Signature Solar Two Hours On Hold Just To Buy an Item!

Heres a little taste of what people dealing with the Utility provider in my area are dealing with:

New York State Department of Public Service announced Wednesday that it has expanded its investigation into New York State Electric & Gas Corp and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. for potential mismanagement of their utilities’ billing systems and protocols.

According to the DPS, the number of consumer complaints against NYSEG and RG&E was more than 4,700, 60% more than the two previous years combined.

"While NYSEG and RG&E have not been immune from the effects of COVID on our utility, such as a severe staffing shortage, we understand the impacts some of our customers have faced with their bills." - NYSEG
This was Dec 28, 2022.

.

RG&E is asking for a rate hike of approximately 20 to 30 percent in its electric and gas rates

Coupled with the widespread, significant billing problems customers are experiencing, advocates question the effectiveness of the Companies’ management and assert it is not in the public interest to allow the double-digit rate hikes proposed by the Companies. Last May, NYSEG proposed a 34.9% rate increase for electric and 14.9% for gas customers.

Additionally, the rate proposal is riddled with errors indicative of poor administrative oversight, and these deficiencies are pervasive across a wide range of projects – both new and ongoing, related to maintenance, reliability, regulatory compliance, emergency response, security and more.

The State Department of Public Service (DPS) has stated that customers have reported high, inaccurate, or delayed bills, problems compounded by the inability of customers to reach the companies’ customer service representatives by telephone without substantial delay

May 2023 is to be dedicated to the rollout of smart meters. Each meter is supposed to cost around $280 for residential customers. This cost will be paid for by customers in their NYSEG bills. NYSEG customers have the option to opt out of having a smart meter installed, although it will add an additional $13.46 a month to their utility bill


This is a giant company that has a monopoly on the market and employs over 1,000 people, not to mention all the subcontracters they work with.

mountkay said:

Heres a little taste of what people dealing with the Utility provider in my area are dealing with:

New York State Department of Public Service announced Wednesday that it has expanded its investigation into New York State Electric & Gas Corp and Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. for potential mismanagement of their utilities’ billing systems and protocols.

According to the DPS, the number of consumer complaints against NYSEG and RG&E was more than 4,700, 60% more than the two previous years combined.

"While NYSEG and RG&E have not been immune from the effects of COVID on our utility, such as a severe staffing shortage, we understand the impacts some of our customers have faced with their bills." - NYSEG
This was Dec 28, 2022.

DPS expands investigation into NYSEG, RG&E for alleged billing errors

NYSEG and RG&E released a statement on Wednesday.

spectrumlocalnews.com

.

RG&E is asking for a rate hike of approximately 20 to 30 percent in its electric and gas rates

Coupled with the widespread, significant billing problems customers are experiencing, advocates question the effectiveness of the Companies’ management and assert it is not in the public interest to allow the double-digit rate hikes proposed by the Companies. Last May, NYSEG proposed a 34.9% rate increase for electric and 14.9% for gas customers.

Additionally, the rate proposal is riddled with errors indicative of poor administrative oversight, and these deficiencies are pervasive across a wide range of projects – both new and ongoing, related to maintenance, reliability, regulatory compliance, emergency response, security and more.

The State Department of Public Service (DPS) has stated that customers have reported high, inaccurate, or delayed bills, problems compounded by the inability of customers to reach the companies’ customer service representatives by telephone without substantial delay

May 2023 is to be dedicated to the rollout of smart meters. Each meter is supposed to cost around $280 for residential customers. This cost will be paid for by customers in their NYSEG bills. NYSEG customers have the option to opt out of having a smart meter installed, although it will add an additional $13.46 a month to their utility bill

Tompkins County wants YOU to speak up about NYSEG bills at upcoming forums - The Ithaca Voice

This is a community announcement from Tomkpins Couty. It was not written by The Ithaca Voice. To submit community announcements, please send them to Matt Butler at mbutler@ithacavoice.com. Tompkins County […]

ithacavoice.org

Why are NYSEG bills skyrocketing all over Tompkins County? - The Ithaca Voice

ITHACA, N.Y. — It’s no secret that customers of New York State Electric & Gas company (NYSEG) are seeing some massive bills impact their wallets. According to the U.S. Energy […]

ithacavoice.org

This is a giant company that has a monopoly on the market and employs over 1,000 people.

Click to expand...

These are all the reasons you need to go 100% off grid. The utility, as do all, will bribe their way into getting the rate increase approved by the rubber stamp "Public Services" agency. Yes, monopoly is the problem.

KauaiMolokai said:

These are all the reasons you need to go 100% off grid. The utility, as do all, will bribe their way into getting the rate increase approved by the rubber stamp "Public Services" agency. Yes, monopoly is the problem.

