Read our investigative piece on what Sungevity customers can do now after the bankruptcy.
08/22/17 update: Solar Spectrum merges with Horizon Solar Power under Sungevity brand
Solar Spectrum, a new company backed by an investment group led by Minnesota-based private equity firm Northern Pacific Group, has acquired certain assets of Sungevity as part of a bankruptcy court-approved sale. The investment group includes Hercules Capital of Palo Alto and DGB Investments, a wholly owned investment vehicle of Douglas Bergeron, former VeriFone chairman and CEO.
Under the terms of the transaction, Solar Spectrum has acquired Sungevity’s infrastructure, technology, installer network, supplier warranties and certain agreements. Solar Spectrum intends to hire the substantial majority of current Sungevity employees. The company has also acquired Sungevity’s European businesses and will continue to operate them under their current branding.
Separately, Solar Spectrum intends to reach out to all current users of Sungevity solutions in the United States to offer an attractively priced warranty solution. This campaign will commence in early May 2017.
Solar Spectrum’s management team is led by Patrick McGivern, CEO, and William Nettles, President and COO. Mr. McGivern is the former head of operations at Fitbit. Mr. Nettles is the former general manager and head of acquisitions at VeriFone. Solar Spectrum’s leadership will work with Northern Pacific Group to leverage its capital base and build a sustainable business that creates value for the company’s employees, partners and customers.
Mr. McGivern stated, “Today marks a new beginning for this business. I am proud to lead a new player in the residential solar market that has a healthy balance sheet and a competitive value proposition. We thank our employees, customers and partners for their patience and for their continued support and commitment. Together, we will focus on building a sustainable and successful business at the forefront of solar as the industry continues to grow.”
Scott Honour, Managing Partner at Northern Pacific Group, added, “The residential solar market remains extremely attractive and fragmented, and we see ample opportunity for innovation and targeted growth through future acquisitions. We have a lot of experience working with multi-local service businesses to refine their customer acquisition efforts and create sustainable growth, and we will bring this experience to Solar Spectrum.”
More detailed information about the Sungevity/Solar Spectrum switch-over can be found on greentechmedia.com.
News item from Solar Spectrum
I’m in Maryland. I started a 15 year lease with Sungevity in 2013. They were great for a few years, very responsive and supportive. After their 2017 bankruptcy my lease was owned or serviced by Kilowatt Financial, Short Hills, Omnidium, and ultimately Spruce Power. In February 2023 I noticed an error message on my inverters. Contacted Spruce. A month later they send NovaSource, a regional service contractor, to check up on it. The technician told me the inverters had to be replaced. Over the next 5 months, Spruce sent NovaSource back to my house 2 more times to do the same thing. Contacting Spruce again and again did nothing. I stopped lease payments. A year after I had first contacted Spruce and the system had not been fixed, I had the system removed by a local contractor and replaced with what has been an excellent system. I’m trying to get Spruce to remove their panels from my backyard and to remove the UCC lien on my property. It’s remarkable that this has affected so many people so negatively and that the Bankruptcy court would allow “assets” (i.e., installed systems) to be acquired by companies so they could collect lease payments but did not require the companies to assume responsibility for Performance Guarantees and Warranty Agreements. Without these agreements, lease holders have no incentive to monitor and maintain the systems.
I’m 10 years into my original 20 year lease. My solar lease is now being serviced by Spruce Power, but they are telling me that the Performance Guarantee is still owned by Sungevity, but how? My last performance guarantee was checked a few years ago by Omnidian but they have been out of the picture since Spruce. I have no idea who to contact about performance guarantee since I have only been producing half the amount since Feb 2023 due to an inverter being down (waiting over 7 months for a replacement). I have no idea what to do. Hopefully someone can help.
Jennifer,
Where are you located? We would like to help you with your inverter situation. Please send us an email to info@solarconnectllc.com.
Anyone else reading this comment. If you are in need of solar service of any kind please send us an email at info@solarconnectllc.com.
Thanks,
Solar Connect
Jennifer,
Where are you located? We would like to help you with your inverter situation. Please send us an email to info@solarconnectllc.com.
Anyone else reading this comment. If you are in need of solar service of any kind please send us an email at info@solarconnectllc.com.
Thanks,
Solar Connect
Jennifer, Spruce is responsible to fix or replace your inverter. They waited a year to try to schedule repairs for mine, but by then I’d had the system removed. If you’d like to join me in legal action vs Spruce, let me know by email, mordellid@gmail.com.
I become ping pong ball now. Sungevity gave a contact to local installer and the local installer didn’t take the responsibility to fix or repair the optimizes. what s joke company, frustrated.
Greetings all,
Leased from Sungevity in 2010 (10 year lease) and the options at the time for end of lease were
A-With 90 day notice (to whom now?) we could ask to return the system. (they have 90 days to come get it or it stays for free)
B-Extend the lease for another 5 years
C-Buy the equipment at (reasonable market rate)
Is whoever owns this equipment bound by the original contract?
We have had no problems with the system other than drop in monitoring after the bankruptcy and then replacement of inverter with new cell monitoring (no cost to us) System still working and PGE bills mostly just service charge. Sounds like others are having a much rougher time than us but we will see once we get to the end of lease. I am planning to have a contractor friend (who is also a county building inspector) on hand if they choose to take the system back since it does involve my electrical service and roof 🙂
Hi Pietro,
How did it turn out with your system, did the ownership transfer to you or did they come to take the system away?
