Signature Solar Sales/Discounts ... do they do this often or is this Really a Sale?

[350hp]

-the 18k will support the Eg4 batteries the best over time, it has tigo monitoring integration now (industry first for hybrid inverter) and total battery shutdown.

Could you clarify what this tigo monitoring integration is? Is it the shutdown integration with tigo or a new feature?

 

[cs1234]

Could you clarify what this tigo monitoring integration is? Is it the shutdown integration with tigo or a new feature?

I think it's that you can see the TIGO monitoring information on the same server/page you look at for your other 18kpv monitoring (not SA).

 

[pvgirl]

Could you clarify what this tigo monitoring integration is? Is it the shutdown integration with tigo or a new feature?

The information for the Tigo cloud monitoring platform can also be displayed in the 18pkv cloud monitoring page. You still need to buy and install the Tigo CCA/Tap system and modules for each panel.

 

[Alkaline]

Why doesn't UL mandate a common protocol for all? If they have all these other rules, why isn't there a universal protocol you have to adhere to.

If we didn't have standards would HTTP ever take off?

What about 802 wifi standards.

Seems ridiculous if companies can just release updates to break compatibility and ensure protectionism.

 

[Zapper77]

Could you clarify what this tigo monitoring integration is? Is it the shutdown integration with tigo or a new feature?

 

[Watts Happening]

Always a sale, yes, but I will say the free shipping is a helpful offer.

Just make sure you’re taking full advantage of it. Make one big purchase so you’re not later paying shipping for whatever you initially forgot.

Additionally, from experience, you can get a discount by speaking with them.

 

[robby]

The best support of EG4 batteries over time, I think you missed the point here, Solark is fighting all the time to make our batteries and fortress batteries have comms issues with their inverter due to their “solark” practices

Signature Solar is the EG4 support!
And based on the threads it seems pretty bad support.
Fortress support has had very few issues in comparison and the support is excellent.
Actually only one thread I can think of.
What Coms issues are you referring to?
Sol-Ark switched to Canbus and Fortress provided new cables. Actually it was great for me as it freed up the rs485 port for use with Solar Assistant.

Yep, the “15k” trips at 6000w per line on batteries 12k combined, we do 8000w per line 12k combined

As Will Prowse would say. Do you have any proof of this?
A video perhaps?

I’d need a list here of what features you are referring to in order to rebut, the point was remote control of all these features

I can remote control every feature on the Sol-Ark using Powerview.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

As Will Prowse would say. Do you have any proof of this?
A video perhaps?

not doing negative marketing but I do own a 15k... this is literally in the Solark spec sheet, we show the line capacity of ours on our youtube getting over 8000w per line

 

[exmarkretired]

Always a sale, yes, but I will say the free shipping is a helpful offer.

Just make sure you’re taking full advantage of it. Make one big purchase so you’re not later paying shipping for whatever you initially forgot.

Additionally, from experience, you can get a discount by speaking with them.

Thanks for the idea. Was a waste of time attempting to chat with "Weston" There chat window is annoyingly difficult and I was unable to move it to get it to the item, as he inquired as to the item in question. I was trying to figure out why it kept adding shipping on a free shipping item....which was the only reason to consider the purchase....

 

[Sharing Society]

I have seen them for years.

YES, they're always running a sale. It's every other month it seems.

Whether it's:
"FREE SHIPPING (on orders $X+"
REFURBISHED units (those sell out quick)
Pallets of solar panels (clearance of old stock obviously)
And Small discounts on everything

 

[Kenny_]

Thanks! I'm new to this rodeo.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

Thanks for the idea. Was a waste of time attempting to chat with "Weston" There chat window is annoyingly difficult and I was unable to move it to get it to the item, as he inquired as to the item in question. I was trying to figure out why it kept adding shipping on a free shipping item....which was the only reason to consider the purchase....

Will check into this, the chat has really helped up connect with people faster in general, some questions dont need a phone call

 

[exmarkretired]

Will check into this, the chat has really helped up connect with people faster in general, some questions dont need a phone call

All I wanted was to know how to make the "advertised" free shipping/freight work. The bot was more interested in my name than helping. As was "weston" and creating an account for me. I was in a hurry(late for dinner) and needed to know how I could return later after you closed.... to complete the sale. Neither happened so No sale, but I guess harvesting my data was paramount.

Sometimes they are good, but there are a lot of these out there...

Would love to help you out here. Could you DM me your email address? I think we could get you some help here. And I want to find out why we dropped the ball with your process.

Seems like a common statement now a days..

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

All I wanted was to know how to make the "advertised" free shipping/freight work. The bot was more interested in my name than helping. As was "weston" and creating an account for me. I was in a hurry(late for dinner) and needed to know how I could return later after you closed.... to complete the sale. Neither happened so No sale, but I guess harvesting my data was paramount.

Sometimes they are good, but there are a lot of these out there...




Seems like a common statement now a days..

While I've had some minor service issues with Signature Solar, and others have had varying degrees of challenges. I would encourage you not to get too hung up on the little details. They're a business trying to satisfy customers, they don't always get it right and they never will, however, they don't stop trying to make things great for their customers.