Click to expand...

They will make it illegal to not have service. There's already places that if you don't have electric or running water service it's considered by law to be uninhabitable. How did our ancestors ever survive? lol

realpinochet said:

They will make it illegal to not have service. There's already places that if you don't have electric or running water service it's considered by law to be uninhabitable. How did our ancestors ever survive? lol

Click to expand...

You're right of course. A temporary "solution" might be to leave these "places". And make the supporters of such practices totally unwelcome where you go to.

KauaiMolokai said:

These are all the reasons you need to go 100% off grid. The utility, as do all, will bribe their way into getting the rate increase approved by the rubber stamp "Public Services" agency. Yes, monopoly is the problem.

Click to expand...

These are the reasons when i finally got a home that i decided to keep it off grid. If the monopoly was actually in the interests of the people then I dont think it would be as bad. But they are out to make a profit and squash any competition. For more than a decade they have fought against solar. They wont allow you to put up enough panels to power your neighbors house and compensate you fairly for it. Because then you would be in competition with them.

realpinochet said:

There's already places that if you don't have electric or running water service it's considered by law to be uninhabitable. How did our ancestors ever survive? lol

Click to expand...

I needed running water, heat, and an electrical inspection in order to get my "Certificate of Occupancy". Quite the change for me after living in a camper using spring water, no running water, with a woodstove that was against "regulation" using unbranded SCCs that arnt up to NEC and solar panels just sitting on a shed roof not even tied down.
They will say you need all of this for "safety" but if you cant afford it then they dont give a shit about the way you are living or your safety. They will let you be homeless and suffer.

There’s some history here. Not look that long ago there was a thread that ran, I think, 1000 posts long where sig solar just couldn’t get it together to help this poor guy who bought their product and lived right down the road from the warehouse.

And the excuses back then sounded a lot like the excuses here. Or, more accurately, the company belief that it’s all ok. That history colors this conversation. I’m glad signature, solar has a representative here and glad he’s willing to participate in these discussions.

Hopefully, the number of complaint threads will decrease and people will forget.

Been trying to get a hold of Sol-Ark technical support today. Put on hold for 5 minutes and then prompted to leave a message for a callback. Got a callback a couple hours later, but nobody was on the other end. So I just called again and the same thing, now waiting for a callback.

So guys it might not be just a Signature Solar thing. Both of these companies are in Texas. And I believe phone service is still relatively new there, so that may be the issue.

Danke said:

Been trying to get a hold of Sol-Ark technical support today. Put on hold for 5 minutes and then prompted to leave a message for a callback. Got a callback a couple hours later, but nobody was on the other end. So I just called again and the same thing, now waiting for a callback.

So guys it might not be just a Signature Solar thing. Both of these companies are in Texas. And I believe phone service is still relatively new there, so that may be the issue.

Click to expand...

Solark is in Plano Texas...Plano is one of the richer areas around DFW.

Ah, I see..cheeky.

Called Solark tech service just now. Got an agent in less than one minute. Off topic but asked him about the new My Solark app. They hope to have it rolled out this month.

On hold with Signature Solar now for over 10 minutes. Am going to hang up now.
This is my second time calling them with no response.

Guess who I’ll never do business with???

richwolf said:

Called Solark tech service just now. Got an agent in less than one minute. Off topic but asked him about the new My Solark app. They hope to have it rolled out this month.

On hold with Signature Solar now for over 10 minutes. Am going to hang up now.
This is my second time calling them with no response.

Guess who I’ll never do business with???

Click to expand...

Why not just request a callback? Why are you people so impatient?

ddeatrich said:

Why not just request a callback? Why are you people so impatient?

Click to expand...

That’s not the point. It’s the preponderance of problems people seem to have with the company.

I’m out of this thread ?

Less than 10% of their customers are in this forum.
And Less than 10% of them are unsatisfied.
Could it be better? absolutely.
Is it horrible? Not by the numbers.

Saturday around noon. I'm no customer service expert, but guessing might be worst time of week for quick response.

timselectric said:

Less than 10% of their customers are in this forum.
And Less than 10% of them are unsatisfied

Click to expand...

as weird as it is, it also seems like there is a non zero number of people in this forum who are Not customers and Unsatisfied.

Might I recommend sports if you want to pick a team and root against all other teams for no reason

ddeatrich said:

Why not just request a callback? Why are you people so impatient?

Click to expand...

Because Call Backs suck!
I won't even do one with Sol-Ark.
How long do you wait by the Inverter, 1 hour, 2 hours or 5 hours?
I don't want to be on the Crapper and hear my wife screaming out that Sig Solar is on the Phone ?

robby said:

Because Call Backs suck!
I won't even do one with Sol-Ark.
How long do you wait by the Inverter, 1 hour, 2 hours or 5 hours?
I don't want to be on the Crapper and hear my wife screaming out that Sig Solar is on the Phone ?

