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Tesla Solar Loan Craziness [Beaverton, OR]

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Been a long time lurker with no need to really post but this last few days has been crazy enough I figured it was worth a write about since I haven’t seen a process quite like this before.

TL;DR

Tesla cancels my solar loan four-ish months after installation and wants me to re-apply.


Timeline:

7–8-2020 - Got an email ‘Free Wall Connector With Solar and Powerwall Purchase’

7-8-2020 - Please order for 8.16kW Solar Panels and 1 Powerwall

7-8-2020 - Sent follow up email to confirm wall connector was added to order (nothing showed on confirmation)

7-9-2020 - Tesla support rep says wall connector should be added. (turns out it wasn’t when I call later about the loan).

7-17-2020 - ‘Review and Accept Your Design’, I accepted

7-17-2020 - ‘Your Solar Payment Details Are Confirmed’ loan amount $24,400.00, Docs signed

7-24-2020 - Signed loan doc (note: had to call them since equifax refuses to unfreeze my credit, long story, but I asked to confirm about the wall connector and the guy said it wasn't in the order but he'd add it.)

8-17-2020 - Requested update on project.

9-8-2020 - Tesla support advises they’re still waiting for permits (note: I checked with the county and permits were approved for a while now)

9-9-2020 - Notice PGE net metering application received

9-11-2020 - Notice PGE application needed corrections

9-18-2020 - Notice PGE net metering application received

9-18-2020 - ‘Schedule Your Installation’,

9-19-2020 - Schedule confirmation: Technicians will arrive between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM on November 17, 2020 to install your Solar Panels.

9-19-2020 - Email survey about my experience with the install, url was expired when I clicked

9-22-2020 - PGE net metering level 1 interconnect application received

10-6-2020 - PGE net metering approved

10-7-2020 - Signed PGE docs

11-17-2020 - Solar installed (day 1 of 2)

11-17-2020 - Tesla scheduled inspection

11-20-2020 - PGE meter exchange request and inspection schedule

11-27-20 - Email from Sunlight financial with loan terms

12-1-2020 - Same email from Sunlight again but with an updated address

12-2-2020 - PTO YAY!

2-23-2021 - Email to Sunlight asking why I haven’t gotten a bill or anything.

2-24-2021 - Email from Sunlight saying “At this stage your installer has not finished submitted the documentation needed to finalize your loan. Once they submit the information, we will book your loan with your lender and you will receive further information”

3-15-2021 - Follow up with Tesla since I still hadn’t heard anything

3-18-2021 - Reply from Tesla “We have reached out to see if there is a delay with the paperwork. We will get back to you.“

3-19-2021 - Received three emails asking me to review my design.

3-19-2021 - Followed up with Tesla asking why I’m being asked to review (no reply)

3-25-2021 - Email from Sunlight “Our records show that you have requested to cancel your application for a loan through Sunlight Financial for your project with Solar City.”

3-25-2021 - Email to Tesla and Sunlight asking what’s going on

3-25-2021 - Sunlight says to ask Tesla for a new credit application

3-25-2021 - Tesla says “We reached out to our loan contact and they stated that your credit expired while waiting for the stipulation to clear. They state you will need to complete another credit application. Please feel free to contact Sunlight Financial directly for any questions about this.”

3-25-2021 - I’ve followed up with Tesla again letting them know I don’t want to do another credit inquiry.


I’ve made it clear to Tesla now that I wont be taking another credit hit for their mistake. Is that reasonable of me? I also wonder what would have happened if I just didn’t say anything. It sounds like I fell through the cracks and the Tesla team now has no idea what to do. We’re at the point where the contracts all agree on the loan, they already installed all the hardware and I’m up and generating but they just didn’t request money from the lender.


Honestly at this point I’d be fine if they wanted to come and take the panels back.

