IQ Power

is not our client; however, we did find that her son purchased a system in August of 2015 for his home. We have thoroughly reviewed the contract, file, and all notes associated with the file, and there is no mention of any removals, reinstalls or quotes regarding such. I am also uncertain as to where she got the information she listed as there is no indication that she has spoken to anyone in our company, and there have been no complaints, service calls, or claims of leaks since his installation in 2015.

Yet, to address her statement of moving a system from an existing house to a new house, this is not something we can quote over the phone and not something we typically recommend. If selling a home, we find it is more advantageous to sell the home with the solar system. It creates a home sale advantage by being energy efficient, often resulting in a higher asking price. Second, by putting a new system on a new home it allows for the use of the Federal tax credit, updated and newer solar technology, and is often more cost effective. The reason for this is that no two roofing structures are identical. Moving solar from one house to another would still entail all the costs of a new system such as: new engineering, new permitting, new interconnection agreements, new mounting, and possibly new inverters. So, moving a system from one home to another isn't always in the best interest of the client and not something we recommend. If a removal of a system is expected (possibly due to a client knowing they are getting a new roof within a short period of time), it is always written on the contract and typically only written for a maximum of 12 months. Yet, once again, there was no mention of this in notes, nor was it written on the contract.

As I mentioned before, I can't quote moving them to a new home without engineering and a lot of other details. However, to remove a system his size and put it back, we charge $6000. To simply take ALL panels down and not put them back is $1500. If it's only a few panels that need to be lifted for a repair, that would be less. She has not indicated if she's getting an entirely new roof or just repairing a section. With more information, we can provide a more accurate quote.

Mr. H,

First, I want to apologize that your experience with IQ Power Solar has led you to feel this way. We serve over 8,000 clients, and we invest great energy in creating an excelsior customer experience for each one in a neighborly fashion. Unfortunately, we seem to have fallen short with you, and that is not acceptable to me or anyone on the IQ Team.

In reviewing your prior emails and your Revdex.com review, I can certainly understand how a small sequence of confusions have led to your frustration. I am going to address each concern you've expressed. To be clear, I am not responding in justification but to create transparency and understanding that while IQ Power is not perfect, we are a competent and customer-oriented family that's dedicated to you (our deeply valued customer).

The initial failed inspection.

Often times when a system's production surpasses a certain level, tapping into the live electricity feed at the pole is necessary. As you are well versed in the electrical field, you likely know this as a "line side tap". As the residential demand for larger PV systems has increased, this has become a relatively common amendment to an otherwise normal install. Point being, we have done many of these in central Florida as well as Winter Park specifically. Now, with every solar install, we provide site-specific engineering to the local inspector's office with the goal of gaining a permit to begin install. Sometimes they will require more information before approving the permit, sometimes they will reject different details in the engineering requesting new drawings, and more commonly, they will approve a permit to begin work. In your particular case, the inspector had an issue with a "split-bolt" and required a "bonding c tap". Prior to this, we have never had this issue before, and according to the inspector, this was a newer adjustment in your particular municipality. Unfortunately, they didn't mention this when they approved the very engineered drawing that they later "failed" on inspection.

Again, regardless of "why", I am sorry for this inconvenience.

When you became aware that you failed the inspection, you called the office at 4:30 pm and were unable to speak with anyone in management as the permitting and install admin department is open Monday thru Friday from 9 am - 4 pm. After 4 pm, the headquarter office staff consists of our appointment setting team which have only been trained to set, validate and confirm the following day's appointments. I understand that in the heat of the failed inspection this created further frustration and for this, I apologize.

