SunPower Reviews

I loved the sales team (Alex) from the Orlando Home Improvement show. On site the day of install and solved an issue when the installers put screw in out newly installed metal roof. Now several months into the install and operation they change their billing, out sourced, to another company. Now it is our problem to change and setup our automatic payments to another company. And guess what, to start out we are late in making payments. No the automatic payment out of our credit union cleared on 7/10/2024 the payment due date. Sunpower has no idea where it is. Awesome transition SUNPOWER!!!! YOU ARE RIGHT THERE WITH THE BULLSHIT SOLAR COMPANY WE HAD IN CALIFORNIA, Green day. AT THIS POINT DID NOT THINK ANYONE COULD MATCH THEIR INEPT ABILITIES.

My install was great by Power Trip in Port Townsend, WA. My energy production seems good, but therein is the problem. Sunpower's website/App production information is almost useless. The monthly reports are often without compete data, last month or last year production #s don't match the reports given for those months when they were current and I have to cobble together information to see what's happening, mostly relying on my power company's reports. My installer has repeatedly contacted Sunpower with my and other of their customers' concerns and so far no evidence of an accurate website or app portrayal of what's going on with my system. I should be able to see real time and historic #s that are consistent and accurate and I don't.

Leased solar from this company. They said they had experience with flat roofs. It proved they didn’t. They knocked out all of my electrical power, and a person had to be called up from Tucson to Sun City to fix the problem. In addition, they punched a hole through my second bedroom and the ceiling had to be replaced. lastly my solar went out several weeks ago and my bill shot up to $200 a month. Not sure exactly how long it was out, because they are not monitoring our system. When I contacted customer support for service I was given a date over a month out before they could service my solar panels. don’t get me wrong, I love solar, I don’t like the customer service. Be sure you ask are you monitoring my system or is it all on me. And secondly if I have a problem, how long before customer service shows up.

It's been a tale of two cities. Christopher S was our initial contact the first time around and the whole experience was flawless from beginning to end. A year later we wanted to add the PowerWall and a few more panels so naturally we contacted Christopher again. We signed the contract but somewhere in the gap of waiting for scheduling the installation, Christopher left the company, and the communication dropped to zero. Not only did the installation take a whole 6 months to finally get done, our original contract took a total of 2.5 months from beginning to end, but we're still waiting to have our PowerWall fully certified to finally have it operational. We're now at the seven month mark and counting from the time we signed the contract. Sunpower's product speaks for itself, another reason we chose to go with them. However, the customer service, in particular the communication with their customers, dropped off drastically within a year. I find it hard to believe our original experience relied solely on one person but if that is the case, they should've done everything to keep him on staff. I can also understand the company got a huge surge in business since the drastic winter storm in Texas a couple of years ago, but the quality in customer service should've have never been the first to feel the effects.

Sales = A Installation = C+ (Scheduling problems and repairs) Project Manager Follow-up = B (He tried his best and did follow-up) Permits = F (Permit unsigned by City - still inquiring for final signed copy) Visa Credit Card = F (never received after two months. Inquired over the next few weeks. Ticky tack process . Don't forget about your incentives that are promised. Installation was very difficult because of SunPower internal scheduling. . Broken Vents on roof and conduit painting for visible areas per HOA took a very long time to repair during rain. Crew changing in the middle of the project. Both crews were very professional and respectiful and worked very hard. Unfortnately, our two separate SunPower systems won't talk to each other which is causing some problems for months. Waiting for techs to show up who don't show up after you take the day off work to meet them. Be wary of the incentive with Visa cards. With all the Spam emails, they are very hidden. These require several steps via email and if you don't follow them, it will not be sent. I have been inquiring about this Visa incentive card for months. Still not resolved because I forgot to review an email that didn't say "SunPower" stating I needed to hit submit to verify the address which SunPower already has. I would be happy to update my review once everything has been cleared up and working properly and if I feel that the long process was worth it for the savings. It will be a year in October so this is just my six month review. For the money I feel it's a great value but it's a process so be prepared.

I’ve had some issues with my reinstall after my roof was replaced in September. At first, 15 of the 16 panels were working and now only 6 panels are working. They are working to “fix” the issue but it is January now and I’m out $$ to help cover the cost of natural gas. Also, the critter guard was never replaced so I’m having to email back and fourth to get that worked out. Lastly, SunPower had a feature on their app that would allow the homeowner view what each panel was producing, but after submitting my complaints that the panels were not working, SunPower removed the feature. As a result, I have no way to tell of my panels are working as they should be.

