Vivint Solar

Changing my previous rating from 5 to (if I could less than) 1. What a NIGHTMARE! Short story — Vivint miscalculated our energy needs and I was not happy when I received a true-​up bill of over $ 800! Called, finally decided I would spend several thousand dollars to add a new power box to an out building (I was going to do that in a couple of years) for Vivint Solar to expand my service. After all, the initial experience with them wasn’t too bad.
This experience was AWFUL! After spending close to $ 7,000 (a 100 ft ditch with new line, a new circuit box, etc.) in Feb and Mar 2015, these jokers NEVER GOT THE SERVICE up running until the end of FEBRUARY 2016!!! This was after hours and hours on the phone with them «we are behind», «I PROMISE we’ll get this fixed», the promises and excuses went on and on and on. I’m not going to bore you with all the details (but am more than willing to if you ask), but when the City Inspector sends you letters saying there will be penalties as you are out of compliance as the permit has long expired with NO WORK, you know you went with the wrong company. When you have to get angry with them to get them to show up, it is just frustrating. So … I think it’s finally all done in December, only to find out they never turned the service ON!!! And my next true up was $ 1100.00.
OK, so I am pissed. Then I move in Mid March (that’s when we realized it was never turned on). And … I got an $ 80 +/​-​bill for a SERVICE NEVER TURNED ON! When I called they explained they «approximate the bill when they don’t know how much to charge». I never got an answer on how they can APPROXIMATE WHEN THE SERVICE WAS NEVER TURNED ON.
It gets worse. The title company sent the transfer documentation to VIVINT Solar when I sold the house on January 13^th. «They never got it» (so they claim, I have emails showing where the Title company sent at least three different times). Week after week, month after month I keep calling — fix this, please! Shall I tell you I just got charged ANOTHER FRICKING MONTH for May 2016???
These people, as nice as they may want to be, are inept. I am STILL PAYING for someone else’s electricity and am now getting ready to file a small claims suit against them. NO ONE THAT HAD PROMISED TO TAKE CARE OF THIS PROBLEM has effectively taken care of it.
Now I am looking to install solar in my new house … you can bet I WILL NOT BE USING VIVINT.
If VIVINT contacts you, run the other direction, BAD, BAD, BAD experience.

Well, after all the issues we had, I must say, in the end they came through. Shortly after writing the review, I was contacted by their customer service department who apologized for the issues and delays and offered a credit to my account for the trouble. The system was approved shortly thereafter and I have had no issues since.
Recently, I’ve been in the process or refinancing and I can’t tell you how helpful they have been in providing the documents my lender is requesting related to the system.
Certainly getting a system up and running was anything from smooth, but the company has been excellent since and I am definitely saving money. My summer bill went from $ 450 to $ 170.

Ok

Less than one star if I could! The sales force is great, IF only the company worked as hard to make you happy! First from signing of contract it was one year to have installation complete after being told over and over more inspections were needed for more and more broken tiles, I wonder what my tiles really look like? I end up moving renting out my home give them all my renters info and almost a full year later we find out she is still not set to go and we still receive random bills were we have to call again and remind them of what they already know! Today was the last straw, considering a lawyer to have that crap off my roof and a REAL solar company put up something that might save some energy after what is going on 2yrs 3months! Go with someone else

I suppose the panels are working ok. But to everyone who thinks they are saving soooo much… keep an eye on your True-​up annual bill to PGE… last month I got a $ 3500 for the yearly overage… that’s on top of the average $ 125 to Vivint. Mind you I live in an older Oleander home. But when I tallied it all up, my energy costs were $ 1000 more this year with solar!
Only after I told a friend about my experience, and he told his rep who was in the process of signing my friend up, I got a call. The rep told me that I was in for a huge refund, that something was wrong, my panels were not communicating. A YEAR LATER! WHY DIDN’T ANYONE CONTACT ME??? So I called, and last week a guy came out and replaced the little white boxes… I was told once that was done… a refund was on it’s way! Guess what, I just called today… just for giggles, and no there is not a refund on its way. The signal really isn’t very strong and they cannot get a strong enough reading to process a refund. They cannot tell me why or when I will be refunded this imaginary check. I have now been on hold for over 20 minutes. I have asked to begin the legal proceedings to get out of the contract. I think they are playing a game… if they leave me on hold long enough I will hang up… challenge accepted.

