Free solar panel discussion

Cardew

Anyone who pays £500 or £5 monthly, or both, frankly needs their head read!!!

BrummyGit

Hello Krish - email sent as requested

Hello Cardew - agreed. It's a show stopper for me when I was expecting to sign the contract based on the original terms discussed with them

furndire

Have you read this thread BrummyGit have a look at post 501 - and this guy has an old type meter that is running backwards (lucky devil)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/40165932#Comment_40165932

Totally agree with Cardew on this.
What a cheek
1. My house needed scaffolding for the installation
2. My electricity consumer unit didn't have a spare breaker

They want you to pay for the privilege of installing panels to make them money

BrummyGit

I have my doubts that the "salesman" who was dealing with me was telling me the correct story - he didn't sound very confident when I asked for an explanation of the £5 per month, and used the exact phrase "Don't shoot the messenger, but........". The whole thing sounded very woolly.

It seems that the £5 per month has been described as an allowance for reduced yield expectation, a maintenance charge and now covering unexpected costs during installation. My current perception is that HomeSun are trying their luck with customers for an extra £1500 over the 25 year period.

HomeSun_company_representative

BrummyGit wrote: »

Hello Krish - email sent as requested

Hello Cardew - agreed. It's a show stopper for me when I was expecting to sign the contract based on the original terms discussed with them

HI BrummyGit,

Thanks for your email. Will get back to you shortly.

Regards,

Krish

BrummyGit

I'm genuinely impressed by the speed of response from Krish at HomeSun so far :T

Hopefully we can resolve this topic quickly, or as a minimum provide a clear understanding of the issues in my case.

slacky555

I have not yet received the £100 back from homesun as promised 28 days from 01/12/10.

I have emailed the the homesun email address and waiting for a reply.

Not good homesun!

HomeSun_company_representative

BrummyGit wrote: »

I've struggled through a lot of this thread, but it's so long I may well have missed some points.

I'm getting frustrated with HomeSun and it seems that I'm not alone. My story in short is:

• I live in the West Midlands
• My roof faces approx 5 degrees off South to the east
• My house measures approx 10m x 10m so I have at least 50 sq metres of south facing roof
• Last year I applied to HomeSun and had the survery carried out (no charge)
• There is one tree that 'could' be a risk of afternoon shade in future as it currently shades my garden, but my local farmer has already offered to cut it down in the spring and this has been explained to the surveyor and HomeSun contact "Ian"

In early December Ian from HomeSun called me to say that my home had passed the survey, but that they needed to charge me £5 a month which would be linked to the Retail Price Index after year 1. I was not happy to hear that and demanded to know why they were changing their offer as a monthly charge was never mentioned previously.





Ian explained that there standard offer didn't anticipate 2 things which meant that they had an additional cost around £500 for installation:

1. My house needed scaffolding for the installation
2. My electricity consumer unit didn't have a spare breaker

I told him I thought that this was a load of rubbish, and indeed even the HomeSun brochures show scaffolding for the installation. Also my consumer unit does have a surplus breaker installed - clearly labelled "Re-Use" so the surveyor didn't spot that.

I told Ian that I was prepared to go forward with the original "free" system, but that the £5 per month charge put me off and asked what he could do. He promised to speak to his manager as he knew there was some flexibility and get back to me in a couple of days.

My last contact with Ian was more than a week before Christmas and I've heard nothing since and can't reach him on his mobile.

I am not aware that there is any real reason why my home won't qualify for the full free installation, and my perception is that HomeSun are just trying it on. The lack of contact since is also very frustrating.

Would anyone from HomeSun care to comment of take a look at my case?

Dear BrummyGit,

Once again I'm sorry that you have not been satisfied with our service, I have further looked in to this matter for you.

For all customers and installations, HomeSun’s costs are a mix of one-off (e.g. survey, the PV system, installation) and on-going costs (e.g. maintenance, insurance and running the business). We balance these off against the Feed-in Tariff we receive which depends on the size of the system and how much electricity is forecast (which in turn is dependent on property location, orientation, roof pitch, shading etc). In your own case, though you have a large system, your roof is 15 degrees off south and your pitch is 20 degrees not 30-40 (as per the website guidance). Where we can’t make the figures balance for Free Solar, we either have to reject the roof completely or ask the customer for a contribution. This could be an upfront sum and/or a monthly fee, and the approach means that we can install on a greater proportion of the customer who apply.

Furthermore, I can inform you at this stage that the member of staff who served, or as the case may, failed to serve you, on the technical queries has been identified and will be addressed internally. I can assure you this is an isolated incident and find it most unfortunate that you have been disappointed in this instance.

If you have any further queries please feel free to email me.

Kind Regards,

Krish

P.S - I have also emailed you this message.

HomeSun_company_representative

slacky555 wrote: »

I have not yet received the £100 back from homesun as promised 28 days from 01/12/10.

I have emailed the the homesun email address and waiting for a reply.

Not good homesun!

Hi slacky555,

Got your email this morning. I have passed it on to the relevent team to investigate. I will get back to you ASAP.

Apologies for the delay.

Krish

HomeSun_company_representative

slacky555 wrote: »

I have not yet received the £100 back from homesun as promised 28 days from 01/12/10.

I have emailed the the homesun email address and waiting for a reply.

Not good homesun!

Hi slacky555,

Further to my post just a moment ago, I can confirm that a £100.00 cheque will be despatched today from HomeSun HQ, London.

Once again please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in getting this refund issued.

Our Solar Specialist has just informed me that she has collected the signed lease from you. Once all the paperwork and checks are completed, we will be in touch to inform you of the install date.

Best Wishes,

Krish Patel