The following day at roughly 11 am I received an email regarding your concerns, along with two handwritten notes on my desk clarifying your request to speak with a manager. At this time, within 48 hours of the error and the first time I was back to the office as I was out for one day, you had already expressed your frustrations on google reviews. As I take customer inconvenience seriously, I called you immediately. I called you twice from the office and twice from my cell phone. Later that day, I was informed by my permitting department that you were intentionally avoiding my call. While I understand you were upset, this very much came as a surprise to me considering that I have never had the opportunity to speak with you and you requested my call. It was later that day that my permit team received an email from you saying that you didn't wish to speak with anyone and she can just email you. I then immediately called your IQ Power representative to see if you had reached out to him to voice any concerns. He stated that he hadn't heard from you, but made it very clear that if you had any issues whatsoever, he was available. After a brief discussion, your IQ Power Rep then contacted you, and you had a small conversation with him expressing your frustrations to him for the first time. He then explained that the IQ Power management is deeply customer service driven, and that any of your matters were being taken very seriously. He then asked you why you were ignoring my call, and pleaded with you to call me or take my call as it is a necessary part of our resolution process. He also voiced specific concerns about the *** metering process not being completed and was very clear that accessible and timely communication was necessary to avoid any error. However, you still avoided any phone calls from myself or any member of our staff. Again, I understand that you were upset, however, both our installation, our permitting and our interconnection process requires telephone accessibility with the client. As this has never been an issue before, our staff is trained specifically in this way. Moving forward, in regard to the part that was necessary to correct the failed inspection, I immediately called our distributor to inquire as to why the 4 day delivery. To be clear, while I understand you may have attempted to help by calling random vendors in regard to the part, we get our parts from a specific distributor and are subject to their avail abilities. They informed me that the part was coming from their Tampa hub. This was at 12:05 on the same day that I called you 4 times. I then decided to have my Tampa sales rep pick up the part and drive it to us immediately and we were able to resolve the issue the same day. Now, while I understand you were frustrated with the original consideration of 4 days, the problem was actually resolved within 36 hours. Unfortunately, this did not relieve your frustrations and you still decided to avoid telephone communication. Again, I apologize that you felt this way.

In regard to *** and the Interconnection process, this process is completely out of our control. On a consistent basis, their connection takes between 2 weeks and 4 weeks and sometimes they have taken as long as six months. It is no surprise that they are very lackadaisical in finalizing a solar installation and we have hardly experienced joyful interaction with them. While I am sorry that you were told we didn't submit your documents, you were simply misinformed. Our permit team submitted the necessary documents immediately after your inspection was passed on the same day. Furthermore, I contacted *** the second I reviewed this Revdex.com complaint and they preceded to tell me that they didn't say we didn't submit, but they did admit they "might have said they didn't review", but they did confirm they received the documents from us and needed nothing further from IQ Power. While this also creates frustration and concern for us, I can certainly understand why the lack of clarity creates further frustration for you. Also, I was made aware that as of today, your meter has been installed which again is much earlier than their projected timeline. Maybe interrogatory call to them helped after all. None the less, I'm sorry that you had to experience this but I can assure you that this is a common inconvenience with the interconnection process that we make substantial efforts to absorb for our clients.

Mr. H, I sincerely hope this creates clarity on how these very human errors and misunderstanding transpired allowing you to regain a little trust in our team. While the solar engineering, permitting, installation and interconnection process is very difficult involving dozens of moving parts, we spend a great deal of energy trying to make it as "turn key" as possible for you, the customer. Even though sometimes we fail at this, it is my deep hope that you can forgive the frustrations and keep faith in our team as we will be here for you not only in the completion and finalization of the install, but to service and warranty you in time of need without fail. Moving forward, please understand how important our ability to get a hold of you on the phone is to provide this level of customer service as both our process and our training revolves around it and relying on our less timely email system may result in further time delay and frustration. Also, if you have ANY concerns, I am personally available to you via telephone. If I don't answer your call or I am out of the office, I will personally call you back within 24 hours. I can only hope that you will accept this resource if any other problems should arise as it is the most timely and effective resolution route.

Sincerely,

Stephen ***
Chief Operating Officer
IQ Power Solar

Thank you Mark. It's been a pleasure to serve you.

Thank you Mr. D! You have been a joy to work with.

In the initial visit with IQ Power you presented an average bill of $215.00 per month. While evaluating your home and energy usage, it was determined that due to many of your home systems being inefficient (Hot water tank, single speed pool pump, attic insulation below code) much of your bill could be addressed with energy efficiency. A 16 panel (5.68kw) system was proposed along with these energy efficient products. As to JEA "cutting a check", this is language that neither IQ Power nor its sales teams use. We can only address and target your previous electricity usage up until the day of our consultation and we have no control of your usage after that. Many factors can affect your bill than when we first consulted with you. As to the tax credit eligibility ($8,300), neither IQ Power nor its sales reps are accountants. We are very clear about the tax credit portion of the agreement. We never promise it as it depends on your current tax situation which we do not know and we do not discuss. We simply inform you that you are eligible for a 30% Federal Tax Credit on Qualified solar products. We do not use language like "all at once" etc. In any event, your sales rep did recommend you talk with your accountant or tax professional. The IQ Power sales rep recalls your response to the tax credit as -laughing, and saying "I will be fine! I pay A LOT of taxes".