I've had a half-baked experience with Blue Raven. My installation went well. The system works. The person i worked with, Sophie?, was educational. But then I referred a friend, during the Pandemic no less, who was told by BR that they could do her solar then they couldn’t and dragged on with this wishy-washy evaluation of her roof for several months - at least 4! They even dropped off solar panels in front of her house, in the street and then never followed through. Their communication was uneven, their commitment to the customer was weak. In t he end, they said they would not pay for updating her joists in the attic(which they had previously stated they would), that it wasn’t worth it to them. Wow! What a response to a potential customer... So no more referrals for them. When they wanted me to write a positive review for them at my 1 year anniversary, they sent me a photo of "A" roof , reminding me of how well they had my back. It wasn't even my roof...just sayin'... Debra Clark

The beginning of the process has been great. My sales rep has explained a lot to me and answered all my questions. He was not pushy for my final decision. Knowing it was a huge investment I took time to make a final decision. Currently I am in the installation stage of the solar panels. Due to the size of the job, it was a 2 day process. The installers kept me aware of their process as well. Upon inspection today, we did learn that the install was not finished. At least one item was missing that I originally was told had been installed. Now an additional install date needs to be set up to finish a job that should already be done. Luckily I work from home but if I had to report to an office, it would be a huge inconvenience to take off another day for something that should have been done already. I patiently waiting to get the install complete and hopefully pass the inspection.

I will recommend SunPower most likely to my friends but I have had a mixed experience on the customer service side. When the solar system was originally sold to us, the sales guy seemed decently knowledgeable. However, I did ask him about "Planet of the Humans" documentary released in 2019. This movie makes a case that renewable energy is not nearly as sustainable as it is portrayed. I asked the sales guy about this and he had not seen the movie. This surprised me a bit. I asked for more information on the sustainability of solar panels in general. He said that “no one has asked this before.” I was very surprised by this. He referred us to the main page on SunPower’s website which shows all the awards that SunPower has received. While this is impressive, I could not find a clear definition of specifically what SunPower does to be more sustainable than other companies. He did promise to provide more information but never got back to us with the information. He did follow up about the sale, however. We decided to go forward with buying the system anyway. By the way, we paid almost twice the average cost of a system sized within California or about 182% of normal. I am OK paying this much because I am happy to support a company that will reinvest the profits into improving their solar technology. I have been looking forward to investing in solar energy for my home for a very long time. Still, it is a little hard to see every estimate for other solar installer coming back far lower than I paid. https://www.energysage.com/local-data/solar-panel-cost/ca/#:~:text=As%20of%20October%202020%2C%20the,California%20coming%20in%20at%20%2414%2C950. The installation process was much longer than the longest estimate they provided. We started talking to the sales guy in May and I finished signing the last of my paperwork on June 1 to kick off the process. I was not able to turn on power until September 23. Throughout the process, I did not receive much transparency as to why things were taking so long until I followed up with the individuals supporting my case. There were various reasons including the city permits getting rejected 3 times and taking time to be resubmitted and reviewed. The utility took a very long time to respond as well. Still, I would have appreciated a lot more transparency on how things were going. Also the crew working on the project management for my installation sounded very burned out and disheartened when I was able to get them on the phone. I am not sure, but it sounds like the company is struggling a bit internally and that is coming through on how the employees sound. For example, the program manager was surprised that I cared about the environment at all when talking about the panels. She did not sound sure that they are better for the environment than just sticking with the utility. Being that she worked for a solar company, I am very sorry that she sounds so down. She should have no doubt that what she is doing is making a difference and very important for this world. If she is not feeling that way, her company is not taking good enough care of here and probably not clearly imparting a company mission statement that she can believe in. My system is now installed and seems to be working. Despite the fact that the power and energy graphs on my app seem to improperly log the data periodically and show 0 production customer service is assuring me that everything is working as expected. I have a lot of hope for the solar industry. I hope that things get better for SunPower and its employees. We need more solar power in this world to bring our global CO2 emissions down. There are few pursuits more important today.

During the first few months a couple panels were not working. I did not notice it because I did not monitor my account daily as I was told they monitored it for me. Well, I estimate I lost over $100 in my account due to this oversight. I contacted them to ask for some compensation but they did nothing as I am suppose to monitor the system. Not happy about that and also due to the fact that the panel would not have been covered if it had broke after a year. But thankfully it was covered. That is not right, s/b covered as it was not an error on my part at all. Also, when they replaced the part, they did not hook it up correctly so I had to wait over another two weeks for them to come back out which meant I again was losing money. Tax write off they said is not what they say either. Be careful and do your homework.

