If I could give this contractor negative reviews I would, they don't even deserve 1 thumb up. I would like to start of by saying this was the worse solar experience project from the beginning to end, and even till this day. When we signed up for solar we were assigned to this contractor to do the work by Solar Best 4 Less. The owner Felipe Ledesma, (owner of Greener Movement Builders) arrived 2 weeks after we singed the contract to say he needed to measure the dimensions of where the solar panels would go. Three months later, we received an email from Felipe stating that the plans were FINALLY completed and that he would be submitting them to the county building and safety for approval. 2 weeks after that, his crew arrived and FINALLY began installing the rails. About 2 weeks into that, they had the county inspector arrive to approve the rails and to get the go ahead for the panel mounting. Then, after the panels where installed, Felipe sent out an electrician to see about the panel box. He informed us that the panel would need to be upgraded because the existing one was not compatible. So a new panel was ordered during in which time the electrician returned to our home and began demolition of the old panel. For 2 weeks we had a huge hole in our stucco wall by the panel waiting on the new panel. Finally when the new panel arrived, it was installed but still with a hole in the wall. Now apparently the delay was the county inspector to return and ok the new panel upgrade. 1 week and half after that, finally the inspector returned and ok the panel upgrade. The hole in the wall was finally re patched and final details were done.
After all that was said and done, we thought we would soon be producing solar, as Felipe advised us that within 10 days Edison (our electric company provider) would turn on our solar. Boy, was Felipe wrong. Doing research, I was able to determine that we needed to submit an application for NEM with Edison in which will allow us to be connected and give us PTO (permission to operate). When I contacted Felipe and asked him of the application, he was not aware of such thing. I told him that it needed to be done by the contractor and submitted to Edison ASAP. The new NEM 1.0 was closing by the end of June and if not submitted on time we would fall under the new NEM 2.0 which would cost an application fee of $75-200 dollars.
I was doing all there work and staying on top of things to make sure they were getting done.
After we got PTO form Edison, WE turned on our own SOLAR by calling Solar Edge ourself. Felipe did not know how to turn on the system, apparently only knows how to install them. Now that we got out solar running after 7 months of waiting, yes thats right 7 months later, we found out only 36 panels out of 41 installed are working. Now trying to get a hold of Felipe to see if this is an issue they need to fix or contact Solar Edge. I think I will get a faster response from the manufacture before Felipe, as I have a feeling Felipe will say its a manufacture defect to try and wipe his hands off this one.
It should be noted that during all these headaches we were on Felipe to do what needed to be done. It was hard to get a hold of him, and when we did, his excuse was waiting on part, or approval of county or he will take care of it the next day. This project took way too long that the contract to complete the project of 4 months had expired and a new contract was re done.
Felipes' work as a contractor appeared to be a rookie and unexperienced contractor for a solar project. On the other hand the workers themselves doing the install of the Solar work did a good job on that aspect. If it wasn't for Felipe having few knowledge of a Solar project process and communication, maybe this review would have been different. read more