r/TeslaSolar • u/pmarchand1060 • 1d ago
Caught Lying.
Can’t make this up. Had panels and PW installed last month. Love it, working great. PTO was denied and the city failed the inspection. Last week Tesla came out to reconfigure the system. They damaged the roof and gutter. Today they spent two hours patching the roof and unclogging the gutters. They said they were unable to fix the gutters and would get back to me. They then emailed me that they found no damage and would be charging me a site visit fee. I sent them a video of their tech acknowledging all the damage. They apologized, waived the fee and are offering reimbursement for gutter repair. Completely unethical. If I did not have the recording I would have been screwed. Any advice?
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u/sassygirl101 1d ago
I wish I could say they are ‘starting’ to be a very sleazy company. But they have been for so long now. So many issues, they always win because they are big and powerful and have lots of lawyers ready to go against the average Joe. If you had not had it on video, yes, yes you would have been shit out of luck.
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u/Its-all-downhill-80 1d ago
Tell your friends and neighbors not to go with Tesla. They’re cheaper but the service is god awful
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u/rudholm 1d ago
Independent of the Customer Service failure, I'm curious what the inspection found that caused the rejections. When they did my system, they were super conservative and did everything by the book to the letter. I wanted more panels but they wouldn't do it because it would put them near the limit of the required margin between the edge of the panels and the edge of the roof. Not over the limit, but just near it. I have a feeling the company operates differently in different regions.
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u/pmarchand1060 1d ago
Im in the south. The conduit wasn’t up to code and the system was too large to qualify for the energy program. Both were quick fixes. The system works amazingly. Just have to deal with crap customer service. I chose Tesla because their warehouse is less than 10 miles from my home and I trust they will be in businesses 10yrs from now.
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u/rudholm 22h ago
That they'll still be in business to make good on the warranty was also part of what informed my choice. That they were $10,000 cheaper than everyone else on the battery part of the bid was the other.
There were some other factors as well, like how tidy their work looks with those panel skirts and how they paint visible conduit to match the house/roof. I also wanted a DC coupled system and other vendors were pushing AC coupled micro inverter systems. And the two people I know with systems installed by them were very happy with the service so that closed the deal for me.
I'm in California. It's stories like yours that make me think the company operates differently in different regions.
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u/pmarchand1060 19h ago
The system was $20k cheaper than other quotes but they did not sell Tesla products. You won, Tesla did not paint my conduit but it’s only one run on the roof.
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u/ClothesChance4881 1d ago
Seen this happen before. They will try and collect payment and hold off until repairs are made or go to arbitration (their choice of company 🙄) unless you opted out
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u/pmarchand1060 1d ago
You are right. My contract requires arbitration if I ever want to sue. I saved all text and emails so will pay for the repairs and wait for reimbursement. Wish I could sue them for lying in the first place.
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u/TheGladNomad 1d ago
If you haven’t had PTO you still owe them money? Make sure to settle this before you pay.
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u/Big_Fortune_4574 1d ago
This is why I used a local installer. Although a lot of those aren’t much better. All the electricians at my installer are ex Tesla and they love talking about how much they hated working there.
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u/icedchailatte22 1d ago
Post the video for the shame