They asked me to leave a review, now, so here goes. Good sales team. A little switch-a-roo on the actual panel product...be careful. Average effort to get through the process. Great installation crew. Poor logistics and delivery so the crew could not do their job and my installation is not done yet. First, the guy who knocked on our door was great. We bit and he set up a follow up appointment. The "Closer" who came to that meeting was personable and professional. She did a great job explaining the various aspects of going solar. She did a great job selling us on the quality of the solar panels, using the example of the solar panels that survived the big hail storm a couple of years ago. Then the problem happened. We received the installation contract and the contract specified a different solar panel than the one she sold us on. Not even the same manufacturer! That took us on a week long merry-go-round getting manufacture specifications and reviews on several different panels until we finally agreed on a panel. Be careful when it comes down to the final document. Once we had a deal, the process took a few weeks longer than the scenario outlined, but we had an HOA and local approval hoops that were somewhat more than usual. No surprises, just not great communication or extraordinary effort. Today is Thursday. On Tuesday, I sent an email to support@blueravensolar.com to warn them of the bad weather, snow on the roof, and more snow on Wednesday. I was assured the installers would show up and make a "game time" assessment of whether or not they could proceed. The installation crew showed up, geared up and ready for the elements. They were fantastic. The logistics behind them, however, was terrible. The system was delivered a hour, or so, after the installers were on site. We were told it may be a day but probably a day and a half for the installation. Blue Raven sent me this request for a review because they think we'd be on line by now. The system delivered was missing a lot of pieces. The installers had to send guys out for additional supplies, they had to sit around a wait for additional items to be delivered, the original panel order only had a small percentage of the total number required. In short, day one of installation had a lot of dead time. In the end, it has been two full days, a lot of stuff dribbled in but we’re still waiting for brackets and clips needed to finish the job. My solar panels are still stacked in the back yard. The installers have been polite, proficient, productive and professional, never complaining about anything. It is very clear, however, that they have had to mark a significant amount of time in their process waiting for things to arrive. They assured me that this is the first time they have ever had to deal with an under supply situation on any of their installations and Blue Raven is a great company. They assured me everyone is doing everything they can to get all the parts needed for our installation to the site as soon as possible. They didn't try to make excuses or throw anybody under the bus. It was what it was. I can't say enough about the installation crew. They are great! The parts never came, however, and after two full days on the site, they weren’t able to finish the installation today. They leave for Boise, ID tomorrow. We will have to wait until Blue Raven can schedule another crew to came back to finish and endure stuff in the garage, panels in the back yard, and another day of disruption when the next crew comes. It's logistics guys. You blew it. I am not happy. Blue Raven should be embarrassed.

We have been promised a status update from you since 8/15/2019. You left me a message on Friday to call you get a status update and to understand my concerns. You ask for a call back time and phone number which I gave you in a returned call. The information I left went to your voice mail because you didn't accept the call. I followed up later in the day and was told you left for the day. I was assured you would call on Monday. It is now 1:30 PM and no call. Sunpower has known for over a month that our system was not performing to specifications based on the monitoring you do daily. I called you immediately upon receiving last months production report. The response I got was boiler plate response - shading of the panels and dirty panels. Neither would cause NO PRODUCTION ( that's 0 production) for days at a time. We expect you to be as concerned about the lack of production as I am. Obviously that is an erroneous assumption. Please give me your plan and schedule for bringing our system to within specified production levels. Don

We had our array installed in early 2019. The sales approach and process was open, professional, and effectively communicated. The installation went flawlessly. We provided several years of electric bills for them to properly size the system. We even installed a new, efficient York heat pump to lower our usage. Out electric bills since installation are reasonable from March through October, but we run out of solar "credit" in November, resulting in electric bills in the hundreds of dollars in November, December, January, and February. We try to keep the house at 65° in the winter. Summer are no issue. This past winter we received a notice indicating that our solar modern might fall to connect and communicate due to AT&T dropping support for 3G. I tried contacting Blue Raven several times to see what my options were. There was NO response. In June we received error messages indicating the system had lost connectivity. I followed the instructions for resetting the system several times with no success. I reached out to Blue Raven for assistance. No response. I tried calling. Couldn't get through. I tried the chat line. "You're next in line", followed by "You are being connected" for over an hour. I hung up. I finally got an email that indicated that they were sorry for the issues, and provided the same written resolutions I had tried before. I then received another email indicating that they checked my system and determined that my modem was 3G and no longer supported. For several hundred dollars they would send me a new modem that I could install myself. It also suggested that I could reconfigure my system to connect it to MY WIFI router. After following those directions multiple times (it failed to connect 6 times), I finally got connected. Bottom line:. The sales and installation teams were stellar, although I believe the system was under sized. Post installation support is almost worthless.