Click to expand...

I look at those as opportunities to improve customer service. Nothing like hearing someone finishing up a crap on speakerphone...

ddeatrich said:

Why not just request a callback? Why are you people so impatient?

Click to expand...

Call backs do really suck unless you love to spend your day sitting welded to your phone wasting your day.
Don't know about the rest of you but i have more constructive things to do rather than sit by the phone waiting for someone to return a call. Then Sometimes days later receive it usually when you are driving or in the middle of something else.

That's just uncaring, unprofessional and unconcerned piss poor Customer service followed by scripted jibber jabber laced idiotic excuses why.
And of course the well used lameness we have seen many times on this forum of "we're looking into it" or "it's the phone service" "we are working to correct this" Etc, etc,.....Which means we don't have time to answer your questions. but we love your $$$.

If a company is that busy then hire additional help with all those profit gains your reaping.

Browse said:

Agree SeaGal - When analyzing call volume and performance, there should be a way to monitor how many calls don't make it to a live person/extension (i.e. percentage of hang ups). This metric would be a key indicator for "customer frustration" level. Customer hang ups will artificially decrease the "time on hold" metric depending on how soon they give up.

Click to expand...

Look at the Chick-fil-a model, lol. ENOUGH people=ability to handle increased sales=more customers and sale of products=money to pay for enough people. If you are losing calls because of long hold times, not enough qualified tech support, tech support telling you one thing and the next day saying another thing (not enough proper training so everyone has the same WORKING solution) then, you are modeling your business like McDonald's. NO people at the counter or the in the back cooking=no customers willing to wait that long for product=lack of sales=slim profit

robby said:

This is insane!
3 different days and each time I cannot reach sales. If you cannot reach sales just imagine trying to get customer support!
I called on Thursday of last week and waited 30 minutes for a sales person and then just hung up.
I called again on Friday and waited 45 minutes and hung up.

Today I really wanted to see what would happen so I left it on Speaker phone and decided I was going to wait it out. After 30 minutes it told me I was number one in the Queue so I thought Ok I am getting somewhere. Well 90 minutes later I have fully memorized the background tune they are playing an I have heard that lady telling me about due to increased demand the hold times have increased Significantly a hundred times while I am still being told I am still number one in the Queue for over an hour!
Now I am not sure how they quantify Significant wait time, but is that like Spock Code where Hours means Days.

Anway after exactly 2 hours I hung up the phone and called it a day.

For all you people ordering via the quick and easy website store front I highly suggest that you try the Sales Dept via phone first before you plunk down your money.
If you cannot get through to a companies Sales Dept. Via the Phone then that means it will be a magnitude harder to get through to customer support on the phone.
I have rarely seen things get fixed via email support, so just know that without phone support your problems are going to be so much harder to fix.

Click to expand...

Through this whole solar experience I have seen that good customer service is a must. Because of that I'm shying away from Signaature. I'm in the market for an inverter that I think I'll end up purchasing from Shop Solar. They really put an emphasis on customer service on their website. Hopefully it works out.

Ben can you help with tech support? I called for tech support 2 weeks ago, sent required pictures 1week ago and latest from yesterday is someone will contact you soon?

vriosiii said:

Ben can you help with tech support? I called for tech support 2 weeks ago, sent required pictures 1week ago and latest from yesterday is someone will contact you soon?

Click to expand...

You burned up another inverter?

Yes, one made a large bang noise and triped its battery breaker, Came down stairs and turned everything off. Second inverter wouldn't turn back on. When I try to restart them batteries go into error mode within 10 seconds. System had been working great before this

The one that failed first was the replacement.

vriosiii said:

The one that failed first was the replacement.

Click to expand...

can you DM me your email address?

robby said:

It was two hours straight starting at about 4:30 CST.
Honestly Ben when have you ever called sales at a company and waited more than 20 minutes before deciding this is probably not a company i want to take a chance spending my money with and just hung up. I do it anytime I have that issue unless they are the only people who sell what I need.
Consumers are pretty much use to getting bad treatment when it comes to support from companies but the Sales dept is usually very fast at answering calls.
For those wondering, Yes they do have a call back feature but I hate those. It will typically ring hours later when I am in my car or shopping. When I call a company I am typically right on my PC and have the questions I need to have answered right in front of me.

Click to expand...

Can you post some screenshots of these long hold times? It would be so nice if we could have some evidence. Just take a screenshot of the time you've been on hold and then post it here. I still haven't had anyone post evidence of these long wait times.