Review for Apex Solar Power

Office location: 64 Main Street, Queensbury NY, 12804

06/29/2022
Dissatisfied Customer North Creek, NY

Very Poor Estimation Process

I received a proposal from Apex Solar which was pretty good - low cost and a very reasonable system. I grilled the person providing the proposal about several things, including the price, to help insure it included everything (due to the low cost). I was assured that it was correct. So I put down my deposit to move the process along. The project manager assigned to me basically threw out the entire estimate, and provided a new one that almost doubled my final cost. Some of it I understand - the estimate did not include the cost of the battery backup I wanted. That is why the cost was low - even though I had explicitly asked the estimator about this exact thing! That is a relatively large cost, and I can't see Apex honoring that. Still, it was a very poor process. BUT, the additional costs didn't stop there. I wanted a ground mounted system, and there was a charge on the original proposal for "racking and trenching". I was told this may be an over estimate if the trenching was shorter than expected. The project manager stated that fee would only cover the racking, and the trenching would add over $3K more. I also explicitly asked about a fire proof container for the battery, a requirement in New York State. The estimator stated that was included in the price. The project manager said it would be an extra fee - about another $2K. I heard some grumbling about the costs of some components having increased from the time I originally asked for an estimate/proposal, and when they assigned a project manager to me. But the proposal was dated, and had a defined "good until" date, and I put down my deposit before that date. I am left to conclude that this was either a bait and switch (which the project engineer kind of alluded to), or complete and total incompetence of the estimator. They did not stand behind ANY part of the estimate with the proposal. If prices increased (and I could understand that in this inflationary time), then the "good until" date should have been short and that made clear. But to NOT sand behind any part of the estimate, along with the estimate now being higher than most other solar proposals I received (I did my homework, and got several), I backed out. I have asked for my deposit back. It has been over 2 weeks, and I have heard NOTHING back from Apex. A very poor, and very unprofessional company. I would give them 0 stars. Stay way from them.