Solar Roof, big price increase

[VaNick]

I too did not sign the new contract, and noticed it had disappeared from my account. So I contacted my account rep, and was informed that Tesla had withdrawn the new contract. They will honor the original contract price.

My project is scheduled to commence tomorrow, so the close proximity of the work may have had something to do with their decision. As if on cue, they dropped off the brackets and the underlay this morning. They start stripping the roof off tomorrow.

There are still long-term concerns about the viability of Tesla's energy business, and these recent practices only heighten those concerns, so I hope they will do the right thing and take care of all of those who were under contract at the time of the announced changes to their pricing methodology.

Fingers crossed for the rest of us too!

 

[wjgjr]

I too did not sign the new contract, and noticed it had disappeared from my account. So I contacted my account rep, and was informed that Tesla had withdrawn the new contract. They will honor the original contract price.

My project is scheduled to commence tomorrow, so the close proximity of the work may have had something to do with their decision. As if on cue, they dropped off the brackets and the underlay this morning. They start stripping the roof off tomorrow.

There are still long-term concerns about the viability of Tesla's energy business, and these recent practices only heighten those concerns, so I hope they will do the right thing and take care of all of those who were under contract at the time of the announced changes to their pricing methodology.

Great news, and hopefully this means that others who held out can still get their roof at the agreed price. I just wonder how much goodwill was seemingly wasted with Tesla's actions.

I agree about the concerns with their energy business - I have had the roof over a year and in some ways am more concerned now than before, just because of this recent behavior. The contract provides a 25-year warranty, and I still expect Tesla to be around then. But their attitude towards existing contracts and their already-slow service does make me concerned about how well they will actually respond to a warranty issue down the road.

 

[Chad CT]

So I joined just to give my 2 cents. I also had a roof on order since November. Supposedly all permits pulled etc. Then Saturday the revised price dropped with a whooping 44% price increase. I called my advisor who was very apologetic. I asked what percent of his clients were pushing forward and he said about half. That seems VERY hard to believe given what I'm seeing in here but I suppose it is possible that there are really that many willing to swallow any BS that Tesla dishes out.

I ran my contract past a buddy of mine who is a top civil litigator in the state and waiting to hear back. I began changing the color scheme of my house, one that clashed with the whole neighborhood but perfectly matched the Tesla roof, including adding expensive stone façade cladding in a complimentary color. I would never have gone this way if it wasn't for the roof. Very, very frustrated. I also told many neighbors I had the roof on order and a few were interested but will now assume I was some kind of fibbing blow gut.

I'm just floored that Tesla is willing to burn all these customers with signed contracts and damage their reputation as well as lose future business from these customers and the word of mouth they will bring. I also have a Cybertruck on order but I have such a bad taste in my mouth I doubt I will move forward with that as well. I understand that Tesla was probably losing lots of money on every install and so had to make this change to make the solar roof at least a break even proposition but you don't do this to signed contract customers. They should have had a team of "bean counters" closely tracking all costs and making adjustments along the way to all new contracts and they should have had supplier contracts in place that hedged against any covid/supply chain price fluctuations that affected their bottom line for signed contracts with pending future installations. This is precisely what the airline industry does with volatile fuel prices. When I book a flight 6 months in advance I don't get an email from the airline 3 days prior to departure that I have to cough up another 50% for my ticket to be valid because jet fuel went way up in price since the time of booking.

Lastly how much could this possibly have cost Tesla energy in the big picture to honor existing contracts? Their energy business is a 2+ billion dollar business, could they have absorbed some of it? At the very very least they could have written us a frank email and offered to split the difference between their current roof pricing and existing contract?

Totally feel your pain but I would keep the order in for the Cybertruck as all the Trolls that are upset at us for complaining may be buyers at a premium price so why not make some money of Tesla. I will not cancel my Solar Roof order let Tesla do this so that when it comes to legal action, if it ever does, you are included in the actions to be taken. All the best friend.

 

[Heatwave3@hotm]

Pretty crazy price increases for the Tesla solar shingle roof. I was due to replace my 22 yr old asphalt shingle roof in NJ this year. I contracted in Dec 2020 with Tesla for a solar shingle roof. Its a large roof and the projected power output was 22kW. No powerwalls as I already have a Natgas generator. The contracted price was $72k before incentives and about $50k after incentives and tax credits. Sounded abit high but acceptable since a new asphalt roof was going to cost $25-30k.

I just got my Tesla roof engineering design and my power output was lowered slightly to 19.5kW. Still acceptable from my perspective. But then I got my new pricing yesterday. Even though I already had a contract with Tesla, they raised my pricing DRAMATICALLY. No design changes and no powerwalls. My new pricing is now $145,000!!! Yep a whopping $145k, more than a 100% increase from my original contracted price. Even after incentives the pricing would be over $110k.

Needless to say I cancelled and received a full refund of my deposit from Tesla. I now have a contract for a new 25yr GAF asphalt roof with new gutters and gutter guards for under $25k. Going solar and "Green" is for financial fools if this is the kind of pricing that Tesla is expecting to be paid.

