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Brimma Solar National Solar USA Thomas Clarke Justin Lancaster Janelle Lancaster Misrepresentions and bad business practices Seattle Yakima Selah Nationwide
Summary: We were misled as to what we were buying and what refiance options we would have. We are paying $42,000 for a system that we were told and thought would all by elimiate our power bill (minus the basic fee) and paying at an interest rate that we were told there were refinace to green energy loan financing for a much lower interest rate. (Our credit is not the issue for us not being able to obtain this- rather the fact that it is a "refinance" and that is not available to the green energy loans as we were told). They have been unwilling to help us. They gave us a very minimal amount of extras due to our frustrations and we are still left with a extremely exensive system that we were misled into signing as what was verbally explained to us was not what was written. We were tricked into trusting the salesman and signed documents under false pretenses. Please don't get scamed the same way.
Timeline with specifics below
In Sept 2014 we signed up for a free consultation with Brimma Solar at the Yakima fair at the sundome.
Sometime between then and October, an appointment was made via phone to have someone come to our home for a consultation. On that call, it was explained that it was very important that we have our power bills/history with us for them to be able to do the consultation.
10/11/14 Thomas Clarke, general manager for Brimma Solar/National Solar came to our home. At this time, we had our children with someone so that we could both be present and able to clearly understand and listen to the consultation. Thomas was at our home for several hours. He started out by our power meter, and I recall him saying that the “feds” required him to start with that prior to going further into the discussion.
He showed us several YouTube videos on solar energy as well as at least one that was a National Solar/Brimma video. He explained that in 2005 federal incentives were started for solar energy upgrades. We showed him our detailed power history since the first month we built our home- September 2012-September 2014 which gave details as to the days since last read/usage in kwh/bill amount. We talked about what our plans for expansion of our home/power usage in the future was. He explained to us that our shop was in the perfect position, pointing perfectly due south, as if we planned it for solar. He said that in this area we would have maximum production and would be good candidates for solar. He explained how some are not- ie- they don’t have enough sun or their power usage is not great enough to be worth investing. We at one point said “why wouldn’t people do it?”. That is where he explained some cannot due to financing and some cannot due to the lack of ability to produce due to lack of light. He stated that Bill Gates, for example, had money to invest, but he could not have that large of a system due to the lack of space for panels. He explained that we wouldn’t eliminate our bill as there is always a “basic” fee. We looked on our bill and determined that is $7.75/month. We talked about how our bill is on average $250/month and that if all we had was the basic fee, that would give me the $250/mo in power savings to pay towards the panel. We explained how we had just purchased a trailer and how I am very tight on our budget and that is how I would be able to pay for the panels as well as the tax credit and July checks.
Incentives as we understood it- as Thomas explained it:
- Sales tax exemption
- 30% tax credit during the first tax year that we would get cash back at the time we filed our taxes
- For 5.5 years, each July, until 2020 we would receive a check back for everything we produce above and beyond what we use.
Thomas also explained that if we qualified, we could get financing , $0 down, at 0% interest, 0% accruing for 1 year. After 9% interest rate for a 10 year term loan. He said as a part of the fair special, we would receive 2 free panels as well as a 5% discount for fair special. He told us that there was a lot of “green” financing available and that a lot of people would use the 1 year deferred interest and payments and then refinance it with another bank. He suggested Hapo by name. We believed what he was saying, knowing that we had excellent credit, that it wouldn’t be an issue and that is what we planned on doing, after we paid the incentive and July check the next year to pay it down.
The majority of the discussion took several hours. After he explained everything, we told him that we wanted to sign up. He showed us the charges- and we opted to have Brimma finish the power to our shop. We signed up for 16 panels and with the 2 free, that would give us 18 total. At that point he did not explain the energy it would produce- he told us that our July checks would be approximately $3675 per year. While he was completing the paperwork, we made copies for him of our paystubs, drivers license etc. He left us with several documents- the Improvement Agreement, the Photovoltaic Solar Resource Estimate, the Photovoltaic Incentive WorkSheet , a Model Disclosure Statement Notice to Customer and the Buyer’s Retail Sales Tax Exemption Certificate. He told us someone would be contacting us to come to the property and make the plans etc. He also told us that they did referral credits, giving us up to $500 for each person we referred. Thomas did ask for a down payment, and not remembering how he had said it was $0 down, I wrote out a check for the down payment and gave it to him. $315.70. This is reflected on the Improvement Agreement we signed showing the total due upon installation as $42,529.30.
When Thomas left, we were excited, immediately went and told several people. We posted on our facebook pages and sent messages to several people giving them detailed info as to what we understood. From that, 1 person immediately who was interested, contacted us, as he had been already looking into solar. He signed up after Thomas came to his home as well. Several months later, another friend of ours also had Thomas out and signed up for an identical system.