I’ll keep ya’ll updated
 
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This is sadly typical bad communication on Tesla energy part and sort of par for the course... but ..
i agree with you .. this is too far .. I would not allow them to do full credit inquiry etc if they (tesla or finance co) are at fault .just on principle .. or at least in this case i feel Tesla should do more for you than just the wal connector for your trouble .. how you get them to actually do that .. good luck .. sorry i wish i knew as well
 
Last edited:
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This is sadly typical bad communication on Tesla energy part and sort of par for the course... but ..
i agree with you .. this is too far .. I would not allow them to do full credit inquiry etc if they (tesla or finance co) are at fault .just on principle .. or at least in this case i feel Tesla should do more for you than just the wal connector for your trouble .. how you get them to actually do that .. good luck .. sorry i wish i knew as well
Nah, they can do as many credit hits on me they want. Life is too short
 
Update for 03-30-2021

Got the loan sorted out supposedly but the funny thing is the project got moved back to permitting. I'm not even going to try to stop them if they want to waste money filing permits again. I'm going to laugh so hard if they want to send someone out for another house survey. I kinda want to see the confusion on their face.

And regarding credit checks, I'm not worried about the hard pulls or anything. The issue is equifax refuses to believe I'm who I say I am despite multiple certified letters sent to them. Can't call them since you have to prove yourself to the computer before you even get to a human. Naturally everyone uses them first for credit checks so it ends up being a hassle trying to explain that they have to use the other two agencies. (Oddly this got me a better rate last year when I bought the car).
 
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Update for 03-30-2021

Got the loan sorted out supposedly but the funny thing is the project got moved back to permitting. I'm not even going to try to stop them if they want to waste money filing permits again. I'm going to laugh so hard if they want to send someone out for another house survey. I kinda want to see the confusion on their face.

And regarding credit checks, I'm not worried about the hard pulls or anything. The issue is equifax refuses to believe I'm who I say I am despite multiple certified letters sent to them. Can't call them since you have to prove yourself to the computer before you even get to a human. Naturally everyone uses them first for credit checks so it ends up being a hassle trying to explain that they have to use the other two agencies. (Oddly this got me a better rate last year when I bought the car).
The project status going back to permitting is just a system update. They won't actually initiate a new permit process. My loan docs were updated a couple of times, and each time they went to permitting stage and quickly moved down from there...
 
Any update since 3-30-2021 on your Sunlight Financial loan status? I am currently in the exact same stage of my solar loan as the Original Poster was in back on 2-23-2021... I'm about to reach out to Sunlight to ask why I haven't been billed. Install date was 12-21-2020 and PTO date was 1-25-2021.
 
Update time, or I guess, lack of update time.

I've reached out to support a number of times now. I just sent off another email asking to escalate. I just want to cover all my bases because eventually someone is going to do an audit there and find out they're missing money.

One support person told me to contact their home sales/transfer? department which shows they didn't bother to even look at my account. The last support person said they were looking into it but that was two weeks ago.

@BAlexy5 Crazy you're in the same boat. Did sunlight tell you anything useful? They just would say they never got the paperwork.
 
I keep hoping that Tesla Energy gets better, but stories like this keep popping up. It’s disappointing, but not surprising. This is what happens when the “tone at the top” of an organization does not make customer service a priority.

FWIW, Tesla forgot to invoice me for half my system for 6 months after PTO. There is something structurally wrong with the inner workings of Tesla Energy.
 
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You signed the contract. They installed the panels and now they want you to renegotiate the loan. If was me I would send some kind of payment to sunlight. If they cash your check you could come back and say hey you cashed the check for payment this is on you sunlight. They may want a new loan agreement for a higher interest rate.
 
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Been a long time lurker with no need to really post but this last few days has been crazy enough I figured it was worth a write about since I haven’t seen a process quite like this before.

TL;DR

Tesla cancels my solar loan four-ish months after installation and wants me to re-apply.