 

[willow_hiller]

Going solar and "Green" is for financial fools if this is the kind of pricing that Tesla is expecting to be paid.

If you think about product maturity, I would say Solar Roof is in its "2012 Model S phase." It's beyond the proof-of-concept "Roadster phase," but is still very much in development, relatively expensive, and still targeted at pioneer early adopters.

If you want a more mature and affordable product, that yields an easily achievable ROI, go with solar panels.

 

[dboya]

Pretty crazy price increases for the Tesla solar shingle roof. I was due to replace my 22 yr old asphalt shingle roof in NJ this year. I contracted in Dec 2020 with Tesla for a solar shingle roof. Its a large roof and the projected power output was 22kW. No powerwalls as I already have a Natgas generator. The contracted price was $72k before incentives and about $50k after incentives and tax credits. Sounded abit high but acceptable since a new asphalt roof was going to cost $25-30k.

I just got my Tesla roof engineering design and my power output was lowered slightly to 19.5kW. Still acceptable from my perspective. But then I got my new pricing yesterday. Even though I already had a contract with Tesla, they raised my pricing DRAMATICALLY. No design changes and no powerwalls. My new pricing is now $145,000!!! Yep a whopping $145k, more than a 100% increase from my original contracted price. Even after incentives the pricing would be over $110k.

Needless to say I cancelled and received a full refund of my deposit from Tesla. I now have a contract for a new 25yr GAF asphalt roof with new gutters and gutter guards for under $25k. Going solar and "Green" is for financial fools if this is the kind of pricing that Tesla is expecting to be paid.

What is your roof sq ft?

 

[Silicon Desert]

Hmmmm, I heard from yet another local independent solar company this morning that they are not going to do any more Tesla installs until all this gets straightened out. They don't want to be in the middle of arguments. Hopefully, Tesla will get this under control with customers at some point.

 

[wwu123]

If you think about product maturity, I would say Solar Roof is in its "2012 Model S phase." It's beyond the proof-of-concept "Roadster phase," but is still very much in development, relatively expensive, and still targeted at pioneer early adopters.

If you want a more mature and affordable product, that yields an easily achievable ROI, go with solar panels.

I think they're still in Roadster phase, in 2009 they delivered the 500th Roadster and were still making fairly large iterations each year at very low volumes. My gut is they haven't yet installed the 500th solar roof yet, and potential customers wait 6-12 months to get an approximate delivery timeframe.

The planned switch from glass to metal for the non-generating tiles is like a Roadster 2.5 iteration where they're still figuring out how to design the business for economics and scale.

 

[Tdreamer]

I just did the same this evening, filed a complaint with both SEIA and the MA AG's office.

I just filed the complaint just now and got the auto-response acknowledging receipt and a copy of the complaint. I made note that this was a wide-spread action on Tesla's part and I was probably not the first to complain.

I should note: I informed my project advisor that I was considering my options before agreeing to the updated price or cancelling. For us, it's an 18% hit up front. After incentives, in theory it could be ~$5k which is doable but....

Just got a response today from the Mass AG's office... Not really sure what the can do other than perhaps force Tesla to honor the originally contracted price. I've yet to click accept or cancel on the revised pricing, and have not heard from Tesla as to when not doing so impacts the previously scheduled June install date. Haven't heard a peep from the SEIA complaint I filed the same day - not surprised given they probably got hundreds of complaints (at least!).

We have reviewed your complaint and determined that you are eligible to receive our free consumer assistance services. We will contact Solar City/ Tesla on your behalf to attempt to resolve the issue you describe in your complaint.

 

[RainMeister]

It appears I may have spoken too soon. As is my practice, I sent a confirmation email to my Tesla rep on what he told me about honoring the original price. Here was his non-response:

"While any future increases in your total contract price are unlikely, I cannot guarantee that there will be no changes. Any decisions on future adjustments to your project due to basic pricing structure and/or additional costs needed to facilitate installation would not be my decision to make."

So they wanted to tear off my roof, but leave open the option of applying a future pricing structure that could increase my final cost to who-knows-what. I called off the work until whoever the decision maker is will confirm in writing that Tesla will abide by the agreement terms, including honoring the contract price.

If it is going to be this difficult before the work is started and they have been paid, I can't imagine what difficulties may lie ahead if I needed servicing of the installed solar roof.

Elon, if you are following this thread, please do what is right with your customers. I have been an enthusiastic owner of the Model 3P, and believe the future is bright for Tesla and your vision of a renewable energy future for the world. But that can only be realized if we can continue to hold our trust in your company. Don't drive us enthusiasts away from taking the step to embracing solar energy.

 

[cobra]

It appears I may have spoken too soon. As is my practice, I sent a confirmation email to my Tesla rep on what he told me about honoring the original price. Here was his non-response:

"While any future increases in your total contract price are unlikely, I cannot guarantee that there will be no changes. Any decisions on future adjustments to your project due to basic pricing structure and/or additional costs needed to facilitate installation would not be my decision to make."

