Run from Signature Solar!!!

I personally empathize with SS… I own two businesses and in my experience the public has a short fuse these days. They also refuse to do their own research. And with this industry being fairly new to the general consumer many of the complaints and questions are just due to the lack of knowledge or research. Most of the answers are in the manuals but they just don’t read that information. The instant gratification society wants answers yesterday without any work on their part. I know personally I have learned a ton over the last two years of experimenting with solar and ESS. So folks please take a deep breath, read the information given to you when you purchase or download manuals prior to purchase, watch videos from people happy and disappointed in the equipment you are interested in, and don’t always assume that a video has the correct information. YouTube is awesome but many times it’s a 50/50 shot at the information being 100% correct or it’s an opinion not fact. Spend less time beating up people in forums when you haven’t done your homework.

Addendum: Forgot to say if you aren't up to the task higher a professional... and understand that the task might be more than you think.

1. Design
2. Sourcing materials and deciding on all equipment
3. Install
4. A/C side may need to be done by certified electrician depending on your local laws

I'm leaving things out doing this on my Iphone and in in between my own reality... but don't expect the tech support guy to handle many things that should have been under consideration prior to making any purchase by your are your agent (hired professional)

That being said I do think many manuals are incomplete and that’s from many companies. Sometime I wonder if the people who write the manuals have ever used the product.

SignatureSolarJames said:

While the attitude is a fair target over time (and we are becoming more robust in scale of people served and variety of problems prepared for) your expectations do not match the reality of a new generation of users trying to do and learn what it takes to get power independence within months of finding out what a volt is.

There is zero chance that this will not be a feedback heavy process, we are the run-away leader in this space in terms of volume and frankly we mostly help people who are doing something they have never done before. if this was selling plywood and studs you'd be right.

Again, definitely fair target, not realistic at this stage of DIY off grid adoption and product evolution

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I have worked for technology companies all my life. Customer service was always one of the main deciding factors when choosing a "partner" for a technology decision.

We would send out quarterly questionaires to our install base asking our customers about the quality of the product, satisfaction with their purchase, improvements we could make, and overall score they would give of our company, from sales interaction, product quality, communications, and service.

Product management, sales, and support would all be engaged and compensation for out employees partially based on the results of customer ratings.

We would at times "darken the sky" with resources to resolve customer problems, to assure it was resolved in a timely manner.

Investment in support is sometimes neglected in many technogy organizations, especially growing startups. They tend to put more into engineering and sales. That is a recipe for loosing customers. Having the best solution on the planet is worth nothing if your customers feel neglected, or do not feel like your company cares about them. Poor communication is usually a main issue. Over communication is always better than less communication, but efficiency is always just as important.

An example is calling a company for service, and a person or machine asks for your information, such as serial, contract, or name and phone number. They then pass you to a service rep, who asks for the same information all over again. That causes frustration ( appliance companies, or outsourced service departments are notorious for that practice).

Having a resource on this forum who can answer questions and provide assistance is invaluable in my opinion. It enables folks to feel valued, and shows that you care about your customers, and are willing to help.

Believe me, I have run into many obnoxious or just plain entitled customers in my day, but its how you handle them that can make all the difference. In summary, support is sometimes even more important than marketing or sales. Make the investment in good people who know how to communicate, and your sales will continue to improve.

Considering SS's volume, I'm really surprised they don't have more complaints here on the forum. I don't think people realize how big they are.

The solar generator manufacturers get tons of complaints for customer service, and people don't seem to care. It's quite odd actually.

The lowest complaint high volume battery seller I've seen is LiTime.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Here's the thing with SS. They apparently move a lot of product. When one person out of a hundred from a small company has an issue, that isn't a lot of noise. When it's 10 out of 1000, it's louder. When 100 out of 10,000 have an issue, it becomes deafening. Still only 1%. Read the reviews on products from Amazon. If every person who had an issue went to one forum and complained, the topics would be on non stop scroll.

The bigger issue for me is how it's handled. Come here, you are gold. But how many people with SS issues are there who don't use this forum?
If I understand, the story is that SS grew faster than they could handle. That created a mindset of "We'll deal with what we can handle". If you can continue to grow with that mindset, it's unlikely to change.

Add to that that now people know that coming here gets results. That's asking for noise.

SignatureSolarJess said:

I believe we have identified OP. The mentioned SS employee was able to identify the customer by the comments in his post matching up with the experience he had with a customer recently. We also have very few cancelled orders and only one for in the price range mentioned.

@chadwick20021 We cannot be 100% sure without response, however, under the assumption that you are the customer we believe you are, the transaction was flagged as potentially fraudulent and cancelled due to no response. In these cases where we don't receive any response to emails or calls, it becomes challenging for us to proceed with processing the order. Just to give you some context, we make several attempts to reach out, as you've likely experienced.
At a certain point, we have to consider the possibility of the transaction being associated with a stolen credit card, which is why we exercise caution. I want to assure you that we don't take this lightly, and it's not our intention to create any inconvenience. We understand that sometimes, legitimate orders can slip through the cracks, and we're actively looking into ways to enhance our filters to prevent that.
If there's any chance you can get in touch with us or provide additional information, we'd be more than
happy to assist further. We're committed to resolving this and appreciate your patience as we investigate the matter thoroughly. Rest assured, we will make every effort to get you back in line where you were before this incident.

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And there you go..
Seems the same non sense they tried to pull on Dexter every once in a while here too...


Publicly complain in hopes you might get what you desire , because the supplier get afraid for bad pr...

@Will Prowse I believe you had some rules about this kind of behavior without proof ( although that was for battery/cell claims).
After the amounts of topics like these, maybe a good idea to require proof for topics like these ?

