Randy Appel, Jenea Appel Global Wide Green Fraud Scam Artist
We found Gravitate to Green (aka Global Wide Green, The Edge Pools) at the home show & signed up for a free energy audit. Mike Bulatovich came out & sold us a duct seal, attic insulation, energy efficient pool pump & sand filter, and solar panels. Two guys did the duct seal & insulation, skipping many spots. We had FSL come to inspect their work & they didn't pass, so G2G came back out to fix it. We decided to cancel our solar panel contract with them, but had already paid for the pool pump & filter. The Edge Pools was matching Leslie's price on a Pentair pump & filter as well as a 3 year warranty. They came with the wrong model filter, a much cheaper one. Randy Appel (owner of GWG) argued that it was a satisfactory substitute but we insisted they get the right model. They got the right filter & two men not fluent in English installed it. We asked the two men if they had calibrated it & they replied yes. At the time, we did not know what calibration meant other than it was necessary. Immediately we noticed the pump & filter didn't do a great job filtering the pool, but our concerns were dismissed by Randy. A year later, our pool pump & filter began to slow down, the vacuum didn't move &; water features dribbled. It took numerous calls to Mike Bulatovic & Janae Appel (Randy's wife) to get anywhere & we finally insisted they pay for Leslie's to come out. The day Leslie's came out, no one had paid them & we had to make a call to Mike & Janae to get Leslie's paid. Leslie's verified there was a problem, but more concerning was they found the pump wasn't calibrated! Leslie's went ahead and calibrated the pump. Work needed to be done to figure out the problem, but Janae refused to pay Leslie's for any work & insisted she get one of her guys or Pentair to come out for the warranty work. We agreed to a reasonable timeframe. It took months to get a response, but Mike & Janae finally came out & saw the issues. Janae replaced the backwash valve o-rings to see if it'll resolve the problem. We can't say we'd use the company again, but after our online reviews they are now making an effort to reply to our messages & resolve the issues.
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Jim Gibbons
Do not have this installed. I replaced a new electric water heater in good working order for this snipe hunt last summer. I now have a very expensive, faulty system, that needs monthly service resulting in savings of less than $10 a month. This will result in an ROI of 40 or 50 years. The real clincher is a non-working number when trying to contact the office. We have had a total of 5 days with no hot water waiting for repairs.
Want to protect our planet? Do something (anything) else. The carbon footprint of the service trucks in and out of our home have eliminated any potential of that.
Want to protect your wallet? Do not let these people in your home. Promises of savings, referral bonuses, model home to help the expense, and promises of exceptional service never have materialized. What I have had is 13 separate days waiting for someone to inspect, re-install, or repair the unit and it's parts and I've only had it 8 months. That's like waiting on cable TV installation every 3 weeks. Be good to the planet and your neighbors....do not install a solar water heating system.
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Joni Koehn
Solar water heater installed in 2010, and I have multiple problems with the installation and the contractor.
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Cllifford McDowell
Our installation was completed in May and it is now August without a City of Phoenix permit approval. We need resolution.
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Mike
Mesa,#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Mon, March 24, 2014
In response to the review below by jlo5616 (Jenny Berardy)-
My name is Mike Bulatovich with Gravitate to Green and I am the salesperson who contracted the work between Global Wide Green and Jenny and Andrew Berardy. I met with them at their home (after Global Wide Green did an energy audit) and discussed all the options available to make their home energy efficient. They decided to do and attic seal, duct seal, insulation, pool equipment with variable speed pump and a 3.2 kW PV system. From this point forward, Global Wide Green (Randy and Janea Appel) took over and was responsible for all the work. , Global Wide Green is one of a few respected companies (as well as an energy efficient authorized contractors) in the valley. The Foundation for Senior Living (aka FSL) that Jenny refers to is a company that contracted with the State of Arizona to oversea energy audits and the work performed. They routinely check contractors work based on the audit reports. So for them to check on the Berardy residence is standard. I followed the progress of the job as well as relay messages from Jenny to Global Wide Green. I will agree that some minor issues came up but they were all taken care of. The duct work issue was minor. A crew from Global Wide goes into the attic and manually seals all the joints and connections throughout the entire duct system. This is done by rolling back any insulation around the duct work and using mastic and fiber tape to seal off any penetrations. The work is extensive and on their particular job a spot was missed and corrected. The pool equipment (pump and filter) and two wok pots were installed by Global Wide Green's parent company The Edge Pools. The Edge Pools is another respected business in the valley and has installed many pools throughout the years for many happy homeowners. The wok pots were installed on top of pre-existing plumbing and had to use the same pump as the pool filtration system. The pots were adjusted several times for the 'flow' of water to get Jenny's desired look. The pump also had to be used to circulate the water for filtration purposes. An issue came up where the pool wasn't circulating the water properly. Calibration on a variable speed pool pump is used to figure out how long the pump needs to run at a specific speed to circulate the specific amount of water in that pool through the filter. Yes it is important but rather simple as well. In Jenny's situation, the pump was working fine. Fine tuning the speed and run times are standard when installing variable speed pumps. The filter was the issue. I did go to Jenny's home with Janae (who called pentair service while at the home) and learned that the o-rings were bad in the filter valve. Janae ordered them and replaced them. Unfortunately, minor issues did come up on the Berardy job. Some took longer to resolve than others but they were all resolved to their satisfaction well before Jenny posted her reviews. My reason for the response is to cover a few areas. First, I personally believe in energy conservation and thoroughly enjoy helping others live a more sustainable life and enjoy all the benefits that come with it. Second, Randy and Janae Appel run a respectable business and are one of a handful of trustworthy companies that take pride in the work they do. Although I am not working directly with Global Wide Green anymore, I still refer customers to them because I respect the work they do and would gladly support all my claims with referrals (Global Wide Green carries an 'A" rating with the BBB ). Last, Jenny and Andrew Berardy I feel are genuine people and were just looking to make some improvements on their home. Unfortunately some minor issues came up and frustration set in. I do know that the benefits of the work that was done on their home will far out weigh the small inconveniences they experienced.