are monitoring and clearly won't come out and fix and expect an 82 year to be tech savey enough to do their job.

Our sales person lied to us. Took  about 9 month before it was up and going. Tesla runs a test every other year to make sure everything is working well but they have no copy to give customers. They charge 150.00 to remove their name from your title report (needed if refi). We save between 200 - 300 a year.i hate them and would never recommend them. Do your research prior.

I bought my house in 2014 with solar panels already on it. The SC lease was transferred to me. Though I was contacted by a rep and got signed up for auto pay they continued to charge the old owner and not me fore 6 months! We finally got the billing switched over and the monthly auto pay only worked for a few months before it quite without my knowledge. It took nearly a month of phone calls and emails to get the auto pay repaired and I had to pay for several months backpay at once which was a burden. Today I checked my account just our of curiosity and the auto billing has stopped AGAIN! This is almost two years of non stop billing problems all of which are out of my control. This is the most unprofessional and frustrating billing company I have ever worked with.

Here's my final review. Before writing this review we made every effort to contact Solar City. We even gave them the lowest ratings possible on their own customer satisfaction survey. But somehow, all it took was one little Yelp review to get their attention. The day after writing my first review I received two emails from their customer service department. I responded to them, stating, due to my work schedule I would be unable to talk about them on the phone until early the following week. I kept my word, and called the number of the representative who had sent me the email, expressing her desire to address all of issues with Solar City. I got her voice mail. She never called me back.

Coincidentally, right after I received the emails, a sales rep came to my door, stating that he was trying to interest my neighbors in solar, and all they kept talking about was how dissatisfied I was. He gave me his best sales pitch, and then asked me if I would now consider recommending Solar City to my neighbors. I thought that was the craziest thing anyone had asked me in a long time.

With all that said, we are actually saving money with Solar City, and just the other day we received a "Customer Satisfaction" check for $122. So, take both of these things into consideration and you decide if Solar City is the right choice for you.

Oh, and if you do decide to use them.....mention my name so I can get the referral bonus!! Just kidding  ;)

First time of dealing with Tesla instead of Solar City  From my first encounter, I am not impressed.  Our system stopped producing on June 10, but the first that they can get a technician out is June 24.  I asked about reimbursement for the electricity that we have to purchase from APS, which we had gotten when the inverter was being repaired previously, and was quoted regarding the power production guaranty and would not reassess until February of 2020.  I spoke with Julian Daniels at Tesla.  He was not apologetic that the system was not working and was very 'cold' in his responses.  I asked for a copy of the Performance Guaranty which he sent me promptly, but his e-mail was very much condescending, using phrases like 'warmest regards' and 'hope you are having a great day'.  Stay tuned, we will see what happens when the technician shows up on June 24.

The money that I'm going to have to spend to fix the damages to my house will not be made back for the money I save on the solar panels for a while. The first day that they came they had to rewire my outlet box and when they did the whole back part of my house didn't get electricity. They came back a second time that same day couldn't fix it so I had to wait until the next day for the electrician to come when she came they were here for hours the shelf of my closet got broken and at the end of the day they were able to get electricity to my bathroom and my master bedroom but not my second bedroom. I had A pack rat (they new that cuz i had traps up there incase i had more than one) when I first moved into my house a couple months before they came and they said that's what caused the electricity problem not the fact that they rewired my box wrong not the fact that they couldn't find where they put the wires to get to the electricity to the house so now I'm stuck with fixing everything and they never paid or fix the closet in my bedroom either. My electricity was fine before they came and they had problems getting my electricity back on in the whole back of my house I feel like they just got tired of working and just knocked my second bedroom off as it was my own problem to deal with.

I talk to somebody in charge in the Tucson are and he actually told me that they could not waste any more resources on trying to figure out my problem.

My experience with my rep and solarcity in general has been nothing but outstanding! I definitely recommend this company and can recommend my solarcity rep to anyone who is looking to take advantage of the Arizona sun for a cleaner and more affordable electricity. My rep was attentive and punctual with everyone of my request, especially regarding my referrals. But just like everyone, I still have to wait for approval from APS to turn my system on and start saving. This is the only bottle neck delay I've experienced which everyone must go through. A great experience with solarcity and can recommend to those interested!

SolarCity-    share.solarcity.com/affo…

Solar city has the worst customer service I have ever dealt with!!!! Not to mention they put a lien on your title found that out when trying to do a refi, was denied because of the lien. Never was told about this by salesman, he said he told me but don't recall it. Never received copies of contract, which I have asked 5 different times.... I would never recommend Solar City to anyone, I would tell them to run the other way!!!

Made the mistake of making an inquiry. Long interview supplying data, looking up bills, till they got to my shake roof which disqualified me. Why didn't they ask that first? But that was a minor blip compared to the barrage of emails and phone calls to "follow-up." No matter that I tell each caller to take me off the list cause I don't qualify. They are a tar baby, and even if I qualified I wouldn't trust such hard selling people to do anything.

Where: Home Depot #464 (Tatum and Bell, Phoenix AZ)
When: Saturday, August 30 at 11:15 AM

Headed into the Labor Day weekend in celebrating a newly built pool, I stopped at this Home Depot location to obtain a switch that would complete the install of an air blower for the in-ground hot tub.  Just inside the entrance was a SolarCity kiosk staffed by an older, heavier-set gentleman with glasses that was directly in the path and line-of-sight of where I had to shop for the needed part.

Generally, I can pass by these nuisance promotional kiosks with the investment of a nod and a smile, and they catch the sucker next to me that speaks up or makes eye contact with them - I had intended for this experience to be the same so I could get in, get done, and get out.

Approaching the electrical aisle, the salesperson broadcast a cheerful greeting and jumped right into the, "Have you heard about the benefits of Solar energy and...".  I offered a nod and smile, disregarding his recitation, and kept walking.  Unfortunately I had made eye contact as a courtesy and, in turn, unwittingly set myself up for a continued sales pitch:

"As a homeowner you can save as.."

"No, thank you" - another pleasant nod and smile, now keeping my head down and considering that I should also check for a 2-inch compression fitting while I'm here.

"You're not privileged to be a homeowner - I understand".

I almost stopped; at first I wasn't sure what I had just heard. But I did hear it - I was just profiled by a SolarCity nobody on the basis of not wanting to hear his solar energy spiel on Labor Day weekend.  Although, if I were in my mid-60's hawking exorbitantly-priced crap at a kiosk on a holiday weekend to make ends meet, I'd likely have just as much contempt for anyone that wasn't interested.

My purpose at Home Depot had nothing to do with SolarCity, rather, it was to purchase a product and go about my business.  Had there been any interest in the practicalities of solar energy, I would have sought a recommendation and pursued a vendor for more information.  The concept of vendors at the entrance of Home Depot and their assertive approaches is already annoying (that I can tell, other big-box stores do not engage in the practice), so the unsolicited insult offered as a result of my stop at Home Depot just galvanized my dislike that much more.

And maybe this passive-aggressive practice is generally successful for SolarCity to engage customers further in conversation and piss away their holiday weekend, and I can only assume that Home Depot condones behavior of this nature because they persist in allowing them to place kiosks within their entrances.  Personally, I don't find much charm or appeal in the practice, and it wouldn't surprise me if their snarky reply earns them a punch in the throat by someone having a bad day and just needs to quickly buy a part.

To Home Depot: consider ditching the entrance-based vendors.  The experience is irritating at best, and at worst, would be enough give cause to drive down the blue box store.

To SolarCity: it's now improbable that I would consider your business for my primary residence or any of my rentals. You should probably look to release the person staffing your vendor kiosk on Saturday.

Have someone here now at my home confronted him on some questions by reading reviews on yelp that I had concerns about.... his exact words were everyone feels empowered at 3am after a handful of cocktails being drunk! This is what they have representing them when a female such as myself has honest questions so my father doesn't get ripped off! When I brought up the small fine print he looked like he seen a ghost. Run run for the hills this place is clearly a scam and don't like to be questioned

We are a current customer of Solar City. From start to finish we have been very pleased with the education and most of all the service. We researched all the major AZ solar players and decided on Solar City because of their "actual" track record and business model. It's  very customer service driven in my opinion. With anything new you need to ask questions to better understand the change and how it will work for you. Once you have all your questions answered you will feel very in the know and thus very confident that solar is the best option for energy. Looking through these reviews ( negative ) it comes down to people not asking questions. Solar City is very upfront and wouldn't be as successful as they are with a poor business model and service to their customers. Do yourselves a favor and get a good solar city rep and have them walk you through. It's very transparent and makes a lot of sense. Thank you Solar City. Ethan.

Update - I dropped the review to 3 stars only because of some broken promises related to referrals. We have been waiting for over 4 months to get a referral kick back that we were promised. We also lost one referral due to misinformation provided by our rep. The system is nice the BS they tell you about referrals is unprofessional.

We have been trying to get rid of our panels for months.  Not worth it at all.  Repeatedly we are told to send in our last 6-8 months of TEP bills which we have done on 3 occasions now.  Each time we are told to wait a few days, which turns into a few weeks, which turns in to never and we have to restart the process.  When we got the panels we were told that we could cancel at any time if we were unsatisfied.  Now that is not the case.  We continually are put on hold by their rude and below par customer service team and when we do get them and ask for a supervisor we are told they will not transfer us.  We want these off our house, we do not want to support such a company that will not help their customers.  Do not go with this company as they promise the world up front and then ghost you.

It has now been several years since we have been screwed over by Solarcity and we still continue to get monthly bills for panels that we have not had in our possession (Solarcity has them) for approximately 5 years. SolarCity had contacted us a year so go and said they had a buyer for the panels that we were leasing/buying, whatever it was? when our forever home (or so we thought) was foreclosed upon. And then we never heard back from them! We are still being billed over $20,000 for solar panels that we have not seen in five years. I truly hope SolarCity had an amended their contracts for customers that have the "unimaginable" happened to them. I will continue to update my review as long as we continue to be haunted by SolarCity!