Thanks
Pietro,
I too also have just 30 days left on my 10 year lease and was hoping you can provide insight on where you stand with your system and lease? A new company Kilowatt Financial just sent me a letter saying Dec 30, 2020 my lease is up, and gave me a few options (extend or buyout), and nothing about fair market value or what I owe. I also know for a fact that they do not monitor my system, because my system have been unplugged for 6 months, yet they provided me with numbers as if I was producing. This last ten years has been a nightmare and I want to wake up now, did they come take the system and repair your roof and electric to how it was prior to solar, and did they pull city permit’s for it? Anything will help, that you and I’ll check this daily to see when someone replies.
I researched quite a few companies before going with Sungevity, now Solar Spectrum. Bankrupt the month after our system was installed. Talk about being fake and deceitful to their customer. You can’t even call and talk to a real person without leaving a voicemail first or send an email. What a joke this company is and have no problem with treating you as if you’re disposable. I would love to see a class action suit against them as they don’t stand by who they are or stand for. The I’m sorry doesn’t cut it, I want to know what you’re going to do and when. I’m sick of talking to customer service. I want to talk to the CEO or the idiot who is running this company that’s hiding behind our backs. I want answers just like everyone else here. I will never recommend this company and I will tell everyone I know including my close friend who works for channel 24/47. Blast this shit all over the news and see what they sell. I’m pissed!
Has anyone stopped paying on their lease and been sued yet? I am curious as to what company they file collection actions under. I wonder if there is even an entity with the legal authority to file a collection suit under these leases.
I am so glad I found this website accidentally. I was going to purchase a new solar system to be installed on my roof.
Upon my online research, I found three solar companies with the highest rating. Sungevity was rated number one.
When I contacted them the sales-rep provided me with my 2 (TWO) email addresses so I could send him our needs and information.
The email address was his first&last-name@sungevity.com and first&lastname@solarspectrum.com
Saying this I need to mention we are in mid-October of 2019 when Sungevity is no longer in business. Apparently, the email is still in working condition.
It is so difficult to be protected from such a scam. How can anybody know that the firm selling you these expensive panels doesn’t go out of business the next day and you are left with no warranty at all?
Any idea of how you can protect yourself in this case?
There are plenty of local, more trustworthy solar installers out there. Get multiple quotes from local companies.
Hi Kelly! Thank you for such great reporting as it helps clear away all the smoke and mirrors that so many solar companies employ in sales and promises. The new CA CPUC compulsory advisory is also a good step. Since so much of solar rests on the warranty and service end of the business, paying more for a system that has responsible local backing seems prudent. I contacted Solar Spectrum for a roof/panel/battery package for cash and was given quite a sweet talk on the phone and by email. I decided to find their offices in Oakland and do a drive by. I went into a warehouse and ponded in a large metal door to see if anyone was around. Marco came to the door and he was quite pleasant, but looking around I saw an empty receptionist’s desk piled high with unopened mail and a dead plant in the corner. First impressions are so important. There may be a justifiable reason for the poor showing in an unannounced visit, but with the Sungevity past bankruptcy one wonders about the viability of these struggling national brands.
Has anyone stopped paying on their lease and been sued yet? I am curious as to what company they file collection actions under. I wonder if there is even an entity with the legal authority to file a collection suit under these leases.
Is there a class a class action lawsuit against this company at this time? It took Omnidian (service coordinator) one and a half years to finally get replacement panels on my roof we are paying our lease to Short Hills. They don’t respond to any calls or emails!
What ever company has to prove to you that they own the lease from the bankrupt Sungevity–that actually just supposedly went bankrupt, but is still in business. This whole situation smells of fraud on a number of issues. From what I can see Short Hills is not a real company-not registered in Oregon as their address states. Rabosolar 1 llc is NY based and has mis-represented themselves as being in business in Portland, Oregon. Omnidian is a joke. YOUR Sungevity warranty is good and active despite what they say. We are turning over all of the emails, info, transfer, etc. to the Attorney general of AZ. So much more to say.
Help!!! I moved!!! Sungevity come and get your panels. I cannot contact you!!!!!!
I’m really glad I just happened on this website, since I’m in the same boat as everyone else here. I was looking up “Rabosolar” to see who they are, since they collect money from me every month now. I had leased two systems from Sungevity, one in 2011 which seems to be in limbo, and one in 2015 which Sunrun now has. There are trees across the road, over which I have no control, that are now shading my panels for several months a year. I want to move them to my pasture, which does not have a shade problem. And I’d also like to add a battery backup system since PG&E, our local power company, has promised to turn off power for one or more days at a time in case of wildfires elsewhere in Northern California. They were found liable for several serious fires recently through their negligence in maintaining their infrastructure. I contacted Sunrun, and tried to contact whoever is responsible for the original system. Sunrun is looking into it, but so far nobody seems responsible for the original system. Omnidian may be the one, but no answers yet. Now from the responses above, it seems like I may be out of luck on all fronts. The potential for sitting in the dark with 30+ panels on my roof is not sitting well at all! Nor is the increased shading of my roof with diminishing power acquisition sitting well either, when there is a possible solution!
