Abysmal customer service Tesla solar

[moi]

Hi all,

Stuck in a crappy situation and I was wondering what you all would do. I bought a 6.8kW solar panel system (not solar roof) from Tesla outright in 2020. After tax incentives, it costs about $10K. The house was built in 1997. I should have gotten the roof replaced before putting on the panel but I was trying to beat the deadline for the tax incentive. Tesla said the roof was good. If the panels need to be removed and reinstalled to repair the roof, it'll be $2000 (verbal quote from one of the installation workers).

Fast forward to this year, multiple places were leaking but I don't think it's due to the solar panel (they would charge $500 to come out and see if it's really their fault, and if it's not, I just wasted $500). So I asked if they can come and remove and reinstall the panels, and they flat out said no. They got no one available because they are too busy. I think this was back in April. They couldn't even tell me when they would be available to do it. They have ONE Tesla authorized 3rd party installer in LA. So I contacted them. Turned out they do a lot more than just Tesla related stuff, and so I asked them to do both the solar panel removal and reinstall and redo the roof.

So 3rd party contractor came, removed all the panels, and redid the roof. All good. When it came time to reinstall, the 3rd party says, they are used to the mounty hardware they use, but not the Tesla mounting hardware. Project coordinator emailed Tesla if they could use their preferred mounting hardware rather than the Tesla one, without violating terms of Tesla warranty. They write back, it WILL void all power generation, inverter, whatever warranty!!

So the 3rd party installer then tried to ask ME to figure out how many of each of the 20 different mounting parts from Tesla they need, and detailed technical diagram of how to install using Tesla hardware. I was like why am I getting involved in this? I told to contact Tesla directly and leave me out of it. At this point, neither Tesla or 3rd party installer were very proactive in getting problem solved. Turns out the Tesla 3rd party installer only have experience with Tesla solar roof, but it doesn't look like they're familiar with Tesla solar panel mounting hardware (the third party company even asked me what kind of mounting hardware was used to install the solar panels, and I did correctly inform them it's ZEP hardware, which is used by Tesla, and they said okay we can take care of it).

The 3rd party installer points finger at Tesla and says, see it's Tesla's fault for not providing us with detailed specs of number of parts needed to mount and did not provide diagram on installation. Tesla only emails (can't get a hold of anyone on phone) and I was getting passed around from one department to another and eventually response stopped. Yes I was doing to communication with Tesla and CC'ing the third party installer because the third party installer isn't doing much. After like 5-6 weeks of trying to sort out this mounting hardware nonsense, I got really frustrated and I wrote one last time to Tesla, in a combination of begging, imploring, and threat (if I don't hear a response, I'm going to complain on social media and get a lawyer involved. I figured there was nothing to lose, because Tesla doesn't look like they were planning to be helpful). And not surprisingly, no response for a week.

The work on the actual project started 7/5/23. It took a day for the solar panels to be removed. Once the roofers came, they finished removing all the tiles and replaced all the underlayment and put the tiles back in place in about 4 days. So nothing has been happening since approx 7/14/23.

Later Tesla emails (yet another person from another department who probably has no awareness what's going on), oh now we have crew available to do removal and reinstall. Their cost is $4000 for removal and $2000 to reinstall!! (really annoying because if I was on a power purchasing contract, I would have needed to pay $500 for both the removal and reinstall).

With the third party contractor, the contract was about $30K and I've paid them all installments except the last $6000 pending solar panel reinstall.

So now this is where I am.

1) Tell the third party installer to go ahead and reinstall the panels using their preferred mounting hardware. Forfeit whatever Tesla warranty that came with the panels. It feels like Tesla warranty is probably worth nothing from this experience as it was incredibly difficult to get them to do anything.

2) Try to get Tesla to come do the reinstall for $2000 and see if the third party would refund $2000 to me to let Tesla complete the job. Many difficulties with this though. I don't know if Tesla organization is flexible enough that they would be willing to come to do the reinstall when it was someone else who did the removal, and would they do it for $2000, and would they honor the warranty in this unique scenario. My impression is Tesla customer service have some preset combo of services that they wouldn't allow ordered a-la-cart. I also don't think the third party installers would allow that either. It's just too much negotiation all around to try to make this work.

3) go with 1), and try to negotiate with the third party installer that years down the line when my panels have problems, they would come and fix the problem at a discounted cost?

4) go with 1), and years down the line when my panels have problems, try to get Tesla to come and fix it anyways?

What would you do? Do I have any option other than going with 1)? Any other recourse I have?

[moi]

bump!

[HomeStretch]

… If the panels need to be removed and reinstalled to repair the roof, it'll be $2000 (verbal quote from one of the installation workers). …

… Later Tesla emails (yet another person from another department who probably has no awareness what's going on), oh now we have crew available to do removal and reinstall. Their cost is $4000 for removal and $2000 to reinstall!! (really annoying because if I was on a power purchasing contract, I would have needed to pay $500 for both the removal and reinstall).

