Tesla just screwed me over

[dhrivnak]

Imagine the rate your company charges to install solar; now imagine a customer only paying about 1/2 of that estimate. Assuming your company still took that offer, what amount of shortcuts and cheap labor would be necessary to make that transaction work?

True. As a small company we can’t buy the solar parts for what Tesla is advertising. I do not know how they can do it.

 

[bgrynn1873]

The cost of solar panels and equipment retails is about 12-15k for 16.32 kw system.

so Tesla in theory has about 15k to cover costs. 5-7k should easily cover the costs of labor. So there making about 5-7k a job. Not super high margin but enough if they do volume. There also probably paying less then 12-15k for the equipment as well.

the problem here is not the cost but the fact is managers think everything job is done the Same way and probably also hiring crews who get paid regardless if a job is done or not and complain when they have extra work.

local guys cost more around here because they use microinverters. The real cost is about 5k more for probably extra work they do with permits and design.

 

[pdx_m3s]

Not having tie off points for harnesses doesn't really have anything to do with the roof being metal or wood. You should of had your roofers install harness tie off points on the roof. It's something I have had installed on all of my houses for safety reasons. I know contractors that won't step on a roof without them. It's a liability issue.

Tesla's policy is such that they have to install their own tie-off points to a roof, even if there are existing points.

 

[IamMark]

I'm not an engineer, but I'm 99% sure that's not true. If you think about it, there are screws right now holding all the OSB sheathing to the metal rafters. You'd just be adding a dozen more or so.

Do you know what gauge your rafters are?

Cheers, Wayne

Wayne,

I checked the rafters, and they are 20 gauge.

 

[IamMark]

Tesla's policy is such that they have to install their own tie-off points to a roof, even if there are existing points.

I'm curious, but how do you know this?

 

[pdx_m3s]

I'm curious, but how do you know this?

The Tesla employee that came out and did my site survey said so.

It came up because I told him that my roof already had tie-off anchors, and he said they’re required to install their own regardless.

 

[jboy210]

The roofers were just walking around freely - no harnesses. And not that I'm condoning it, but I have never seen anyone in our area wearing a safety harness when doing work on the roof.

As I mentioned in my other response above, I honestly have no idea how they would install anchor points on our roof. You cannot nail or screw into the metal rafters.

Lastly, Tesla did an onsite assessment, and I again pointed out our steel frame construction when they were here. Not having tie off points was never brought up as an issue until now.

Tesla teams wore safety harness every day except tear-off on our solarRoof install.

 

[Uncle Paul]

When Tesla roof inspector came out to do a pre-installation report, he was not going to be the guy to sign off on the technique to do the installation. No matter what he said, it was obvious that he was simply going to inspect and write up a report to go into my file.
Closer to the installation someone would look at all his notes and decide the best way to proceed. There is some time between inspection and installation, so obviously internal policie could change prior to installation day.

Tesla is erroring on the side of safety, so perhaps the final decision, considering all the facts, makes them hesitant to tackle the job.

It does not matter that you hired someone else to help the job along, the final decision to send someone up on a non traditional roof is going to fall upon Tesla.

Around here they are severly backed up, because they are the best pricing around. If you want the deal, you gotta make Tesla happy.

 

[bgrynn1873]

When Tesla roof inspector came out to do a pre-installation report, he was not going to be the guy to sign off on the technique to do the installation. No matter what he said, it was obvious that he was simply going to inspect and write up a report to go into my file.
Closer to the installation someone would look at all his notes and decide the best way to proceed. There is some time between inspection and installation, so obviously internal policie could change prior to installation day.

Tesla is erroring on the side of safety, so perhaps the final decision, considering all the facts, makes them hesitant to tackle the job.

It does not matter that you hired someone else to help the job along, the final decision to send someone up on a non traditional roof is going to fall upon Tesla.

Around here they are severly backed up, because they are the best pricing around. If you want the deal, you gotta make Tesla happy.

I am not sure they are such a good deal. Every other installer either installs micro inverters or better inverters then Tesla and they also offer better solar panels.

the difference of those things alone is about 5-7k in my case this means a local installer is about 5-6k more.

once you factor in some things and extra costs Tesla does chances are they are more expensive in some cases a lot.

by my estimate and extra work is 2-3 time what most contractors charge. So in my opinion they look for reasons to upcharge.