Solar City is the way to go in Arizona if you are interested in the renewable energy and conservation, and of course saving money.  There team is tops.  My rep Jeff Hodgkinson, was very knowledgeable, "NO PRESSURE" and very helpful with the entire process.  They always kept me in the loop with regards to installation times, paperwork submission to electric company, and any authorizations that were needed, (because I live in a HOA).

For all of your Solar needs "Solar City" and Jeff Hodgkinson (cell# 602-370-4840) is all you need.  Call, get informed, but call Jeff @ Solar City, you will not be disappointed.
Professional, Integrity, Courteous.
Rich P.

I purchased a solar city system shortly after completing our house and have nothing but praise for their quality and service.  They completed installation on time and I have had ZERO problems with the work or equipment.  I'm a systems guy and can appreciate good engineering.  This was it.  They may cost more, but no one eat our requirements as well as they did.  Not sure what basis of other reviews are.  I bought a solar city system and I am happy.

I was approached by a Tesla/SolarCity  sales person at Home Depot. I set up a time for someone to visit my home and start the solar planning process. We came up with how many kW were needed after reviewing my APS bills and reviewed my current electrical setup. All the numbers and pricing looked good so I agreed, and got the hard credit check and approval for the loan.  I was told the next step was for an install team to come out and do the detailed design for the roof. The approval and credit check happened in February. Then I don't hear back from anyone until late May. I'm sorry but 3 months is too long! At this point I have chosen to go with another company that won't ignore me. I guess they don't want my money. Thanks for dinging my credit and not following through.

RUN DO NOT Give this company your business, you will be sorely disappointed, especially with their "Customer Service" Dept.
Recently I purchased a home with leased Tesla/Solar City solar panels.
I live in Mesa, AZ and so seems like a great plan. Ha! RUN from this company and certainly do NOT lease from them. The "customer service" is atrocious!
I was recently informed that the panels I have, have a manufacturer's defect and need to be replaced. Meanwhile the panels have completely been down and NOT producing anything for going on two weeks and according to my phone conversation this morning, there is no eta as to when they will be installing the new panels. 
Today when I spoke to Rosie, one of their Customer Service Reps, (yeah right), I was informed that I will still have to pay my monthly lease amount. WHAT?! Even though I am NOT receiving my service/product, I have to pay, for nothing, what? NO! This is completely unacceptable! For your own sake, do NOT purchase or lease solar products from this company. If I could give Tesla/Solar City a ZERO, I most definitely would! I have also filed a complaint with the BBB!

Solar City has the biggest liars that I have ever dealt with I have dealt with some pretty shady used car salesman but I'll tell you what SolarCity will rip you off blind once you sign on the dotted line that's it you're done it's official my one full year of using solar I have spent $30 more a month on my utilities and they do not want to do anything about it all I was told is too bad anybody looking please beware do your homework go to consumer affairs look at some of the reviews stay away from BBB they are in bed and paid by SolarCity for their ratings

We researched several solar companies and ended up selecting Solar City because they listened to our needs and proposed a system that most efficiently met them. Our Energy Consultant, Ryan did a great job explaining the process to us, being realistic on timing for each step, and detailing options for expansion in the future (battery, etc). The field engineer, Heath, arrived as scheduled for the field measurements and turned them over to the design team who quickly pulled the final system plan together for our review and approval. Solar City did a great job handling the application and permitting processes with our utility company (APS) and led me through the HOA approval process seamlessly.

With the mass push for everyone to get their solar systems installed, the initial Solar City installation timing was pushed out several weeks, but after talking with the Installation Scheduler, they were able to improve upon the schedule by 3-1/2 weeks. Zach and his installation crew arrived as planned, reviewed everything with me including their area isolation plans to ensure the safety of their workforce and my family. The installation team was great, completed their work in a day, and they cleaned up the area after showing me the initial results from the solar panel performance to ensure system performance would meet/exceed the initial design plans. A few roof tiles were cracked during the installation process so they let me know the follow-up crew would be out soon to replace and address any other details.

The system passed building inspection and while waiting for the final APS approval, Tony and the follow-up team came out, sampled, sourced, then replaced the cracked roof tiles, rechecked the panel mounts, ensured everything was level, and recleaned the panels. Since our house roof tiles have been discontinued, they left us with a few extras for future use just in case!

The only thing left to do is turn on the system once the utility company gives final approval and adds their meter. Solar City has been a great company to work with so far and our Energy Consultant has been top notch with his communications and follow-up. We've gotten through the inspection process ahead of the initial installation timing which is great, because its late June in Phoenix and we can't wait to start saving in the Arizona summer heat. I'll update this review later if anything changes, but we're looking forward to continued great customer service!

Still having the same issues with inverters and slow, and ineffective resolution.   75 days later still waiting for yet another system outage to be fixed.   If I could give Solar City/Telsa a zero I would.   Opened A BBB complaint for help.   Stay away.

Should I sign that 20year lease or should I not? I waited for a couple months before deciding to finally agree to the terms.These are the things that I were never told before signing my 20 YEAR CONTRACT that you should really consider:
1. I lease my panels for $70 per month and create the equivelant of $70 of energy  that I could have received from SRP for the same price. However Solar City does not tell you you still need to pay the SRP account fee of $17/mionth regardless if you need any energy from them.
2. During the fall and winter months when my bill was only $50 through SRP it is now ($70 Solar City/$17 SRP=$87). Yes I build credits with my surplus kws produced but SRP pays these credits in April at a very discounted rate right before summer when you will need those credits the most.

So it is still early in my solar lease but I figure to lose between 200-500 per year changing to solar. Multiply this by 20 years and it can make you a little sick to your stomach. No exact figures yet but I know my max production on my panels is the same as just buying electricity. In the months I need less power I still face $87/month electric bill when it was 50-60 with just SRP.

Learn from my mistakes and stay away from Solar.

I just found out after contacting my electricity holder company that my solar systems have not been producing energy for 4 months straight. I never received a notification from solar city once. And no one informed me when they were happy to accept my full years worth of payment over the phone earlier this month. I would have checked the app but don't get me started there. The app has been down for over a year and never seems to work properly. The online website never seems to work either. Whenever you call, it is a 30-60 minute wait on hold and multiple transfers between departments before you talk to someone who can help. I called solar city to get the problem fixed, and I've been on hold for 25 minutes so far and transferred 3 times between the same departments. The customer service transfers me before I can even finish my sentence and refuses to listen. If the house I bought didn't already have solar city set up, I would have NEVER purchased through them.

P.s. still on hold waiting for help over the phone.

Had a great experience with them.  Kristy from Paramount Equity (working for the finance arm) is a gem, and a great person with whom to work.

My panels look professional, perform above expectations, and keep my SRP bill around $20-$55 every month.

I could not be happier with SolarCity and all they do.

I would NEVER recommend Tesla/Solar City.  The inverter boxes are only kept in inventory for new customers.  Existing customers wait for them to be ordered from the manufacturer!  It has already been 3 weeks & no call to set up an appointment which will inevitably be a few months out cuz their technicians are always busy!
Solar City has replaced the panels twice before, each time with a 3 or so month wait.
The last replacement Feb or March 2018:
Tech support changed the roof layout to put Western most panels on the East per my request because of 3 trees on the East.  The installers filled the West.  Luckily I asked, but if I didn't have the new layout on my iphone's email, it wouldn't have happened since the paper blueprints they had were old.  They had to get up there again (after having reloaded everything onto their truck).  They were extremely gracious about it but should have been sent the updated blueprints.  Waste of resources & their guys' time to have to redo those panels.

Drew Manusharow installed solar on my neighbor Joe W.'s house last month and I had Drew out to look at my house. He is very knowledgeable and obviously passionate about how solar can improve our planet. It took me by surprise since he educated me more than sold me. They are coming out next week to draw up plans to install on my house. I was honestly scared about it before he came out. I'll update once I get my first electric bill.

If I could give them less than 1 star I would.  We started working with SolarCity in 2013 after we purchased our home in Chandler.  The sales process was typical, overpromise and under deliver.  Sales person was no where to be found after the fact.  All in all the panels were fine.  They did what they were supposed to do.  Although, if I had to do it all over again I would not lease the panels.  In the long run it is too costly!
Speed up 4 years, when we are selling our home.  With the lease the panels need to stay with the house, or move with you.  there is NO GETTING OUT OF THE LEASE, unless you want to pay big bucks.  Fortunately our buyers saw the value in the panels and opted to keep the lease.  This is when it gets interesting.  When we installed the panels we asked the sales person, what about when we need to replace the roof.  He says (of course) no problem, we come out and uninstall and reinstall the panels for practically nothing.  It says in our contract,they will do this for a reasonable cost.  We called to confirm the price when we had an offer on our house, we were quoted $500 total, verbally and in writing.  Fast forward to a week prior to closing, the buyers agent calls to confirm the pricing and is told it is going to be $6,000!  Hold on what?
So after a lot of back and forth and arguing they agree to hold the quote.  however we are now 6 weeks after our home closed and the lease was transferred to the new owners, I am still getting calls from Solar City, I got invoices for July, notices saying I would be sent to collections, and now the panel install team is calling me to let me know they are on their way to reinstall the panels.  This company needs to get organized.  TESLA should be embarrassed.

