Review for Longhorn Solar, Inc.

09/26/2022
Alexandra McLarty Grapevine, TX

Could have been worse, but that's the best I can say

I would love to leave Longhorn a good review, but unfortunately I just can’t. The sales process was clear and smooth, but installation was, frankly, a nightmare. I’ve had many companies work on my house, and Longhorn is by far the least responsive and least reliable company I’ve worked with. I regret selecting them, especially since I’ll need to rely on them to service the system in the future too. I should have canceled my contract at the first sign of trouble. Don’t make my mistake. My install date was pushed back multiple times over two and a half months with little to no communication. I didn’t even know our late May date was canceled until no one showed up on the day the project was scheduled to start, even though I’d called and emailed my project manager multiple times that week to confirm it (she never returned my calls or emails). When installation was finally set to begin, there were issues immediately. Despite claiming they only use in-house teams, a subcontracted company installed my panels. The battery team from Longhorn and the subcontracted panel team were not on the same page, and in fact didn’t even know about each other at first. It took over a month and a half from the panels and batteries beginning installation to finally being completed. During that time, my voicemails and emails were almost never returned. I learned that I had to catch someone in the office if I wanted a response, but that I had to call outside of their daily morning multi-hour all hands meeting, where no one in the office is accessible at all. Even when I was rarely able to catch my project manager on the phone, she was almost never able to tell me anything other than that she’d ask her manager at the next day’s all hands meeting and call me back. Which, of course, regularly didn’t actually happen. When someone would finally be scheduled to come finish installation, usually 1-2 weeks out if I was lucky, they often failed to show up at all or didn’t send enough people to complete the work, meaning things would be pushed out another week or more just to get another appointment scheduled. It took over 3 weeks (and multiple missed or canceled appointments) just to get someone to come back out to commission the batteries when the panels were finally done. When my system failed the QC inspection, I almost cried out of frustration knowing it would take weeks and dozens of calls to get things fixed (which it did). I spent hours every week just trying to reach someone and get on their schedule. Fortunately, Danny became involved in the project towards the end. While he wasn’t able to single-handedly fix all of the issues Longhorn has and things haven’t been smooth even with his help, it was refreshing to be able to reach someone reliably and to be in contact with someone with the ability to get things rolling. I appreciate his efforts. I can’t imagine how much longer my project would have taken to finish without his help. When installation was finally complete, I was told someone would walk me through my system and that I’d receive an owner’s manual. It’s now been over two months and despite several requests, I haven’t received either of these things. With all of these issues, I’ve received a few vague apologies but no other efforts to make things right. As a business owner myself, if a customer had experienced all the issues I had, they’d be looking at a hefty discount at a minimum. Unfortunately, one of my batteries is already broken. It took over a month from reporting the issue to get someone out to work on it, and now a new battery has to be ordered, which will take at least another month. I understand that Longhorn has staffing issues currently. I would hope that a responsible company would adjust their project schedule to only take on the work that they can handle, but it feels to me that Longhorn’s goal is profit first, customer satisfaction dead last. I hired Longhorn for my project despite them being one of the higher quotes I received due to their formerly excellent reputation. I wish I’d gotten what I paid for.