Count me in on any class action litigation that may occur!
Please count me in for the class action suit erika.inocencio@gmail.com (732) 915-0925.
This experience has been a nightmare and I cannot believe the courts let this company get away with this. They knew they were going down yet they continued to enter into installation contracts. Frauds!
Everyone here is correct in that Sungevity and all it’s offspring are nothing but a huge scam. I purchased more panels than I needed to make sure that I wasn’t hit with a large power bill. Two years now, I’ve paid $1800.00 to SCE. I have no way to track how much energy I build up and I live on the edge of Death Valley so I should never see an electric bill. Scammers all the way! I signed the contract a month before Sungevity announced bankruptcy. Liars, all of them. Next step is aimed at Mosaic because I will not pay for a system that isn’t supported. A clear breach of contract as the company was aware that it would be filing for bankruptcy and our agreement was based on all parties being truthful.
Anthony, its sounds like you and I are in the same boat. My panels were installed in August of 2016 and Sungevity filed for bankruptcy only a few months later. I did my research prior to signing up and found nothing at all negative about Sungevity online. I wanted to make an informed decision and had so many questions for the rep. I can still hear him saying how Sungevity had been around for a long time and wasn’t going anywhere so no need to worry. Yeah, right!
I, too, have a loan with Mosaic who doesn’t seem to care about what happened to Sungevity monthly payment. I received one email from Solar Spectrum letting me know they now had my contract and offered me a 7 year warrantee down from the original 10 years in my original contract. The ink wasn’t even dry on my contract with Sungevity! I know their employees were blindsided by the bankruptcy and layoffs so I believe the rep I dealt with did not know the company was about to implode when he gave me his assurances but the executives knew and roped customers into to contracts they had no intention of delivering on. We didn’t even give us the courtesy of an explanation from them. Snakes. I have no way of monitoring my system’s output or its maintenance needs. This is not what was agreed upon and they entered the agreement in bad faith so its a clear breach of contract. And I agree, why should I continue to pay for a system that is not supported?
What are you next steps? Have you spoken to a consumer protection attorney or the consumer protection agency for your state? I plan to start making those phone calls this week.
Same experience with most folks above. Sungevity was amazing until it tanked at which point it was every person for itself. All readings of solar production ceased but they gather the data (it took months to figure this out) but its by request only and you get files as email attachments (a person above details how to retrieve these). previously another LLC billing agency (no also defunct) called Catania Solar LLC was billing starting around April 2013 (when the company started). Sungevity too was shifting names as it morphed into Solar Spectrum and then Omnidium (or, where these billing companies?). No one company seems to know about any of the others. Now, billing is run by Anna (seemingly from her home) through ShortHills LLC. For years now, i have been billed still (according to my bank) by Catania but the money was going to Shorthills (Anna and ShortHills has no knowledge of this reality). I checked and checked and so far as i can tell i was NOT double billed by both Catania and Shorthills (again, Catania was listed on my bank statements but money was going somehow to ShortHills (without Shorthills knowing the details). Now, ShortHills is a hard-assed company in that they will bill an extra 10$ if we don’t auto-pay (apparently something we contractually signed up for when we were signing sungevity docs???). So, they force the autopayments and force that THEY (rather than us through our bank) so as to take full control so that those people who struggle with broken inverters, below-accepted production etc., are left with only a few choices. Pay full price for partial to no service. Or, Refuse to pay and possibly incur debt collection (Anna is not shy about bringing this up). Or, try to contact Sungevity through Solar Spectrum and/or Omnidium and hope they will do something which, so far as i can tell, they won’t because it seems that they too are just working outside of their homes and cars. It’s a total sh_t-show which is such a shame given how promising sungevity was, how promising was their business model, how wonderful was their customer service. sign me up for the class action lawsuits….
I agree, Peter! I’m surprised a class action suit has not been filed yet. I was expecting to get notice in the mail of my eligibility by now. I hope it does happen. I’m so on board!
We are in the same boat. We received an email from Solar Spectrum shortly after Sungevity went bankrupt, telling us they would honor our warranty for 7 years. When I got a bill from SCE in November for $1,700, I realized our system wasn’t producing squat. Tried calling and emailing Solar Spectrum, but still no response. We financed through Mosaic, and we still owe $30,000 for a system that isn’t doing anything and no one to get ahold of to help. Has anyone had a decent resolution?
Today is December 5, 2018 my system went down stopped working in Nov, 2018last month. My PGE bill increased $320.00 in 25 days. I was told by Pacific gas and electric they are not receiving energy from me. That’s how I found out about the bankruptcy when I tried calling for service no answer.. I paid cash over $25,000 in February 2017 for my system. After reading on the internet I contacted solar spectrum. I received a response from solar spectrum and was told I have no warranty. Has anyone been told this by solar spectrum? According to different sites they are called Sungevity/ solar spectrum and they are to honor all warranties . Seems to me they are liable. Please contact me at triciaduran @msn.com if any anybody has any information. Also if there is a class action suit now. I’m very angry looks like this was all a scam. Thank you Patricia Duran
I am in the same boat. Realized only last week my system mot generating for the past 4 months. On contacting Sungevity/Solar spectrum I was told Solar Spectrum just acquired assets and not customers and customers should look for getting systems repaired by themselves. I also feel cheated big time. in fact I referred few friends also and now I feel bad for them as well.