We began our 20 year Sun Power lease in 2012 and were initially very pleased with it. However, during the last two years we became concerned with the production of the system and contacted the company. We were told that the system was operating well and that the production level fell within the guaranteed ranges, so there was no problem. We saw, however, that there was an erratic pattern of efficiency and we thought that the system should be checked on site. In spite of many requests, both by phone and by email, this was never done. Now, in the midst of one of the hottest summers in recent years (multiple 100+ days,) all the electricity to our house shut down at least five times within two weeks. Initially, we were told by PSEG that the problem was caused by our SunPower system and that if it continued we needed to contact them. My husband contacted SunPower Customer Service and was told that we would have to contact either our local power company or an electrician to check the box and troubleshoot the situation. Then, if the problem was determined to be theirs, they would send someone. When my husband said that the local company had already been here and said that SunPower needed to come, they gave him the number of the local affiliate (Solar Energy World) who had initially installed the system. We called twice and have no idea whether anyone has received the message, although I did indicate that we had almost an emergency situation since there was no electricity at all in the house when a shut down occurs. The number connected us to a voice message requesting simply that we leave a name and phone number. (It is now four days later and we still have received absolutely NO RESPONSE from Solar Energy World.) In searching for that company online in an attempt to find other means of contacting someone, I came across this Best Company site. When I saw that Sun Power was listed as one of the most desirable companies to use for solar energy, I began to go through the reviews which had been written. In doing so, I found two in which a Kari had left her email address and told the person writing the review to contact her. I used that email address and explained the whole situation. Within a half hour, I had a return email from Kari in which she told me that she had forwarded our situation to Sun Power's Austin office. Within about another hour, I had a phone call from Erica from that office. In the meantime, we had contacted an electrician friend to come and take a look at things. He determined that the problem was NOT due to our SunPower system, but that PSEG needed to come back and evaluate it. (The problem was that the circuit breakers in the box were not tightened properly, resulting in damage to the insulation on the wires in the box.) Both Kari and Erica followed up with us via email and Erica also called again to make sure that the problem was being taken care of. As a result of her action and followup and that of Erica, I have modified both the ratings and the review which I originally posted. However, some of my concern still remains. For a major solar energy company like SunPower to refuse to troubleshoot their equipment (the response which my husband received when he called) is not only unsatisfactory and disturbing, but also potentially dangerous. For a local affiliate not to respond at all is also unsatisfactory, disturbing and potentially dangerous. Because I have the contact information for both Kari and Erica, I am hopeful that there will be no future problems should we need customer service assistance from SunPower again. However, I only have that information because I happened to come across it. There is no contact information provided directly by the company which results in real customer service in the event that someone needs it. In order for my rating of SunPower to go any higher, I would need to have a radically different response when I make a phone call regarding efficiency of the panels or a potential problem with the system.

NOTE THE ADDENDUM at the bottom of this review. First Review: After I completed an on-line form, I was pleased that a Sun Power representative called me within a few minutes. After verifying my address, he asked if we had trees over our roof. I told him that we had some, but that the west-facing roof is clear of trees, as is part of the east-facing roof. He told me that an image he was looking at on-line showed that the roof has too much tree-shade for us to be eligible for solar power. I asked what the source was of his image, and he didn't specify. I explained that we have less tree-shade that we used to have, and that the west-facing roof is fully clear. He persisted in saying the house is not a candidate for solar panels. Despite my suggesting that the image he was looking at on-line is outdated and that we have shade-free roofing, he repeated his claim. I explained again that I believed he was basing his evaluation on inaccurate information, and that by not offering to evaluate the house in person, he'd just lost a potential customer. May 28: ADDENDUM to the above review: I was contacted by SunPower and have now been offered an explanation about their services. If only the person I'd initially talked with had fully explained this, I wouldn't have gotten so frustrated. Based on the new information, I've changed my rating of the company. Having not yet taken full advantage of their services, I can't give a complete review.

This is my second home with SunPower Panels. The panels themselves are working well. This system has micro inverters which have given me trouble. The first year the Inverters started failing one by one. Finally they replaced the Inverters on each pane. Now about a year later it's happening again. Though the communications is good the service takes a lot of time. So far one month after the first call I finally saw the service techs. They were unable to repair and the person they were talking to on the phone said they will monitor the system and send someone back in April! Why they already know that at least two inverters are not working! RHJ Stockton, CA