West Coast Solar

Great people and great service. We needed to update the cellular modem on our inverter and West Coast quickly responded to our inquiry and easily navigated around a unexpected challenge during the replacement. The technician quickly identified a solution, made an extra trip to his shop for the replacement and had it installed ASAP.

Separately, their Sales team worked to help us understand why our annual true up bill was excessive. I was quite pleased at the thoroughness and accuracy of their estimates helping us figure out how to optimize our system. Although we didn't have any space for additional panels and we weren't able to add any capacity due to space constraints, their sales team was quite thorough and detailed, modeling multiple options for us.

Finally, all of thier project management and customer support folks were knowedgable and very responsive. Overall this organization does a great job of separating themselves from the rest of the provides with whom we've worked.

The technicians were very punctual friendly and did clean work at our home and most importantly, my wife felt comfortable having them in our home while I was at work.


We did run into some issues with our inverter failing however, that is simply an anomaly and West Coast solar sent out the same technician who installed the system to replace the inverter free of charge. Additionally they worked with us to provide satisfactory compensation for our loss of productivity, while the system was down.

Updating this review on 2/20/2024. System still underproducing their "guarantee" for three years now. They continue to give me the runaround on the money they owe me for the shortfall AND for a Plan to increase production by adding more panels.

AVOID THIS COMPANY. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY ISSUES WITH THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN MET WITH TERRIBLE SERVICE AND SUPPORT. The positive reviews here are from customer installs where they haven't yet had to get help.

The battery failed, the system under produces their gurantee, my communications are ignored, fixes are not offered, my time is wasted, AND they weren't even the cheapest provider.

Issue after issue. Every one has been a disaster.

The new staff resolved the issue for us. It seems like their new customer service team handles issues with better care - they were able to enable dashboard alerts for us and got the issue resolved within a week. Now going forward, we will receive notifications when our solar stops producing! That's incredibly important to know. Field tech did a great job, got the broken part replaced very quickly.

Attention Aaron B.

My West Coast Solar system has been offline and not producing power for nearly 6 months!!!

Contacted PG&E to discuss excessive true up bill on August 25th 2023. They informed me that the solar system stopped producing power nearly 4 months prior, April 24th, which is what led to the excessive usage. Neither West Coast Solar nor SolarEdge monitoring informed me the system was not generating power.

Contacted West Coast Solar immediately, they scheduled a tech to come out the following week. Two voicemails I left during the week to confirm the appointment were never responded to. Technician arrived and confirmed that the system would need a burned out component RMA'd. No ETA was given for repair.

Contacted West Coast Solar 3 weeks later to inquire about the status of the RMA. Was told that the tech would revisit to complete the RMA on October 2nd and to have the property assessable. The technician never showed and no further contact from West Coast Solar.

Sent an email last week to West Coast Solar support asking for an update but still no response. It has been almost 7 weeks since the tech identified the problem, but the system is still offline and no follow up visit for repair has been scheduled.

I had high hopes for West Coast Solars given their positive Yelp reviews and their knowledgeable sales representative I initially dealt with.

However, my experience went downhill from there.
The work proceeded at a a fairly quick rate as they were able to squeeze me in sooner than expected even with the influx of solar installation due to NEM. Given that they are the experts, I had a lot of confidence that the work will be done perfectly. I was wrong, the installer began deviating from the agreed-upon plan and constructing the system to how they "feel is the best". Location of the panels mounted not following per contract, caulked excess hole they made, painted over metal conduits unevenly and covering safety warning stickers.

Called/emailed their Project manager about my dissatisfied service with them in hope to get everything resolved. It took many months to get a response, leaving me uncertain about the completion of the project. Communication was a significant issue, as I consistently had to follow up, but often never got a response. And on top of that they often requested payment even when the work wasn't done. The installers claimed expertise but required constant supervision and reminders. Overall, not entirely satisfied with their work ethics and communication.

From the beginning of my project to the end, West Coast Solar took care of everything and made adding a 2nd system to my home easy & stress free. I had a previous system built as soon as I moved in 8 years ago that wasn't big enough to cover all of my usage and I had bought my original system thru Costco / Sunrun. What they failed to tell me is that if, in the future, you want to add on additional panels for more power, you cannot add on and extra panels to their systems. I was flabbergasted as well as quite annoyed because my whole reason to go Solar was to save money and to not have a PG&E power bill at end of year. My end of the year true up bill went from a few hundred the first year to almost $1500 last year! That's how much electricity has gone up in the last seven years.

