American Solar Energy, LLC

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They need to follow up a little bit more and closer contact and the check up after so we don’t forget who we are. They did a good job.

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Did not have the work done because of lies told to us The salesman Ryan took up over three hours of our time. He arrived at 6 pm and did not leave my house till after nine which is past our bedtimes without a sale. We signed to have it done and he said it would be done the next day. You cannot get a permit overnight so I assume they were going to do it without one! He said his company was accredited by the BBB as A+ rating. The next morning I was worried about the deal and went on my computer and looked up the company on BBB only to find out it had a F rating. There was a company called American Solar Energy Systems Inc. that had a A+ rating but that is not who they are. I then went on Angie's List and checked the company out only to find the same results as the BBB. I sent out Texts, emails and a phone message on Ryan's phone to cease work and cancel the contract. He called me back and was very irate with me and kept insisting they were A+ rating. I gave him my answer to cancel and hung up but he kept trying to call me back. That evening he called me back and said he doesn't appreciate me calling in the middle of the night and called me all kinds of names and then hung up on me. I called him back and left a message for him that I was now going to put a complaint in. I worry now that they have personal info such as social security numbers and bank account numbers will be let out. Also I have a stain in my driveway from his car leaking oil

They salesman came out and explained several items like the solar for the water heater and the hot water heater. He gave us life time guarantees on the solar panels. He did not tell the truth because somethings were guaranteed 10 years and 4 years. When i called the company, they were very responsive. The salesman was not honest.

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First, the representative showed up an hour and a half late. Second, the sales call was supposed to last 20-25 minutes....ended up being almost an hour...and the only reason it wasn't longer than an hour was because we cut the guy off short and ended it. Free energy analysis? HA! He doesn't even travel with a ladder to get into people's attics. How can you do an energy analysis if you can't get into an attic space? Here's a tip ASE: buy a briefcase ladder that you can put in your salespeoples' Chevy Malibus. The guy Brad goes on and on and on and on with his B.S. sales pitch before anything else...which only served to p*** my husband and I off even more after showing up 90 minutes late. He says he can find us a great deal on insulation at $0.90 a square foot. Let me tell you: that's the going rate in the marketplace. Attic fans in the state of Florida are useless. When it's 101 degrees outside, an attic fan does absolutely nothing to cool your attic down. As for hot water tanks, which is what this company focuses on, there is very little savings there. Unless you are taking 30-minute showers, there's not much margin in reducing energy costs via the water heater. FYI, I had Duke Energy come out and give me an energy analysis two days after American Solar Energy. By using Duke Energy's contracted insulation companies, I am getting R30 insulation installed at $0.45 a square foot. THAT'S A DEAL! The bottom line that made me come on Angie's List to review this joke of a company: Brad was going on and on and on about his 14 years in the business and how he can just look at a home and know where the energy savings can be made. AND YET....with his FOURTEEN YEARS IN THE BUSINESS... He FAILED to inform us that the very foundation of their business strategy : which is that federal tax credits will pay for the down payment of their $25,000.00 system would not apply to us. LISTEN UP: I checked with our CPA...federal tax credits do not apply to investment/rental properties. There isn't even a loophole on this. This man Brad stood in our multi-unit building, knowing it was an investment property, and after 14-years in this business couldn't tell us that the federal tax credit wouldn't apply. Now I realize this company will respond by saying they are not tax authorities. But when your entire business model depends on hooking customers into this scheme by having them turn over the tax credit to their company....it is absolutely your responsibility to know when the tax credit does and doesn't apply.