I’m having trouble here too. Purchased the system n everything was good. I recently got a 1k electric bill from SEC n I was like ???. I tried calling solar spectrum n nothing. No one respond. I called the sales representative n he said that someone will be in contact with me. Nothing. What can I do? Do I really have to do a lawsuit against them? If needed to please count me in. Noneno1@hotmail.com
I live in ny, purchased (finance) panels and have 18 years left , I pay 225$ month. I’m getting higher con Ed bills as if I’m not producing electricity. I have no way to monitor anything, no one to contact, and I can kiss my inverter warranty goodbye. I don’t know what else to do. I’m interested in a class action suit as well 914-469-6387
Hi im in CA and having the same problem plus some of my neighbors and I will join the class action lawsuit
DONT GO WITH THIS COMPANY! Solar spectrum. It will save you so much aggravation!
They did good at first to install the panels. 6 months later NOTHING! No power! Excuse after excuse… I did a review on their website and they took it down a day later. Sub standard work. Customer service sucks that’s even if you get a call back. You ask a direct question you will get a BS company line. Oh you have to ask nicely just to get that. You ask for a phone call you can guarantee a e mail. There are 32 more examples of this all documented. They say calls are monitored and recorded. ASK for the recordings. It goes both ways. By law you are entitled .
I will join the civil law suit!
I purchase my solar panels with SUNGEVITY January 7, 2017 and I have not been contacted by any company that took over them for service or just to say we have taken over the account like other companies do.
Same here, I purchased my panels. I spent over 30k , what happens to my warranty and my inverters that they say will be replaced after the 10year shelf life? I can’t monitor my production on the app either anymore.
We also bought a few months before Sungevity bankruptcy. We have not been contacted by either company and all monitoring on their website has ceased. We have not had any trouble and continue to pray that we do not. If we do, we really don’t know what to do.
Who is servicing these systems in Arizona???
Just had an Aurora inverter fail with an Internal Error E031, which is fatal and requires the inverter be replaced.
No one answers the phones at either the Sungevity number or Solar Spectrum number and email to the Sungevity customer service email address bounces back.
ruzi@directcon.net
Include me!
Plz include me as well
Shiffu116@gmail.com
Today I called Southern California Edison complaining because of a huge monthly charge. I actually was blaming it on the San Onofre charge and she told me, no that is just your electricity! We used to always see a small credit on our bill, even after we got our first Volt and plugged it in each night. Now, we are paying Sungevity $80.00 a month (lease payment went up!) and it seems that we are not shown as generating much solar, according to SoCal Edison. That is when I checked and found out monitoring had stopped last October. I had called sometime just before then, and was told my production was fine. The comical thing is, that Sungevity is listed on one site as the top Solar company! I used to love it myself, not just because we got such great service initially, and the installation was so trouble free, but also because the founder really was dedicated to both the science of solar and the energy saving, and Sungevity started as much more than just a business. Maybe that was the problem — maybe they should have been bottom line greedy as most companies appear to be. Anyway, if there is some sort of class action suit, we would join. In the meantime, I need to have my solar panels working and sending data to the electrical company. We are an elderly couple — 82 and 90, and any assistance that can be offered in how we go about getting our panels reporting again would be appreciated.
Power off the inverter and turn it back on if you don’t see any activity on solar charge. Power outage can cause power glitches sometimes.
I have noticed twice that my solar system that was not produce any of solar power on the little monitor that was built on the inverter. I powered off for couple minutes and turn it back on and the system came back to normal
We leasing with SUNGEVITY AUGUST of 2015 , when they went bankrupt Sun Run started taking our payment! Now I need service , one of our solar machines has an error message, my bill with solar department of Edison is already $400 & our year doesn’t end till August ! Sun Run said they would have a technician call us, that was 2 1/2 weeks ago & i have called twice since then , the last 2 times they said someone would call us within 24 hours , that was a week ago & a couple of days ago & nothing . We do need a class action law suit . I’m contacting legal counsel.
I leased my panels from Sungevity in Nov 2010 for 20 years with a performance guarantee. I was told when I asked about the bankruptcy was told we would only be merged with another company and not to worry. I have not been contacted by anyone and I’m definitely beginning to worry. I now have no way to tell what the production is.
Make sure to check out our investigative piece into what sungevity customers are doing after the bankruptcy: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2017/12/sungevity-solar-leases-bankruptcy-headaches/
hello all. I have updated information that may help or give valuable information. After hiring an attorney and going over the lease agreement, I found in my situation with only 2 years left on the lease it was best to keep paying. the reason is that a section in there talks about the end of terms, you have to be in good standing to use the options. At any rate I still needed service, I tried myself to contact Omnidian and had no luck with communication back. As soon as my attorney sent a demand letter for back pay (because they could not prove they were providing me the required power they guaranteed) I received a call and email within the week. Ian Simmons (Omnidian Solar Operations Associate 855-685-1067) set an appointment with a 3rd party company (Tina Castaneda of Indaspec 408-372-6801, based out of Northern California). A representative finally made it out to my house and re-established connectivity to their (Omnidian) monitoring system. The rep said there is a switch inside the converters that needs to be switched over so they could see it. Now i don’t know if that is true, but as soon as he did whatever he did, Sara Murphy (Omnidian Support Team) sent me an email telling me how much energy I produced the day after (which was correct). I’ve emailed them asking how or where I can go to see what they see, and have not received anything back yet.