With the third party contractor, the contract was about $30K and I've paid them all installments except the last $6000 pending solar panel reinstall. …

Consider having Tesla reinstall the equipment for $2k and offer to pay the third-party installer $4k after the Tesla reinstall ($6k balance due minus $2k pmt to Tesla). My guess is the 3rd party installer will be happy to collect $4k more and not have to do any more work.

[barnaclebob]

Just because Tesla says something voids the warranty doesn't make it true. The company is run by a liar, they are going to lie to you. A car manufacturer cant void a powertrain warranty on a car because you changed a headlight yourself.

See the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, particularly prohibited tie ins. My understanding is that the burden of proof is on the manufacturer to show that unauthorized parts or servicing caused a malfunction before they can deny coverage.
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/r ... nuson-Moss

Personally I'd let the install company use their hardware and be ready to fight with tesla if there's an unrelated power generation issue down the road. You are going to have to fight them no matter if tesla does the install or the 3rd party does so what are you losing by taking the easy road?

[snic]

Sorry about your travails. I'm curious why you went with Tesla solar to begin with? Water under the bridge, but it seems like $30k for a 6.8 kW system is well within the range that local installers could have done. Does Tesla provide any advantage?

[gpburdell]

Try posting over on the Teslar solar subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaSolar/

[moi]

Try posting over on the Teslar solar subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaSolar/

Yeah, the subreddit pretty much confirms once Tesla sells you the panels, the customer service is bad.

[moi]

Sorry about your travails. I'm curious why you went with Tesla solar to begin with? Water under the bridge, but it seems like $30k for a 6.8 kW system is well within the range that local installers could have done. Does Tesla provide any advantage?

Actually I paid $15K for the system, and after tax incentives it was around $10K. It was cheap that's why I picked Tesla. Now I know why it's cheap, because they don't fund their customer service department adequately.

The $30K I spent this year, is for a 3rd party company to remove the panels, redo the whole roof (tile removal, replace the underlayment, vents, etc, and put back the tiles and replace any broken tiles), and then reinstall the panel. The removal and reinstall probably added around $5000 to the job.

[moi]

Just because Tesla says something voids the warranty doesn't make it true. The company is run by a liar, they are going to lie to you. A car manufacturer cant void a powertrain warranty on a car because you changed a headlight yourself.

See the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, particularly prohibited tie ins. My understanding is that the burden of proof is on the manufacturer to show that unauthorized parts or servicing caused a malfunction before they can deny coverage.
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/r ... nuson-Moss

Personally I'd let the install company use their hardware and be ready to fight with tesla if there's an unrelated power generation issue down the road. You are going to have to fight them no matter if tesla does the install or the 3rd party does so what are you losing by taking the easy road?

Thank you for this suggestion.

My thinking is that forcing the third party installer to mount the panels using hardware they are unfamiliar with (the Tesla owned ZEP hardware), if probably asking for trouble anyway. I'm just going to tell the third party to install using whatever hardware they prefer.

Later, if I run into trouble with the panels or the inverter, I'll contact Tesla for warranty repair anyway. But yeah, even if it was Tesla that did the removal and reinstall, it sounds like contacting them for warranty repair is going to be an abysmal experience, just like this one LOL.

[Valuethinker]

Just because Tesla says something voids the warranty doesn't make it true. The company is run by a liar, they are going to lie to you. A car manufacturer cant void a powertrain warranty on a car because you changed a headlight yourself.

See the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, particularly prohibited tie ins. My understanding is that the burden of proof is on the manufacturer to show that unauthorized parts or servicing caused a malfunction before they can deny coverage.
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/r ... nuson-Moss

Personally I'd let the install company use their hardware and be ready to fight with tesla if there's an unrelated power generation issue down the road. You are going to have to fight them no matter if tesla does the install or the 3rd party does so what are you losing by taking the easy road?

Thank you for this suggestion.

My thinking is that forcing the third party installer to mount the panels using hardware they are unfamiliar with (the Tesla owned ZEP hardware), if probably asking for trouble anyway. I'm just going to tell the third party to install using whatever hardware they prefer.

Later, if I run into trouble with the panels or the inverter, I'll contact Tesla for warranty repair anyway. But yeah, even if it was Tesla that did the removal and reinstall, it sounds like contacting them for warranty repair is going to be an abysmal experience, just like this one LOL.

I would go with what the installer is familiar with.

Solar panels have a very long life (decades) unless there is some fundamental manufacturing flaw. Inverters don't last as long (10-15 years?).

I am afraid the Tesla business model is "light touch" ie no real after sales service & support.

[moi]

Update - with more Qs.

Got Tesla Solar panels installed on roof in 2020. Roof leaked, so I engaged a 3rd party contractor to remove solar panel, replace underlayment of roof, and reinstall solar panel (same company for the panel removal/reinstall). Had to use 3rd party contractor because Tesla was not available, and the 3rd party contractor is Tesla Certified for their solar roof product.