Timeline:

7–8-2020 - Got an email ‘Free Wall Connector With Solar and Powerwall Purchase’

7-8-2020 - Please order for 8.16kW Solar Panels and 1 Powerwall

7-8-2020 - Sent follow up email to confirm wall connector was added to order (nothing showed on confirmation)

7-9-2020 - Tesla support rep says wall connector should be added. (turns out it wasn’t when I call later about the loan).

7-17-2020 - ‘Review and Accept Your Design’, I accepted

7-17-2020 - ‘Your Solar Payment Details Are Confirmed’ loan amount $24,400.00, Docs signed

7-24-2020 - Signed loan doc (note: had to call them since equifax refuses to unfreeze my credit, long story, but I asked to confirm about the wall connector and the guy said it wasn't in the order but he'd add it.)

8-17-2020 - Requested update on project.

9-8-2020 - Tesla support advises they’re still waiting for permits (note: I checked with the county and permits were approved for a while now)

9-9-2020 - Notice PGE net metering application received

9-11-2020 - Notice PGE application needed corrections

9-18-2020 - Notice PGE net metering application received

9-18-2020 - ‘Schedule Your Installation’,

9-19-2020 - Schedule confirmation: Technicians will arrive between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM on November 17, 2020 to install your Solar Panels.

9-19-2020 - Email survey about my experience with the install, url was expired when I clicked

9-22-2020 - PGE net metering level 1 interconnect application received

10-6-2020 - PGE net metering approved

10-7-2020 - Signed PGE docs

11-17-2020 - Solar installed (day 1 of 2)

11-17-2020 - Tesla scheduled inspection

11-20-2020 - PGE meter exchange request and inspection schedule

11-27-20 - Email from Sunlight financial with loan terms

12-1-2020 - Same email from Sunlight again but with an updated address

12-2-2020 - PTO YAY!

2-23-2021 - Email to Sunlight asking why I haven’t gotten a bill or anything.

2-24-2021 - Email from Sunlight saying “At this stage your installer has not finished submitted the documentation needed to finalize your loan. Once they submit the information, we will book your loan with your lender and you will receive further information”

3-15-2021 - Follow up with Tesla since I still hadn’t heard anything

3-18-2021 - Reply from Tesla “We have reached out to see if there is a delay with the paperwork. We will get back to you.“

3-19-2021 - Received three emails asking me to review my design.

3-19-2021 - Followed up with Tesla asking why I’m being asked to review (no reply)

3-25-2021 - Email from Sunlight “Our records show that you have requested to cancel your application for a loan through Sunlight Financial for your project with Solar City.”

3-25-2021 - Email to Tesla and Sunlight asking what’s going on

3-25-2021 - Sunlight says to ask Tesla for a new credit application

3-25-2021 - Tesla says “We reached out to our loan contact and they stated that your credit expired while waiting for the stipulation to clear. They state you will need to complete another credit application. Please feel free to contact Sunlight Financial directly for any questions about this.”

3-25-2021 - I’ve followed up with Tesla again letting them know I don’t want to do another credit inquiry.


I’ve made it clear to Tesla now that I wont be taking another credit hit for their mistake. Is that reasonable of me? I also wonder what would have happened if I just didn’t say anything. It sounds like I fell through the cracks and the Tesla team now has no idea what to do. We’re at the point where the contracts all agree on the loan, they already installed all the hardware and I’m up and generating but they just didn’t request money from the lender.


Honestly at this point I’d be fine if they wanted to come and take the panels back.

I’ll keep ya’ll updated
I am going through the exact same scenario as you!
 
Got a follow up from Tesla when asking for an update: "Since Tesla does not have access to your billing with Sunlight Financial, I would recommend reaching out to them directly for assistance with your billing."

This is so beyond a joke, I just can't.
 
Looks like they finally got their act together, just got an email from Sunlight 'Summary of Key Loan Terms'. Granted I got this last year so who knows if this is the end of the saga!

(It only took me thanking them in their last email for the free solar)
 
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