Tesla vs Local Installers, how did you decide?

[Araex]

I'm wondering what factored into everyone's decision on going with either Tesla, Sunpower/Sunrun/Vivint, or your local installers.

I have quotes from Tesla and a local installer, both for 23x330w Panasonic panels:

- The local installer is ~5% cheaper and uses micro inverters, and Tesla is using Solaredge. Difference isn't much, and I'll probably try to ask Tesla to price match, and also purchase Solaredge's extended warranty. (~$200 ish?)

- The local installer has 25 year warranty on everything and performance guarantee, but my thinking on that is smaller guys will more likely to go out of business with boom and bust cycle of the business, especially with the upcoming ITC reduction.

- Tesla has gone thru multiple layoffs, which, from reading the forums, seems to affect Energy side's customer service and cause long lead time on repairs, etc. Although the recent round of $2 billion funding might alleviate this.

Curious to see if anyone has some thought on this, thanks.

 

[cwied]

I installed before Tesla merged with SolarCity, but SolarCity's reputation for bad customer service eliminated them from my consideration. I don't think it's improved a lot since the merger.

On the other hand, I did use Tesla to install my Powerwalls because the price Tesla offered was so much lower than independent local installers. There were some frustrations with the process (mainly lack of communication and confusion around the SGIP incentive), but it's a more straightforward install than solar panels, so on the whole I'm happy with their installation.