Tesla Energy Solar reviews

Scott chose Tesla Solar for the low price, brand name and promise of easy ordering for his home, but under a two-year track record he discovered the system never hit the promised output and then went dark for about two months when a firmware update failed to install. He watched the company move slowly: it took three weeks just to decide to send someone and another three weeks to get the earliest appointment, which wiped out his peak production and peak-usage months. The outage added roughly $700 to his electric bill. When a technician finally arrived, the panels were back online in about two hours — a quick fix after a six-week wait that left him feeling abandoned by a company that had appeared cheap and convenient at purchase.

Doug J. had a years-old solar array on his home and arranged for Tesla to remove the panels so a new roof could be installed. What was supposed to be a short interruption stretched: the removal alone took more than two months. Now he's been told it will take another four months to put the panels back on, despite an original promise of about a two-week turnaround. He faces roughly six months or more without his system — a much longer disruption than the company initially communicated.

Edmund B. signed a $42,110 contract for a 21-panel Tesla Energy solar installation on his Southern California home on 9/27/22 and quickly discovered the project would demand more than he expected. He learned during installation prep that his roof had moss — a problem that cost him just over $2,000 to remove — and he also had to dig up a small tree at the side of the house. Because the sales rep was not local, an on-site visit never happened early in the process, and he ended up absorbing unexpected coordination and expense for work he wanted fully outsourced. He and his wife both work full time and parent young children, so they needed the company to bring local contacts; instead the sales rep could only explain that Tesla Energy is separate from Elon’s Tesla and couldn’t help find roof crews. He was passed between account managers after signing; the first suggested he could power-wash the roof himself before the installer would proceed, which led him to hire a pro who spent two days with lift equipment to do the job and later earned his recommendation. A second account manager tried scheduling the 21-panel install as a secondary job of the day, so he insisted the team take it as a

Isabelle G. bought a small rooftop system and two Powerwall batteries from SolarCity back when it became Tesla — a package that cost about $35,000. She discovered the setup worked fine when it worked, but over the last five years four separate inverters failed, knocking the whole system offline each time. Communication turned into a chore: Tesla’s app-only chat became the only channel, and conversations dragged on while repair appointments were routinely scheduled two months out (and sometimes effectively three), leaving the array dead for peak sunny weeks. She watched replacement inverters be swapped in without any visible effort to diagnose why they kept failing — the most recent unit lasted a single day before dying. Living in Northern California, she lost production during the summer when the system should have been most productive, and grew convinced the company’s service process is slow and avoidant. The hard takeaway: repeated inverter failures plus app-only support produced months-long outages during prime solar season, and she won’t buy from Tesla again.

Abbie had solar panels switched on in June 2015 for her home. In 2020 she noticed something amiss on the roof — tools, a hose, and a big patch where shingles were missing — and the company came out and only replaced the missing shingles. Last month she discovered major ceiling damage and mold from a leak; after hiring a roofer, she learned the water intrusion was caused by the way the panels had been installed. The installer refused to take responsibility because the original contract provided only a one-year warranty and that warranty had long expired. Now the roof repair requires removing and reinstalling the panels, and Tesla charges $499 for that service (or allows a third party only with prior approval), while she continues to pay for the system. After Tesla acquired SolarCity’s customer base, she felt accountability and customer service slipped, leaving her stuck covering the cost of what she views as the original installation’s mistakes and the transition’s indifference. Her hard lesson: check your panels and roof carefully, because years after installation you can still face repair bills and removal fees that the company may not absorb.

Dave H. worked at Tesla for seven years on the vehicle side and accepted a nominal employee discount to install Tesla solar. About five years ago he became the first person in San Diego to get the new Powerwall Plus, but within a year one of the two batteries failed and the app never flagged the problem — he had to discover the failure himself and effectively lost about ten months of backup capacity. Even with an inside chain of contacts at Tesla to escalate issues, he ran into what he describes as abysmal customer service: long hold times, repeated disconnections, and even being hung up on. He considers that experience among the worst customer interactions of his 50-year life. Technically he finds the product solid, perhaps above industry standard, but the service tradeoff made the installation unacceptable to him. When he called most recently about a small issue, he was told the wait would be at least 40 minutes and there was no callback option; past calls often ended in dropped connections. He still holds a significant amount of Tesla stock and links some of its decline to the CEO’s behavior, but that hasn’t changed his conclusion: he can’t recommend Tesla’s Energy/Solar arm. A

Marc had a SolarCity system installed years ago and watched the account change hands when Tesla took over. Under SolarCity he collected an annual production rebate without trouble, but after the takeover he ran into a wall: getting a live agent became nearly impossible, and the automated channels offered no useful answers. Rebate payments stalled and last year the company blamed dirty panels; Marc cleaned them twice but the issue persisted. He also couldn't reach anyone to discuss system production or get a clear explanation. Frustration has built to the point where he’s considering stopping payment just to force a response.

Alfonso R. discovered an arc problem on his solar system that went unresolved for two years. He kept calling the company's customer support and couldn't get anyone on the phone — calls went unanswered. Frustrated by an ongoing safety/operational issue and no reliable phone response, he urged others to choose a local installer instead. The enduring image: two years with a known arc and no telephone support to fix it.

Renee had a three-battery storage system installed in 2021 and only discovered one of the batteries had never actually operated when a Tesla software update knocked all three offline for almost a month. She had no way to know before that—the phone app showed nothing, and a green light on the panel gave the impression everything was fine. While trying to get service she had to call the sales line and be routed three to four times before reaching someone; the rep rolled back the update and two batteries came back online. During that call the rep admitted Tesla’s records only showed two of the three ever working since installation. When she asked about post-install QA or automated alerts, the rep couldn’t confirm any checks and explained Tesla waits for customers to report problems. She raised the issue in November but Tesla didn’t resolve it until January, cancelled her service request twice for unclear reasons, and offered only a maintenance policy that fixes failures without reimbursing the extra electricity costs she incurred while the battery was idle. She walked away convinced Tesla had visibility into the problem but didn’t proactively notify her, and she ended the relationship