At the same time I was dealing with that stuff I requested a payoff amount to just be done with them. I was contacted by Sahaune R. (Omnidian Contract Transfer Department 888-981-5713) who told me it would cost me $57,545 for early termination (Shut the front door I said…). Here’s what I asked them-
Hi Sahaune,
Sorry for the late reply, I been out on travel. So looking at the numbers, I have a few questions;
My initial quote that I signed for at the start of my Solar on June 29th, 2010 looked like this (I have my initial quote, which represents these numbers);
– All-inclusive cost – $62,717.00
– Less state Rebate – (-$4,646)
– Less Federal tax credit – (-$17,421)
– My true solar cost – $40,650
Here are my lease payments total: approx. $26,193.
-So, some simple math $40,650 – $26,193 = $14,457.
-I do understand there are some additional cost associated with payoff, but I’m trying to understand how your valuing the 8 year old system more then what my cost originally started at?
Can you please provide me a break down of the $57,545 cost, how you evaluated the fair market value of the system, and associated data that represents this cost.
I do thank you for your time, and am waiting to hear back from you. Thank you.
I still have not heard from anyone on this. To tell you the truth I really don’t expect to. I hope something in here can help someone, and if anyone has anything to add or help us with, please put it here.
If my situation was like some of the others in this chat, I would eat the bullet and just stop paying. Neither Sungevity or Omnidian can take you to court (they could try), because the lease agreement states anything in dispute will be worked out by an arbitrator. Then I would spend the next few years delaying and rescheduling appointments, and see if they really want to take care of their responsibilities. If they did, then I would have them come and take the system away, so i could go with someone that wants my business. Good luck everyone.
Thank you for this! I was forced to take over a Sungevity lease from 2011 for a house I purchased in 7/2017. Different company sent bills but they have no problem deducting my monthly payment of $100. I also have two more years on this lease.
They never monitored the system for the past 22 months!!!! Once lease transferred they dropped the ball. I just found out after I received a $400 bill from SCE! The system went down in November 2018 ( which is weird some other posts here say same time as mine hmmm… ) Isn’t this part of the contract? Omnidian is sending someone out to hook my system back up so they can monitor ( why didn’t they know it was disconnected? ) They said they will reimburse me ummm I’ll let you know, but come on ,they broke contract for 22 months why can’t I break mine?
Joseph, I read your post and sympathize, but I think I can explain some of the discrepancies.
The value of the system was $62.7K. You benefited from some tax credits, but they are not relevant to the system suppliers. Let’s look at your lease payments. A portion of each payment is interest, and the remainder is a paydown of the balance. I don’t know the length of your lease and I also don’t know the interest rate, so I can’t compute the remaining value, but if the payments were half interest and half paydown, you would owe $62.7K (original cost) – ($26.1K (total lease payments) / 2 (to split interest and paydown)). That leaves a balance 49.6K, which is a lot less than $57.5 that they want, but still a lot more than your calculations.
Hope this helps.
As for all the folks who want to sue and wonder why Sungevity can break their contracts … they went bankrupt. And the bankruptcy court sold their assets (meaning your systems) to another company. The bankruptcy court also voided all the liabilities of the former company, which included your monitoring and maintenance plans. So you won’t get very far with legal remedies. That’s all water under the bridge.
I would suggest that you contact the new owners of the assets, and tell them that the assets were purchased together with the maintenance contract, and that they have no value without the contracts. Tell them that if they want the equipment back they can come and get it. They probably will sue you, but you might stand a chance. Talk to a lawyer about this strategy before you try it out. I am not a lawyer and I am not offering legal advice. Just speculating on what I might do in your situation.
Went through Sungevity shortly before bankruptcy..This company preached how all other solar companies were heading to bankruptcy , while they were not.So now Solar Spectrum took over my system. My 25yr warranty is now only 7yrs..My system has not been working, no response from Solar Spectrum..Reached out to them through email and phone multiple times with no response.. Now Im paying for a system that doesnt work and my electric company…I feel they have duped all of us..Any info on what can be done i can be reached at 18455979542..
I have prepaid Sungevity installations on two different houses. I have not been contacted by anyone.
How can I find out who to contact, as the one on the house I’m sending this from seems to have stopped accumulating banked KW.
I have no way of telling if it’s still producing or not.
There is a red fault light flashing once in a while on the panel.
Count me in for the Class Action! My email is cindywu13@gmail.com
We purchased the system from Sungevity back in 2015. Lost monitoring support since 2017. And today just received email from SolSystems who is the company doing SREC for us, telling us they have probelm reporting my system usage to Massachusetts now! Hope this would not mean my SREC payment will be stopped sending over to us quarterly.
