Customer Complaints

[solarsavings]

Given the recent weather I think it's fair to say our systems have been well and truly tested So the question is: have you had any complaints. Water ingress, lose/rattling modules/collectors blah blah blah.

We have had one customer call us out during the recent bad weather to a system we installed in 2005..................................................a blocked filter on a combination valve Incidentally we installed a 3.84KWp Bosch/3.6OUTD system for them December 2011 and it had clocked up just under 8000hrs in two years. My Kioto's are ****e by comparison.

 

[SolarCity]

We've had a couple of phone calls from installs in Devon. Both grid issues from as far as we can make out. The faults happened some distance from each other, yet on the same day during bad weather. Neither fault has returned yet.

We've had no other issues/calls.

One of our installs is on a house high up on a hill above the Atlantic coastline. The wind there is unreal and we went to town with the brackets. Whenever the bad weather hits, it's always the one we think about first.

 

[whinmoor]

No complaints or issues recently.

One customer wondered why the display on his Wattson wasn't reading correctly but it was that the batteries in the transmitter had died!

 

[JulianC]

Complaints? Moi? How very dare you.



Nah, no contact from any old customers and, more importantly, my roof is still on.

 

[SRE]

We've had a couple of over voltage issues but there has been so much disruption to supply I'm not surprised. As soon as the wind has died down they've been absolutely fine.

Looking at the other side of the coin , this week we've had 5 of the most amazing testimonials from recent customers. I'm a great believer in getting testimonials but no matter how well we've treated our customers I'm always nervous and wonder if we could have done better. They'll be going on the website at the weekend.

 

[solarsavings]

And Gavin-Worcester?

It would be interesting to know how many call-backs there have been across the UK. I'm guessing that all of us on here have done in excess of a hundred installs without a call back in extreme weather conditions We also have quite a few vertical flues installed with no problems reported. It makes me wonder why they find the need to repeatedly mess with standards.

 

[JulianC]

There is a ropey-as-hell pv install not half a mile from my house (no I didn't do it). 1930's semi on a hill in a fairly exposed spot, hipped roof with rosemary tiles in a bad state (shaling, missing etc.) Almost guarantee no felt behind tiles - most likely torched, and most likely in bad condition. Panels thrown on in jazz formation (avant garde alignment between rows, aesthetics best described as 'challenging'). Roof hooks to attach array to roof seemingly an afterthought. In the 6 odd months or so it's been up I have:
a) cringed every time I've walked past it
b) noticed a slowly increasing selection of rosemary tiles collecting in the gutter below the array (we're up to 3 now)
c) been secretly a little bit disappointed that it hasn't taken the roof off in bad weather.

Needless to say, it's still up there, despite recent gales. I could have saved a fortune if I'd used my crystal ball instead of a structural engineer. Hey ho.

 

[dansk]

c) been secretly a little bit disappointed that it hasn't taken the roof off in bad weather.

Needless to say, it's still up there, despite recent gales. I could have saved a fortune if I'd used my crystal ball instead of a structural engineer. Hey ho.

c) that made me chuckle.

 

[Worcester]

Only had one call, - voltage issue with grid, it settled down next day, no visit required

 

[Energetic]

I've been wondering about this also.

With the impending MCS12 and the current lack of MCS12 surely the newspapers should be full of angry articles about PV systems lying in the streets, how upset lady Di would have been about it and how much safer fracking and coal seam gasification is than renewables.

Not even any turbines down through this period AFAIK, although there were a few down in early 2013, maybe all the weak ones are now scrap.

Surely this endorses the current mounting systems we use, mostly German, over engineered and usually a fair few years into development.

 

[Gavin A]

MCS are obsessed with the idea that people are mounting systems in a way that is in some way going to result in kit flying off roofs / houses collapsing.

As far as I can see this is complete unfounded rubbish, and the evidence from 400,000 systems installed is that only a tiny minority have resulted in problems, and these usually result from poor installation practice rather than any inherent failures of the mounting systems.

It's almost as if BRE have a seat on the MCS steering group while at the same time having a commercial interest in performing the required tests for all this mounting kit..... oh wait, that's exactly what the situation is.

 

[t4sltd]

Quoted for re-installing a system which makes a rattling noise when windy (original installer bust) but no news on that - probably too expensive (as we were the first time)!
This weeks job is reinstalling a system on rosemary roof with no lead under any brackets (again installer went bust).
Re: MCS12 Schletter rep this week said accreditation fees very high and methods for weather tightness tests unclear

 

[SRE]

Some things never change! High fees & unclear criteria, now where have I heard that before.