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A/C Solar Solutions was formed by Andrew Montney and Cole Reese. Andrew was the marketing manager and Cole was the General Manager at the now defunct Energy Research Group (ERG). ERG was fined by the Colorado Attorney General for deceptive sales practices. Montney is the only person I can find on record as owning the company, but he and Reese introduce themselves as partners. Montney and Reese have hired some of the same sales personnel from ERG and appear to be at it again. Here is what you should watch out for: 1. They may tell you that they are participating in a government or University study - they are not. They are also not receiving any government grants, or co-op advertising from any other companies, including the manufacturer. 2. They will also secure financing for you and immediately charge half to the account (after your 3 day right of rescission of course). They will then take several weeks or months to put the panels on your home. IF you ask questions, they will blame it on the energy company. This is not true. You can verify this by checking the date of the application to the energy company. The turnaround from Xcel is usually a couple of weeks. A/C Solar has collected money and stalled for months before doing any work. If you look at the pictures on their website, none of the work is theirs. Some of the pictures are from the manufacturer. The others are from homes done by other companies.
I was never an employee of A/C Solar Solutions or Altitude Marketing. More lies from the company. Don't take my word for it and definitely don't take theirs. You can Google Energy Research Group and Colorado Attorney General. You can see for yourself the charges and fines from the State of Colorado. Then Google Cole Reese and Energy Research Group and you will see that he was the General Manager. According to the BBB, they have been in business for 2 years and selling solar for 1 year. I can't find any contractor licenses for them. I would demand to see one before I signed anything. They may be subbing the work to licensed contractors. If that is the case you could save money by going directly to the licensed contractors. Also demand to get proof of liability insurance. Do not accept a copy from them. Have their insurance company send it to you showing you as the insured. ANY legitimate liability policy will offer this provision.
The company offered to resolve my complaint if I would remove this and complaints on other sites. They did not. Don't trust them.
The company now operates as 1800solarusa. They will not follow-up or follow-through with their promises. They rarely if ever return phone calls or emails; however, when they do, they PROMISE to fulfill their obligation. It has taken me many emails and phone calls to get any satisfaction from the company on issues that have arisen. You will deal with Greg Gellert, their Operations Manager, and Sasha Marie who is in Customer SERVICE. All of my work has been completed ALL BY SUBCONTRACTORS, but the system is not generating the 3 KWs promised...it's about 2/3's to 3/4's that amount...in the middle of summer!
They promised me a $3000 rebate when I signed the contract and again in an email in December 2015. Then, after multiple attempts to get the rebate by phone or email, Sasha Marie told me in an email that a check would be sent July 1st 2016. It is July 26th at the time of this writing...still no check. They closed out a chat (like hanging up on a telephone call) I began on their web site a few minutes ago today when I tried to ask where the rebate is using that method...in addition to my normal email to Sasha Marie.
The reputation of their business is not important enough to this "company" to refund $3000 due and payable. They really don't seem to care about what the public thinks of them...the money collected appears to be all they care about. Greg Gellert and Sasha Marie and others I've dealt with should be ashamed to "work" for a company with so little integrity. They must be paid very well to be willing to sell themselves out.
I do NOT, NOR have I ever, worked for this company...so they can't use that excuse if they reply to this comment. I fell for their sales pitch...btw...any attempts to reach the saleman went to VM with the message that the VM box was full. He obviously writes the deals and then washes his hands of future contact...His name: Marty Horn
REALLY...Do NOT go with this company...There must be a few reputable solar companies doing business...This is NOT one of them.
PS I have all the written documentation to support what I have written here, so I hope you'll trust this review of 1800solarusa and not get taken in by their proposals and offers.
On January 2015 a salesman came to my house and convinced me to get their panels, he opened an account on a bank to finance the project using my SSN and personal info, he said I was lucky to get approved so fast. The Total for a 5.1 Kw system was $32, 000, so 4 days later I got a called from the financing bank telling me that they withdrew $16, 000 from my account, without my knowledge. They verify that it was 1800 Solar, I thought they needed the money to start, but few days later they withdrew $10, 000 more and that made a total of $26, 000 in a week, I called the bank told them to freeze the account. At that time I received pamphlets from another Solar company offering to do the same 5.1 Kw system for $16, 000, so when I went to cancel the contract they told me that if I did, I would have to pay them 40% of the total, as it was stated in the contract, which I did not know this, and the seller said nothing about it. When I got home and read the contract, I found that one page had a long statement in the back of one of the sheets, this was never shown to me and I did not signed either. I decided to go ahead with the project because they had my money already, and to fight them I would have to get a lawyer and it would cost me more. It took 1800 Solar from January to September to finish my installation and when I asked the local electric company about my refund of $5, 400 they said this company was not recognized by them for using illegal practices, thank God I owed them $6000, and they gave me my rebate, so I paid the rest ($600). This month of October my total production of electricity mounted to $85, so I only paid $98.56. I used two credit cards to pay off the $26, 000 I owed the bank, because even though they gave me 0% for 18 months, if I did not pay it off by then, they would have added another $7500 to my account. Now, I have to pay $300 a month to my credit cards, so I will tell you, it is not worth it, because I produce less than 50% of the total electricity used and I am paying $300 a month extra. I just hope that with the Government rebate I can pay off one of the credit cards.
We are starting to see many other complaint/rip off sites giving us the same kind of recent reviews. We figure it is coming from a disgruntled employee we let go. These statements on here are very false and we wanted to touch base with your site to let you know we do have a investigation going as to who is responsible for these reviews. The profiles were made the same day as the reviews and the release. Our lawyer may be in contact with you if needed. We apologize for you being put in the middle of this mess.