I purchased a solar system from Sungevity for 11K. The system went live (PTO) just few months before Sungevity declared bankruptcy. Within few months after purchase, I lost all the monitoring and support. Count me in for the class action. My contact number : (412) 254-3115
We purchased a home in June 2016 with a Sungevity solar system on it already. We had to take over the lease in order to buy the house. It seemed like everything was going well until I tried to track our energy production and get some assistance with maintenance. I’ve sent 3 emails and called multiple times and cannot get ahold of anyone. Very frustrating. We are in San Diego and our bills that come in the mail still say SUNGEVITY on them, but the website says they were bought out by Solar Spectrum. We are very confused as to what to do at this point. My husband wants to stop paying the bill, but I am nervous they will send us to collections. But I agree with all of you above, I think a lawsuit is in order. What they’re doing is not right.
I have a sungevity leased system. So far, so good. I am concerned about what happens when trouble occurs. Please keep me in the loop for any legal action pending.
Thanks
At my breaking point now after reading this thread. We’ve had our system since 2011, thought it was fabulous because the lease made it affordable and someone else had responsibilities formonitoring and repair. Lo and behold now Sungevity no longer exists, I’ve been unable to find a contact, and my power bills are fullprice because apparently my system is either not working or offline. We need to sell and have no idea how to break this lease. Class action suits have never worked in my past experience, but I see no other alternative! Going to instruct my bank to cease paying and see when someone contacts me. At this point I’d just as soon have it all removed and tell them to put their panels “where the sun don’t shine!”
Been with Sungevity since 2011, and disappointed about the bankruptcy. Spoke with Anne in the billing department and was told the monitoring is still working, however, the website is offline, permanently. We have lost that capability as customers. Was also told that starting this year, the back of our Sungevity bill will include the daily system performance of your panels. Be on the lookout for that.
If you are interested in personal solar monitoring for your system, nothing to do with Sungevity or SolarSpectrum, look at the Sense monitor. It installs in your home electrical panel and monitors both the grid and solar lines. http://www.sense.com I am looking into this feature so I can compare what Sungevity shows on my bill .. 🙂
I’d like more information on a class action of one surfaces. We can’t monitor our production any longer and my queries to Solar Spectrum go unanswered. We are also Sungevity customers.
Same here. Purchased the home a year ago with 17 years left on a paid contract. The monitoring has stopped working, so I have no idea if my system is producing or not. Tried contacting Solar Spectrum and was told they only bought certain assets and to try Omnidian. Repeated emails go unanswered. Very frustrated and don’t know what to do.
Definitely think a class action is in order.
US AS WELL. GET NO ANSWERS. 25K SYSTEM WE BOUGHT AND NO ANSWERS ABOUT MONITORING OR WARRANTY. WE NEED TO START A CLASS ACTION. KEN FELTMAN 845.797.3755 IS MY NUMBER. LETS GET TOGETHER
Hi, I hear some of you would like to start or looking for people to join a class action. Please count me in. My panels stopped working and I didn’t pay it any attention until I received a high electricity bill in the summer. I realized I was they weren’t working for 6 months. My bank would only reimburse me for 3 of the months and I haven’t paid them for it. I kept calling them and received a message they were no longer in business. Once they stopped receiving my payments, I received a call from their billing department. They finally sent someone out to fix it but requesting I pay for the months they were not working. I don’t care what their contract says, I’m not paying for those months. The panels came with the house I purchased last year. I wish I read the stupid contract better. Anyway, 973-390-8083 CLASS ACTION NOW!
I believe solar is a big rip off I pay more for electric then I did before sungevety came along how do I get in the law suit
Finally I have found a site that lets me know I am not alone in my frustration. I have a fully paid-for system, installed last January. I got a notice from the company that pays our SRECs that they stopped being able to access data last month. It has been a catch22 ever since then, and SolarSpectrum said that it only purchased “assets” and has nothing to do with my warranties. I talked to SunRun also, but none has my account. I have talked to the manufacturer of my monitor, who said they “had nothing to do with monitoring”, despite the fact that there is a SolarEdge monitoring App available. So again I’m calling them, and the wait time averages 1 hour! The answer may be that I need to hire a local solar company to help out (??)
I am a Sungevity customer before it went bankrupt I understand the changes name. It does seemed that my converter has a false light that will not turn off needy indication the system is not functioning as designed. I have no way of checking my system out through Internet Wi-Fi or what have you. If you can help me in this situation I would greatly appreciate. One who do I talk to. phone number to rectify this issue
Thank you
Norman Harley
631-281-1232 or 516-983-3121. Email address Pastmas93@Yahoo.com
Omnidian took over my contract & I also learned belatedly that the monitoring stopped October 5th. I emailed the billing department and learned that they shut the monitoring down with no opportunity to discuss. I reminded them that they are required by contract to monitor the system. I received this reply:
You may request a production report for your system to be sent to you by calling our customer service team at 866.283.3609.
Thank you,
Sungevity Billing Services
866-283-3609
sungevity@billingnotifications.com
So, I called them & they are going to prepare a report. Of what? no one Knows.
I’m going to email a copy of my Performance Guarantee Contract where it states third party monitoring is required.
Next step? Maybe a class action suit. I have no experience in this but it’s probably inevitable.
I’m in the same boat, but even worse because we are being required to move by my husband’s employer and Omnidian is wanting to charge an obscene amount for us to get out of our lease so we can sell our house. They told me to “make an offer” then when they didn’t like my offer they stopped responding to me altogether. They told me I’m not allowed to speak to the lender directly, that they have to be the go-between but then won’t answer my calls or emails. I think we should definitely start looking at class action options. Reply if you are interested in working together to require them to live up to their promises to their consumers.