Later the same day 10/11/14, I wrote Thomas an email asking him about the $0 down and asking if I misunderstood and why I was charged a down payment. He responded the same day saying he was sorry and that he would process it as zero down and send our check back if that is what we would like. I explained that is what I wanted.
10/12/14 I sent Thomas an email, telling him that our first friend was interested and I was referring him. He did sign up for a similar system as we did.
At this point we did get documents in the mail showing our credit had been checked by Salal and showed our scores.
12/2/14 Brimma Solar installed our panels on our shop. A gentleman named John talked with my husband for quite a while going over the internet program and box used to monitor the system. He explained to my husband that several inspections needed to be done before Pacific Power could finish hooking up the system. We signed several documents- see attached Contractor Completion Certificate and Funding Instructions (solal document), (which is not complete matching what we received later from Salal when we asked for a copy of the paperwork they have), Certificate of Completion/Proof of Final Payment (this also does not reflect the $144 filing fee) as well as other documents showing the layout etc.
12/3/14 our second friend also said she wanted us to refer her to Thomas- I sent him an email telling him her contact information. She also signed up for a similar system. However, was given a discount due to not being able to get started as they were short on panels.
12/9/14 Justin Lancaster, Finance Manager contacted us stating that the financing documents that Thomas filled out at the time of the original site visit did not reflect the deposit. He said he could either redo them or he could refund us the deposit and leave the docs as is. We wrote back that we didn’t want to pay the deposit, that Thomas has said he would send our check back. (at that point we had not received it back).
12/16/14 Justin emailed Thomas asking him initial the changes to the Improvement Agreement (as it had reflected the deposit). Thomas sent it to us, had us initial where he had crossed out the deposit and send it back to him. We scanned and emailed it back to him.
12/17/14 the steps were done involving inspections and having Pacific Power finish hooking it all up to where we could monitor the solar energy production. The time zone however we later discovered was not showing properly.
Later this day, after looking at the production and comparing it to our usage, it looked as though it wasn’t producing what we thought it should. However, thinking we were missing something, we emailed Thomas again (see email attachment) to ask for some help understanding it, that we felt like we were missing something. We had planned, and told Thomas in October, that we would monitor the usage/what it was creating so that we could maximize our checks back each July. (we understood the max is $5,000). We also asked about the other banks offering loans where we could refinance as he had mentioned in Oct as in this time my husband had called several banks only to find out that they weren’t as available as he had said and most would have to be a home equity loan. We also asked when we would be getting our finance documents for our loan.
12/18/14 Thomas replied that he was traveling and would get back to us.
12/21/14 We wrote Thomas another email, after looking more at everything asking for clarification again as it was not producing what he had told us it was.
Sometime at this point, my husband did call Aaron- project manager with Brimma who confirmed that our system would in fact not produce what we thought it was-based on what Thomas had sold us. We told him that is not what we understood.
12/26/14 We received a letter from Salal Credit Union showing an interest rate of 9.95% and other details. We immediately wrote Thomas another email asking about that as that was not the 9% that he had quoted us in October.
12/29/14 After not receiving any responses from Thomas, I wrote several again asking for help- including info@brimmasolar.com. I also called and left a message asking for a returned call. I did not receive responses to either. My husband also called Thomas asking for a call back. He called us that evening, we had a lengthy conversation with Thomas on speaker phone, expressing our dissatisfaction and how he had misled us. He offered no explanation except that he left the documents with us that showed the production.
After the call, I sent a very detailed email to Thomas, Aaron, and Justin, as well as the company owners, Janelle and John.
1/2/15 we sent another email to Justin adding that we had requested a copy of the loan documents that Solal had and had received a copy of them. (David had called after our call with Thomas requesting a copy of it.) We were never given a copy of the Fixed Rate Loan Disclosure, Promissory Note, and Security Agreement from Thomas in October. The copy we got shows our signatures, however we quickly determined it had not been complete at the time of our signatures as the figures did not match.
Nothing we were given showed an interest rate of 9.95%. Nothing indicated a $144 filing fee and the document the bank gave us shows the total financed amount was $42,989 which did not match the document we were given- reflecting our down payment we gave Thomas. We are confident that this document, was completed after Thomas left- and we were not given a copy of it.
1/2/15 Justin responded saying thank you for the additional information. He stated he would work on our file over that weekend and was confident that we could reach agreements in order to alleviate our frustrations.
1/5/15 Justin responded. He said he wanted to install 4 additional panels at 270 watts each for a total of 1080 additional watts that would be done in the next 60 days at no additional charge to us. He also stated he would, for our troubles, give us $1,500 discount in the form of cash payment within 30 days. He stated that a lot of people use the 1 year deferred financing as a bridge loan with the intent to either refinance or get funds elsewhere to pay it off. He also gave us the name of another bank- Puget Sound Cooperative who they were now working on, stating they offered 4.99% for 180 months. He stated they are working with them, but they don’t offer deferred loans.