We have a very clear customer experience agenda throughout the entire process. We try and install every other component to each agreement as swiftly as possible. Each customer is informed throughout the permitting process and we call to schedule as soon as it's approved. The period from when your contract was signed on 05/17/18 to the expiration of your "3 day right to cancel period" was on end of day 05/21/18. This is when we can formally act on your agreement. The period between 05/21/18 and the first scheduled installation day 06/21/18 is not only very fair but a quicker than average timeline of 6-8 weeks. In regard to calling the office and asking about your "light bill," it has been made very clear to you as it is all of our customers that our proposed systems must be evaluated on a 12 month basis. Using our process, you can only determine the value of a proposed system based on 12 months of data after the system is interconnected and fully operational. Also, I will take this opportunity to outline that during your interactions with IQ Power, its presite staff, installation staff, administration staff and management staff, Both Mr. and Mrs. used aggressive profanity repeatedly to the point that we had to warn them that if they continued the call would be disconnected. However, we never actually had to disconnect the call because they would hang up after that, and a few minutes later, someone else representing their concerns would call back.

After multiple days of redundant verbal abuse between Mr and Mrs *** to virtually every member of our team, it was decided that they could only communicate with upper level management. At that time, when a manager made contact, Mrs *** proceeded to explain her opinion of multiple members of the team using further abusive and vulgar language. At that time, the manager said very clearly (with witnesses). "Mrs ***, I understand that you are upset. I am here and am willing to listen to and address every concern you have. All that I ask is that you refrain from hostile and violent language and discontinue the use of vulgarity". At that time, she hung up the phone. A few minutes later, Mr *** called and spoke with the same manager and the conversation seemed to have gone very well as it ended in Mr *** thanking the manager. We are a very communicative and accessible company. We make it a point to "over communicate" with our clients because we understand how valuable communication is. The idea that a client cannot "get ahold of us" is simply not valid.

As to the "Laborers" leaving the yard a mess. Our install team insists that this is simply untrue. Our install team is very professional and have never received a complaint of this nature at any point in their upward of 7 year relationship here at IQ.
As to the "problem in the panel". Our technician did identify a pre-existing problem in your home's electrical panel. While he did briefly explain his opinion, He also made it clear that an electrician would have to fix the problem. Mr. then proceeded to ask for a referral of someone to repair. We gladly accommodate his request. Mr. then spoke with our administration staff who recommended a subcontracted electrician that we have been using for years. Due to the subcontractor electrician having the same name as our install manager, there was some initial confusion. When we clarified the confusion, we were called liars immediately and accused of making up stories.

As to the Water heater. A hybrid hot water heater is a system that uses smart pump technology allowing the heat from the garage space to heat the water in addition to standard electricity. This hybrid function saves a great deal of money. When installing the hybrid tank there was a problem identified with the hybrid pump function. While it couldn't be repaired immediately, the technician offered to reinstall their previous tank, which they did not allow. The hybrid also has a standard electric mode, so the technician set it up in that mode until the hybrid mode was fixed. The family was NEVER left without hot water. The tank was up and running at normal capacity immediately the following morning.

As to the "ground wire issue". While installing the variable speed pool pump, there was an abnormal concern with the ground wire. Due to this being outside of our normal scope of work, we didn't have the necessary parts available on the truck. The technician made sure the breaker to the variable speed pool pump was off and then informed Mrs *** of the issue and explained he was leaving the site to go to ***. The technician retrieved the parts and fixed the problem within 20 minutes. While he was gone, the breaker to the pool pump remained off and there was never any live electricity or danger in any way. However, Mr *** called into the office asking for the manager which immediately spoke with him while he proceeded to explain that he received a call from his upset wife and wanted clarity on the concern. It was made very clear that there was no danger, simply taken out of context. This conversation also went well and ended in Thanks.