When it came time to reinstall the solar panel, the 3rd party used mounting hardware they are familiar with rather than the Tesla mounting hardware. The 3rd party contractor I believe subbed out the panel reinstall to a subcontractor. When the subcontractor was remounting the panel, I asked if the panel layout could be change from the original layout so more panels are facing south and west. The sub agreed.

The original contract stipulated that permits would be pulled for the reinstall. However, I never got the permit. I discussed this with the owner of the 3rd party contractor, and said I would hold back $1600 final payment until the permit was obtained. This was discussed (12/2023). It wasn't a pleasant conversation as the owner said it was my fault to have asked for change in layout and that wasn't part of the original contract. (I don't really trust him because after the solar guy was done I asked the owner if they made sure there any broken tiles are replaced, and he said yes everything was good. And then the next day, I went on the roof, found a bunch of broken tiles and took photos and sent to him, and that's when he agreed to send someone to fix the broken tiles.) Since the (12/2023) discussion, crickets and no permit.

The company now have sent me two emails saying that said I owe them $1600. After the first email, I responded with a copy of our original contract, and stated that the contract terms have not been completed and the final payment will be given upon the receipt of the permit. I asked them when will be the permit be obtained. Nothing happened, and then a second email was sent, and I responded the same, "where's the permit?"

Questions:

Should I be concerned that no permit was obtained for the solar reinstall? Would this cause some kind of problem in the future? When I sell the house?

Should I call the owner and say since he never got the permit, why doesn't he just discount $1600 and write a receipt that I have paid him in full? Of note, the total job cost between the roof + solar removal reinstall was about $31000.

What would you do?

[Harmanic]

Update - with more Qs.

Got Tesla Solar panels installed on roof in 2020. Roof leaked, so I engaged a 3rd party contractor to remove solar panel, replace underlayment of roof, and reinstall solar panel (same company for the panel removal/reinstall). Had to use 3rd party contractor because Tesla was not available, and the 3rd party contractor is Tesla Certified for their solar roof product.

When it came time to reinstall the solar panel, the 3rd party used mounting hardware they are familiar with rather than the Tesla mounting hardware. The 3rd party contractor I believe subbed out the panel reinstall to a subcontractor. When the subcontractor was remounting the panel, I asked if the panel layout could be change from the original layout so more panels are facing south and west. The sub agreed.

The original contract stipulated that permits would be pulled for the reinstall. However, I never got the permit. I discussed this with the owner of the 3rd party contractor, and said I would hold back $1600 final payment until the permit was obtained. This was discussed (12/2023). It wasn't a pleasant conversation as the owner said it was my fault to have asked for change in layout and that wasn't part of the original contract. (I don't really trust him because after the solar guy was done I asked the owner if they made sure there any broken tiles are replaced, and he said yes everything was good. And then the next day, I went on the roof, found a bunch of broken tiles and took photos and sent to him, and that's when he agreed to send someone to fix the broken tiles.) Since the (12/2023) discussion, crickets and no permit.

The company now have sent me two emails saying that said I owe them $1600. After the first email, I responded with a copy of our original contract, and stated that the contract terms have not been completed and the final payment will be given upon the receipt of the permit. I asked them when will be the permit be obtained. Nothing happened, and then a second email was sent, and I responded the same, "where's the permit?"

Questions:

Should I be concerned that no permit was obtained for the solar reinstall? Would this cause some kind of problem in the future? When I sell the house?

Should I call the owner and say since he never got the permit, why doesn't he just discount $1600 and write a receipt that I have paid him in full? Of note, the total job cost between the roof + solar removal reinstall was about $31000.

What would you do?

Sorry this happened to you. I had a similar issue with my roof, but I used a local contractor and everything went smoothly.

If it were me, I would hire a lawyer to respond before they put a contractor's lien on your property. I would also contact the town about the permit. I think they might want to have a word with the contractor. When I did this with an oil tank that should have had a permit, but didn't, the contractor responded right away and paid the permit fees and inspection fees.

[HomeStretch]

When you say the “original contract”, do you mean you have a contract with the contractor who did the latest work or are you referring to the original contract for installation with Tesla Corp.?

If you have a valid written contract with the contractor you hired directly for this most recent work that specifies a permit must be pulled and closed for this work, then you should have reasonable grounds for withholding payment until you receive it. Document it in a written letter to the company sent by certified mail.

If you don’t have such a written contract, you may be on shakier ground if they don’t provide the permit and file a lien for the balance due.

Every town is different about permitting. In my town, I would not go to the Town Building Dept about this. They would tell me I shouldn’t have allowed the work to start without seeing the permit and that the permit needs to be displayed on the work premises until closed. They would also require me as the homeowner to pull a permit after-the-fact (if the contractor will not) in order to come out and do an inspection. I as the homeowner would be required to pay the permit fee and remedy any inspection deficiencies. The town would not get involved in forcing the contractor to correct the deficiencies. Though the town inspectors have long memories and likely would remember it the next time the contractor tried to pull a permit.