Interstate Star LLC DBA Interstate Sun

My first interaction with Interstate Sun was a few months ago when I called around to several Chicagoland solar installers just to get ROUGH pricing estimates for a residential solar PV system. At that time, I was told over the phone that a 4-5kw system would cost roughly $5/watt. Fast forward to this week... Based on the earlier phone calls and rough cost estimates that I received, I scheduled meetings with 3 different PV installers (including Interstate Sun) to come out to my house and get more into the details of potential systems and receive firm quotes. Interstate Sun was supposed to come out on Saturday morning, but on Friday at 6pm, they called me and said that they were very busy and asked if they could reschedule. I said that was fine, and we pushed it back to Sunday morning. Sunday morning rolls around, and I get another call saying that they're still too busy, and could we just talk about the details of the system over the phone. I say ok. I spoke with Frank. In short, the call did not go well. I felt more like I was talking to a pushy telemarketer trying to make a sale and get off the phone as quickly as possible than to an educated, experienced professional. He didn't have his facts straight and was too busy trying to tell me what kind of system I SHOULD have rather than listen to what I wanted. He started off by telling me how many panels I should have before even asking what the dimensions of my roof were. And when I asked him for specifics about the particular panels that he was offering, he often either didn't have the details or he gave me incorrect information. When I asked about the panel dimensions, he told me 3x5 feet. The actual dimensions (I later looked it up) are 3.2x5.4 feet. (That seemingly small difference makes a significant impact on the number panels that I could fit across my roof) For the panel warranty, he told me that they were warrantied by the manufacturer (Canadian Solar) for 100% of their rated performance for the first 20 years, and 90% rated performance for 20 years after that. The actual warranty (I later looked it up) allows for 0.7% decline per year for the first 25 years, and no less that 80% rated power at the end of 25 years. And he actually reiterated to me the fact that the panel performance doesn't degrade AT ALL for the first 20 years. I felt like telling him over the phone that he didn't know what he was talking about since he was clearly wrong, but I held back since I didn't want to get into an argument. He also didn't have model numbers for either the panels or the inverters when I asked. After all this, I received a quote that was quite high. $6/watt for a 4.4 kw system. Before I even said anything negative in response to the price, he told me confidently that it was a very good price and that I wouldn't be able to find anything lower. At this point I had to tell him that several solar installers had already given me much better prices. Upon hearing this, he got very defensive -- almost indignant. He said that the other installers must not be including all of the costs in their quotes. I tried not to dwell too much on the high quote and moved on with my list of questions. My next question was if they have references or testimonials of past customers that they could email to me. This question, surprisingly, led to an abrubt ending to the call. Frank's response was that they could give me that information when they come out to my house AFTER I decide to more forward with them. After that, (and this isn't an exact quote, but it's pretty close) he said something like, "You know, we're really busy, so give us a call when you get serious about this" in a very snide tone. Translation: "I don't need your business and I want to talk to you anymore." I was rather shocked that anyone would be so rude over the phone. But on the other hand, I had had enough of listening to this guy's BS for 20+ minutes, so I was OK with ending the call at that point. In reality, I'm VERY serious about having a solar PV system installed on my roof. But I will only hire a company that is: (1) Professional (2) Courteous (3) Well-informed (4) Competitively priced Interstate Sun proved to be none of these.