NO means NO - not maybe! I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating and simply maddening my contact has been with this company. I called them to get a quote about going solar simply out of curiosity and to get some information about exploring the available options. Within minutes, I was strong-armed into signing a contract for a site visit. (I was told by the salesperson, Ken, not to even open or read the email until I had him on the phone, and then he pushed me to sign it. Thank god it included a cancellation clause!) Once I spoke to my husband about this, my husband wanted to cancel immediately. He did not want people on our roof without our being sure about our desire to go solar. Well, here is where the headache begins.....I sent three separate email to the salesperson to cancel the contract and the site visit. I needed to send three separate emails because the guy simply would not listen to me!! Finally, on the third email, sent on Friday morning, he agreed to my demands. You would think that it ends there, but it does not! On Monday afternoon, I get a call from a technician saying that he wants to do the site visit today, and then I called him back, and I sent him a text stating my request to cancel. Then, about 3 hours later, I receive an email from them saying that they will be out to my house soon, and then I respond to the email in writing, stating my request to cancel for a fifth time. Then, I get an automated response back with a number. (At this point, I have five separate requests to cancel - all in writing.) Then, I call, and for the SIXTH time, request that my site visit be cancelled. I think it may be cancelled now, or at least I hope so! But should it be that hard to cancel something? I don't think so.....

Please be forewarned about this company and its tactics. As an environmentalist and a person who support renewable energy solutions, it is sad that there is a company out there like this that pretends to be doing the right thing with such unethical business practices. I feel like the salesperson lied to me several times such as when he said he did not see my first email to cancel and when he told me I had to be on the phone with him before opening up the email that contained the contract. Then, after such duplicity, I could not get him to listen to me. Shame on you, Solar City! After this experience, I  would never want a long term relationship with this company as one needs with solar.

Horrors. I am an environmentalist and plan to install solar panels at my house and I will not be using this obnoxious company. I really didn't expect this. I feel blindsided. The "specialist" was so very RUDE patronizing and obnoxious that I was compelled to actually hang up on him!  I am in a state of fear now that they have my contact information. Instead of information, he was only interested in my credit score. Weird and obnoxious. Did I say patronizing?  I will be looking elsewhere for my solar panels.

Yes Katie I did speak with Tiffany, and as usual she also has failed to follow up with me as promised. So.... Status quo I guess, not surprised.

Don't use this company everything was good to get us in the door. After 4 months the waiting time we had them on the roof. Then about 1-2 no this later we noticed our ceiling cracking called the company and they said they would send someone out. A month later some one came and said it was not from the panels. Glad we had pic of our house we have only owned 6 months. We called again and they sent out the crew to fix the roof " more support" not put on right. They ended up sending out a guy to fix cracks inside but did bad patch job a 5 yesr old could ok done bette. Paint did not match and no texture, we called yet again and said  they would send someone they did and he said wow this is bad apologized and did a amazing job. We also seen cracking on the house from roof to bottom of house. Our hone is past the settling stage we checked other houses around us some but not like ours. We called said they would send someone they came said they would fix cracks. There contractor can out fixed said we were Told to fix 20 but ended up doing 96 wow that's a lot. Said he was taking a sample and would be back to finish well 1 week nothing we called and said they will not be painting our house...what!!! Then they said they would send out a paint estimate guy he came out and took a big sample out of our wall for paint. OK hope....well nope we got a calk and said they will not paint the house cuz when the crack guy came "the persons" here got a ladder out and pointed out all the cracks um...not true they told us we were lieing and they have done all they can but if you say you are going to fix and paint do it. Now we have to paint the house we have talked to a lawyer and said we have pic and the home inspection from the buy of our home less than 8 months they will have to fix it....DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY....

Solar city has the worst communication of any company I have ever worked with. The experience has taken longer than a year to get installed and we are still not operational. When we started the experience with them, we were told from the first day and discussion with them our solar would be installed within 3-4 months and be operational. Here we are 13 months later and I am only partially installed. Not even close to operational. Go with another company. They are useless.

We had Solar City install our system about 5 years ago. They are now Tesla.  We noticed water marks on our ceiling and called out a roofer. He said that the solar company did not replace about 40 tiles on the roof which caused the under material to wear away and is now causing leaks in our house. I sent Tesla pictures of their shoddy work, but they refuse to admit that they caused the problem.  I had to deal with some guy named Brandon who was rude and unbudging and refused to have someone come out. They are a horrible company and have caused us to have to go to the doctor because of how they treated us. They sent us pictures of their completed work but not of the area that they forgot to replace the tiles. They keep sending other areas of the roof but not the one missing tiles they didn't reset. They are horrible to deal with and worse since they became Tesla.  DON'T EVER USE THIS COMPANY. They tried to blame us for the tiles not being in place. We are in our 80's and don't go on the roof. They are the only people who were ever on our roof and if we didn't see the leaks in our house and call a roofer we would not have known the tiles were not replaced after they put in the solar. How can they treat people so badly and refuse to admit it is their error..... Horrible people. I will try to send pictures of their terrible work.

Tri-Smart Solar is working with Solar City. Reviews are horrendous for Solar City so I can see why they are trying to find new ways to sell people. I had no clue when I spoke to a rep at Tri-Smart, but if you read Tri-Smart testimonials on Tri-Smarts website, they all include Solar City verbiage.

If Solar City was hoping a different name might help dig them out of all the fantastic reviews they have, well they were dead wrong. The people at Tri-Smart were completely unprofessional when it came down to having an in home consultation. If they cannot handle simple appointments and customer service, then I would hate to see how they perform if there is problem with the system.

My rep Ben was completely rude and unprofessional. On the day of the our appointment I get text saying " Hey this is Ben the solar guy" All communication done via text. Never once a mention of a company name. I was in contact all day and was finally told 15 minutes before our appointment they could not make it. I asked for a manager name and #, but Ben refused because he said quote on quote " it would get him in trouble" and " it wouldn't be fair for me to yell at his manager"  Then this guy tells me he doesn't even work for the company anymore and tomorrow was his last day.

I am not sure where Tri-Smart/Solar City finds these people, but I will never attempt to do business with this company again. The whole operation is a complete chop shop.

Treated like you are invisible and do not matter at all.  My system has not worked since day one due to a faulty inverter. It took them over a week to respond to me after turning the system on. They never respond to any email, I have asked multiple times if they even show my system as working, screen showed unable to connect to gateway. They do not monitor your system, they do not notify you if anything is wrong, they do not respond to inquiries and they apparently do not give a sh*t about you once you sign on the dotted line. Now I'm stuck making payments on something useless.  I had zero issues whatsoever on my first house using solar city and it worked flawless for years before moving to Arizona. I wanted to use another solar provider but went with Tesla for the financing and prior good history with solar city. Steer clear of Tesla. I fully expect a non response from Tesla regarding this review, it's par for the course with them.

Very professional, explain everything clearly, quality product, take care of everything.  Excellent feedback & communication.  A real teamwork company.

I really don't want to have to write this review, but I guess I have no choice. We bought this house in June or July I don't remember exactly, but we had solar city install panels on our roof. After a few weeks we had a really bad rain storm, and we noticed our roof was cracking and the paint was coming off. It was getting worse every day. I called several times and we had several men come out to inspect the roof and use our water to see if they see any leaks, which is costing us money again for the water bill. They still couldn't find anything wrong. We just bought this house there's no problems with the roof before when it was inspected and the second these men install the panels we have problems! They broke several of the panels while walking around on our roof, which they fixed, but who knows I'm not up there to check if they really did. It's been about 3 months since the initial installation and I'm still calling them to fix our roof, this is unbelievable! They want to charge us to fix it when it wasn't even our fault??? We have before and after pictures when we first bought this house and after they installed it! They're not returning my calls! I will not remove this review unless this problem is fixed! I don't want to have to press charges.... But I don't know what else to do.

Update: We had people come in and fix our roof! Thank god it's finally done and it only took 6-7 months to finally fix it. The company that they hired did a horrible painting job and then wanted US to buy paint to paint the ceiling, uh what??? The guy goes to the store buys paint and then paints the ceiling a different color then the original and only paints what he fixed and sloppily around the area and tells us here is the rest of the paint you can paint the rest yourself. What the heck?  I'll never recommend this company to anyone ever, but since their panels are on our roof no point of removing them. Let's see how much money we really save with these things.

Do NOT use Solar City.  Too big, you are too small.  Not gonna go into  details because you wouldn't believe it anyway.  You have been warned.

SolarCity has been an awesome experience for my family and I, we just recently got turned on after waiting a while for APS to turn on. Our energy consultant was smart and knowledgable and pretty straight forward. Showed us all the things in the agreement that most solar companies hid from us. My only complaint is I wish it wasn't such a long agreement but at the same time I would rather deal with them than having to deal with companies like APS for the rest of my life. It's amazing what my small little system is doing to save the earth.

Please don't Do it...Its not worth it...Good luck getting your house sold..We have had so many issues with Solar City. Now we keep lowering and lowering because nobody wants a house with a lease of solar panels...ohh and if you loose power from your grid you will get your money back in 2 years so hopefully my house will be sold by then but i wont get that refund the new owners will. Solar City also killed our backyard grass when they installed by turning off our watering system... Its just been a nightmare The only way i would ever give them 5 stars is if they came over and took these damn things off our house...Please dont do it ..Its not even worth the little savings

After having been through the solar installation process before with a different company, I can compare experiences for both. SolarCity was a breeze to work with. There are a lot of fly by night companies out there but they are not one of them. The paperwork process was a little slow but having been through the same thing before with SRP I knew it was just part of the utility process.

The installation crew worked very hard and completed the install in 1 day with over 100 degree temps. Very professional work showed their attention to detail.

I would definitely recommend them to anyone serious about going with a reputable nation-wide company.

Great job SolarCity!

