Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

... but it is difficult to think that not one of the 10,000 properties with ASG systems hasn't been sold in the past two years. Also making such a statement(that many customer's homes have been sold) if untrue, would get the firm in deep trouble.

Hi

That's reallydown to the personal perception on how deep the recession has been and how the deflation in the housing market has been reflected in the level of offers made for properties.

Effectively, it's pretty easy to sit behind the excuse of the current economic situation to explain a property not reaching a perceived market value ... I just wonder what would happen if there was no recession - kings clothes (or lack of) and all that .... having said that, I do feel some empathy for the individual(s) selling the property which has been raised a number of times on this thread, but then again, it's pretty likely that they were looking at the solar panel installation as simply being no cost method of boosting the value of a property which they had already decided to sell, or at least increasing it's saleability, in which case they should simply have considered their options a little more carefully ....

HTH
Z

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Doc_N wrote: »

Difficult to believe that those panels, along with the total lack of any income stream from them, isn't affecting the sale.

With a big enough drop in price there would be enough cash left for any purchaser to buy out the R-a-R company.

Cardew

Many of our customers’ homes have already been sold with our free systems in place without any problem whatsoever.

It did occur to me that some of their customers' sales could have been to cash buyers!!!!

DonSwan

Cardew wrote: »

ASG are very careful to state that their lease meets the requirements of the various mortgage lenders - and I don't doubt that is true.

However that doesn't mean that their panels, and hence a restrictive lease, might deter lenders - especially in these days when it is difficult to get a mortgage. Or they could make one of their cheaper mortgages unavailable.

I am no fan of RAR systems, but it is difficult to think that not one of the 10,000 properties with ASG systems hasn't been sold in the past two years. Also making such a statement(that many customer's homes have been sold) if untrue, would get the firm in deep trouble.

Where's the evidence that they have done 10,000 properties?

zeupater

Cardew wrote: »

It did occur to me that some of their customers' sales could have been to cash buyers!!!!

... but it would have been much better for all concerned if they had stated ....
"Of the many customers’ homes with our free systems in place which have been marketed to date, all have sold at the appropriate and expected market value without any problem whatsoever."

... I really do have a problem with unquantified statements such as 'many' ... are thee many ?, do 5 constitute many ? .... is 3 many when the sample size is 10 ?, what about when it's 50 ?, is it still the case when it's 3/1000 or 3/2000 ? ...... without quantifying the statement is totally meaningless, I know it, they know it and chose the phrasing, even more importantly - everyone should always query why statements are phrased as they are and thereby know it too ....

Z

zeupater

DonSwan wrote: »

Where's the evidence that they have done 10,000 properties?

Hi

"A Shade Greener are the UK market leaders in the free solar industry with almost 10,000 free installs under our belt" .. & .. "We have now installed almost 10,000 free solar systems and are approving homes on a daily basisV ... (http://ashadegreener.co.uk/)

HTH
Z

DonSwan

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

"A Shade Greener are the UK market leaders in the free solar industry with almost 10,000 free installs under our belt" .. & .. "We have now installed almost 10,000 free solar systems and are approving homes on a daily basisV ... (http://ashadegreener.co.uk/)

HTH
Z

That's marketing spiel. That's not evidence.

EricMears

DonSwan wrote: »

That's marketing spiel. That's not evidence.

Agreed - but it would be evidence if anyone doubting the claim were to refer it to the Advertising Standards Authority and surely no company would want to risk that by publishing a false statement.

DonSwan

EricMears wrote: »

Agreed - but it would be evidence if anyone doubting the claim were to refer it to the Advertising Standards Authority and surely no company would want to risk that by publishing a false statement.

They would not be obliged to disclose that to the ASA. It would be claimed to be commercially sensitive, and not relevant to the advertised claims.

Thay have had one ASA investigation against them, and the complaint was not upheld:
http://www.asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2012/4/A-Shade-Greener-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_186097.aspx

DonSwan

For what it's worth, here are the figures from the last filed ASG accounts in 2010:

Total Assets £2,297,000
Total Liabilities £3,020,000
Tangible net worth £ - 723,000
Current Assets £1,855,000
Current Liabilities £2,868,000
Working Capital £ - 1,013,000

I don't know whether that supports the idea of a company which has carried out 10,000 installations or not. Any accountants on here able to offer a view?