Complaint Review: Planet Solar Inc. - Santa Barbara California

     As the CEO of Planet Solar, I am absolutely proud of working with the best professionals in this industry.  We have offices in several locations in CA, Florida, and even Puerto Rico.  And yet, it is because of the high moral and professional integrity we require out of our key people, that I am still personally involved in the hiring of every senior executive in the company.  And because of this, we have what is probably the best reputation in the industry - in fact, as I write this in April 2014, about 80% of our sales come from Referrals from our happy customers.   

     It is true that we had a former employee who we found was not a good fit for Planet Solar.  Once it became apparent he could not conform to the standards I mentioned above, he was terminated. We wish him the best in all he does, and are certain he will do great work at another, less demanding company.  

   Regarding this complaint, the complainer and customer is a friend of this former employee.  If this friend wishes to bash us, there is little we can do, except to re-affirm that as our customer, he can expect us to perfrom as we always have, and always will - above and beyond our contractural obligations.  In fact, this customer's contract stated that his state rebate should  be $856, but instead the state determined his rebate should be higher, and sent us $909 for his rebate (which we recieved on March 21) - and so we sent him $909 (on March 31 - only 5 business days for processing!).  If anyone wants to complain about service like that, I consider them unreasonable. I'm sure he doesn't like that we fired his friend, but he can count on us standing behind our exclusive 12yr unlimited warranty regardless.

     At Planet Solar, it is our company mission to always go above and beyond the call of duty, in our desire to exceed the expectations of every reasonable customer.  That high standard has earned us one of the highest business awards in America - INC Magazine's Top 500 Fastest Growing / Most Inspiring Companies in the US for 2013.  We have also maintained a spotless record with the BBB for the past 7 years - meaning zero complaints.  And best of all, we have the referalls of 1,000s of happy customers, from the owners of a few Fortune 25  companies, to movie and rock stars, to homeowners just like you.

We consider this matter now closed. The evidence speaks for itself.

Yes the salesperson was a friend from highschool, yes I still talk to him, yes he is no longer employeed by this crooked company. As I am a CPA and extremely busy this time of year I have not posted all the e-mails but I fully intend to after April 15th. 

This ripoff company is just upset because someone called them on their trying to keep what they were not entitled to.  First they deny the rebate belongs to me, when i prove that false they say they will mail rebate to their office about an hour from my house and refuse to send directly to my house, then they say they are ready to send the check but cannot send it unless I remove the original post.

Yes the did finally mail my check to my home but it was 20 days after they received it according to SCE-CSI and the contract clearly states it will be refunded to customer within 3 days of receipt.  Only had to file complaint with BBB, the post on here and threaten to file complaint with state contractors licensing board to get them to do what they were required to do under the terms of thier contract.

As I told one of this crooked guys employees the fact the salesman was a friend had nothing to do with any of this, except I bought from this company because he was my friend, other than that it was a business transaction with a written contract they tried to not fulfill their part of.  I have several e-mails to the salesman, prior to his departure from the company, repeatedly asking him the same question about when I would get my rebate. 

Company has terrible customer service I know of at least 2 other people that wish they never heard of Planet Solar, and I only know about 3 people with solar purchased from them.  I mean come on who tries to extort a customer in order for them to receive what is theirs? 

Pathetic company, pathetic owner/CEO.  Notice he did not post any of the e-mails they sent, he knows they probably constitute the commission of a felony.

"Had to terminate an employee who was a close friend of this customer. As always, we performed above contractual obligations.  See our positive reviews all over the web." -CEO

Mr. Claxton’s rebate check was mailed to him on March 31^st for $909, which was more than his contract stated.

The company has now admitted in several e-mails that the rebate is owed to me and claim the contract was written incorrectly, but now they are refusing to issue a check to me for the amount owed until I remove my report from the site.

Guess I am going to have to file a small claims action after the end of tax season to get my money.