I was wondering if CC fraud warning was the issue. I ordered something for my solar project from I think City Electric. Because my order was fairly large and not a company account, it got flagged. I had received order confirmation, but no shipment notice. Called them and asked about the non shipment. They explained the deal, had me verify a few things, and proceeded with the order. The only issue I had was that I was never notified that there was an issue. It happens.

In general, I think it's important for every one to have good credit and may even have it frozen so no one can try to steel it. I usually when possible use pay pal when using credit on line, an extra security. I've never had any problem with Signature Solar taking my money or getting my goods from them. As far as issues go, very small and fixed as well. They have done me right so far. You can't carry on negative rants unless all the facts are shared and expect others to join in on the negativity.

Tulex said:

I was wondering if CC fraud warning was the issue. I ordered something for my solar project from I think City Electric. Because my order was fairly large and not a company account, it got flagged. I had received order confirmation, but no shipment notice. Called them and asked about the non shipment. They explained the deal, had me verify a few things, and proceeded with the order. The only issue I had was that I was never notified that there was an issue. It happens.

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We did request that OP verify a few things to complete the order but we did not receive a response.

OP claims he spoke with Taylor Phillips. I wonder what Taylor has to say?

And fair point, thanks Sig Solar for being a sponsor here!

Just my opinion here, I call BS on the OP rant. I have had the opportunity more than once to go off on a company but didn't.
There are many reasons why I try to work through the problems before just pounding the keyboard.
My pet peeve is placing a purchase of a item they have advertised, then getting the response of its out of stock.

But just doing the math here, 60000 orders a year, broken down to a 5 day work week at 40 hrs.
They are shipping approximately 29 orders a day.
Fine if it is just one or two items, But what about those orders that are Larger like a complete system.
How long do you think it takes to pack and prep for shipping.

SS is a storefront for manufacturing and trying to be the middleman for questions and complaints.
While I have not done a lot of purchasing from them, What I have has been better than most other places.

SignatureSolarJess said:

Good morning Chadwick20021,

If you would like to reach out to me at engagement@signaturesolar.com with your name and email address, I can get you taken care of. We sincerely apologize and assure you this is not the service we aim to provide! I would like to look into what happened and ensure an investigation into the matter.

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I do hope whatever the issue was, it gets shown on the forum...

Bluedog225 said:

OP claims he spoke with Taylor Phillips. I wonder what Taylor has to say?

And fair point, thanks Sig Solar for being a sponsor here!

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F.Y.I.
I am not aware of any sponsorship going on here.
Support from SS is totally on them.

Supervstech said:

F.Y.I.
I am not aware of any sponsorship going on here.
Support from SS is totally on them.

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If you open the forum and logout of your account you will see banner advertisements. Registered accounts won't see the ads.

Supervstech said:

I do hope whatever the issue was, it gets shown on the forum...

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See post 37

Gadwall*Drake said:

If any company cancelled a big order on me without an explanation, I'd figure I had dodged a bullet, and would take my money elsewhere. Last thing I would do is offer to bring them a bag of cash.

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Yep, If i wrote a hot check to someone, and they cancelled my order, I'd do the same... Spoken by someone who has never dealt with E-commerce. I never judge without knowing a bit more information.

To be fair, we (CurrentConnected) flag all orders that do not have a matching billing and shipping address for manual review. We've been in the crosshairs of scammers literally hundreds of times and have lost thousands of dollars to them. In fact we had one just yesterday! If we can't contact the customer after 1 week, then we too cancel the order.

It can be difficult, because in the case of the scam yesterday, the scammer used the victims phone number for the order. When we called the number, the victim didn't recognize it, and sent us to voicemail. The voicemail had the victims name, so we thought "oh, the order must be legit because the scammer wouldn't be dumb enough use the victim's number". Nope, they were smart enough to. We approved the order and shipped it. A week later, there's the chargeback. Package was delivered to the scammer and the money was taken from our bank account. Ouch.

It's a crazy world out there and these scammers are ruthless. We probably would have received the same feedback because we agree with protecting ourselves and follow pretty much the same process.

I have recently finished ordering all the pieces I need to build out my system. I've done it slowly over almost a year, starting with the items that were least likely to change by the time I was ready to install. 95% of it has come from Signature Solar...8 separate orders. It was up to me to decide who I purchased from and I had no intention to basically single-source it. Yet I have had zero negative experiences with SS. Everything shipped on time and backorders were clearly communicated. In fact, my 2nd 6000XP is now arriving well ahead of what I was expecting. I called in before my very first order to get some questions answered (i.e. free advice) -- they answered right away and pointed me in the right direction based on my specific needs.

Of course this hasn't been everyone's experience as we've witnessed on this forum. Sometimes it's the novice buyer, sometimes there's only SS to blame. But this is a community that is largely figuring things out as we go. We lean on the handful of solar DIY retailers more than they probably signed up for. Yet SS is making it work...and we collectively benefit.

While I hope I never experience some of the issues I've seen here, I won't be surprised if it happens on occasion. My judgement and future business is based on how SS (or anyone) ultimately addresses the issue (which may include calling me out for doing something stupid).

As for OP... sketchy AF.

EVERYONE that is going off on the op needs to back off a bit since SS admits he is telling the truth about the order.

He said his order was cancelled - SS admits this

He said he didn't know why - SS admits this

He said he tried to contact them to find out why - SS is known for this

He said he couldn't get anyone to talk to him about it - SS is known for this

There is way to much flat out evidence to show this is the normal fell thru the SS support cracks norm we have seen over and over.

This will play out like normal so let it do its thing. Going off on the op is uncalled for since he just posted this today and its been verified he is a legit customer and its a situation that has happened to SS customers before contact wise.

Lets not run a new member off when we have seen this over and over before in the past.

Various managers, personnel, and Taylor Phillips. True or not?