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diy solar

Advice for Signature Solar

Rednecktek said:
But the box itself isn't sized to fit in the rails. This could be a great option to package with their batteries to make a Whole House Power Fridge setup. Making a little housing to clip the screen into so it's not just hanging around would be a nice touch.
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Here we go with the Fridge thing again ...
:ROFLMAO:
 
I am trying to buy 6700 bucks worth of solar panels from them and cant get a reply..... Who else has good prices? They seem to be the better priced option, but no answers has me concerned.
 
gsell said:

Canadian Solar 14kW Pallet - 400W Bifacial Solar Panel (Silver)| Up to 520W with Bifacial Gain | CS3W-400PB-AG | Full Pallet (35 Solar Panels) - 14kW Pallet​

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I just ordered a battery rack a month ago. Placed my order online on the 23rd, which was a Thursday. I emailed them because the discount didn't show up on my order. Received an email back that afternoon saying they were aware and my card was charged the correct amount. I received a tracking number within two hours of placing the order and the batteries arrived the next day on Friday. I received a follow-up email the next week to make sure the credit card thing was resolved.

Are you not getting a response on a phone call or an email? I've never had a problem with either but it's sometimes hard to get through on the phone. Unless you just need to talk to someone I think if you place the order they will process it and ship your panels fairly quickly.
 
I came here to look for their reputation. Guess I'm in good company.

My story, bought a refurb Growatt April 13th, "Shipped" April 16th. Checked up about a week later thinking it's almost here....nope, label printed not picked up. Emailed to see what's up, no reply for 72 hours.
Called and was told a lie. Said something about "this happens when there's a misprinted label, you should see an email with tracking soon".

Never got that email. Called back. Then they say "my screen shows it's on its way". I checked the original tracking number and saw it was picked up the day after I first had to call (April 25th).

So it would have never shipped unless I called to check. I wish my company had this much business to forget shipping orders.
 
RGH69 said:
Most of us buy from Signature Solar because they are USA based and they tout "Real Texas Based Support". However, anyone that has sent messages to Signature Solar tech support knows that they don't respond. If you call Signature Solar support, you will be on hold for a long time. You can choose the option to get a call back, but that call back will be in several hours. The people that do answer the phones DO NOT know what they are doing. They only give you things to try which seem to come from the manual. Even Tier 2 support is lacking. Basically, the products are very good but only for those that are technically inclined and capable of self support.

I used to run technical support for one of the major banks of the northern hemisphere. I had way, way more clients to deal with than Signature Solar and my support team was relatively small. Based on my experience, I recommend that Signature Solar does the following;

1) Implement any CRM system. You can even do a simple spreadsheet if necessary. Use this to be certain to keep in contact with customers. Each open support ticket should receive contact daily, even if it is an automated text stating the resolution stage.
2) Split up the tier one and tier 2 tech support folks to have a specialty - One for batteries, one for EG4 Inverters, etc. Have a tech support "Person" answer the phone to determine which group to route the call to and/or take a number to call back.
3) Train all of the tech support folks. Have each person actually setup a complete system with a single inverter, then parallel, split phase, etc. Have them do this with all of the products they support.
4) Assign a Tier 2 support genius to each group of Tier ones. Have that person available to the Tier one during all business hours.
5) Setup a point person at each vendor (Schneider, Voltronic, Growatt, etc.) to deal with each Tier 2 genius. These companies will be more responsive if they have a single relationship support contact.
6) After the support ticket is closed, contact the customer to make certain that problem resolution was achieved and ask for satisfaction scores.
7) Reward your support team based on call answer time, problem resolution and customer satisfaction score.
8) Fire and hire until you have a good team.

You may think that it is expensive to have so many support folks. But once you have a good team it may not take as many as you think. Besides, how long can you run without good customer support?
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Realistically customer support problems are usually just the tip of the iceberg. Upper management is likely unqualified and/or the CEO is way over his head.
 
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Adam De Lay said:
I got mine from https://www.santansolar.com/. Prices were a little cheaper than SS and didn’t have any problems at all.
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Unfortunately, not the case for me. Bought 42 Solarever 455s from SS, with shipping ($200), total was $10,359.90 ($.542 per watt).
Same order from Sanatansolar with shipping ($1014.96) would be $11318.96 ($.592 per watt).
 
