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Solar Roof, big price increase

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#381
I just noticed that Tesla switched my solar panel install from 18.36kw to 16kw on their configurator. The 16kw wouldn't cover my needs. And the price stayed exactly the same for over 10% less power.

I'm not going with my install which is actually happening on Tuesday. Really glad I decided to pay a little more for a company that isn't so...and there is no better way to put this....scummy.

If it wasn't for Elon Musk and all the glamour of Tesla cars, this would be enough to sink another company.

I am not sure if they are reneging on solar panel installs as well yet but who knows.
 
#382
BM3B said:
My SR price hasn't changed, Los Angeles area. I reserved it last month (March 2021), key is I have a simple roof. 7.25 kW, 2 PW

Solar Roof$26,271.08
2 Powerwalls$19,000.00
Installation CostIncluded
Install Solar Roof + Powerwall together-$2,000.00
Taxes$2,579.99
Solar Renewable Energy Credit-$435.00
Deposit-$100.00
Total Amount Due$45,316.07
Federal Tax Credit-$10,049.63
Price after potential incentives$35,366.44
Click to expand...
Same with me, no price change here. Crossing my fingers and toes that it stays that way. I talked to rep two days ago about my meter upgrade which is the current hold up before scheduling install. He didn’t mention anything about pricing and I didn’t see the point of opening a can of worms. I assume they would adjust pricing now before putting any more manpower into it, in case I don’t agree to it (which I likely wouldn’t). Wait time for panel upgrade is two months so it’s going to be awhile.

my roof, including detached garage, is moderately complex with 12 different planes but my theory is overall size of ~1600 sf is a key factor, as it is smaller than most others I’ve seen mentioned. System size is just under 8 kw which is also below average afaik. Current total price with 3 pw is ~$56000. Maybe 3 PWs is a factor too, because that’s ~40% of the total price and my pw cost is only slightly below current pw prices.
Cshama said:
I just noticed that Tesla switched my solar panel install from 18.36kw to 16kw on their configurator. The 16kw wouldn't cover my needs. And the price stayed exactly the same for over 10% less power.

I'm not going with my install which is actually happening on Tuesday. Really glad I decided to pay a little more for a company that isn't so...and there is no better way to put this....scummy.

If it wasn't for Elon Musk and all the glamour of Tesla cars, this would be enough to sink another company.

I am not sure if they are reneging on solar panel installs as well yet but who knows.
Click to expand...
this thread is about solar roof not panels. Scummy is definitely a fair criticism in the context of this thread but as you said, you are paying more to go with another company. Often times it is thousands more so...
 
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#383
KKinNJ said:
Maybe my language was too strong. I should have said "is very unlikely to happen" rather than "isn't going to happen". I got this from consulting with a friend law professor and his wife who is a practicing attorney in New York.
Let's say that we were able to prove that the breach of contract occurred, which isn't a slam dunk, but let's assume that this part was accomplished. Now, the court or the arbiter needs to decide on the appropriate remedy. Here is one source that describes various remedies that could be awarded in a breach of contract cases Breach of Contract Explained for Construction Contractors | Levelset. "Specific performance" is what would require Tesla to honor the existing contracts and is very rarely used by courts as a remedy for a contract breach especially when the contract includes a service like installation. If it was about delivery of a vehicle or some other goods - it's totally feasible, but for installation of the roof? I don't know if you want your roof installed by someone who is forced to do it against their will.
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree with this- I made similar observations in pages 2 and 3 of this thread.

The people who have damages to recover are likely the ones who made investments in preparation of the solar roof... or Tesla made the pricing change after work began. If someone wants to claim damages are equal to the difference between the old and new quotes, then they’ll probably need to produce a bid for a comparable solar shingle roof that they passed on to sign with Tesla.

Outside of contract remedy, I still want the FTC to see if this is a deceptive pricing strategy.
 
#386
davekski said:
The same thing has happened to me as well. We need a class action lawyer to file a suit against Tesla given we all have purchase agreements that Tesla should have to honor.
Click to expand...

its been pointed out a few times in this thread, but all those contracts have arbitration clauses in them, so unless you specifically snail mailed tesla and opted out of that, there can be no "class / mass action".
 
#387
holeydonut said:
Outside of contract remedy, I still want the FTC to see if this is a deceptive pricing strategy.
Click to expand...
I do hope something comes out of this and filing complaints with the appropriate state agencies, since it is a one way to take group action even if people can't band together for a lawsuit. And I think that many of these examples cited seem to suggest what could be described as deceptive pricing and/or a failure to act in good faith.
 
#388
I'm currently comparing local installers and Tesla solar panel quotes to see how big of a difference it is. Tesla solar panels had a design and scheduled site inspection finished shockingly in one week, while the solar roof took months and several emails going no where with 50% more in costs. I understand solar roof is much more difficult than regular panels to install, but months of delay while giving next day inspection for solar panels leads me thinking this product is not quite ready yet or severely understaffed.
 
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#389
WaitingForRoof said:
I'm currently comparing local installers and Tesla solar panel quotes to see how big of a difference it is. Tesla solar panels had a design and scheduled site inspection finished shockingly in one week, while the solar roof took months and several emails going no where with 50% more in costs. I understand solar roof is much more difficult than regular panels to install, but months of delay while giving next day inspection for solar panels leads me thinking this product is not quite ready yet or severely understaffed.
Click to expand...
Yep, had a friend that go a bid for tesla panels and were they came out to install in like a week. They ran into the issue there roof was not new enough, so they had to leave.
 