Hi there,
So I’ve already retained an attorney to look into this situation. I stater with Sungevity in 2010, and have never missed a payment. I was never contacted by Omnidian, and have been tracking my email communications with Sungevity billing since June 2017 when my system had issues. No one has contacted me and no one has been out to look at my system, and I feel I’m paying for a service I’m not receiving. I think we are all in this boat. The attorney has send a demand letter to both Sungevity and Omnidian. This is not a good situation for us, because we are legally obligated per our contracts, and I feel it will take arbitration (per the contact not court) to work this out. The best option is to work out a buyout, or new contract, but if they don’t talk to us then this will never happen. I am very tempted to stop paying to see if they will contact me. Think of the housing crises, does Omnidian actually have our loans/contracts?? Prove it to me! Sorry just ranting now. I’m in for whatever we need to do, I’m pissed that I have to maintain my obligations when others do not. As soon as I hear something I’ll post an update.
Similar experience. After repeated unanswered emails, I spoke to someone at Omnidian today because I don’t believe my energy production is being received by my electric company. I know the Synergy site stopped working at far as monitoring, so I’m not basing off of that, but on what I am seeing in my electric bill. Omnidian has requested a report on my monitoring so we shall see. At least I was able to speak to someone. Whether this means I will have to hire a local solar company to to tech work or what, I don’t know yet.
I’m planning to shut off the automatic payments ( mine go to Rabobank “rabosolar” ).
Even though my system is working, the monitoring stopped 10/3/2017.
Also, I was getting $100/year back from Sungevity because my system underperforms.
Those payments have stopped too.
The contract(s) with me have been broken. Why should I continue to keep up my end?
They can have their leased system back if they want it, whoever “they” are now.
I think the article above ( not the comments ) is mostly BS too. An industry shill. “oh yeah, they will contact all the existing customers real soon now”. Right. Not unless we vote together with our dollars. Those of us that are still paying monthly for no warranty, no monitoring, no performance guarantee…
Many of us have been robbed. At least some of us, who are STILL being robbed, have an option…
I’m with you Chris. I have an attorney sending a demand letter to both Sungevity and Omnidian (who has taken over payments), and as soon as hear something or not, I’ll let you know. If I don’t hear back from them I’m stopping all payments till contact is made.
I see this post is years old but I was just wondering what happened after you stopped paying? I also send my payments to Rabobank. I’m trying to sell my house and I can’t because of the lien on it from Sungevity and I can’t find any information on who to contact regarding the lien.
Ugh! I had not checked my production in a long time. I finally decided to when I noticed today that both of my inverters were offline. I wanted to find out how long they’d been offline. That’s when I discovered that there is no data for my generation. I didn’t know why, so did a search and found this discussion. I had gotten notices of the bankruptcy, but “assumed” (silly me) that any new company would have to honor the contracts of the Sungevity. Apparently they only signed up for the gathering of money, but none of the support. That is so wrong on so many levels. I partially blame the bankruptcy court for allowing that to happen. As for Solar Spectrum “doing the right thing”… their definition of that is not the same as yours. The only right thing for them is to turn a profit and make the shareholders happy. We are casualties of (financial) war.
Very glad to have stumbled upon this page! I was considering Solar Spectrum but will now probably look elsewhere. They’re certainly not the only game in town.
I think this is absolute fraud. I leased you system. I have had decreased production and no monitoring since the beginning of their bankruptcy. I thought they had the best customer service I have experienced in a long time. I am paying for my lease and electricity. Last year and this year, 1200 $..What happens if I stop paying my lease. They deduct it automatically from my account, and the bank says the company has to stop automatic payments. How illegal is that and who is standing up for all the people who were by ripped off.?
I feel like I’m a little late to the game – didn’t even know Sungevity was going bankrupt – I got my electricity bill this morning and saw that we had used over 1,000 kHw – when we were using less than 200. So then I go online and try and see my solar production and, it hasn’t been working since August 17th – supposed to be a monitored system – since that’s in my contract and they haven’t done that, is this a breach of contract?
Agreed! I received an email stating that customers would receive 7 year warranties in place of the lifetime warranty promised. I am also paying for full price energy on top of my mosaic loan. This isn’t right and can’t seem to find a solution.
I am SO disgusted by Sungevity and the subsequent owner changes!! I bought a specific product for an agreed upon price which was also dependent upon the exceptional warranty. All during our time buying from them they KNEW they were going bankrupt!!! How disgraceful and fraudulent to continue “business as usual”!! No one received their referral fee’s and 2 of the people we referred had horrific problems with their system. I want mine gone and will never be as trusting again!
Seems Solar Spectrum has abandoned everyone who had been doing business with Sungevity. I went to the Sungevity website for a quote, not knowing about the bankruptcy. Got a call back from Solar Spectrum. The salesman was up front about not taking on ANY debts, warranties , etc from Sungevity. Only assets. Proceeded to give me a sales pitch that would have made a used car salesman proud. Deal was for “right now, don’t talk to the wife, it isn’t going to be available come tomorrow”. Never emailed the promised proposal. Would never do business with this company! I really wonder how they can be rated in the top ten solar companies if I can’t find anything good said about them. They must be writing all their own reviews.
