Seven Months After Pink Energy Shuts Down Many Solar Customers Still Don't Have A Working System

Seven Months After Pink Energy Shuts Down Many Solar Customers Still Don't Have A Working System
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Alice Cole and her husband look for a house away from the city. They wanted a small piece of land in the field. In 2017, they found a home in Sandy Ridge that fit the bill.

"We really like it here," Cole said.

The house sits on almost an acre of land and the next door neighbors would be a difficult pair of 5 for most players. You can see the stars at night and it's quiet except for a few passing cars.

The house is perfect for the most part. However, one day, Cole and her husband looked at their electric bill and wondered if they could find a way to save money. Soon after, her brother suggested that she talk to someone about solar panels.

A few days later, Cole contacted Power Home Solar.

"A day or two later, this guy showed up and started telling me all the good things about solar power," Cole said.

The couple decided to sign up for Power Home Solar and bought some panels to install on the roof. The hope is to lower the electricity bills they receive. Coles has an account for the house and a separate account for the outbuildings.

"The way the guy we sat down with explained it to me was that he was going to eliminate my utility bills at home," Cole explains.

The house's electric bill is about $200, and the savings mainly cover the cost of renting the solar panels.

"It's like trading peanuts for walnuts," Cole added.

The (theoretical) advantage is that 20 years later, when the lease is up, they don't pay a huge utility bill. A few months later the panels were installed and the system was operational.

Cole started tracking his electric bill and quickly found the problem. The electric bill with the panel is close to what you originally paid.

"There's not a lot of difference," Cole said.

After speaking to Power Home Solar about the matter but getting nothing, he contacted WFMY News 2. We immediately reached out to Power Home Solar to try and get a response.

Cole sent us some electric bills, which we sent to a Power Home Solar representative. A few weeks later, the company agreed to add more panels to the roof and canceled several months' rent in a goodwill gesture.

"Obviously that's not what they promised me," Cole said.

Cole continues to track usage and billing, but says the extra dashboards don't make much of a difference. In fact, Cole told WFMY News 2 that by the end of his first year, he had saved $44 on his energy bill from the previous year.

"I'm very disappointed. It looks like a scam," Cole said.

You are not alone in this feeling. Tracey and Trixie Asbury will also purchase solar panels from Power Home Solar in 2021. The couple paid about $40,000 and said they were told their new electric bill when the panels were installed would be around $30 per month.

Like Cole, Asbury believes the savings will offset the rental costs associated with purchasing the panels and will ultimately be a great investment.

"I was sentenced to death so I wouldn't have to pay huge monthly utility bills," Tracey Asbury said.

The panel was installed, but Asbury said it never worked. Initially there were problems with communication and service. The couple contacted Power Home Solar, but they told us they were in no rush to respond or resolve the issue.

"To be honest, it's disappointing, very disappointing," said Trixie Asbury.

Like Alice Cole, Asbury emailed WFMY News 2 for help. We contacted Power Home Solar again and explained the problem by sending multiple utility bills showing monthly usage and charges.

The company again agreed to add some panels to the roof and waived the previous panel rental fee.

"They (Power Home Solar) gave us a refund check after you stepped in," Trixie Asbury said.

While all this was going on, another Power Home Solar customer contacted us. Christopher Alexander of Power Home Solar installed several panels in his backyard.

"I don't really like trees, but I do like the idea of ​​getting away from Duke Energy's ever-growing bill," Alexander says.

The panels are installed, but Alexander says that Power Home Solar cannot control them. When the district went out to test the system, Alexander said the test failed.

"They failed twice in some ways," says Alexander. "The biggest trick is that you won't catch anyone."

Now, it has become clear to us and our clients that this is a much bigger problem than we or they previously thought. Obviously, Power Home Solar made an effort to get this system working properly, and we later learned that thousands of other customers had similar problems.

Amid all this confusion, Power Home Solar is about to change its name to Pink Energy, and customers tell us it's getting harder and harder to get in touch with a company representative.

As customers in several states across the country struggled to keep the system running smoothly, Pink Energy faced huge monthly rent bills, they pointed the finger at Generac.

The solar company held a press conference in September 2022 and blamed the photos provided by Generac for the solar panels not working properly. SnapRS basically connects a panel frame to another space. SnapRS is a safety device designed to interrupt power to the panel and reduce the output voltage to a safe level.

Pink Energy claims that SnapRS is not working properly and there is no need to shut down the system. Pink Energy filed a lawsuit against Generac in August 2022, accusing the company of misleading them about SnapRS.

"(Generac's) failed equipment has had a negative snowball effect on our customers, our employees and our company," Pink Energy CEO Jason Waller said. “I care about our clients, they are the victims here. I want Generac to take responsibility, recall products nationwide, and not charge customers to fix defects in their products."

A month later, Pink Energy filed for bankruptcy and has since shut down, leaving thousands of customers in limbo.

Many customers still don't have an operating system and are now stuck with Generac support.

"They better come clean this mess out of my house and put it back where it was," Tracey Asbury said.

Alice Cole told WFMY News 2 that she didn't see a decrease in her bill last year and doesn't think the system is working properly.

WFMY News 2 contacted Generac to find out what it was doing with this customer and thousands of others whose systems were down. The company sent us a message that specifically said:

"We are disappointed with case reports where customers are dissatisfied with the performance of their systems. Proper system operation requires proper sizing, system requirements, and installation in accordance with manufacturer's instructions and must be performed by a qualified independent contractor.

Generac is a leading manufacturer of solar and storage solutions and we sell our products to a variety of distributors and independent solar contractors. We understand that consumers are frustrated with their experience at Pink Energy. However, Generac remains committed to its customers.

We stand behind our products and warranties. Pink Energy customers or other customers who need assistance or have questions about Generac components in their solar systems can contact us at solarsupport@generac.com or 1-800-396-1281. We will arrange for you to work with an authorized Generac warranty service provider who can diagnose problems with your system and perform warranty service, including free repair or replacement of such parts.

In another email, a Generac representative told us that he fixed Asbury's system and it works fine.

We contacted Asbury's and they confirmed that the system was finally working after almost two years. It's unclear if the system worked as expected, but the couple's first bill after the system was fixed was about $100 less than the previous bill.

"Let's see what happens next." Trixie Asbury says:

As for Alice Cole, Generac tells us that their system is mostly working as intended and ready to go on set.

Cole told us that a technician came by recently and said he couldn't do the panels because he had a metal roof. He also told us that his electricity bill has not decreased at all.

Another problem with all of this is the rent bill customers receive each month for systems that may or may not be working properly. Late last year, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein called on rental companies to stop paying customers who didn't have an operating system.

Several other attorneys general have made similar requests to stop the payments.

Some Pink Energy customers who have contacted us say they have stopped paying and although they may still receive a monthly bill, they have not received any further notices. It is unclear what the leasing company will do if thousands of customers refuse to pay leases ranging from 20 to 40 years.

We reached out to one of the leasing companies, but they refused to answer our questions or provide a statement for this story. What the company plans to do for its hundreds or thousands of customers is still unclear. A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office told us that Pink Energy customers who are having utility issues and making lease payments may need to contact an attorney to help resolve the issue.

Team I. Paid $82,000 for a rooftop solar system that didn't work.

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