I have had Solar City installed at my residence for the last year.  It has been off more than it has been on.  They spent several weeks trying to figure out why my panels weren't prodcuing power.  I would call and tell them that I had no power being produced and they would walk me through resetting the inverter every time only to find out that it didn't do any good. Once they figured what I already knew they would make me wait 2 weeks or more for a service person to come out.  The service person would come out and mess with this and that and get it working for a few days or weeks.  I would then call customer support and start the vicious cycle all over again. My system didn't produce power for over two months bt ehy still sent me a bill for 50.00 a month.  I called and told them they had never came out and fixed the system after my last call to customer service. They told me that I am charged for the power I produce not consume.  I phoned them and they told me that is how it works which is totally different than the was it was explained to me.  I received a bill from SCE for 96.00 and one from SC for 50.00.  
 I have only had trouble with one of their customer service agents when calling so most of their call center representatives were very nice. The last one I had though treated me like I was stupid.  He tried to tell me that my panels were not producing power because of the weather.  I live in So Cal so this idiot must be living under a rock because cloudy days are few and far between out here.
 It is looking more and more like I will have to take these clowns to court to get out of my contract.  I don't want to spend the next 19 years paying for power I am not getting.  It sounds like a good deal if you don't use much energy and don't want to pay 70.00 a month for 15 years to pay for the purchase of a system but sadly their lack of support makes it impossible for it to be considered worthwhile.

We are now 5 years with Solar City on our roof and APS winter bills of $50.  They continually monitor the system.  Last week they called to tell me how the system stopped working. I looked at the online account and saw they caught it the next morning after it stopped.  They had a tech out the next day who reset the inverter and got it fixed in 10 min.  Bravo SC.  You reinforce the wisdom of installing solar with you every time I get our APS bill.

We have now had our solar panels for over a year, and they have been GREAT! We did a lease and made a down payment on the lease to lower our monthly payments. Our monthly lease payment is $100. Over the course of the past year, when you add what we paid to solar city together with what we paid to APS, we still saved over $700! We saved more than SolarCity said we would, and so far this year (is ts June now) our panels are producing more than they did last year.
Every part of our experience was great! I have read the negative posts and I would encourage you to keep in mind that people are more likely to post things when they are upset than they are when they are happy. Just keep that in mind.
If things change I will post another update, but until then I highly recommend SolarCity and I am a big advocate for solar panels. Save money and save the environment at the same time!

My one piece of advice to anyone reading this review is go to another company. I was recovering from surgery and didn't do my research and now realize it was a big mistake. Our initial meeting with the sales person in May went well and after that it went downhill. The office staff is clueless and doesn't know what's going on and our sales person has authorization to do nothing. Will now not get installation till August a month later than we were told, then need to wait another five weeks for APS approval. Not at all what we were told. Let's hope their installation is better than the rest of their business.

SolarCity has been great to work with from the beginning.  This project is unfortunately sometimes a long process,(contract signed in 09/12, 3 months for design and permits, install 01/13)  but they did a great job of setting realistic expectations on the timing of things and on areas they had control of, usually exceeded those expectations. (YMMV)   We are now waiting on our utility company to inspect and approve to turn on which could add another month, but again, all of this was explained early in the process and out of their control.

Very responsive and great customer service so far.  (Very rare anymore...)

Installation crew was also fantastic and very professional.  We had 9.5KV system installed 36 panels I believe) on a two-story home with vaulted ceilings (high roof-line) and they had everything done in two days as promised.  Clean and professional install.

Looking forward to many years of savings and service.

So SolarCity gets 5 stars at this point. Hopefully their follow-up service (if necessary) meets the same standard.  If not, I'll adjust my rating accordingly!

Run when ever you hear solar city!! They are nothing but liars. They over promise and do not give you the correct information. They promise you a flat amount for 20 years, only to find out that the amount will go up. The representative  who helped us no longer works for solar city so everything she promised us does not matter any more!!! They are nothing but liars!!!!!!!!

I have been a happy customer of Solar City for over four years now.  So having just built a brand new home I went to Solar City, as well as another five or six other providers to compare quotes.   What a difference in sales approach and mentality.  Each time I approached Solar City by phone or at home improvement shows I kept getting this line of their requirements for information as to usage rates etc.  Mind you, this is a new build and I didn't know or care how big of a system I would need at this time.  

All I needed was to compare apples-to-apples by knowing how much it would cost for a given size system (about 34 panels) with supporting inverters.  Each time, I was told there was no way they could give me the information I needed without the information THEY needed.  Kinda like asking how much the gas is at a local station and being told they would not answer your question until you told them the size of you gas tank, your gas mileage etc.  And oh by the way, since your car is brand new, we can't tell you anything for about 6 months.  ALL you want to know is how much for the gas!

Solar City is now on my permanent do not call list...........

From start to finish this company was great!  Faster than I thought. Every step was either emailed or they called me. Went to the home show and found out there are LOTS of solar companies out there. I wouldn't change from Solar City. I would recommend them to my friends and family.

We leased with solar city about 2 yrs ago.  They rushed us with installation as we were just building a pool.  They said their estimated panels should cover pool energy required.  Well it didnt.  So when we called them to put in more panels they told us they would have to redo the lease and then SRP could charge us a dee for having solar.  We sked for them to revise the lease not redo it but they wouldnt.  

Now, after only 2 years, my husband noticed the panel kept turning itself off .  It took a month to get someone out here.  He replaced a part and said that would take care of it but ordered a second different part just in case.  No follow up.  So my husband checked our account and it only got worse.   It wasn't collecting energy hardly at all.  We called them again and said they should refund a portion of our payment to accommodate the broken system.  They said they won't do that.  At the end of the year they will see if generated energy meets as promised and if it doesnt, they will do something for us so now not only am I paying full lease and more money to SRP, but they cannot and will not fix this situation.  God knows when there stupid part comes in or if it will fix the problem.  

Do not use this company.  Poor customer service makes them a bad relationship to be in for 20 years

SolarCity is a terrible company.   SolarCity was installed by the previous owners of my house.  The lease transfer process was painful with not less than a half dozen calls.   After the transfer was complete I was locked out of my online account and this was months ago.   Their website has been down since November.  I thought I could just pay the bill with a check but I found out this would mean paying an extra $100/year in fees.   If I want to update my checking account then I have to call and spend as long as an hour waiting to speak with an agent.  From there I have to speak with not one but two agents to update my checking account information but only after 3 holds lasting as long as an hour.   If you're considering SolarCity search around because you can get better pricing from a smaller company with much better customer service and a lower cost.

I asked the salesman directly . Does SolarCity put a lien on my property he said no. I have the panels now and solarcity put a lien on my property title. Their sales people lie!!!!!

We have been very happy with Solar City so far. Our sales person, Jessica, was informative and not pushy at all. I have read reviews where this wasn't the case. Perhaps, management has weeded out the non professional ones or retrained them. Anyway, she was prompt at follow through, answered all questions, and explained that there was no obligation to the site visit. All employees so far have been courteous, professional, and on time. Updates and confirmations of appointments have been through email. Our panels were installed this week, and the city inspector came by 2 days later. Solar City took care of all communications with the city. We have been warned that APS sometimes can take a long time to do their part. We will do as much as we can to push hem along. I will post further updates as this moves along.

Hi all. Wanted to give a 6 month update - pros and con's and some good tips. I apologize to folks that sent me messages directly, I didn't realize how yelp messages worked.  

First off, getting electrical construction stuff done to your house is very difficult. There are lots of permits and approvals required. Be prepared for a lengthy process of getting plans approved, work scheduled, inspections scheduled and approved etc. It took a while for ours to get done, but it was worth the wait. Our roof has flat cement tiles - easier to walk on and install stuff on, I'm not aware of any damaged tiles, but if your roof has those beautiful curved tiles, I would expect a harder install process as one reviewer can attest. I think that Solar City should send their "crack" team of repair dudes to that guys house to make it right and post new pictures of nice matching tiles.

Pro's: The panels are installed and working like they should. We are satisfied with their performance and we are seeing cost savings every month. I can't tell how much because we were on the monthly average plan, so we still have a positive balance with SRP. Our monthly balanced payment amount was 225-240 per month year round.  We are paying less than that every month with the summer rapidly approaching.
I contacted Solar City a few times and got good service every time. Once to ask about the "flip the switch" to activate the panels ( I thought I was supposed to do that but there was one final inspection by SRP and Solar City remaining - they came out, did the inspection and they flipped the switch).
Another time was to express my indignation about a 15 dollar surcharge added to my bill because I did not allow them to withdraw directly from my bank account. I had set up an automatic bill pay yet that wasn't the same thing to them. The 15 dollar surcharge is in the contract, so while I was unhappy about it, I did sign the contract. I found a solution. I have multiple bank accounts (due to relocating to Phoenix) and one is my active account and the other has a small savings and check balance to remain active. Now I send a "payment" to my secondary account and let them take their money from the secondary account. They get their money, I save 15 dollars and my main checking account is isolated from "auto debit" robots.  
You are helping reduce the load on the grid during peak times! This helps avoid citywide brownouts because of too much demand and not enough coming from the power plants. SRP will have to shut down one of their big coal plants soon (thanks EPA) and that means more stress on their grid. Anything to reduce that stress is a good thing, and we are going green to boot...

Con's: You have installers up on your roof putting stuff up there. Not every install team is comprised of anal-retentive engineers, so be prepared for the possibility of a bit of stuff left laying around (there is a water bottle that fell onto a lower level that is still there, a couple pieces of scrap that fell from the roof etc). Nothing that was worthy of a complaint call, but just know that construction is messy.
I'm not seeing evidence that SRP is "buying" our excess electricity, they install these new electronic meters, so you can't see the wheel spinning backwards and the numbers count in reverse or anything like that. Our typical bill from SRP has a solar connection fee of about 17 bucks, and a small balance of electricity that we purchase, so maybe there is some magical process that happens.
It will take some time from the day that you sign the agreement to when they go live. Ours went pretty quickly and it was still around 2-3 months from signed deal to generating electricity. A friend's took more like 6 months, but they are generating electricity now too.

