Non-MCS, Non-REAL firm conning people

[SolarCity]

Okay, I'm absolutely livid about something that happened yesterday.

I received a phone call from the missus' recently widowed auntie. She had had a visit from a firm which promised:

To beat the 43.3p deadline - despite installing next week.
To pay her all her money back after 5 years.
That she would never have to pay an electricity bill - EVER.

They quoted £20,300 for a 2.35kWp system (which I doubt would even fit) and offered a 30% discount if she signed there and then. They didn't say which panel nor inverter they were using.

Luckily she phoned me to ask what I thought and I put her straight. She is cancelling her deposit this morning.

I don't know what makes me more angry: the fact that these conmen can even have the inclination to do this to a recently widowed lady or the fact that our utterly impotent country can allow this kind of company to exist.

Presumably a phone call to MCS of REAL would be pointless as I have no idea who their installation teams are.

 

[dansk]

utterly impotent country can allow this kind of company to exist.

dont go there - we all know how crap the government is.

Presumably a phone call to MCS of REAL would be pointless as I have no idea who their installation teams are.

Complete waste of time, but you may as well.

Its a sorry state of affairs, but this is life and when ever money is involved it does funny things to people, greed over rules emotion.

Lucky she phoned!

 

[GaryM]

Solarenergysavings and their infamous 360 scheme?
I hope she paid her deposit by cheque or credit card otherwise she may well have trouble getting it back.
Some people just have no moral standards whatsoever and deserve nothing but the worst that life can throw at them. Scumbags.

 

[SolarCity]

She paid by cheque so she'll be ok. If she hadn't of known me, she'd have gone for it.

She lives in Newcastle so it's too far for me to have done the job for her.

 

[Gavin A]

We can cover newcastle if she wants a proper job doing at a proper price with no dodgy salesmen involved - prob around £6.5k for Hyundai / Shott + SMA, or £7.5k for Sanyo (possibly a bit more if we can fit more than 2.35kWp on).

A couple of my installation team are based up there, so it'd be pretty simple for us to do.

btw - I reckon you should inform newcastle trading standards about this lot. If they aren't real or MCS and are using these tactics they shouldn't be able to offer FIT's anyway.

no worries if she's been put off entirely, but the offer's there.

eta - obviously not before the 3rd March deadline, as I'm not a scam artist and intend to mostly sleep between now and tomorrow if possible.

 

[SolarCity]

Thanks Gavin, I was hoping that someone might volunteer to offer a quote.

To be fair, it is a slate roof to this will probably change your price. Also, I'm not convinced that 2.35kWp could be fitted on. I'll find out the dimensions if I get the chance.

 

[whinmoor]

Good job your aunt had the sense to contact you for advice. I guess, however, 95% of the general public don't know someone in the industry and wouldn't have anywhere to turn for advice. I wonder how many have been conned by sweet-talking salesmen with ridiculous promises.

 

[SolarCity]

Exactly my thoughts. She even told the saleswoman that she had a relative that was in the industry.

They're worse than burglars - I genuinely mean that.