At the end of last year, I decided it was time to build a secondary system to cover that huge and constantly growing true up bill. West Coast Solar took care of all the paperwork, all of the integration of both systems into one system, and I couldn't be happier. Now I have more power than I need and no more true up bill!

If you want someone to work with that is easy, quick to respond, knowledgeable and no pressure at all, then for sure call:

Joe Molale at 925-812-1357.
www.joemolale.com

He will take care of you!

I am posting pictures of my roof and both systems. The 10 black panels are from West Coast Solar and as you can see, look amazing!

I am updating my previous review as almost immediately after I posted it, I was contacted by West Coast to schedule for a tech to come out and investigate the issue. The tech came that same week and fixed the issue within minutes. System has been back up and running smoothly since, which is awesome.

I'm still only leaving my rating at 3 stars (which honestly i think is being pretty generous) because while yes my issue has been addressed, it's a little ridiculous that it took leaving a bad review to actually get some help. Not to mention the $1200 we are still out in PG&E costs because our system was inoperable for 3 months, which literally could have been resolved by a tech in minutes had someone actually returned a call or answered the service ticket that was created but never dealt with until I left the negative review.

Long story short - I really hope the company learns from this and learns to better manage calls/requests for service and it doesn't need to wait until a bad review is left for them to take action.

I hope this review is helpful to others who are considering West Coast Solar.

While shopping around for solar, I was referred to West Coast Solar by many of my neighbors who all had glowing reviews. I still decided the best course of action was to get as many bids from other companies as possible. After receiving 15+ bids from various other companies, West Coast Solar proved to provide outstanding value and a great warranty that many other companies simply could not compete with.

I appreciate the time, effort and patience from Joe Molale at West Coast Solar while I asked him many questions over an extended period of time. Joe always responded promptly and provided the best customer experience for me.

Travis and Gage, the amazing installers had everything done perfectly and made minor changes to make the installation look even better than what was planned. Thank you for taking the time to treat this as if it was your own home, you made the right choices and I am grateful for this! I can't believe how fast and efficient you both were. Thank you both for your incredible work and awesome customer service!

Joe and Team, Thank you again for all your help and patience!

For anyone else looking for a great person to work with on your solar project, please find Joe's contact details below.

Joe Molale
West Coast Solar
Solar Designer & Consultant
925-812-1357 - direct / text
www.joemolale.com

This five-star review illustrates why you should support local business and why it's worth opting for expertise. If you have a sense of quality, it's worth the upgrade to West Coast Solar. WCS provides expert service, fair pricing, and fine products. Most important, they have the knowledge and experience to handle custom installations precisely and effectively, and to provide reliable, effective after-sales service, providing the customer the highest level of satisfaction. Let me demonstrate this with our experience.

The highly skilled professionals at WCS created an efficient 21-panel installation. Their pricing was extremely competitive, the best bid among several quotations we received. More important, WCS staff demonstrated professionalism and commitment to service that other vendors did not. They coordinated effectively with the contractor who was re- roofing our home, installing rack mounting hardware on the roof sheathing before the water barrier and shingles were installed. The professionals communicated well and coordinated an installation schedule that let each team achieve their best result.

From the beginning design consultation through the installation process, we were provided accurate and clear information and recommendations on the number of panels and micro-inverters, the most effective panel array clusters and orientations, and the monitoring of system performance via the Enphase Enlighten hardware and software. WCS staff showed up when scheduled, performed the installation efficiently, and followed up when we had questions or needed advice.

The system size has been perfect, and our annual true-up is under $200; this powers our home, pool pump, and all the attendant appliances and electronics. The system paid for itself in under eight years. Not unexpectedly, over the years we have had a few instances when we needed service: a couple of failed micro-inverters and an underperforming panel. In each case, WCS customer service was timely and effective, resolving the issues as quickly as possible.

Recently, we needed another service call. Customer service manager Christina set up the appointment and was consistently professional, friendly, and efficient. Technician Cliff was equally pleasant and expert, diagnosing the issue and repairing the system quickly and effectively. Like the rest of our encounters with WCS, this highlighted the importance of experience and expertise, as well as the kind of personal attention you may not get from a national company's staff.

Throughout our experience, every WCS staff member we've worked with has been professional, courteous, and obviously experienced and talented. They know their products thoroughly, have installed many types and configurations of solar systems, and are aware of possible pitfalls and how to avoid them. There's no substitute for this kind of quality.

Richard B. Napa