Tip: Remember that you signed an agreement to buy the electricity from your panels - use it! It took us a while to get into the mode of running stuff during the daylight hours (dishwasher, laundry, pool pump, and we keep the AC about 4-5 degrees cooler during the day now). Even doing all that stuff during a sunny day, we generate more than we use (but just barely).
Solar City has met every obligation, treated us with respect, and even sent us a referral check as they advertised. Read the contract, understand what you are agreeing to and call them if you have questions - they are decent folks.
Hold your head up! You are helping the environment, helping reduce strain on the grid and saving money on your bills - all good things.

Prepare to wait. They blame everything on other companies, they don't keep in contact to keep the customer updated. Waited twice as long as a friend who went solar with another company!

What a great experience! Start to finish (today) SolcarCity stayed in constant contact throughout the entire process, including the activation of our system this morning. What great fun to go outside and watch our electric meter run in reverse!
The sales staff, installers and customer service was wonderful and always available to anwser questions and guide us through the process. If you want to cut your energy cost, substantially, and contribute to energy conservation, SolarCity is the way to go. We give them six stars out of five!!!...pete

Let me start by saying that I am saving money and there was no out of pocket which is fantastic. The panels are high quality and installation was done well.  HOWEVER, the salesman "guaranteed" a specific dollar amount savings as a minimum. He said that if we didn't save that amount (which he wrote on a plain piece of paper, circling and making all his little fancy sales pitch bogus figures) they would refund us that amount. Well we saved but not as much as he promised. When I called, I was told that I must have misunderstood him. I said sure, let's get my sales rep on the phone. Well funny he no longer works there. So ok, at least I'm saving some money particularly in the summer. However, I was charged for one month prior to service and Solar City refuses to correct it. The issues is when APS turned on the meter (a whopping 10 weeks after system installed, but that is on APS). Well we were charged for one month that we had no service. Solar City said APS told them it was turned on sooner, and we were charged but no service. Never did get that corrected and paid for extra month of service. I also have a dispute on billing, my first payment which was done through bill pay never got credited, never got fixed despite multiple calls. Part of the issue is there was no online billing (we were told it was easy and they did when we signed up) and they just now launched it. So we cannot see a record of what we paid, versus what was billed. Asked for printed copy, never got it. Asked again, and again, and again. Never got it. So billing stinks, I feel I've overpaid by 2 months and still never got that straightened out. So if you go with Solar City, make your salesman put everything in writing, our rep overpromised then moved on to another company. Then check your billing statement every single month. When they do start your system, make your power company (they have to swap meters and it's done by your local power company, ours happens to be APS) leaves a receipt to prove date they turned it on so you don't pay for service you don't have.

My experience with Solar City has been excellent so far.  It started off with the direct energy sales rep, Kevin Underwood.  He was very friendly and likable.  Kevin has long, wavy hair, and looks a bit like I picture Jesus looking!  I mean that in a good way, not in some weird, creepy way.  He has a calming aura about him. He presented us with a detailed proposal on our first visit, explained how the process worked, discussed the pros and cons, and even estimated how much money we would save each month compared to what we were paying now with SRP.  Kevin was not high pressure - in fact, if anything, he was extremely laid back and easy going.  If you are considering solar, I would highly recommend you contact Kevin at 480-499-3190. I hate pushy sales people and Kevin was anything but that.

Once we agreed to sign up, Kevin handled everything and was in regular contact with us.  He sent us the contract electronically to review and sign. Right after we did so, Kevin connected us with the scheduling folks to schedule the inspection of the house.  When the inspector came a week later, he was also very friendly and courteous.  He even wore little booties inside the house (he had to get up in the attic).  Once he was done, Solar city designed the system based upon our actual roof and where pipes and stuff were on the roof.  The designed system was actually a little bit smaller than what we originally thought it would be, so Kevin went to bat for us and got us an additional discount on our rate, so that the bottom line savings was the same every month (versus SRP).  When the install crew came out, they too were very friendly and professional.  They explained to me what they were going to do, and went about their work.  They put up caution tape around my house where they were working to alert others to potential danger above since they were working on the roof.  They also kept closing my side gate so my dogs didn't escape and roam the neighborhood, looking for female companions.  That was much appreciated.  

All in all, I am very pleased with our experience with Solar City and their sales rep Kevin Underwood.  I would recommend them to others (in fact I have - and made $250 a pop when doing do!).

I have been a happy SolarCity customer for the past 5+ years. However, In January of 2016, I decided to sell a vacation home in Glendale, Arizona. I had the system installed in March 2010 and have been very complementary towards their company and their representatives. I decided to move the system, on the advice of my Real Estate professional, to my new Phoenix estate. They were initially very receptive and helpful in getting the system removed from the Glendale house while the property was in escrow. However, the roof repairs that they hired a sub par roofing company to make, cost me the sale. We entered a second escrow and they were able to obtain a transferable roof warranty for the prospective new owners and escrow has proceeded along with an expected close. The problem, has been with Rita Sosa | Asset Control Specialist - Relocation . After each step of the process, there has been a lull in any attempt to connect my system to the grid. The system has been on my roof since February 29,2016, but I am not getting any credit for anything generated due to a: lacked APS inspection, which they initially failed, a lack of completed application to APS for solar generation, etc. It has been one thing after another that I should not have to be involved in. TWO MONTHS that she cannot get her job completed- and she is a relocation specialist. This is very unsatisfactory. The initial install in Glendale was hassle free as have the past 5 years been. I would assume that the level of professionalism and training has vastly degraded since 2010. I have been a huge public fan of SolarCity, but will no longer be with this unacceptable job performance. I would have been let go for such sub par performance in my profession. Good luck to anyone looking to do business with them. I may just buy out the contract/system and be done with them.

Solar City reps lied to me about the cost of the lease and the rebate that they kept.Check elsewhere.Be cautious of Solar City sales reps.My installers were excellent.

After signing a contract with SolarCity I cancelled because their lease terms would have tripled my utility bill by the end.  It simply wasn't worth it.  They pitched it as a cost saver, which I felt was mostly a lie.  It also required me to pay them to remove the panels if my roof needed repairs during the 15 year period, which it most certainly would have.

This is one of the most frustrating experiences we have ever had with a company.  They promise one thing and then deliver something very different.  They never answered questions we had and just proceeded to seek city permits with an installation plan we never approved.  In the end we chose not to do business with them. Beware.

I met with Dan VanderVen, 602-622-3702 - he helped us identify the best solution with solar to minimize our electric payments and increase the amount we save each month.  Our high electric bills are something of the past.  Thank you Dan!

Solarcity is a really solid company. You can not complain about there work. There are amazing and of great quality. That's why there the number 1 in commercial and residential. They are trusted by all people, including huge company's such as google and apple

We signed up for the lease option.  At every step we were informed as to what would occur and what to expect.  This all happened a couple of years ago. To date the system is working fine and we've save quite a bit on energy bills.  When my friends or family is considering solar I advise them to check out Solar City.

since tesla has taken over solar city the service is crappy, the equipment horrible, their customer service team is terrible.  look elsewhere.  the equipment that was replaced failed again and now i have to wait another 10 days for service. they do not work on the weekend when customers are home.  terrible company others are better!!!!!!

Well..... We have had Solar Hell, going on our 7th summer and once again, it is non functioning and of course, it is July AGAIN. This is our third summer out of 7. Their alerts - NEVER work!!! The first time, we didnt know till we got a 600$ bill, took numerous weeks for the part - still had to pay them. Missed a summer, the following one, broke again - numerous weeks later (after hot weather) we are back on. Had asked for a copy of a contract. Beazer built our house and had asked us, if we wanted solar, not knowing we cant get out of lease x20 years and when they sent the contract - we didn't sign it, the signatures were "auto generated" whatever that is suppose to mean. Then they have the audacity, to tell us to get more panels for more benefit, but they cant even keep what I have running. I'm going to look into the legal aspect of the contract, we never spoke to a solar city rep or ever had information given to us.

I was impressed with Solar City, however we experienced a problem with pigeons nesting under the panels on our roof. I contacted Solar City to see if they would take care of the problem. They agreed to take care of it. It took 5 weeks to get them to send over our information to the pest control company and then they only authorized half our roof to be cleaned. So I contacted Solar City and they told me that they only take care of around the solar panels and that it was really only just a courtesy to me that they were taking care of all the pigeon crap. I told them that I don't buy that because other people that referred Solar City to me had pigeon pest abatement installed immediately when the panels were put up. They told me they would have to send it to the executive team to make a decision. I get a phone call not from Solar City but from the pest control people that came out originally that told me that Solar City approved the remaining work but they couldn't schedule for about a month which was supposed to be today. This morning comes and goes and the pest control doesn't show up, so I contact them to find out where they are and they told Oh we are so sorry, Solar City has cancelled our contract as of last week. Someone from our office or Solar City should have contacted you. Now, my husband is having surgery tomorrow and we are having company next weekend. You would think this would or could be expedited as it has been 9-10 weeks to get to this point. When I contacted Solar City again they told me they would have to contact their main office by email and get back to me. I explained about my husband but she didn't seem to be to concerned. I also asked if I was just to pay for the original pest control people to come back out and submit for reimbursement if that would be possible, she also stated that would have to be approved. I asked her if there is anyway this could be resolved today and it has been pushed back so many times. The original estimate to clean off the roof entirely was around a $1000.00, why they couldn't have just had the whole roof taken care of is beyond me!!