Hey everyone, looks like the Sungevity name is back? Solar Spectrum just merged with California’s Horizon Solar Power under the Sungevity brand name. The saga continues:
https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2017/08/sungevity-news-solar-spectrum-merges-horizon-solar-power-sungevity-brand/
i bought my system from Sungevity in December of 2009 and since I bought it Spectrum is doing nothing for me but did say work with the manufacturer to see if they will honor the warrnty
My Sungevity App has been out of commission for at least the last 4 weeks. Can anybody suggest the process by which I can get it re-activated? So many sunny days; I should hate to find the panels have been inactive!
I’m in the same boat. I’ve got an issue with one of my inveters (at least that’s all I can guess since it keeps failing, but could be failing do to the panels for all I know), so now I’m not even fully producing solar from a system I paid for. I’ve only have it about 1.5 years. I called Solar Spectrum, who told me I could reach out to the manufacturer listed on the box! so much for even offering a nicely priced warranty package!
I am in the same boat here. Only purchased the system because of their warranty claims. So far my system has been producing as promised. I guess we will have to keep checking back on these blogs.
I am in the same situation as the above persons, I would like to have coverege for my system because I purchased the system with a 20 years maintenance coverage I wonder were the judge thinking to leave us all hanging.
We bought the system from Sungevity almost two years ago. Were really impressed with their customer service. My wife and I thought it was some of the best customer support we’d ever experienced. Then two days ago, July 19th, 2017, without any warning, the customer portal where we were able to track our solar production stopped working. When I called Solar Spectrum, I was told that customers who outright purchased their solar system from Sungevity would no longer have access to this monitoring system and that we should check with whatever company provided our solar inverter, in our case Locus Energy. I guess since we’re no longer a revenue stream for Sungevity/Solar Spectrum – we’re not worth supporting in any way. Pretty sad way to lose the respect and trust of your customers, Sungevity/Solar Spectrum, or whatever name you think works for you.
John Yacono
Locus Energy field hardware is installed to monitor my Sungevity residential solar system. They offer residential system monitoring service, 5 years for $181.82, which is little more than $36 a month. They provide monitoring service to support solar installation companies. Their service is web-accessible and offers essentially the same monitoring capability Sungevity did, except their screen presentation is a little different. See a brief description of their service here: https://www.civicsolar.com/product/locus-energy-residential-monitoring-service-5-years.
And an image of their screen presentation is contained in this pdf: http://documents.locusenergy.com/SolarOS-Site_Owner_App_Product_Sheet.pdf
Contact Locus Energy for more info: sales@locusenergy.com
John,
A correction to my 10/1/17 comment: the cost is not $36 a month. $181.82 for 5 years is about $3 per month; 36$ per year. Also some background info that might help:
System production monitoring consists of field data acquisition hardware (Locus in my case), a data processing facility (Locus Energy in my case), and communication media (assume that to be the web) to connect the two. The field monitor acquires raw production data, codes it into transmittable intelligence acceptable to the processing facility, and sends it to the facility via the web. The facility converts the intelligence it receives into a format understandable to humans, stores it for each individual solar system, and makes it accessible via web to whoever has an active facility account for that particular system.
Suggestions. Open or remove the front panel of the box containing your solar system monitoring field hardware. It will contain some kind of logic hardware, such as a printed circuit board, which acquires system production data. Copy all the information you see on its nameplate, best being a clear close-up photo if you can take one. Nameplate should identify manufacturer and hopefully their contact information. Contact that manufacturer to see if they can help you regain ability to monitor your system.
If you have or hire a system service provider, that provider should be able to open an account for you with the data acquisition company. You could then monitor your system on the Locus web site. I know it would be well worth $3 a month (if Locus is the acquisition company) to me to be able to monitor my system production – if the service provider would not pay it for me.
I hope this helps you.
It is criminal what Sungevity has done. The only reason why I went with them and purchased my system through them is because they backed it with a 20 year production warranty. If solar spectrum wants to do the right thing, they should honor those contracts and the production guarantees made.
Sulaiman Mayel
Smayel1@aol.com
Absolutely! We’re are dealing with that right now with a lot of difficulty with them.
“Attractively priced” for something we already paid for. I have a prepaid system, cash up front, with a warranty for the system and generation for 20 years. We should note that the counsel for the debtors have now withdrawn the request to reject all contracts since the leases would require them to give up all rights to the installed equipment. Note below the motion filed 5/2/2017.
PLEASE TAKE FURTHER NOTICE THAT THE DEBTORS HEREBY WITHDRAW THEIR
REQUEST TO REJECT THE CONTRACTS LISTED IN THE MOTION AND HEREBY WITHDRAW THE
MOTION IN ITS ENTIRETY.
Same here. Funny that when we bought the system, Sungevity told us the new owner would take over the warranty if they bankrupt. Any “attractively priced warranty” will simply be more money paid to the new general contractor named Solar Spectrum. Wonder if it would be actually more economical just to hire licensed/experienced local solar electricians/installers to do the work.
Yes, local is the answer.
Big corporations don’t give a rat’s ass about the customer, or the installers for that matter.
Sungevity went bankrupt on my company and offered me a settlement of 15%.
I started my business with a home equity loan, Sungevity decided it was theirs.