Signature Solar takes a lot of bruises in this forum, not because they're the worst, but because they're popular, they have good deals, and for the most part, they have the items and prices that solar consumers want.

To be clear I'm not defending Signature Solar, I'm simply saying at the end of the day, companies are made up of people, and it's a good idea to take a step back at times and remember kind and friendly behavior will always serve everyone better.

 

[n2aws]

While I've had some minor service issues with Signature Solar, and others have had varying degrees of challenges. I would encourage you not to get too hung up on the little details. They're a business trying to satisfy customers, they don't always get it right and they never will, however, they don't stop trying to make things great for their customers.

Signature Solar takes a lot of bruises in this forum, not because they're the worst, but because they're popular, they have good deals, and for the most part, they have the items and prices that solar consumers want.

To be clear I'm not defending Signature Solar, I'm simply saying at the end of the day, companies are made up of people, and it's a good idea to take a step back at times and remember kind and friendly behavior will always serve everyone better.

Yep,

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is true for SS as well as any other company. The thing everyone needs to remember is that very few people write "rave reviews" when things just work as expected. However, when there is a problem.. that gets posted immediately. It's just human nature. But, the downside is, it gives kind of a skewed perception of the reality.

If all you see is complaints, you begin to believe the complaining is normal and justified. But you may not see the 2 dozen "satisfied" people, for the 1 vocally annoyed user. Again, not a defense of SS.. just something to keep in mind in general about any "topic specific" place on the internet.

 

[exmarkretired]

Yep,

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is true for SS as well as any other company. The thing everyone needs to remember is that very few people write "rave reviews" when things just work as expected. However, when there is a problem.. that gets posted immediately. It's just human nature. But, the downside is, it gives kind of a skewed perception of the reality.

If all you see is complaints, you begin to believe the complaining is normal and justified. But you may not see the 2 dozen "satisfied" people, for the 1 vocally annoyed user. Again, not a defense of SS.. just something to keep in mind in general about any "topic specific" place on the internet.

True. It is fresh. Also people in general tend to complain more than compliment. I do inform local business managers when their staff are pleasant etc...

I have had several positive interactions with Current Connected. Also had a positive experience with San Tan solar....

Signature Solar ?? One online experience that went "well" with SS. Starting to believe the item has a flaw/defect, but withholding comment until I diagnose it further. Now, total = one poor call ( representative had no knowledge of the product etc.got what I needded from this forum) and one with their Bot and Weston... So 1 out if 3 experiences went well.... For full disclosure and to be fair.

Moving forward, Like several other post have stated, it has become an addiction. More panel, more battery, bigger inverters, especially with the features growing and improving. I have been "building" , reinvesting the funds from peak shaving, etc. to fund new purchases and eventually hope to buy "Tier 1" next time. and as they often have to same price no matter which vendor one chooses.... This time I was attempting to take advantage of the sale... Would have saved me about 250 in freight...

Sometimes you get what you pay for...

Edit. I also have good things to say about Ian at Watts247. He is knowledgeable, polite, a real pleasure to deal with.

 

[robby]

Yep,

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is true for SS as well as any other company. The thing everyone needs to remember is that very few people write "rave reviews" when things just work as expected. However, when there is a problem.. that gets posted immediately. It's just human nature. But, the downside is, it gives kind of a skewed perception of the reality.

If all you see is complaints, you begin to believe the complaining is normal and justified. But you may not see the 2 dozen "satisfied" people, for the 1 vocally annoyed user. Again, not a defense of SS.. just something to keep in mind in general about any "topic specific" place on the internet.

Sometimes that is True for the equipment itself but this has mostly been about customer service.
If you are on a Forum about Farming equipment and one person says that John Deere customer service sucks and then another says the same thing and then another, there comes a point in time when you can be pretty sure that the companies customer service really does suck!

As I said, the biggest issue with SS is not the equipment issues, it's how they respond to these issues.
There are times when it seems like they are getting better and then a few weeks later you see a post that just reminds you of all the other posts made over the years.
They all have a common theme about the way CS at SS approached the issue.

To also counter your argument, I would ask how many people that Buy SS equipment are Forum members?
I would bet it's a very small percentage.
Are the rest of the people having Zero issues with CS or are many of them just suffering in silence until they take the Inverter or battery out and buy something else?
It is also fair to say in terms of bolstering your claim, that some of the people who joined this forum joined to express their problems with SS, so does that make the percentage of complaints higher than it would be if it was only long time members complaining?
I don't know.

I do know that my own dealer bought a lot of Growatt Inverters from them years ago and told me he has changed out every single one of them to either Fronius or Sol-Ark. He also bought fifty EG4 batteries and then stopped buying them because of the Pre Charge issue. He says he has never posted here but does lurk from time to time. So he is definitely one of the Silent Suffers.

It has become very obvious over the last two years that the best and sometimes only way to get them to do something about an issue is to come here and complain.
That IMO is no way to run a business!

 

[n2aws]

Are the rest of the people having Zero issues with CS or are many of them just suffering in silence until they take the Inverter or battery out and buy something else?