1/5/15 after reading Justin’s email, I emailed Stephanie with Puget Sound asking about this loan. I also emailed Justin telling him that we wanted to ask for 2 additional panels- making it 6 additional as well as the $1500 he mentioned. Also asked again about the $144 filing fee again. We added that it did not bring us to what we thought we were getting but it would be closer. (At this point, we didn’t think they could put any more panels on the shop as it looked to us… and we wanted to get what we could to compensate for our loss).
1/6/15 Stephanie responded that the loan they have would require it to be paid directly to the contractor and the loans only go up to $35,000. Explained our options of home equity loans. I responded asking if there was any way to start over- as no interest had accrued on our Salal loan, if we could do $35,000 through them and then once we received our refund including the tax credit, we could pay Brimma the difference. Justin was not willing to do this. He did respond that they would include the $144 filing fee in our $1500 check and that they would do the 6 panels.
We have talked more with Stephanie, and it appears, through most of who we have contacted, our options are home equity loans only. This is not really an option for us as we currently have our first mortgage, started in 2010, then we took out a home equity loan to build our shop in 2012 and another home loan for our rental property. We highly doubt we would have enough equity (they will only finance up to 80%) to take out another $43,000 needed to refinance this loan.
1/7/15 Justin wrote stating they were short on the 270 panels asking if we would take the lower watt ones, we wrote back no, that we preferred the others. He stated it would just be a delay, but they would have them at the end of January.
Immediately during this email correspondence, I sent an email to Justin explaining that we in no way were saying that his company has done what was sold to us, what we understood in the meeting. Justin did not respond.
1/20/15 We received a check for $1644.
Immediately when we determined the system was not what we signed for, we were too late to inform Illfonso, who had his panels installed shortly after ours, but we did contact our second friend and inform her. She immediately wrote Thomas and he informed her she would have to pay $12520.50 to cancel. She refused as nothing had been done on their property. Justin responded after some time that they had $500 in hard cost and wanted them to at least pay that. She again refused, after talking with me. (I figured the $500 they were referring to was the $500 they had paid us for referring her). After she asked for a detailed accounting of what that $500 was, Justin responded that she could cancel with no fee.
We have also since talked with our first friend, who is in the same boat we are. He was misled. He signed a paper with Thomas stating 7.95% and the bank sent him the similar letter to ours stating 9.95%. He was told he would need 22 panels to be off the grid and having no power bill. When Thomas asked him “what do you want solar to do for you?” He responded that he didn’t want to be making payments on a loan as well as power bill. He also said the tax credit would be on his tax return. Thomas called him saying he would not be able to wait to make payments for the year he thought. He was told the bank did not want to honor his original document showing 9% and no interest for a year. Thomas came, had him sign a new document showing payments starting in a month. When he received is actually loan paperwork it showed they were in fact honoring the original document. He told him he would pay $6,000 to compensate (thinking he wouldn’t have a year of deferred interest). But that they would not change his interest rate.
What we thought we were getting:
-18 Panels that would cover our usage, outside of the basic fee, saving us approx. $250/month
-A check of approx. $3675 each July starting 7/2015 until 7/2020
- A Tax credit of approx. $12,853.50
We anticipated leaving the loan with Solal for the year, using our July check of $3675 and the $250/month we save on power- to pay towards the panels before the 1 year was up. At that point, we planned on refinancing what was left to a much lower loan, anticipating getting the ongoing payment close to the $250/month our power bill was.
How we were misled:
-18 panels is far from enough to meet our needs. The max power 18 panels will produce is 6118 kwh/year. (Our usage in 2013-which they had at the time of the consultation- was 33227 kwh). This is a shortage of 27109 kwh/year. The panels will at most produce 18% of what we use.
-We are not able to refinance into a “green” loan as Thomas had told us or as Justin had told us.
-We do not have a 9% interest rate as we were quoted.
-We were charged $144 for a filing fee we knew nothing about
-The check we get each July is in fact based on the total power we use- not what we produce above and beyond our use.
-We will not get our full tax credit for tax year 2014- we are only receiving approx $9,000 of it for this tax year and the remainder is held over for tax year 2015.
-We were not given copies of the loan documents we signed and have now received a copy after asking for it from the bank and have proof it was modified after we signed it. In addition to several other documents that were modified.
At this point, we have received the $1644 check and the panels they offered us should be installed this week.
Our loan, if left with Solal, will amount to $68,042.40. After their refund of $1644, that leaves $66,398.40. We are unable to obtain financing elsewhere as we were told.
At this point, our friend has received his check of approx $6,000, 2 additional solar panels that will fit on his roof.
There were many misrepresentations made to us that were designed to hook us into making the purchase. It seems from ours as well as the other 2 examples we are aware of that this is how they are conducting business. I think this is a example of their deceptive practice to sell and has a great affect on the public.
I have copies of the documents I am speaking of and am happy to provide them if requested.