Surprise family’s solar panels finally reconnected
SURPRISE, AZ (AZFamily) — On Your Side has reported on SunPower solar customers’ struggles since the company went bankrupt. Leasing customers had no way to get repairs, but they had to keep making their monthly payments. Now things are looking brighter.
Alicia Armstrong says thanks to On Your Side, problems with her broken solar system have finally been fixed. In a recent On Your Side report, she explained how her family’s solar system from a company called SunPower stopped working following a water leak on their roof.
That’s because the solar system had to be disabled, and some of the panels had to be completely removed to repair the leak. However, SunPower filed for bankruptcy protection before the panels could be reinstalled and the solar system turned back on.
That left Alicia and her family with no solar and higher energy bills. To make matters worse, they were still forced to pay monthly leasing payments for the panels.
“We’re just a hard-working family,” Alicia said. “We don’t want to have to pay for something we’re not receiving service for.”
So Alicia contacted On Your Side and we talked with the CEO of SunStrong, the company that took over the leasing business from SunPower.
He apologized for Alicia’s issue, saying SunStrong is catching up on all the backed-up repair orders.
However, with On Your Side’s involvement, he also promised to prioritize Alicia’s non-working solar system on the repair list.
He did, and within days, Alicia’s solar system was back up and working. With the solar system working again, she says she’ll save hundreds of dollars a month, but that’s not all.
“The Vice President of Customer Operations called me and just asked how everything went,” Alicia said. “She was very kind, very open, very helpful. And then they were able to offer me a refund for the nine months of payments I made without receiving anything in return.”
That’s more than $1,200 in lease payments alone, and she says she owes it all to On Your Side.
“We both couldn’t be more grateful,” she said. “You guys have helped us tremendously. I don’t know that we would have any of this now if it wasn’t for you guys coming out and doing that story.”
SunStrong tells us they’ve made repairs for thousands of customers affected by the SunPower bankruptcy.
If you’re one of those customers still waiting for contact, you may want to resubmit your claim to ensure it didn’t slip through the cracks during the SunStrong takeover.
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