And here lies the crux of the problem.

We don't know. Forum users are a "vocal minority" of the total, right?

We don't even know how many SS customers are forum users.
So, we have no clue if we're hearing 10-20 complaints on the forums out of 5,000 users. or out of 50. or out of 50,000. Thus, my entire point. We're essentially only seeing the negative reviews, with no basis to determine how large an issue it actually is.

Now extrapolate that unknown by however many users have bought from SS. And another question pops up.

How many of the complaints are from DIYers who are either trying to use equipment that.. isn't exactly how it was intended to be used or, don't understand all the settings/features because they've never done it before so needing to call support, vs.. the number of people that installed it correctly, in the manner expected, and never even needed to contact support. ie, is this a "self created" problem, that people are making it so they *need* to contact support.

Another data point: How many of their customers (who are not on these forums) just "set it and forget it"? I suspect that by having enough interest to join these forums and participate.. Solare is more of a passion/hobby than it is for the typical SS customer. They are reading about it, trying new things.. tweaking old things.. expanding the system, etc.. where I would guess the average customer.. just.. doesnt.

Again, I'm not saying this is the case. I have no clue. I'm just saying.. much like everything else you read on the internet.. don't believe everything at face value.

I personally have helped multiple people with issues on these forums, where they just didn't understand the capability or feature that they were trying to enable/use. (Hence the "self induced need for support). And I can only assume that if I.. a single volunteer helping in my free time on the forums.. have run into this multiple times.. I can only imagine someone who is doing it as a fulltime job for 8 hours a day is seeing even more of it than I am.

 

[Kenny_]

The Known Knowns, The Know UnKnowns, and the Unknown Unknowns.....
and aliens...

 

[robby]

And here lies the crux of the problem.

We don't know. Forum users are a "vocal minority" of the total, right?

We don't even know how many SS customers are forum users.
So, we have no clue if we're hearing 10-20 complaints on the forums out of 5,000 users. or out of 50. or out of 50,000. Thus, my entire point. We're essentially only seeing the negative reviews, with no basis to determine how large an issue it actually is.

You can get a pretty good idea by looking at the ratio of posts that are asking about general install questions and other routine stuff like how many batteries, what size wire etc. These members state the kind of Inverter they are using and it's a pretty even spread between EG4, Victron, Sol-Ark, Growatt and Sungold. On the Battery Side I would say a lot more people consistently use EG4 and Second would be SOK.
Bottom line is that their is a hugely disproportional amount of Signature Solar Complaints versus any of the other Sellers.

Now extrapolate that unknown by however many users have bought from SS. And another question pops up.

How many of the complaints are from DIYers who are either trying to use equipment that.. isn't exactly how it was intended to be used or, don't understand all the settings/features because they've never done it before so needing to call support, vs.. the number of people that installed it correctly, in the manner expected, and never even needed to contact support. ie, is this a "self created" problem, that people are making it so they *need* to contact support.

Does not matter at the end of the day because people are DIYing and making the same mistakes across all of the various Brands of Inverter. The difference is that is you screw up with Sol-Ark you can get someone on the phone within 15 minutes and they will competently guide you through the issue. If it cannot be fixed they will tell you why and what is needed. If it's a problem with the Inverter they will do a warranty RMA number the same day or by the next day.

With Signature Solar it's a game of "Catch me if you can" on the phone line or email, lasting hours or days. Then it's changed to a game of "Hot Potato" between the CS people as each one hands you over to another.
Warranty exchanges seem to be the Nuclear Option for SS. You literally have to embarrass them publicly and then they give in.

Another data point: How many of their customers (who are not on these forums) just "set it and forget it"? I suspect that by having enough interest to join these forums and participate.. Solare is more of a passion/hobby than it is for the typical SS customer. They are reading about it, trying new things.. tweaking old things.. expanding the system, etc.. where I would guess the average customer.. just.. doesnt.

I think most people want to set and forget it. I suspect most just want to start geeking out on gathering data on the output and how much of their electricity bill they are offsetting.
You almost never see Will Prowse fooling with the Menus if everything is working after he powers it up. Yeah there are some guys like you and me that may spend hours just learning the settings but most forum members are not all that comfortable changing settings on something if it is working fine already. Now if it is giving problems then you have no choice but to start learning the Menu.

BTW DIY does not even come close to representing the Average Customer!
About 99% of people will not even try to mess around with anything that carries high voltage.
We are the 1% of people that feel comfortable playing around with electricity. The rest find an Installer and pay for the complete package. Those same Installers make up the meaningful bulk of any Manufacturers sales.

Again, I'm not saying this is the case. I have no clue. I'm just saying.. much like everything else you read on the internet.. don't believe everything at face value.

I personally have helped multiple people with issues on these forums, where they just didn't understand the capability or feature that they were trying to enable/use. (Hence the "self induced need for support). And I can only assume that if I.. a single volunteer helping in my free time on the forums.. have run into this multiple times.. I can only imagine someone who is doing it as a fulltime job for 8 hours a day is seeing even more of it than I am.

And that is good, but we can only help so much and then it's the sellers obligation to take care of the customer.