My son have done some researches online and we had them come for the job. The people were very nice. But, we had them come back for multiple times fixing some problems. Their customer service is good. They just need to be clear with the customer with their tax credit. Overall, the have a B. Probably, I am not going to use them in the future.

oI received a phone call purporting to be a business acting for the state. They offered me a free energy audit which would take about half an hour. I had a TECO audit when I bought the house nine years ago but nothing since so I made an appointment for Saturday morning November 23, 2013 for 9:00 AM. At 9:30 AM I called the contact number I had been given asking for information. The gentleman called me back to say there was a large pile up on the freeway and that his guy was in it. He offered me another appointment that afternoon for 5:00 PM. He reiterated that it would only take half an hour. I had been up since 4:00 AM and knew I would be tired by then but could do a half hour. The representative showed up promptly and looked at my hot water heater and attic. He provided information on federal rebates which are substantial and energy savings over several years. He was likeable but quite aggressive. When we sat down for further discussion he pulled out a large notebook and went into his salesman routine. It was very similar to buying a car. Lots of rhetorical questions (e.g., would you rather put the money in you pocket or give it to TECO) . Once I determined that the state had nothing to do with this entire process, I asked him why the man on the phone had given me fallacious information. He said they did represent the state but was unable to explicate exactly how. By this time I was beyond exhausted and asked him on two different occasions to please leave and come back and finish on another day. He repeatedly said he just needed a few more minutes and ignored my requests. My house was to be his demo house for area code 33604 and I would get a finical break for allowing them to put a sign in my yard. They would throw in a free solar attic fan. He also pointed out the increased value of my house. Stupidly, I acquiesced. He insisted it be installed the next day, Sunday. The crew showed up at 10:30 Sunday morning. The two men were pleasant and seem careful about my house. After a couple of hours I noticed no work noise but lots of exhortations and long phone calls. I went and asked what was happening. The crew leader told me there was a leak in the heater and they would wait for an hour for a new one to be delivered. Things went downhill after that. There was a lot of cursing and banging. Apparently there was a lot of water spilled because they used twenty of my utility towels which were left sopping wet outside full of leaves, twigs, etc. They were finally finished around 5:30 PM. I called the company Monday to complain about the mess and all the cigarettes butts in the front yard where the company's truck was parked. I was told that the crew knew better but that they would be strongly reminded about the rules when they were in someones home. The next, Friday, my handyman was at my house and I asked him to oil my dryer as it was squeaking. When he pulled it out the new water heater was exposed. He took some pictures and emailed them to me. I had noticed the new pan was dented but further back was an actual break in the pan. Behind the heater was the overflow pipe. It was only about 6 inches long and was aimed outside the pan toward my 1925 hardwood floor. Needless to say I payed him to fix these problems. I called the company the following Monday and detailed the problems. What I wanted was for a competent crew to come out and inspect my system to assure me that there are no other problems. I would also like to be reimbursed for the labor I paid to fix the pan and overflow pipe. The man I talked to said the owner would be back in town Tuesday and would call me. I have waited for over a week and received no communication from the company.

The sales manager, Chris Lee, explained the Sunwise program that I was eligible for concerning the panel for the hot water. Since I previously had solar panels on my house in PA, I didn't take much convincing after I heard about the federal tax credits and the projected savings on my electric bill. In addition, I ordered the pool heating panels separately, since once of the offers currently on the table was a new efficient variable speed heat pump to replace my old inefficient single speed model. The job took longer than expected, 2 1/2 days instead of 1, but since I was not in a hurry and only wanted a carefully and correctly installed system, I was patient. The main technician, Matthew, was very careful about explaining everything to me. The only glitch was that they didn't drain the pool filter first so that at the end, all of the filter residue got in the pool and it will take a couple of weeks to clean it.

Mr. Hecky was highly courteous and professional in providing his presentation of their solar hot water energy system and some information about their solar attic fan. He went through the details in describing how the system worked so that we clearly understood what we would be obtaining if we went with their system. He gave us information about the history of their company and their relationship with Angies List and the Better Business Bureau. This was very important to us as we had selected their company from information we garnered from Angie?s List. He was responsive in answering our questions and we believed he was honest in his presentation as he elaborated on the costs and gains from such a system. The biggest factor that mitigated against this company was the fact that there were no customer reviews submitted to Angie's List and a, second consideration, was the price of their system as it was more than twice the cost of the two best estimates we obtained. Neither did we believe that during his otherwise highly professional presentation he ever gave us a fair analysis of the advantages of perhaps opting for only a solar attic fan vis a vis a solar hot water system. This was done by two of the other representatives providing us an estimate. We would recommend this company to others but we would advise others to practice comparative analysis and shopping in making their choice.