Complaint Review: Solartyme by AAPCO - Richmond VA

Unless your disability is in the brain, complaining about the same thing twice doesn't make the problem that you made a bad decision go away.  You were paying $220 per month - which is really very low.  So in order to save $220 per month, you were willing to pay $35,000 to try and make your bill zero. 

That is stupid.  Even if you make your bill zero, it would take you 159 months to have the entire solar deal make sense.  That's more than 13 years.  Count the fact that it takes you 15 years to pay off the $35,000 means the entire thing begins to pay back in 28 years.

Of all the things you were trying to save money on, electricity was not one of them.  This has less to do with the company who did the deal and more to do with the really bad decision you made.  BTW, being a disabled veteran is not relevant to this entire situation, so stop dealing that card.

  I am a disabled veteran (United States Marine Corps) who answered an ad looking to save money on my monthly expenses. A very slick/dishonest salesperson showed up and promised very significant savings. He explained it as a no brainer. His no brainer has turned into worse ordeal I have ever endured in all of my life.

The representative from Solartyme scheduled an appointment. When the salesmen arrived, he performed measurements of the house conducted a two-hour presentation. A cost analysis was derived by analyzing my past year’s Duke Energy bills and the size of my home. From the cost analysis, a custom design solar production system was supposedly created.

The salesmen guaranteed a 3/4 energy reduction savings. I was provided a spreadsheet reflecting a break down with a savings of $151 per month. My average power bill before embarking upon the services of SolarTyme, was approximately $220 per month. After the insulation of the solar panels my bill is exactly the same if not more.

Not only am I paying exact the same amount of money per month, I now have the burden of paying for the Solar panels which is an additional $475 per month. SolarTyme made a lot of promises which I deem to be deceptive business practices. Every follow-up phone call and interrogative have been met with extreme disdain.

They take no ownership or accountability that I have received no savings. My only explanation or best guess is that: The solar systems being sold are defective, or the company SolarTyme are willfully overselling and overpromising the performance of their product. As of to date (11-21-2019) I have received no reduction in my utility bill at all.

When I called Solartyme, I was met with distain disrespect and given the runaround. My phone calls have not been returned and when I am lucky enough to get someone on the phone I am transferred to a voicemail. This company has essentially defrauded me out of $35,000 plus interest. I now have a loan that cost me over $400 a month and my utility bill is exactly the same if not more every month.

An audit was performed by Duke Energy Renewable Services on 10-24-2019. Duke Energy stated that the house of my size would require a 10kW system to receive 3/4 energy reduction. Duke Energy stated my current system output at max output is 3.92 KW which is far less then what is needed to provide any substantial savings.

SolarTyme simply sold me over an overpriced and undersized solar system. I feel that SolarTyme willfully defrauds its consumers.

No solar system will provide an adequate return on investment IF there is insufficient UV light that hits the photovoltaic panels.  Unless there is a study of your sun score, your electricity bills, and such, there is no way to determine the true return on your investment regarding solar.  Whatever they promised is worthless without doing any of those things.

My average power bill before embarking upon the services of SolarTyme, was approximately $220 per month.  See, this is your problem.  If your bill is less than maybe $400 per month, then you don't benefit at all from a solar system.  Most honest solar companies will ask you first how much you pay per month.  The problem is you started from this point:  ...answered an ad looking to save money on my monthly expenses. 

You did not even consider the fact that $220 per month was cheap for electricity and it is.  Even if you got to a $0 electric bill, you added $500 per month for the next several years that wasn't a part of your monthly budget.  Once your payments to the solar company ended, it will then take you more than 13 years of $0 electric bills just to payback the $35,000.  That means you're looking at almost a 25 year commitment and again, this assumed you got to a $0 bill - which you never will.

This deal took me about 10 minutes to figure out it was a bad deal....