10/13/2018
Anonymous
I have become incredibly and increasingly disappointed with this company. I do all the maintenance for several solar companies in my area and the more I deal with this company the more frustrating it becomes. Their policies waste time for instance a month ago I was dealing with a damaged inverter. first they wanted to send a display, (two weeks shipping) once installed it broke. so they agreed to send a new inverter (2 weeks) once I received the inverter it came without the speedwire component as per new policy, because the old inverter was short circuiting all the new devices using the speedwire from it was obviously not going to work but that was in fact their customer service representatives plan. of course it didn't work and they had to ship a new one (2 weeks). How do you think my customer feels? <br /><br />Then calling in for customer service. Every call takes over an hour. I am not exaggerating and will gladly post my call logs and times for anyone who argues. you have to move up several levels of service before you can get help which costs me so much time and inevitably the ability to get to other customers all because they don't hire enough representatives or train the ones at the lower tiers well enough perhaps. I am always friendly with them because it is not their fault but it is becoming harder too keep up the facade. <br /><br />Sunny Portal is terribly designed. You can't search your customers name so you have to scroll through all of them to find it. This isn't a huge deal but a search bar is also basic internet since 1998. furthermore, there is so little that can be done from it that it is practically useless for anything other than just seeing if the system is operating. this would be the place that any other company would allow the installer to deal with the individual sites issues like swapping out old devices for the new one in order for the system to update. Not SMA. thats a different site which is as convoluted as everything else. <br /><br />Lastly, the designs of their inverters were obviously done by an engineer who has clearly never had to work with one. they are tightly packed in a way that makes it so much more difficult to remove and replace components especially when you add in all the wires. The 5,000 series is designed so the dc disconnect comes right into the bottom so tightly that removing the bottom portion of the inverter is difficult to remove and if one isn't careful can crack the plastic while trying to maneuver between the top of the inverter and the dc disconnect. <br /><br />The only reason I am giving them two stars is solely because their inverters function well when they are operating and because the people who work in customer service are always friendly and try their best. This company needs to hire more people in service, and fix the incredibly poor design of their websites. I can deal with the poor designs of their inverters, its just frustrating.