Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions

«A company with thousands of customers in CA and HI…» but somehow not able to provide a bid or quote more than 3 months after coming out to inspect my property and promising that they’d be happy to handle a full off-​grid installation.
He’ll promise you the moon, then not bother to get back to you. If you send a follow-​up email, he’ll respond with an apology, an excuse and a promise to get «something more formal to you by the end of next week.» This will continue month after month until you finally decide that he’s just wasting your time.
If you want to know the whole story, keep reading. Otherwise, if you’re just looking for a reputable solar company that actually wants to meet their customer’s needs, I strongly recommend staying away from this place.
All the details follow:
AAES/​Aloha Solar seemed to be a great company with all the right experience for my off-​grid property in northern Napa county. I called in late Oct and set up an appointment with Rick on Nov 11^th. He came out and looked at the property and answered all the questions that I and my contractor had, and he seemed in his element rattling off all the projects he’s done and assuring me that he’d be able to get everything running smoothly since he’s been doing this since 1984.
Everything sounded great, and I was eager to see what the cost and timing would be so we could get started. On Nov 29, I sent a nice note to Rick and his assistant asking if they’d had a chance to work on my bid, but I got no response.
On Dec 10, I sent another note stating I still hadn’t heard back, and Rick replied that he’d been sick and «slammed with all that wanted to be completed by years end» and would get «something more formal to you by the end of next week.» I told him I understood, hoped he was feeling better, and was looking forward to getting his quote next week. He replied «You got it!»
On Jan 10, I emailed that another month had gone by and that I was lining up a roofing company to reroof the house and needed to have his bid so I could plan my budget and coordinate with the roofers. I also asked him if he was really able to commit to this project, since it’d already been two months without him getting a bid to me.
He responded by saying that this was actually their busiest time of year, and that «We can definitely commit and install a system for you, I’ll get something formal out to you by the end of the following week.» Notice a pattern here?
On Jan 25^th, his assistant sent the following note: «I apologize in the delay in Rick sending your proposal. He has made it a priority to have it to you by end of week. We haven’t forgotten!» Ok…
Over the next couple of days, Rick and I exchanged several emails regarding roof mounting hardware that the roofer needed to know, and things finally seemed to be falling into place.
Unfortunately, Rick’s email on Feb 4 ended with «The weather is clearing and we should be catching up this week. I’ll be in contact with you next week to go through our formal design and proposal.» The dreaded «next week» promise again.
Needless to say, that week came and went with no contact from Rick. On Feb 11, a week after the last message and exactly 3 months from the day that Rick and I met at my property, I sent him a note saying «I’m ready for the formal design and proposal.» No response.
A week after that, I sent him an exasperated note stating that it’s been more than 3 months and I still had no idea of the cost or scope of the work and no way of knowing if he was ever going to send me a bid. I said was now going to have to contact PG&E and look into getting connected to the grid — which is the LAST thing I ever wanted to do at this property.
I also told him that I was going to write their first Unilocal review and it was not going to be pretty. I said that I could’ve given the company at least 4 stars even with the delay, but there was no response to my message nor any attempt to finally get me a bid, so here’s the 1-​star review.
Maybe it will help him to see what follow-​through actually looks like, or maybe he couldn’t care less because this wasn’t a multi-​million dollar project.
I don’t even know if my project was going to cost $ 30k or $ 90k because he never got me any numbers, I just hope that I can save other people the frustration and dashed hopes that I went through by skipping AAES/​Aloha Solar from the start.