HELIOCOL

This company goes by the names of Heliocol West and Green Energy, Inc. Avoid them if at all possible. I purchased a solar water heater, manufactured by Heliodyne a little over 5 years ago. The system was working fine until March 22nd, when I noticed a water leak from the hot water tank. Since the water tank was part of the original system, I contacted Heliodyne and was told that Heliocol West was their service provider for the Phoenix area. The water tank came with a 6-year warranty, so it looked like a fairly inexpensive and easy fix. Boy was I wrong! I had sent several photos and it was obvious the water tank was leaking. They were “backed up” so an appointment was scheduled a couple of weeks out, not a problem as only issue was I needed to empty a 5 gallon bucket every couple of days. When the technician arrived, he had been told to confirm the leak and then go pick up the tank. He confirmed the leak and then called to say Helicol had never ordered a replacement! Now I am emptying the bucket every day, but still have hot water. They get the new tank schedule another appointment a couple of weeks out. When they replace the tank, I am informed that my Heliodyne controller is bad, but they have one on the truck, which they can replace it with. OK, fine. Just another $300 and I am good to go. Wrong again! Now one of the two pumps is not working and needs to be replaced. They need to order one of those and I wait another couple of weeks. They show up, replace the pump. Bet you thought this was the end, right? Well now you are wrong. Now a valve is leaking and needs to be replaced and they need to order one. Mean while during all of the appointments, they have rescheduled on me 3 times. They call the night before and confirm the appointment and then their scheduler calls the morning of and says sorry we will not be there today. No thought to the fact you have already rearranged your schedule to accommodate them. Too bad for you. It has now been 3 months and I have no working solar water heater. I was told “Bruno” would call me 3 days ago, but you guessed right! No call from Bruno. Bottom line is the technicians are really nice, polite and leave the worksite clean. The rest of the company seems to have no concept of what customer service is. If I could give this company a negative rating I would. If you are considering a solar water heater, find out who services them in this area. If it is Heliocol West, I strongly suggest you find another brand.

Overall everything went great! The Installation guy Trevor was very professional and drove a helicol truck and had helicol uniform. They showed up on time and called the day prior to confirm. As far as the product - the pool solar heater is working very well and prior to this cold front that just followed that rain our pool was 82 degrees in February - we didn’t see 80+ degrees until end of May prior so we are very happy. Feel free to contact me for questions or as reference.

I would never use this company-please review every word of the contract and do not pay the 50% deposit that they claim is non-refundable. I decided to not use them for a pool solar system and so far they have refused to refund my deposit even though no work has started and they have not incurred any costs for materials. Beware-they go by many company names and very difficult and unprofessional conduct.

No service performed.

The work was done on schedule w/o any problems.

When we contacted Heliocol Solar to buy a solar pool heater the sales person came to our house and explained the system and the installation process. He answered all of our questions on the spot and provided a detail quote for the entire job. Two days we decided to buy the system and scheduled the installation date. The job was completed as scheduled by a two person team. The team was very professional and completed the work on time. Less then a week later the pool temperature was 85 degrees and we were enjoying swimming in March instead of waiting until May. So far we have no complains, the system is working well. I would recommend Heliocol to any one who is searching for a solar contractor.

I eventually got the worlds most expensive water heater installed. The salesman told me that the total out of pocket was only going to be $2200 due to utility, state, and federal rebates. It ended up costing 3 times that amount. They were tremendously unresponsive. It took months to get the project done. Their inattentiveness cost me an additional $1500, since they couldn't be bothered to meet with the city inspector, forcing me to take three consecutive days off from work to meet the inspector. Their delays resulted in my not getting the rebate from the utility since the utility ran out of rebate funds while I was waiting. I have called twice and written several letters to the vendor, they have chosen not to respond. There are many other vendors in this field. Choose any of them, you will have a better experience.

Recently we had a leak develop in out solar pool system in the piping of all of the panels. We called Heliocol to schedule an appointment and they gave us a 4 hour window and never showed up nor did they call. We called once again and they gave us a 4 hour window two days later and once again did not show up during the 4 hours so we called during the 5th hour and the tech said he was not gong to come and when we asked him why, there was no rational response just some rude comments about his schedule. He then promised us he would see us on Saturday and that we would be his first appointment and once again he did not show up - he even said that he was the supervisor. We called him and he said he decided to start at the other end of Tucson so at the end of the day he would be closer to Phoenix. As another poster stated had he known their service and installation departments was in Phoenix he would not have done business with them and I agree! We wasted nearly three solid days and still have the leak. Their service is awful!

They proceeded with the installation before verifying the installation date. I had to have my roof seal coated because of that. So they had to remove it and then reinstall it. They messed up the re-installation and it blew off in a windstorm a few weeks later. They came out and fixed that. I called them again about two days ago to fix a leak in a joint. I liked their product, but I haven?t been happy with their service.

Salesman came out to the house and did a diagram of where the heater panels were to be installed. The installers put them somewhere else - right on top of where I was planning a skylight. The first installation crew was surly and sloppy. They left a wiping cloth inside the piping, which fortunately came out into the pool. The second crew was friendly, respectful, and fixed all the problems. Since the installation I have had multiple problems with leaks and a thermostat failure. It has taken a long time to schedule appointments and every single appointment has required a return. The warranty covered some items, others not. Dealing with these people is like dealing with a bureaucracy. They promise they will call back, sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I learned that while they have a sales office in Tucson, they run their service out of Phoenix. Had I known this, I would not have dealt with them in the first place. Their technology is attractive, but buggy in practice and their service is so poor that I wish I had gone with the regular spiral-type heater rather than Heliocol's more advanced concept. When the ten-year warranty on the heater panels expires, I am going to have it replaced by another contractor. I will never deal with Heliocol again except for repairs during the warranty period..Heliocol's product appears to be superior to the conventional pool heater, which is basically a spiral of irrigation tubing. Heliocol uses a panel of small-diameter tubing that will heat the water much faster. However, the company's poor service and the leaks I have had show that the superior concept fails the test in practice.

We have not paid for the service as of yet. The company has not completed the project. It has been 5 months since their last visit. They installed the solar panels on the roof, however, they have not returned to install the operating system. The accounting department calls about every 3 weeks to inquire about payment. When we tell them the job has not been completed, they apologize and promise us that someone will be out to complete the project. Guess what,, we are still waiting for someone to come out and complete the work.

I have not paid the $6000 final payment as of yet since I am suing them. They failed to install anything correctly and I had to hire an electrical company to fix their errors at an additional cost of $3500. They told me that they do not have liability insurance. They denied any blame on their part. I also received an electric shock after they installed the large heat pump, due to a drilled existing conduit that had to be done by them since they were the only ones doing work on the system. STAY AWAY -- They are poison.