Apr. 10, 2023 at 9:05 pm

Solar panel company accused of defrauding thousands

April 10, 2023no commentNo tags

Sandra Cuenca thought she could save money and help the planet by installing solar panels on her roof in the spring of 2022. Instead, she and her husband said they found themselves paying more than $100 a month for solar panels that weren’t activated until March – nearly a year after they were first installed.

“You’re doing this to save money and up paying even more,” Cuenca, a Florida resident, told USA TODAY. “It was just another stressor that we didn’t need in our lives.”

Cuenca is one of nearly two dozen plaintiffs in a new class action lawsuit that accuses New Jersey-based panel installation company Vision Solar of pressuring customers to pay for a product that failed to live up to salespeople’s promises.

According to the lawsuit, Vision Solar would often fail to obtain the proper permits before installing the panels, leaving homeowners paying for a system that wasn’t connected to the power grid. Other times, salespeople would allegedly mislead customers about the potential savings.

“This is thousands of people who have been charged for panels that Vision Solar knows are not functioning,” said Ian Sloss, a partner at Silver Golub & Teitell, the firm representing the plaintiffs. “We just view the conduct as very egregious.”

Vision Solar Chief Marketing Officer Bennett Andelman told USA TODAY that the company is actively working on resolving “every single past problem our customers have had with Vision Solar,” and said the company has made significant progress on the majority of the projects associated with the customers in the lawsuit.

“We will continue to work with each of them, and anyone else, who files a claim until their projects are fully operational and they are satisfied or through their request for cancellation,” Andelman said in an emailed statement.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey on Monday, although the company is accused of deceptive practices affecting homeowners in five additional states: Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Plaintiffs are asking for refunds, to be released from financing agreements, to have the panels removed from their homes and for any damage done by the contractors to be repaired.

‘Selling a shoddy product’

Vision Solar says it is the sixth-largest and one of the fastest-growing end-to-end residential solar companies in the country, with more than $150 million in annual revenue.

But the company is accused of building its success on fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair practices. According to the lawsuit, Vision Solar salespeople used high-pressure sales tactics to convince homeowners – including low-income, disabled and elderly individuals – to purchase or lease solar panel systems.

Plaintiffs describe salespeople entering their homes unannounced and staying hours on end until a contract was signed.

To convince homeowners to sign, salespeople are accused of knowingly misrepresenting customers’ eligibility for federal tax credits. Salespeople would also falsely claim that Vision Solar would obtain the proper permits before installing panels, according to the lawsuit.

“They are selling a shoddy product,” the class action lawsuit alleges.

Matt McClelland, 34 of New Jersey, said a Vision Solar salesperson was at his home for over five hours last September and failed to leave until it was close to midnight.

McClelland said he was promised an $8,600 tax credit and a $54 monthly payment from New Jersey for purchasing the solar panels. Salespeople told him the system would cover all of his electric bills and ultimately pay for itself with a $37 monthly rate, and McClelland said the company promised to upgrade his electrical system.

These claims were false, according to the lawsuit. McClelland said he has not received a solar tax credit, has yet to get an electrical system upgrade and is required to pay up to $123 per month in solar panel payments.

“We don’t even want the solar anymore,” McClelland told USA TODAY.

‘I’m just over the whole thing’

Florida resident Karen Quantz said she agreed to lease panels after a Vision Solar salesperson claimed she would need to sign up as soon as possible to receive “special pricing.”

Quantz, 61, said the salesperson told her the panels would generate enough power to offset her electricity usage. She was also told that she would be allowed to take the panels with her if she moved out of her house, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Quantz’s solar panels sat on her roof for about 10 months before they were hooked up to the grid. By then, she said she had learned that much of Vision Solar’s promises were not true.

Instead of saving money, Quantz had to pay her power company a monthly fee for having solar panels, despite the fact that they were not operational due to the lack of permits. Quantz also said she had to back out of a deal to sell her house because Vision Solar failed to sign an affidavit that would allow Quantz to close the permit on the panels and sell her home.

“I’m not trying to sell anymore because I’m just over the whole thing,” she said.

A second lawsuit against Vision Solar

Vision Solar was also sued by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong in March after the office received more than a dozen consumer complaints.

Tong said his office is investigating numerous complaints against the solar industry’s sales tactics, but Vision Solar’s practices are “far and away the worst” they had seen.

“Their egregious misconduct appears to have violated multiple laws, and we’re going to hold them accountable,” Tong said in a March 16 press release.

A March 7 press release from Vision Solar said the company received a $20 million investment that will lead to “revolutionary changes” in its business model and allow it to get customers’ solar panels installed and running faster.

“This injection gives us the shot in the arm we need to move with mental agility as we address the needs of customers and other solar companies nationwide,” Vision Solar’s Chief Revenue Officer Mike Eden said in a release.

Who owns Vision Solar?

Vision Solar CEO Jonathan Seibert founded the company in 2018.

How to shop for solar panels

The U.S. Department of Energy said the push for greener energy through solar has opened doors for some bad actors. To avoid getting wrapped up in a solar scam, homeowners should:

Resist pushy sales tactics and do their research before signing any contracts.

Avoid online forms not associated with an official business that ask for a name, address or other personal data.

Read solar installers’ customer reviews and make sure the person who is installing the panels is licensed and certified by a reputable organization. It may be worth asking several installers to assess a roof and compare quotes.

Read the fine print, especially on offers that claim to provide free solar panels or other services since the federal government doesn’t have any programs that install panels for free. Some states do subsidize solar energy for households of a certain income, but homeowners should check to make sure the program is listed on a .gov website.

Dig deeper:

You can follow USA TODAY reporter Bailey Schulz on Twitter @bailey_schulz and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter here for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday.

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Solar panel company accused of defrauding thousands

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