We have recently had a conversation with someone adversely affected by an unreliable contractor. I have been hearing sad tales like this during the entire 16 years we have been in business – these stories seem to come in waves. Most of these unfortunate events could be avoided by doing a little research and talking to existing happy customers and looking at a company’s track record. Unreliable companies rarely make it two years. While the fact that a company is new should not prevent you from working with them, you should be much more careful with a new company.
I will be forever grateful to Mr Lee Doughty who wrote me a large check in December of 2002, when this solar company was just a gleam in my eye. The trust he placed in me will always be appreciated and cherished. I would hate to think that my lack of other existing customers at the time would have prevented him from working with us – how is a small company supposed to get their first customer otherwise?
Support for earnest young start-ups aside, please do your research when hiring a solar contractor. This goes for any trade, but something about solar seems to attract companies that take advantage of a customer’s good intentions and enthusiasm with some gee-whiz marketing.
Here are some Yelp reviews that collectively tell a distressing story. https://www.yelp.com/biz/offset-solar-liberty-lake Of note, we don’t pay Yelp for our listing, I’m not sure if reviews can be left if we don’t pay for their service, however for existing customers read this and use Yelp (you need an account to provide review) are so motivated, we would appreciate a Yelp review or two or three.
In 2002 Lee was a Solar Pioneer! In 2006, he enlarged his array and had the biggest one in town for a while.
Prior to becoming electrical contractors in 2004, we worked with Puget Sound Solar to install our projects. Ara, Jeremy, Andy, and Emil at Jefferson County’s first Grid-tied PV installation, February 2003.