Given the explosive growth in residential solar power over the last decade, it’s no surprise that more and more companies are popping up to meet the demand.
Unfortunately, boom markets also have a way of attracting unsavory characters. Sometimes they come in the form of scam artists merely pretending to represent a solar company who are looking to take your money and then vanish.
But outright criminals aren’t the only scurrilous characters you need to watch out for.
Many of the so-called ‘solar companies’ that have sprung up in the last decade are merely middle-men with no real connection to the industry or even any interest in solar power. To them, solar energy is nothing more than the latest means to make a quick buck.
Though they make sure not to do anything that might land them in jail, at the end of the day such operators are no more interested in providing good service than the outright con-artists.
They’re called “solar sales organizations” (SSO) and, if you sign a contract with one, you’re liable to wind up paying more than you should for inferior work. You’re also likely to be left holding the bag should anything go wrong.
What are SSOs
Solar sales organizations (SSO) are only interested in two facets of the solar industry—sales and marketing, that’s it. They put all their energy into getting people to pay money for a solar installation and then contract the work out to the cheapest subcontractor they can find.
Of course, few homeowners would want to knowingly deal with a company like that. So SSO’s rarely identify as such. Their advertising, marketing materials, business cards, and everything else will likely be designed to make it seem like the company you’re signing the contract with is the one that’ll be doing the work.
And it may take a careful reading of the contract to realize that nothing could be further from the truth.
SSO Lack of Accountability
Many of the reasons most homeowners would want to avoid signing a contract with an SSO spring from a single obvious source, their lack of accountability.
SSO’s are only interested in closing the deal and then pawning the work off onto a sub-contractor so they can focus on closing the next one. Once they’ve collected their cut, you’re unlikely to ever hear from an SSO again. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ll find it difficult to contact them yourself should the need arise.
A salesperson working for an SSO will likely have no connection whatsoever to the technicians who do the installation. He or she may not even have the faintest idea about who the installation will be subcontracted out to and is unlikely to care.
Because of this disconnect between sales and service, the people who are actually doing the work have no way of reigning in the sales and marketing staff at an SSO. So, someone doing sales for an SSO is more likely to make exaggerated claims about performance or utility bill savings or, more generally, say whatever it takes to close the deal.
If you wind up having a problem, the salesperson for an SSO knows that they’re unlikely to ever even hear about it, further removing any disincentive to over-promise.
When an SSO chooses a subcontractor to do your installation, they’re only interested in one thing, how cheap the price is. SSO’s are unlikely to know or care about quality of work, reliability, and other factors crucial to you.
If something does go wrong, you’ll likely have to deal with a subcontractor with whom you’ve had no prior relationship whatsoever.
SSO Redlining
But another less obvious but equally problematic business practice engaged in by SSO’s is redlining.
An SSO is interested in one and only thing, making a profit. As such, they only need to know one thing about the companies they subcontract out the actual installation to: A “redline” price the subcontractor will charge for installations of various sizes.
Anything the SSO gets above the redline is profit, and there’s no ceiling. Rather than coming in with a standard set of prices for everyone, a salesperson for an SSO is liable to try and suss out the highest price you might be willing to pay.
The upshot is that homeowners who deal with an SSO frequently wind-up paying significantly more than fair-market value for their solar systems.
What is an EPC?
In contrast to an SSO, what’s known as an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction or EPC solar company isn’t narrowly focused on turning a quick buck through sales and marketing and then handing the actual work off to the cheapest possible subcontractor.
As the name suggests, an EPC instead integrates all facets involved in residential solar installation into a comprehensive business model. As such, an EPC provides end-to-end service—from marketing and sales, through the design and equipment procurement phases, and on to project management, and installation, until your solar system is finally ready to go.
Because the sales and marketing staff at an EPC work with the designers and installers as part of a team, they’re knowledgeable about the technical aspects of solar power and, even more importantly, subject to feedback from the people doing the actual work.
Unlike a salesperson at an SSO, if a consultant working for an EPC over-promises, the homeowner will be complaining to the consultant’s boss. As such, any EPC consultant who makes misrepresentation a habit is a serious liability for the rest of the company and, hence, will very quickly find themselves out of a job before they wind up causing too many problems.
More generally, with an EPC you’ll be working with a single entity throughout that, in order to succeed, has to be composed of individuals actively working to function as a coherent team. The very same people you sign the contract with are the ones you’ll be dealing with if anything goes wrong thereafter.
So, not only is there more incentive for everyone to make sure that each part of the process goes smoothly, if there are any problems you, won’t be chasing around in a hopeless effort to find the phone number of someone willing to take responsibility.
In an effectively managed EPC, the consultant who presented you with the contract won’t vanish from sight to be immediately replaced by people with whom he or she has no connection.
To the contrary, the person who was the initial face of the firm will want to hear about any difficulties you have and work to make sure they’re resolved to your satisfaction.
In contrast to an SSO, when you work with an EPC, that’s just part of the business model.