So they wanted to tear off my roof, but leave open the option of applying a future pricing structure that could increase my final cost to who-knows-what. I called off the work until whoever the decision maker is will confirm in writing that Tesla will abide by the agreement terms, including honoring the contract price.

Well, it is standard practice to charge for repairs of the roof surface at tear off. So if condition shows some water damage or such, they would normally add charges for plywood sheeting or other materials that are not in the current contract. That sounds like what the advisor is referring to here, rather than some 'cost of materials for the installed roof went up' shenanigans.

 

[RainMeister]

Well, it is standard practice to charge for repairs of the roof surface at tear off. So if condition shows some water damage or such, they would normally add charges for plywood sheeting or other materials that are not in the current contract. That sounds like what the advisor is referring to here, rather than some 'cost of materials for the installed roof went up' shenanigans.

If you read his response closely, he is talking about two separate things: Underlying existing conditions that may require repair, AND “future adjustments to your project due to basic pricing structure.” The former is fair game, and is part of the original contract terms. The latter is not if they intend to apply the current or future pricing structure to my project.

 

[Barklikeadog]

You guys are killing me with these stories.

I talked to a lawyer once about a boat I wanted to own in my HOA but would not allow. His opinion to me was even though we would probably win the case and I could keep the boat, he asked me if the boat was worth the money and stress to "win". I sold the boat.

In another event I hired a lawyer to fight my HOA because they were trying to tell me where my lake front property line was. Was not cheap, and was very stressful. But was worth it and I won, meaning, the HOA never took me to court because they knew they would lose.

Jeesh man, you need to move.

 

[wjgjr]

Well, it is standard practice to charge for repairs of the roof surface at tear off. So if condition shows some water damage or such, they would normally add charges for plywood sheeting or other materials that are not in the current contract. That sounds like what the advisor is referring to here, rather than some 'cost of materials for the installed roof went up' shenanigans.

I would tend to agree that is the higher likelihood. That said, I don't blame anybody for having zero faith in Tesla's representations at this point. But, I don't think there is any chance of getting any further commitments out of Tesla beyond agreeing to proceed (for now) under the existing contract.

 

[h2ofun]

You guys are killing me with these stories.

Jeesh man, you need to move.

That is what they would want. Been here 31 years. I did say if they wanted to buy my home on the lake for 5 million, I am out of here.

 

[rspray2000]

Well this just gets richer and richer. After them telling me ~5 weeks ago that they needed to do another site inspection (apparently the one last May expired), I wasn't actually sure if they would show up today, but they did. I was kind to him, he was aware about the price increases and he thought it was "unfortunate." He finished inspected and said he'd submit his notes to my project manager (which I still haven't heard from in weeks). Just got the updated quote and it appears they held the 27% increase from $41k to $52k, but added in an additional $7200 for "Roof Deck Replacement" so now almost $60k (~45% increase). We do not have a roof deck. I assume this may be for replacing all the plywood? Our roof is 2332 sq ft, so I won't debate if that is an appropriate amount, but leaves more questions than answers. Is it the entire roof of plywood, or just the ones needed? Does this replace the question during contracting about potentially spending 'up to $5,000 at time of installation for repairs' or is that still at play? Yeesh.

 

[BGbreeder]

Roof decking is another way to describe the plywood/OPB/2x6 that are on top of your rafters or trusses.

I could be totally off base, but it is generally pretty difficult to determine the integrity of roof decking without stripping off the existing roofing, unless there are gross sags in the roof. So, if it were me, I would expect additional charges as the existing roofing is removed. I.e. I would be expecting the $7,200, plus $5,000.

Sorry for your difficulties.

All the best,

BG

 

[splitsec524]

Has anyone looked into suing Tesla for breach of contract? I've been a Tesla fanboy and have supported them since the beginning. Bought every car they've sold and have a vin of about 3000 on my model S. They're consistently doing these types of things that isn't right. Like MMC issue. Maybe a class action suit?

 

[Cshama]

I just had my roof replaced with just a standard asphalt roof a month ago. The roofer who is well respected put in the contract that every piece of plywood replaced would be $70.

Some of plywood was literally exposed to the elements in New York for extended periods of time. None of my plywood was replaced or if it was he didn't charge me. My roof was done in 2 days and looks great.

The point is, charging $7k for a roof deck he hasn't even seen seems ridiculous. My roof is 2500sf and conditions when the plywood was exposed rough and it still wasn't damaged.

Tesla has decided to become a scam outfit on this. Obviously they weren't making enough money on this division and they have decided to carve up their customers.
A sheet of 32sf plywood is $50 or so just so you know.

 

[jjrandorin]

Has anyone looked into suing Tesla for breach of contract? I've been a Tesla fanboy and have supported them since the beginning. Bought every car they've sold and have a vin of about 3000 on my model S. They're consistently doing these types of things that isn't right. Like MMC issue. Maybe a class action suit?

The answer to can a class action suit be filed" is in the body of this thread.