#390
WaitingForRoof said:
I'm currently comparing local installers and Tesla solar panel quotes to see how big of a difference it is. Tesla solar panels had a design and scheduled site inspection finished shockingly in one week, while the solar roof took months and several emails going no where with 50% more in costs. I understand solar roof is much more difficult than regular panels to install, but months of delay while giving next day inspection for solar panels leads me thinking this product is not quite ready yet or severely understaffed.
Click to expand...
A solar roof is a complete roof replacement so they need to do a much deeper inspection and potentially a lot more work. They need to ensure your roof structure is good. Also, many houses were built with skip sheathing and other techniques which are not supported. Sometimes this means ripping the house down to the roof trusses and other support structures and building back. Starting with fitting the OSB or other roof sheets to the trusses. And they always put a waterproof underlayment on top of the roof sheeting. Once this is done they can start fitting and wiring the hundreds of tiles, edging, vent covers, and other pieces up on the roof. Often this requires custom bending sheet metal on-site, especially if there are valleys, dormers, and other structures. One guy spent an entire day fabricating and installing the metal around a dormer on our house because it slightly not square.

When compared to putting some solar panel frames and panels on top of an existing roof, the work is many times more intense and precise. And once the structure is up there, the tie into the inverters only takes a few hours just like solar panels. It just takes a week or 2 or 3 to get to the point where you can connect to the inverters.
 
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#391
How does the price increase in the Tesla powerwalls affect the "complexity" of the roof?? It has no connection whatsoever! Rather than come up with some lame BS, they should explain why the price increase, not just in labor, but materials. My cost went approximately from $52k to $62k a 19% increase. Ridiculous considering I'm an existing Tesla customer with a Model 3 Performance and an order for the Cybertruck. No Fs given.
 
#392
pa56pa said:
How does the price increase in the Tesla powerwalls affect the "complexity" of the roof?? It has no connection whatsoever! Rather than come up with some lame BS, they should explain why the price increase, not just in labor, but materials. My cost went approximately from $52k to $62k a 19% increase. Ridiculous considering I'm an existing Tesla customer with a Model 3 Performance and an order for the Cybertruck. No Fs given.
Click to expand...
So your price increase was purely an increase in the cost of Powerwalls?
 
#393
wjgjr said:
I do hope something comes out of this and filing complaints with the appropriate state agencies, since it is a one way to take group action even if people can't band together for a lawsuit. And I think that many of these examples cited seem to suggest what could be described as deceptive pricing and/or a failure to act in good faith.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm interested but not expecting much haha. Deceptive pricing and pricing bait/switch tactic is really tough to prove because the federal/state investigators need to find evidence that Tesla knowingly and willfully attempted to advertise a deal they had no intention of honoring.

Clear-cut examples of this would be the good ol' days (I used to work in Automotive) where a car dealer would show a new Cadillac advertisement for "half off of MSRP". When an excited potential buyer shows up in the showroom, the dealer says "oh man, that deal was a one-and-done that we just sold five minutes ago!" Then the dealer proceeds to try and get this sucker-lead into a test drive for a more reasonably priced vehicle.

Now-a-days you'll see exact VIN numbers being listed in advertisements. So the dealer can say they're making one exact low-trim is available at $9,995, and point clearly that this advertised price was legit. Even though it won't come close to applying on all the other models in the showroom.

Anyway, Tesla's new solar roof is much different animal since they literally displayed attractive low prices to a bunch of people on their web calculator. Then confirmed the low pricing after more "careful assessments" with site visit(s). Then Tesla went so far as to actually draft agreements with price quotes and contracts. Not only did this deceptive pricing create attractive leads, it also locked those clients up to prevent them from inking contracts with competing solar + ESS companies. It's one thing to waste the customer's time; it's another to take business away from competitors. Of course Tesla is going to say they just had a bad pricing model.

Playing devil's advocate... the only people who could make an objective determination that Tesla's price was deceptive and illegal would be Tesla themselves. Sure, the people who signed the contracts feel burned, but that's a biased situation since of course anyone that had their pricing go up will feel the original price was deceptive. There just isn't an independent body out there or even data from other solar shingle competitors that can help assess whether Tesla should have expected those solar shingles were going to cost $15+ per sq-ft. And even with that knowledge proceeded to advertise $8 to drum up leads and lock out business into contracts to keep them away from competitors. Tesla will never disclose their own corporate memos and pricing polices unless some case actually gets traction and they get forced into discovery...

PS for the people that think I have an ulterior motive in this ... I do not directly own TSLA; I do not short TSLA; and I do not trade TSLA backed derivatives. Maybe my 401k has some TSLA in it, but I haven't actively traded the damn thing. I do like Tesla's Powerwalls though...
 
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#396
Im not sure how contractually they can get away with this. I signed a contract in February and they have 180 days to complete, another 4 months. They did their survey of my roof and presented me with a price and contract. There should not being anything "unforeseen" to justify a close 100% price increase in my case. This sounds like bs and I will bet reporting to FTC, BBB and others if they do not fulfill their end of the contract in good faith.
 
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#397
fjmaz said:
Im not sure how contractually they can get away with this.
Click to expand...
Depends what you mean by “get away.” General consensus is that for folks that actually spend the time and money to fight, it’s probably is easily winnable, especially for those with prep work, but it has to be done via arbitration. You are absolutely right though that especially if you don’t plan to given them another penny ever (likely me), best is to report your experience through any business accountability entity. Don’t forget SEIA as well as your state AG. There are a few of us that the AG office has agreed to advance the complaints on our behalf. They should not be able to get away from the bad PR.
 
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