Great company, the sales reap is super friendly and helpful I can’t wait to get my panels up and running! I know it will take a little bit of time but it will be worth the wait I’m sure

I didn’t get it, roof didn’t qualify, but my dad did and it was a great experience. There were a couple problems with inspections but that’s not always their fault. They fixed what needs to be fixed in a timely manner and it’s been on for almost a year. Took about 3 months to be installed inspected and activated. I would highly recommend them especially if you don’t want to pay for a depreciating liability.

Now our solar is up and running, it’s great saving us so much money. I love it, even had a sweet lady give me a call and helped me out. Thanks !!!

Great company to deal with. Their employees are friendly and helpful! Definitely better then dealing with PG&E!

Vivint is an excellent solar panel business with very professional and friendly workers. They are quick to install and provide awesome customer service. Highly recommended business!

Recently installed solar through Vivint. Our Rep was Eddie, awesome guy. He went above and beyond to help us. You don’t see that these days. Thank you Eddie for all you did!

I have mixed feelings about Vivint Solar. I was very excited when I first started talking to Vivint and seeing all the savings I was going to have. I was very pleased with them until they installed my system. Their installation crew broke so, so many of my tiles. They said they were done installing my system, and left my roof with gaps where there were no tiles anymore covering my roof. I called up my contact and at first he worked with me and I thought he would fix things. When my roof wasn’t getting fixed to my satisfaction, simply asking for the quality I had before they started, he started getting rude with me. He even insulted me once and said I was over dramatizing things to get free stuff from the company. Mind you I still had a section of my roof with no tiles on it! I had to write an email to headquarters about my contact and then they had him write me an apology and I’ve never heard from him since. Every other employee I’ve dealt with has been great. They’ve been very polite on the phone and kept me up to date on my system. My system was installed 14 months ago and I still haven’t had to pay anything because it hasn’t passed inspection. I don’t necessarily think that’s their fault because of PG&E problems, government programs responding slowly, etc… I’m still glad I made the choice to go with them because I’ve seen contracts for other companies and they’re horrible compared to Vivint.

Up & running March!
So far, so good!
The only reason I didn’t give them 5 stars due to the length of time it took for system up!

I am posting this here because I feel that this information needs to be shared with Vivint’s prospective customers, so that they know how Vivint may deal with them.
We entered into our agreement with Vivint on October 10, 2013, OVER A YEAR AGO. As of today’s date, the system has still not been properly installed, inspected, and made operational. The system has failed inspection TWICE due solely to Vivint’s mismanagement and mistakes, and still has not passed inspection. In fact, I now do not even know the technical details of the system, because I have never seen the «revised plans» that were supposedly submitted (I cannot even confirm that they were actually submitted).
After nearly a year of being patient and trying to work with Vivint, we finally told Vivint a few months ago that we wanted the system taken down. In multiple phone calls with the Customer Service line, we were told that we did not have to provide formal written notice of cancellation of the agreement (I specifically asked if I needed to do this), and that Vivint would make it right. During many of these calls, I specifically told Vivint that the agreement had been breached, and Vivint representatives admitted that the entire transaction had gone wrong because of them. They were right to admit this, because, again, the system had failed inspection TWICE. Again, I told Vivint representatives on numerous occasions that we would not be going forward and that we wanted the system taken down. Vivint representatives assured me that I was being reasonable, and that it would be taken care of. They were, in fact, very apologetic for their shortcomings as a company.
Despite all of this, it was only when I was finally able to get email contact information for a supervisor in our area and sent her an email re-​stating that the system needed to be taken down that Vivint became suddenly responsive. Vivint is now trying to force us to honor a 20 year contract that was clearly breached by them (or to buy out the system at a marked up price) when Vivint freely admitted all along that it had breached the contract. Vivint is saying that there was «no specific time frame» for completion of the agreement, despite admitting IN WRITING that the amount of time was «unreasonable». All I want is for Vivint to take the system off my roof and repair the roof to its original state, per the terms of its own agreement. They will not do this.
This is how you can expect to be treated dealing with Vivint Solar.