Curious about your experience with Tesla Energy

[iliveinhope]

Hi gang, I am just curious about your experience with Tesla energy's design and customer service teams.

I placed an order on a 8.16kw system. The solar panel design shows that I will have 123kWh annual energy production (I realized that's low and my 100w folding panel can produce that much in a year and it was not a typo on my part) and 1/3 of the panels are on north facing roofs while my west and east facing roofs are half empty. After waiting for 2 weeks for an answer, I escalated the issue to manager level. The manager, Cortney, is rather confrontational and basically only offered me either accept the design or cancel the order, which is not much a resolution. She quoted CA setback requirements, which in CA it is only 3 ft from horizontal ridges. I politely reminder her about the code, she hastily accused me "calling her a liar"

so no one can explained to me why my 8.16kw system can only produce 123kWh and why north facing roof is utilized so heavily. the only answer I got is literally "take it or leave it"

Do you experience the same poor quality control and customer service? does service get better or worse after the purchase/installation.

your input is much appreciated

 

[cantbechanged]

My experience has also been negative. It’s been tough to get a hold of anyone and the take it or leave it attitude is pervasive.

 

[glide]

My experience has been similar. No one has any answers to questions and the attitude is “take it or leave it”. Which is pretty much par for the course with vehicles sales as well.

I have also heard the post-sales energy support is worse than the vehicle support if that can be believed.

 

[Redhill_qik]

That's has got to be a typo on the layout sheet. 24 panels, 8.16kw should be generating at least 10,000 kWh on an annual basis.

Do you have a massive amount of shade trees around the south edge?

 

[mnsweeps]

so far I have had excellent customer service and things are moving fast on my end. OP, where in CA are you? I am in L.A county. Plus my advisor is based in Las Vegas. Where is your advisor based?

 

[iliveinhope]

No significant shades. I realized it is a typo. But supposedly their head of engineering reviewed it. Not sure it is a overstatement fromTesla rep or engineers at Tesla energy are just that careless.

My experience has been similar. No one has any answers to questions and the attitude is “take it or leave it”. Which is pretty much par for the course with vehicles sales as well.

I have also heard the post-sales energy support is worse than the vehicle support if that can be believed.

No

That's has got to be a typo on the layout sheet. 24 panels, 8.16kw should be generating at least 10,000 kWh on an annual basis.

Do you have a massive amount of shade trees around the south edge?

 

[iliveinhope]

so far I have had excellent customer service and things are moving fast on my end. OP, where in CA are you? I am in L.A county. Plus my advisor is based in Las Vegas. Where is your advisor based?

I am in San Bernardino county but borderline LAC. Everyone I talked to is in Las Vegas.

 

[mnsweeps]

My Model 3 Long Range has a max battery capacity of 75 kwh. In the entire year your solar design will producer energy to charge my Model 3 almost twice? LOL . Thats just absurd. I have heard about bad customer service . I think you should Tweet directly to Tesla and Elon Musk (if you have a twitter account). This is ridiculous.

 

[charlesj]

That's has got to be a typo on the layout sheet. 24 panels, 8.16kw should be generating at least 10,000 kWh on an annual basis.

Do you have a massive amount of shade trees around the south edge?

That's what it looks like to me as well. I have 17 - 235W panels with 6,000+ kWh annual production; granted all facing south.

 

[charlesj]

.... But supposedly their head of engineering reviewed it. Not sure it is a overstatement fromTesla rep or engineers at Tesla energy are just that careless.

Well, you may be right. On my permit drawing I had to hassle them about inverter location or rather absence of it as I have micro under panels. and a couple of other errors. Didn't want permitting dragged out because of such mistakes.

 

[iliveinhope]

Interesting update on this. Not sure if anyone cares but I hope this is helpful information for someone in the future.

This morning I got a text message from Tesla Energy informing me my permit is granted by the city. The problem is I have not approved the solar panel layout design. So this explains why that manager from Tesla and everyone were giving me the excuses that did not make sense ( I am not going to repeat it, its in the original post). I guess they submitted plans for permit without a customer approved panel layout. Technically, they can resubmit the permit application, but they don't want to and don't want to tell me the truth about it. I guess they still have a lot of SolarCity baggage in the honesty department.

 

[bkp_duke]

Honestly, my experience with Tesla Energy was very much that the left hand never had a clue what the right hand was doing.

I had to be the 2nd project manager, chasing down permits, double-checking wiring layouts, etc.

The price was great, but the service by the remote staff was crap. On-site team, however, was top notch and the final product was worth the wait.

 

[njhtran]

i recently placed my order and had installation completed last month. I am typically not an easy customer to please. that said, there have certainly been some issues (such as the feet dragging on paperwork), however, overall I have been very impressed.