I have spent tons of money with them over the last few years and have seen the support system crumble as they continue to grow. I have a 5000ES I've had issue with since about a week after I installed it. It took 3 weeks of back and forth with pics, info etc... before I finally made it to a "resolution specialist" who then basically told me there wasn't anything wrong with the unit. I've since had other issues with the same unit only to find myself having to go through the same time consuming ridiculousness I did before. I am so tired of this poor service from a company that I have poured so ,much of my hard earned money into. I only wish they would take your advice.
 
Their batteries seem to be high quality, but every time I send them an email with 3 questions, they answer the first poorly and ignore the second and third.

Last week, I asked for a quote for a complete Victron system and they ignored it completely.... wtf?

They could at least set up a system where they text 10 minutes prior and call the customer back.

Seems SOK is the only way to go
 
RGH69 said:
I had way, way more clients to deal with than Signature Solar...
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How do you know how many clients/sales they have?

I am not defending SS, but I have seen this same thing on other forums (gripes about certain companies). In those cases, the gripes were about companies I had done business with and had zero issues. Typically on hobby specific forums (i.e. car, gun, etc.) you will see a lot of griping about certain companies. However, IMO while some of the gripes may be valid, I believe it is just a small sample of that companies overall business. Usually the companies involved are high volume ones, so there are bound to be unhappy customers. And when the same bad experience story gets thrown all over the internet, and then repeated by others, it makes the issue look worse than it really is.

People don't typically join a forum just to praise a vendor, but come instead when they are having issues. Example: I have owned Nissan vehicles since they were called Datsun, and rarely had any issues. However, my last new truck had to go back to the dealership like 6 times for a code it kept throwing. Needless to say, I was not happy. I joined the Nissan forum to try and get some insight to the issue and also to vent some of my frustrations. Point being, my one time rant-a-thon on that forum does not really reflect the overall experience I have had with Nissan, nor does it in any way prove they are a bad company or have poor service. Note: They did fix the issue and it has been fine for the last 3 years. And yes, I would still buy another one despite being extremely aggravated over the problem.
 
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franklinR said:
Their batteries seem to be high quality, but every time I send them an email with 3 questions, they answer the first poorly and ignore the second and third.

Last week, I asked for a quote for a complete Victron system and they ignored it completely.... wtf?

They could at least set up a system where they text 10 minutes prior and call the customer back.

Seems SOK is the only way to go
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Would you mind DMing me your email address? I'd like to run down why this got missed
 
jasonsele said:
I did receive my replacement MPPT controller from Signature Solar. It took over 3 weeks to get the RMA but once I sent it back it was replaced quickly. Only had to wait for shipping.
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You must be the exception because mine were received on Thursday, May 11 at 11:43 A.M. at Receiver according to UPS and have not heard a single thing from Signature Solar since May 2nd when I received the shipping email.

From May 1st email, "Once we receive the defective inverter, we will ship the replacement right away!"

I guess their definition of "right away" must be different than mine............. ;)
 
SS received my broken 6500 on Monday and it's replacement was sent out on Wednesday, scheduled to arrive on Friday. Pretty good service so far.
 
vriosiii said:
SS received my broken 6500 on Monday and it's replacement was sent out on Wednesday, scheduled to arrive on Friday. Pretty good service so far.
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Makes my case even more intriguing.

I'm currently running on a pair of LV6548's with PV array at half power. I'm done collecting data for comparison from the LV6548's compared to the original 6500EX's and anxious to get replacemnt 6500EX's installed and collect data from those.
 
Zwy said:
Makes my case even more intriguing.

I'm currently running on a pair of LV6548's with PV array at half power. I'm done collecting data for comparison from the LV6548's compared to the original 6500EX's and anxious to get replacemnt 6500EX's installed and collect data from those.
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You might be anxious too but apparently they are not LOL
 
Quattrohead said:
You might be anxious too but apparently they are not LOL
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Have to start making it a "running joke". :ROFLMAO:

Did get some scope videos of the LV6548's with PV today. Thinking of putting together a compilation of the whole series titled Former EG4 6500EX vs the MPP LV6548

then:

MPP Solar LV6548 vs the NEW and Possibly Improved EG4 6500EX

Missing one important part for the second video in the series. ;)

They must have Markus in the back room testing every 6500EX with a scope trying to find units that don't have glitches in the waveform? LOL

Followed by James asking Markus, "You tested 500 units and can't find any that don't have glitches?"
 
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