****Update:  They did call me back and they will reimburse me for the remaining work to be done on the roof. They gave me the go ahead to have the original pest control people come out and they will reimburse me. Awesome. A little more stress then I needed the day before my husband's surgery but is has been resolved.

My solar panels were just commissioned, therefore, I can't speak to the savings just yet.  However, my experience to date has been outstanding due, in large part, to my sales rep, Jeff Hodgkinson.  (See Rosa's below review).  I was quite impressed with Jeff's initial presentation.  It was clear how extremely knowledgeable he is (former Intel employee) and I'm someone who needs all of the information before making an informed decision.  Throughout the entire process, Jeff was available to respond to all my questions and concerns.  It's reassuring to know that if I do encounter any issues with Solar City going forward, Jeff will be there for me, acting as the liaison on my behalf.  Please let me know if you'd like Jeff's direct contact info.  Thank you.

We are really excited about our solar panels. Solar City has been amazing in making this happen. They did all the necessary paperwork, designed the system, and installed it. The only thing that has been a little frustrating is the amount of time it has taken from the initial consultation to the panels being installed to them actually producing power. To be fair, some things were out of their control, and I've had to be VERY patient. The customer service has been great, the panels are amazing looking. Solar City has been professional and responsive when I had questions. Overall, I'm very pleased  and highly recommend Solar City and solar power.

They talk a good game when they are selling you a system.  Their follow up and technical support are a joke.  My system was installed in October.  The install was good and then the questions started.  My system is no where close to its planned output.  All I get from Solar City is a canned script from their tech support bozos.  Now, over the summer, when I am supposed to be producing the most solar power, I am producing less per day than during January or February.  Do you think anyone at Solar City can explain that?  No.  My sales guy was fired after he sold us the system.  Haven't had a visit from another person from that side of the business since.   Had a complete system shutdown, which I had to discover.  They did send out a service guy, who arrived when I was not available.  He found the problem and says he adjusted the system to perform better........BUT it performs worse.  Worst customer service and techincal support I have ever experienced.  I would not recommend Solar City to anyone.

We signed up for Solar City sometime in march of this year. We were told after the panels were installed on our roof it would take 4 weeks for aps to turn on the power. So Solar city was out april 2nd and installed 59 panels. Our rep Daniel now said it will take about 11 weeks. Ok I can live with that, not happy about it being almost 3 times what I was told before. He said keep on aps and they may do it quicker. So I called aps and they haven't received ppw from solar city. Called solar city, still waiting on funding for our panels. May 23rd, received an email from aps they just received ppw from solar city. Called aps the next day. Aps said it now will take up to 4 months!!!! Wow really? Aps says there is a 4 step process and I will receive a email with every step. Middle of july, nothing from aps so I call them, they  tell me my ppw still hasn't been started yet and they would find it and start working on it. Finally got an email from aps early august. So im still 3 months out. April 2nd for panels installed to maybe October or November. Thats 6 months. When I was told numerous times 4 weeks. Shop around there are other solar options. Ps. Daniel moved back east right after my panels were installed, so now im on my own. Both aps and solar city suck.

Don't bother making an appt, they seems to consider their attendance optional. Made an apt for them to assess our electric use and home for a solar install, got a confirmation email then crickets

We had solar from Solar City put on our roof in Dec. and to this day, we do not have it hooked up. Solar city made a couple of errors on the application which than set you back each time, so now we are looking at June or July! APS also is very slow installing the new meter, which has not been done yet. I am so sorry that I decided to go with Solar City We were told when we signed up for the solar that it would be up and running by Feb. We are not happy about this delay.

We had a salesman come to our home just Dec 2014!  Heard his pitch and it all sounded great. But I realized I do not want to do business with Solar City after I received no response to my request for current references, in my area!  Still waiting.... When a company can't follow through from the initial visit, not a good sign!  So glad we did not 'buy-in' to all the sales pitch BS!  Also, suggest you verify the equipment being installed (newly manufactured or just about to be discontinued) and trying to dump old product!  If the deal sounds too good to be true...it's probably a sign to walk away.

We have lived in this house for 2 years now and we have solar.  I have called solar city/Tesla at least 7 times requesting a technician come out to check our system.  They told me nothing is wrong according to the Wi Fi box hooked up to the system so they won't send out anybody!!  Our bill last month was $419.00 for a 2569 SQ Ft House!!  Whats the use of having solar??  Our neighbors bills are $50 to $150.  I have spoken with at least 3 Solar City Sales people in Home Depot and they stated my bill should not be that high.  They would all state they would contact their manager and have him contact me, NEVER happened!!  Elon Musk is worried about a lot of other stuff and he could care less about us little people.  Our lowest bill was $79.00 in November but other than that it has always been over $100 dollars. I have told Solar City that there's several lights blinking red on the panel and they did not know why but again stated the Wi Fi Box shows nothing wrong.  I have stopped and spoke with technicians working in our community and explained my problem and they took my number down and said their manager would call, NEVER happened.  Whenever I bring this issue up with friends and neighbors, they always ask me who is the Solar Company and when I tell them I get so much negative feedback about their problems and their friends problems with Solar City.  Please be careful and do your homework when it comes to Solar.  Once they install it and get their money, they could care less about you.  I live in a retirement community in Arizona and word travels fast, hopefully Solar City will hear the ROAR from all of us who complain.

Don't go here. We have made two appointments with them, AFTER cancelling the plans for the day and both times they were a no show. They have even called us after 8 at night to schedule. For a company to run a business this way tells me that they are fly by nights and not a good company.

I have had solar for a few years now.  Since last June (2017), my summer bills have been 4x the amount that I was told they would be once I had solar.  Last summer, my inverter went out.  The company took a week to notify me of the issues, days to send a service tech to review, then over a week for the new one to be ordered and received only to have to wait more time for the service tech to change out.  I lost almost a month of production in the hottest month of Arizona and paid out a lot more in electric bills than promised.  Customer service is terrible.  Took me days to speak to a manager as whenever I called, all managers were "in a meeting."  I got to one manger who seemed like she was going to help and sent her the data on the electric bills and she shortly stopped responding.  I have emailed information to the company again with no response.  Hold times on the phone lately have been over 40 minutes and once you get a person, you can be transferred a few times.  I feel as though I was duped on how well the system would be for my house.

We made our appointment a week ago for today at 4 pm with Aparna.  I had discussed the reviews I had read on YELP about poor customer service with Luis when we made the appointment, and he assured me that we could expect great service.

Aparna was a NO SHOW/NO CALL for our appointment today.  Luis and Aparna were not available by phone, as well.

Wasted afternoon, not a good first impression at all.

For the last year, I have have been constantly bothered by the pesky telemarketers from SolarCity.  I don't know how they got my work number (which is on the Do Not Call List), but when they call, they faked their caller ID to one of the group numbers I have at work making me think someone was calling from inside the building.  When I answer, they introduce as John or Alex or whoever from SolarCity asking me if I'm a homeowner and if I want solar panels; I told them several times to take my number off the list and but they just hung up and call again a week or so later with the one of the faked phone numbers.  It is so annoying and that reflects the way SolarCity operates and how they deal with their customers...  Shady companies who do not respect other people's privacy do not deserve consumers' business.  I was actually thinking of getting solar system lately, but I will not deal with these pests as there are lots of honest solar companies/installers in this area.  I actually down selected to 3 companies that are very good and will choose one of them to install my panels.

Solar is the way to go! I'm very pleased with the entire experience with Solar City, beginning with our sales person, Andrew. He was there to answer all our questions and went above and beyond to make sure we were comfortable throughout the entire process. Solar City delivered as promised and I'm happy to say that I no longer dread my summer electric bills. If you are contemplating going solar, call Andrew @ 602-369-1303. Do it for yourselves and our planet!

The absolute worst customer service I have ever experienced! I called my representative 5 days in a row (Sara Villario) with no returned called. I began transferring the solar system (an existing system) on the home I purchased September 18. I still do not have an active solar system. One of the best features of the home was an already installed solar system with Solar City. Four months later no active system and no returned phone calls! I am beyond disappointed.

We waited for about a year for solar city to come out and install our solar panels.  They did call and apologize a couple of times for the wait.

When they did install the panels, they did a great job and the guys were wonderful to work with.  The system works and the city of Paradise Valley has approved them.

What we are waiting for now is for SRP to come out and approve they apparently have two weeks to respond) and then after the approval they have 4 weeks to put the new gage on.  I'm not sure why this process should take so long.  We have no answet to this only that SRP takes their time in doing whatever needs to be done.

Now that the tempatures are over 100 it sure would be nice to have the solar panels do what they do best - generate energy.

When solar city did try out the panels it was great to see the solar actually working and the meter running backwards.  Our neighbors and friends are very anxious to see how it works.

Patience is all it takes and I hope mine lasts until it is up and running!!

Great service, professional and they make going solar easy. Highly recommend Oliver to do your system design. He has followed up with me even a month after were up and running.

Our solar panels are now installed and working!  In our experience, everything took less time than they estimated.  The only thing that took a long time was for APS (Arizona Public Service) to install the 2-way meter (shows when we're generating power and sending it to APS and when APS is sending power to us), and then it took another week or so for the APS guy to come out and approve the hook-up, then turn it on.  

But now that it's running, you can log into SolarCity.com and see how much electricity your system has generated since it was turned on, how much CO2 has been offset (and the equivalent in mature trees), and the kilowatt hours per hour or day or week or month or year.  It's pretty cool!  In 5 1/2 days, our system has generated $41 of elec and offset 293 lb of CO2!!

One other thing to be aware of.  There's a box, called an Inverter that they installed in our garage (on the other side of the wall from the breaker box and meters and stuff outside the garage).  When the system is generating power, you can certainly hear it in the inverter!!  Since we only use our garage for our cars and garbage and cat box, it's no big deal for us, but if that where your "man cave" is, or something similar, it might get annoying!

