Daniel Chappell
3/5
Suncrest did the right thing and paid for having our water damage repaired. I've updated to give them three stars. Solar has worked great; it's neat to get a negative usage on our SDG&E bill. They're a good company overall; I'd recommend them. Just so people have an idea of what happened and can go in with both eyes open, I'm leaving the story below. We got solar panels via a Power Purchase Agreement with Suncrest (they own the panels and take care of everything as far as installation/maintenance/upkeep; we buy solar power that we use) in 11/2015. The representative who won our business was Blair Townsend. Blair is awesome: he's always courteous, friendly, and professional, and he was always punctual for appointments we'd set. He never pressured us to get us to sign up; in fact, he wrote us a thank-you card and gave us a small giftcard to Cheesecake Factory a few weeks after we opted to go with Suncrest. He's the only reason I'm willing to give them a star, as he's been a real pleasure to work with.
The issues began the first time it rained after the installation of the solar panels (late 11/2015) was complete. We noticed some water damage occurring in the drywall in our master bathroom and the closet in our master bedroom. I should note here that the solar panels were installed directly above our master bathroom, our master bedroom, and the closet in our master bedroom. I called a plumber to come take a look, fearing a pipe was leaking behind the wall. He cut fairly large holes in the drywall of the bathroom and closet, but it turns out there are no pipes in the area of the wall with the water damage in our bathroom or closet. When I told him we'd just had solar panels installed and showed him where the panels were installed, he said, "Looks to me like you need to call your solar company..."
I then called Suncrest to see when they could send someone out to take a look at the water damage and seal any holes in our roof as a result of the solar installation. I also filed a damage claim with our homeowner's insurance company.
Suncrest sent a gentleman out a few weeks later; he took a look at the roof and the solar installation and said everything was good as far as the installation and that there must coincidentally be some holes in the roof that were allowing the water in. When I told him what the plumber said, he said that Suncrest wasn't going to do anything unless we had someone from a roofing company come out and show that any holes in our roof were due to the solar installation.
I got a gentleman from RoofRX to come out in 2/2016 (they were covered up with business, so that's the soonest they could schedule us) to take a look to give us an estimate to repair any holes in our roof. He took a look at our roof, and then he noticed the solar installation and went to check the brackets used to mount the solar panels to the roof. He immediately identified several holes for the mounting brackets that had been left unsealed after the installation of the solar panels. When I told him what had happened and showed him where we had the water damage, he said the water damage was directly below the unsealed holes he'd identified.
When I called Suncrest and presented them with this information and the photos that the gentleman from RoofRX had taken, they agreed to send someone out to seal the holes (they were able to send someone out two days later).
That seems to me like it should be pretty clear that Suncrest is at fault for our water damage as a result of the faulty installation, but they sent another guy out after it rained a few weeks later. He didn't find any new wet spots in our attic and said, "Well, looks like we sealed the holes, so we're good!" When I reminded him about the water damage to our drywall, he said, "Suncrest refuses to accept responsibility for the damage and pay for repairs."
While we've really enjoyed having solar, the behavior of Suncrest as far as standing behind their work and fixing problems they've created has been substandard. They only get one star because of Blair (zero stars otherwise).