I noticed in May early June the experience was a lot different (not good) than more recently. Something changed on a dime right about when the new pricing push happened, and it has certainly changed for the better. My impression is that they're very concerned about customer satisfaction now at least in my region.

 

[charlesj]

Interesting update on this. Not sure if anyone cares but I hope this is helpful information for someone in the future.

This morning I got a text message from Tesla Energy informing me my permit is granted by the city. The problem is I have not approved the solar panel layout design. So this explains why that manager from Tesla and everyone were giving me the excuses that did not make sense ( I am not going to repeat it, its in the original post). I guess they submitted plans for permit without a customer approved panel layout. Technically, they can resubmit the permit application, but they don't want to and don't want to tell me the truth about it. I guess they still have a lot of SolarCity baggage in the honesty department.

if your local permit office is near enough, give them a call and see what was approved.

 

[iliveinhope]

I thought about that today actually. But end of the day, there is no reason for Tesla not sharing that info with their customer. They are doing a construction project on a house. Home owner shouldn’t need to go to permit office to ask about what Tesla is going to do In their house . The advisor told me panel layout is not of the permit application .... not sure I can fully believe that statement . Then in a different context she told me Tesla has more detailed plan with all the measurements and conduits. I asked her for a copy of that. She supposed to send me at EOB today but I have not got anything.

Question: does Tesla provide a copy of the permit application and plans to their customer at some point as part of their normal workflow? Or for those who got it had to request for it?

if your local permit office is near enough, give them a call and see what was approved.

 

[SMAlset]

We were able to check our city’s permit search by our address and pull up permits filed on the property. Our city provides only basic info but we saw when they applied for our first permit for panels and storage and the date the city approved the permit. Our city made them file for a second permit for the third PW we decided to add, instead of just modifying our original permit, so were able to see when they did that. When we were called to schedule our install date, which ended up being like a month later from our call, we asked if we could get a copy of our plans. They emailed a .pdf of them to us shortly after. I’m sure not everyone cares to see them. They do not provide a bill of materials for the job which was fine; the components we were interested in were listed on the plans sheets.

The plans are strictly for your use or if you sell your home with the system for the new owner and have some such language on them. I know when we bought our current house we did not get the plans for it and would have to go to the building department to view them. When our electrician did our main panel upgrade the finalized permit was given to us, same when we had our yard landscaped. Assume when we are done with this install we’ll get the finalized permit as well. Not quite at that stage yet.

 

[wjgjr]

Question: does Tesla provide a copy of the permit application and plans to their customer at some point as part of their normal workflow? Or for those who got it had to request for it?

At least in my case, the answer is no, they did not automatically provide them. I had to request copies of the plans they sent in. Similar to @SMAlset, our county shows permits and basic status in an online portal, but I would have to go into the county offices to view the documents.

I did not ask for copies of all applications/correspondences, just the technical material related to them.

 

[jboy210]

I thought about that today actually. But end of the day, there is no reason for Tesla not sharing that info with their customer. They are doing a construction project on a house. Home owner shouldn’t need to go to permit office to ask about what Tesla is going to do In their house . The advisor told me panel layout is not of the permit application .... not sure I can fully believe that statement . Then in a different context she told me Tesla has more detailed plan with all the measurements and conduits. I asked her for a copy of that. She supposed to send me at EOB today but I have not got anything.

Question: does Tesla provide a copy of the permit application and plans to their customer at some point as part of their normal workflow? Or for those who got it had to request for it?

I never got any permit information directly from Tesla. But we are constantly remodeling mode for 5 years and I have never got any of the other building permits directly from any other contractor. Fortunately, our city has an online permit system. You can punch in your address and get a summary. FWIW it just total number of panels and current and panel ratings. No diagram of how the panels/solar tiles are laid. The only thing we have that shows that is the same drawings people have posted.

 

[TheTalkingMule]

I think there are low paid virtual workers providing these "layout proposals", probably kids who really don't know what they're doing. They're incentivized to just get it done, do lazy/unethical ones do just that. Without regard for accuracy or logic.

I expect this to change VERY soon as it's the biggest glaring issue and so easy to rectify. My guess is that Elon wants the operation lean, just like the car side, and pushing him for service resources is a very difficult prospect.

Tweeting these straightforward concerns is a great idea. Elon trusts customers more than mid-level managers.

 

[SD2020]

That is something I was worried when signing up for Tesla. If lower price leads to inferior service (and potentially worst products when Tesla stopped using Panasonic panels and shifted to Qcells), it does not really fits Tesla brand. I guess many car owners like me who are just blindsighted by our car experience. My local installers keep trashing Tesla for their service but I decided to roll the dice. So far my experience is VERY SIMILAR to yours.