I'm still SolarCity's #1 fan!!  I say if you're going to go solar (and, really, why wouldn't you?!), then check out SolarCity--you won't be sorry!!

Getting the paperwork done was difficult. Allot of legal speak.
We bought ours new thru Shea homes. We have a 6 Killowatt system
for out 1588sqft home. Our bill for now is around 50.00 mo. We have
natural gas hot water and heat. During winter we can sell back
to SRP currently at 3 cents/KW hr. We chose purchasing since we will
get state and Federal tax credits. Shea got the rebate since they had to buy the system from Solar City initiially and then it was sold to us. So far so grand

We are really excited about our new Solar City intsallation. They truly have been great to work with. They took care of all the necessary paperwork, designed the system, and installed it. There has been some delays from the initial consultation to the panels being installed to them actually producing power. But, I understand with the financial state of the economy, some things were out of their control, and I decided to wait it out, even after they asked if I would like to terminate the deal. Customer service has always answered the questions I had in a very timely fashion and they have always been very professional. Overall, I'm very pleased with Solar City and very anxious for my system to begin making power and saving me money and the planet. I would highly recommend Solar City and utilizing solar power to anyone.

I never was pressured to install any panels. I called the company and was treated with exceptional customer service. I was told at ANY time I waned to stop or not have them installed they would not put them up. No high pressure at all as many claim. The panels are the latest low profile design and efficiency. Beware of independent solar installers who go out of business leaving you to pay for any work and your protections like a warranty will all be void. Solar City is the largest solar installer in the USA and has Elon Musk and Tesla behind their guarantees. APS, being the worst utility in the country does not want you to go solar and break their monopoly on electricity. APS have continually been a poor company for decades. Their disastrous episode of building Palo Verde Nuclear power was unbelievable. It was supposed to be 4 plants and they were lucky to get 3 running ALL extremely over budget. It was a national scandal when they found APS burying equipment in the ground just to get more money.

I had SolarCity install a PV electric system on my home last March.  I've been really happy with the professionalism and optimal customer service.  The installation went smoothly, they handled everything.  After installation the only delay was waiting on APS to swap out the meter and allow the system to be turned on. Now that it's up and running I'm experiencing even better results than I expected.  I then had systems installed on 2 other homes I own and am truly happy that I made the decision to go Solar with SolarCity.  It's just the right thing to do!

So I have had solar city for over a year now and they as a company keep getting worse. They won't return phone calls I have open issues with them for a year and will not respond. They take my call make me believe they will work on the issue and then nothing. This company is terrible after they have you locked in for 20 years. The issue I now have is that the bill says that I owe them three months of payments. I do not and have talked to them and they agree that I do not owe them three passed months but they don't remove it. You cannot talk to anyone in billing so you get customer care and they say it's a billing issue and they are working with them. But in fact the customer care cannot get ahold of billing. I wonder if there is a billing department. I do not trust them for auto payments out of my bank account so we send the payments in via cashier check. Let me tell you I love having solar but hate that it is this company or lack of a respectable company I am sad I fell for. If you are thinking of a solar lease do your homework and find someone else.  I wish I could take it off and give the company less than one star but I'm out of luck just like I am for signing with this company.

I have not had resolution regarding my referral bonus of $250 that should have been paid or at least I should have been given an understanding of when I could receive it, but so far been given the run around.  A sales rep from a company called Evolve was the initial person to sign me up.  Evolve is a "contractor" for Solar City. After the person I referred and I were up and running, I contacted my "rep" from Evolve. After being given the run around, no answer, I contacted Solar City.  I got no phone calls back over a period of a month of me contacting a person by the name of Quiana, I pushed it to the Supervisor level, speaking with Ian White.  He listened to my dilemma and agreed he would take my account and find out what was going on.  He did not call me back when he said he would, so I called him.  He looked at my account again and said he would email the same people again.  I req. that he please make a phone call.  He said he would and call me back in a few days, or by Friday, 4/3 to let me know what he had found out.   At 5pm Friday, still no call back!!!  I'm being given the major run around by both companies and I'm not happy!  Can you help this get resolved?  I am the only one making phone calls here and It's been since 2/21/15, today is 4/6/15, what is the problem!!!  

5/1/14 - I finally got my referral check after many failed attempts.  Thanks!  All of Solar City's customer service people are great, except many, many times they did not call me back when they said they would.  If that improves they w/have the 5's they will deserve!

I would give less than one star if that were an option.   Worst customer service ever.  I was told our system would be installed within 4-6 months of contract signing and it's been almost 8 months.   System is installed but failed city inspection.   Referred another customer and never received the promised referral money.  I have over 50 emails back and forth with their customer service department which is useless.   All they do is give you standardized responses.   They cut a hole in my sunroom ceiling during their pre-inspection back in March 2013 (almost 7 months ago) and never returned to fix it as promised - no resolution despite complaints to their customer service department.  They forgot not once but TWICE to schedule my city inspection.  It finally got scheduled AFTER I called and reminded them....I have never received such unprofessional uncaring service from a company before and have serious concerns about being tied to them for the duration of a 20 year lease.  Oh, and the electrician "no showed" on day two of our installation - completion was then delayed to a week and a half vs. 2-3 days as stated.   When you email them you receive an auto response saying they'll address your issue within 2 business days.   It hasn't been uncommon for them to fail to reply or send delayed unhelpful responses.   If you live in Peoria, expect your building permit to take 3-4 months for approval.   Mine had to be resubmitted for reasons unknown as they wouldn't tell me despite my inquiries.   Don't expect Solar City to follow up with you or notify you of any delays.   Once the contract is signed if you lease, you're forgotten about.   If you have a home energy audit completed, don't expect them to send it to you automatically as they're supposed to - I only received mine after calling and asking where it was 2 months after completion.   I finally gave up and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.   Not surprising that I was among numerous people who have had to resort to that measure for resolution of my issues.

Our panels were installed around 2 months ago and were finally turned on a little less than a month ago.  We're still waiting for an electric bill from SRP to see exactly what our savings will be, but I'm pretty sure we'll be saving at least $30/month.  

The entire process took quite a while (around 7-8 months), but part of that was probably from the sudden surge of new customers...they just couldn't keep up.  I believe that's remedied now though.  Even if it did take them a while though, you wouldn't get billed from them til they flip the switch.

The lease option is definitely the way to go.  As long as you continue to save money with the panels, it's a winning solution.

I have had our system for about 3 years now.  I haven't seen a huge difference in my bills with the solar.  My last bill was $240.00 with a $168.00 lease amount.  My system was down for over a month and the contacted us saying that our system was down then they came out and fixed it.  That part was great but it took a month to see my panels weren't functioning that part is just horrible I think because I paid more for that month since my panels weren't working.  No credit back to me at all for the panels not working.  My first bill I received after my install I was sad about because I was expecting a big difference with my APS bill and I didn't see a difference and a lot of months out of the year I question why I still have the system.  With all this being said my girlfriend just put up her solar bills on Facebook and she is with a company named Sun Power and wow she paid $1.94 for July and $.90 for June in a 2 story home using the air conditioning and all!  I wish I could say I was that happy with my electric bills and the Solar company.  I wish I would have researched this more before we went with Solar City.  APS points you in their direction so that is why I went with them.  One good thing I will say about them is that I have found their customer service is good and the install was good.  I would definitely look around before you go with Solar City.

My process from start to finish with one of the Door To Door guys was awesome! They were honest and very willing to help us through this process for our family to go SOLAR!  The savings is there and it didnt cost me anything at all.  There's not many things out there that we can get something for nothing.  The only negative I can think of is that it took 6 weeks to get installed.  I wanted it to be sooner, but I guess thats just my lack of patience.  If your family is looking into Solar Power, SolarCity is definitely the company to go with!

Solar City has been great overall.  It took over a year from start to finish because of their financing deals that fell through but that was not their fault.  It was very nice that they were able to take care of everything for me and I did not have to work with multiple people.  They forgot to take care of dealing with my HOA but I was able to assist in that process so as not to delay the install.  

Their installers I think dragged out the work for overtime and were sloppy and loud sometimes.  They did not tie up all the wires at first so some of them were sitting on the roof.  I already had to have a fuse replaced and an inverter was down for a few days.  They say they do a monitoring service but I had to call and tell them it was down and they told me when my inverter was down that it sometimes takes a week before doing anything so it seems I may be better as a monitor then their process for that.  

My neighbors even mentioned something to me about how loud they were and they said they would never use solar city for solar.  That was sad to hear.  

Once everything was up it was good but the installers did drill the wrong holes at one point and had to re drill a bunch of new holes.  When they first started the install they said that the design had the wrong measurements and they would have to redo the design.  Some how it got measured wrong again and they drilled and installed the brackets in the wrong spot.  (Remember kids, measure twice, cut once.) I hope my roof is not like swiss cheese at this point but they say they guarantee their work.  At one point in the install, progress was actually going backwards.  I had some panels up on a Friday and by the end of Saturday I had no panels up.

There was also a patio in the backyard that I told them not to walk on because it was not built correctly and was not good to step on but there was many times I had to go outside and tell them not to walk on that part.

I was also pro active in dealing with SRP and contacted them once the system was installed and ready to go and SRP was very nice and good about streamlining the process for me since they knew they were the bottle neck in their new solar process.  

Some funny irony about SRP's solar program is that if you provide energy back to the system via solar they have to send you what you produce via physical mail even if you are signed up for paperless billing.  Not sure who was the brains behind a green program to force you into physical paper billing but they say they should support paperless billing...in the future.