A few things to consider:

-Within our normal process, a concerned customer would maintain one point of contact on the admin team which would readily address all of their concerns. However, due to the nature of Mr and Mrs ***'s abusive and vulgar interactions, not only were they constantly speaking with whatever remaining staff they hadn't yet abused, but they also had different members of the family taking turns which clearly creates extreme potential for confusion and misunderstanding.

-Because of the pre-existing issue with the home's electrical panel, Mr *** later refused to "submit funding". He proceeded to say we lied about there being two different technicians with the same name and we were just trying to avoid having to fix this pre-existing condition. We explained repeatedly that this was not a part of our agreement yet the additional costs were not charged to the ***s, yet they continued to not pay for their contract. We decided to cover the cost of fixing this AT NO COST to them as an attempt to keep things calm and easy. Of course, this went well and ended in many thanks.

-A few days later there was a small leak with a portion of the plumbing in the vicinity of the pool pump. Mr *** said that "it wasn't leaking before, and it's leaking now." He then insisted that we fix that as well. When our technician went to evaluate the leak, he realized that it had nothing to do with the pump mechanism that we installed. He also took notice
of a stain that had developed on rocks from the leak over time insinuating that it had been leaking for much longer than a few days. The result, we decided to cover the cost of fixing this AT NO COST to them as an attempt to keep things calm and easy. Of course, this went well and ended in many thanks.

We have never been accused of such an invalid customer experience. We are a very honest and fair company. We have never instructed, enabled, embraced or tolerated any lying or concerns of misleading nature on behalf of our team. We take great pride in our honest and communicative approach followed by a stellar customer experience model and we have thousands of clients that have served as a testimony to that simply in their loyalty and referrals to us. If this kind of Libelous behavior ensues, we WILL be taking legal action.

When the tech tried to remove the element he broke two tools due to corrosion. It was the tech's assessment that the element could not be removed without damaging the tank. Therefore, the only other solution would be a new tank. None of the techs are commission based or incentivized to upsell any client product or parts. As well, IQ offered the 120 gallon tank at an 80 gallon price which would have only covered its cost. This was not about gouging the client nor about lining their pockets as you have stated. It simply was a tech's assessment of a situation where he tried to make a decision based on his analysis. We're sorry we couldn't have fixed the tank for you, but are happy that this was resolved by another plumber.

Though you, as Revdex.com, want a response to close this report out, there really is no further response as it has been already stated. I will simply reiterate what was previously stated. Our technician made a call based on his assessment of the situation and it had nothing to do with anything further. If the tech thought he could have fixed the tank, he would have. He thought he was going to damage the tank and therefore, didn't want to take the chance. We're happy the Voiselles were able to find someone who was willing to take a chance and had good luck with the result.

Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of your contracted dated and signed by both Lawrence & *** on 10/26/17. As you know, you were updated weekly with the status of your installation for which we pre-sited on 11/7, submitted forms to your HOA for you installation on 11/9, had site specific engineering completed on 11/14, and received a filed permit approval from the Lake county on 12/1. You then scheduled the installation for 12/12 for which we ordered the equipment and custom cut the racking for your home. You cancelled the job the day before the installation. Per the Terms and Conditions of the Sales Agreement you could cancel your contract within 3 business days of the contract or 10/31. Or, should you have cancelled prior to our rendering services and incurring fees in order to obtain the engineering, permits and equipment, we would have cancelled without hesitation. However, due to the fact that costs were incurred, fees paid and services performed, costs are the responsibility of the customer per the Terms and Conditions of your Contract. We could have also charged a re-stocking fee for the equipment ordered since the cancellation only came a few hours prior to the installation date, however, the owner waived this additional fee.

As for not giving a deposit, you did authorize a deposit of $2600 on your credit card ending in ***; however, this was not charged ahead of time by the company.

As for the lien, *** signed the NOC (Notice of Commencement) in order to file the permit for your installation which automatically places a lien on the property.

The final statement about the contract leaving out specific details is also false as it clearly states the size of system, panel brand, type and power, as well as # of panels.

We will be happy to release the lien once our costs are covered.