First of all, We NEVER wanted to purchase solar. Unfortunately we bought a home in Tramanto, near Anthem which already had a lease with Solar City. So we had to assume the Solar city lease to purchase the home. From day one they have been a NIGHTMARE. The promises about savings have not panned out. Basically, we pay a lease payment of $148.00 per month to Solar city and our total savings on my last bill from Solar was $34.00.  How is this a "Savings'??? Also, My wife has called them repeatedly and we cannot get a straight answer from anyone there about how our system measures the power it produces.... They also have not communicated with us except to send a bill every month that has an additional $15.00 added on to it because we wont allow auto-pay... They have also charged me a late fee for my first bill because THEY failed to send me a bill until 6 weeks after the start... DO NOT do business with this company and be very careful with other solar companies as well... I am currently trying to find legal cause to get out of this horrible lease! Don't get me started on the damage it does to your roof also... Criminals.

These scammers PUT A LIEN ON MY HOME!!! I am in the process of refinancing and received a call yesterday afternoon from my mortgage company. He asked me who SolarCity was and proceeded to tell me that they have a lien on my home due to the panels. I mentioned to him that the company never mentioned anything regarding a lien and he told me that he hears the same comment all too often. I started doing some research and apparently when homeowners are getting ready to sell or during the refinance process they  learn that they have liens on their homes from solar panel companies. I am absolutely furious to know that someone is meddling with something that belongs to me, something as crucial as the home that I live in! Please do your homework with any Solar panel company and READ THE FINE PRINT! These panels have been nothing but a huge pain. Not to mention it took SolarCity about 4 months to turn them on after being installed, The panels caused my roof to leak after they were installed as well. Please, please think about it twice! I am honestly not saving a whopping amount of money. If I could go back in time I would never have chosen solar panels!

Everything went smoothly, and as promised, until it was time to for Solar City to coordinate with APS. Solar City sent my husband and me an email asking for log in information for APS to which I responded with an email on the same day. This was March 6th. April 6th we got another email, just after the installation was complete, asking for the same information, but there was note that said if it was already sent disregard the email. Well, I already sent it, so I assumed it was an automatically generated email sent at completion, and since it said if the information has already been sent disregard, I did. We then settled in for the last hurdle, the APS inspection, which we knew was the long part of the wait. By April 20th, we still hadn't heard anything.  I sent an email to Solar City to see if there was any way they could give me some sort of rough time frame. I received an email back stating I hadn't sent my APS log in information so they hadn't been able to submit our package to APS. WHAT?! I immediately resent the email with the information and then called to find out what type of delay this was going to cause. Well, to my irritation I discovered the first email with the information had been misdirected and so it was as if it was never sent. Now we are at least 3 weeks behind. Furthermore, the spokesperson my husband spoke with said the 4-6 weeks wait for APS we had been told upon purchase was probably incorrect, and the wait is going to be longer than that even. I am furious! Not only is the wait extended due to their mistake, but it is even longer than we were led to believe in the first place. It feels like once they know you are set and can't change your mind, the quality of service dramatically declines.

I was very interested in getting solar panels and went to their website and requested to be contacted, I was called very promptly by their "pre-qualification" group to get pre qualified first. after I answered a couple basic questions ie. address how many stories my house was I was told that a sales rep/estimator would call me promptly. Three days goes by and nothing, so I went  to their website and submitted again. Another pre qualifier person called me again. I told him a couple days before that I had already gone through this. He said that he didn't see my orginal request. I answered the same questions again and he said he was going to get me to one of their sales reps and I would need my electricity bill. I wasn't home at the time but headed there, so I asked to be called back in an hour. No problem I was told we will call you in an hour. That was almost 3 weeks ago. If they can't manage a simple follow through call twice doesn't exactly give you a good feeling about their business ethics, and based on most of the reviews looks like I am right.

We just got our solar panels installed.  The whole Solar City crew was great to work with.  Very professional, and they really kept us updated through the entire process which was very helpful.  I highly recommend them!

I am so happy to put solar panels from Solar City on my house.  The employees I have met have been very helpful and informative.  They have done everything they can in this difficult economic time to help me take advantage of the incentives available to me.  Their on-line communication process is very helpful in keeping me informed day-to-day.  The installers have been efficient and friendly.   The installation will be complete today and I am very anxious to complete the inspections and begin using the system.  Thanks Solar City!  Kathy

I can't recommend SolarCity highly enough. They provided consistent and  excellent customer service from sales, through design and installation. They were very patient with all my questions and always had thorough, easy to understand answers. Most importantly, they deal with APS (or other utilities) so that you don't have to!

DON'T waste your time! Absolute worst place I have ever dealt with. They were pushy on the phone. Then when they got what they wanted the customer service was non existent.

We were referred to SolarCity by family who initially had a great experience, so we thought we would go for it. We started the process in May, they rushed the paperwork and appointment setting and now we cannot get an email or call returned. They installed the panels in August, they scheduled an inspection, we failed the 1st one, the 2nd one they didn't even show up for so the county assessor said "call when they are here"  I have sent emails to customer service and our sales rep without so much as an automated response and my husband has called 1st asking then demanding that they get things corrected for a month now and still NOTHING!!! Now the family member who referred us while their system is at least operating is having problems as well - they are double-billing and causing over drafts on their account and they can't get any help from customer service either. This company put USELESS crap on my house that I can't do anything with and they are taking money from my cousin! HORRIBLE service - I would scream from my roof top if it wasn't covered in crap DON"T DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!!

We have waited anxiously for a year to get our solar panels installed.  They've been in a month but we haven't been able to turn them on yet - waiting for SRP to do a final check.  Solar City has be great to deal with, handling all the HOA filings, City filings and scheduling of inspections by SRP and the City.  They keep you informed of the process as your going through it and make it painless.  The only reason that they're not 5 stars is that it's taken so long - mostly through no fault of theirs.  I recommend them highly.

Start to finish 100% satisfied. Only complaint is the length of time it takes to go through the approval process(APS and Surprise City). Solar City did a dead on estimate of KWH needed and there install crew did a great one day install and clean up. It was very nice to have worked with there salesman ( Doyle Dreesen) who was honest ,knowledgeable polite and not pushy. I would recommend the crew we had to anyone. Tell them Pam K. from Surprise recommended you.

Can someone explain why I should lease a solar system instead of owning it outright? If I own the system, I can get federal and/or state tax credits, right, instead of the solar company getting that benefit?

We are just recently hooked up and running with our Solar City, solar power.  Thanks to our sales representative, Jeff Hodgkinson, he kept the ball rolling in the right direction and immediately attended to any concern we had.  We were 13 weeks from sign-up to start-up.  I know from the other reviews we read, this is not always the case.  However during the process we learned that often the drag time is caused by getting the permits from the city, power company and HOAs.  Because we had read the 'Yelp' reviews before we began the process of getting solar, we were prepared for less than stellar responses from the company.  Having a great salesman made all the difference.  We shared our concerns with Jeff, up front and we all worked together - the company, Jeff Hodgkinson and us, to make this a very stress free process.  Jeff gave us all the information we needed to make our decisions for using Solar City's solar system to the best of our advantage without 'hard' selling us.  To get a hold of Jeff you can call him at: 602-370-4840.

This is the absolute WORST NIGHTMARE of a company that I have ever had to deal with. First of all, I would like to say that the panels work fine and have decreased the electricity bill by over half per month. That said, this is the only pro about the company. The entire process over the past 4 or 5 months has been a hell that nobody deserves. A week or two after the panels we're installed, the house had began to leak from the roof and some windows, so we we called them to come check it out. They promptly fixed it quickly which was great. Then another storm occurred and it began move over and leak slightly over as if what they had fixed, forced the leaking area over a little. We called them and they checked it out again. THEY STATED that THEY bent something on the roof in the process of fixing the first part. It took them two more rain storms or about a month to just come back for a follow up check up (they never fixed it other than the first time). By this point they had forgotten what they said and tried to place the blame on the house, which granted is older, and saying that we would have to pay for it(they checked our house beforehand to ensure that the roof could handle it which is why it is 100% on them). Two more check ups in a month with DIFFERENT PEOPLE each time with no knowledge of what previous people have said about the status of the house came and there has still been nothing done. Overall, this company is good at making panels and ensuring that they work, but are VERY VERY unskilled when it comes to the installation and the initial inspection to make sure that the roof is compatible. Go to someone else for your solar needs. This company just wants to milk money out of you as of you were an idiot.

I was super excited to get solar panels and have had two friends recommend Solar City, so I ended up using them... Well, I will if i ever get the panels installed.  I first called them in November of 2014.  I had to practically beg to get the paperwork to fill out to start the process. I did finally get the paperwork filled out.  A week later I had the site visit.  The design phase should have been a week at the most I was told when it started on November 19.  Finally on Jan 1 2015 I got the plans.  Then silence.  I called, wrote e-mails and when I finally got in touch with our rep he said we needed to install a new 200 amp panel... and this is what was holding everything up.  Of course NO ONE had ever told me that!  So, I got the new panel installed on March 19th and told him I'm ready and he said they would get the installation going ASAP.  it is April 2 and I still don't have panels.  I am still super eager to get them, but if we weren't tied into pricing at SRP with Solar City I would definitely move my business elsewhere!

My Solar City system began operating in April. In the first few months I saw no savings at all. I  called the office and was asked if I was using more electricity. I explained that I was actually using less trying to optimize my savings. I was told they could do an analysis and see if I was outputting the guaranteed amount. I was also told that savings was not guaranteed according to the contract, only the out put of the system. I explained that it sounded like false advertising to me. A few weeks later a technician shows up and explained the the inverters were not set correctly and he assured me that I would see a difference in the future bills. I have not. Actually this months bill is larger than last years and I make a good effort to conserve. I am afraid I made a big mistake and my electric cost monthly will be more than without the solar. Now I am committed to a 25 year contract and losing money!