Signature Solar Experience, Bad or Good

[jimdandy]

Just received a call from Lindsey at Signature Solar. She left a voicemail on Friday afternoon 1.26.2024 to call her today (Monday 1.29
2024) but ive been at work until I just walked in this afternoon to retreive my phone. As i picked it up it rang. She was excited to tell me that they did indeed receive a shipment of transverters and that i would get a tracking number tomorrow. That is great news. I only wish that i hadnt had my card charged 2 months ago.
In the future i deal with those that charge when they are ready to ship. Glad that it is ending finally and still dont know what a refurbed transverter would have cost or what warranty it would have had. I forgot to ask her while i had her on the phone.

 

[jimdandy]

I am happy to report that i have received my much awaited chargeverter on Feb. 2.
So lets recap.
I purchased the chargeverter in December 2023.
At that time the website said it would ship mid January. My credit card was charged immediately in December. I have now received it on February 2. I will put it to use in the near future and test it out.
I realize now that Signature Solar was taking orders and money for products that Eg4 was unable to provide to them in a timely manner.
So what changes could be implemented in the future to prevent future disgruntled customers?
I believe that if you have a limited supply of a product, you should only take money for those you have in your posession available for shipment. Those people expect to pay upon purchase to enable shipment.
For others wanting the product beyond your current supply you can take the customers payment information much like a hotel reservation which gets your card information but only charges when services are rendered. When you have the inventory renewed, you charge and ship.
I do believe that Signature Solar got caught between a rock and a hard place in my circumstance and only exacerbated the problem by not responding to emails in a timely fashion. At any rate i hope some good lessons were learned and that we have all been made more aware of the intricacies of inventory vs. sales managememt.
Now onto the new problem. I mentioned at the beginning of this thread that I purchased a 6500ex in December of 2022. Now I would like to purchase another one so that I can run them in parallel for a split phase 240 volt system. Unfortunately the 6500ex has already been abandoned by eg4. Now I have to decide what I want to buy to parallel with it. Any suggestions?

 

[jimdandy]

Yes, bummer the 6500 EX's are now extinct. I will upgrade at some point, but not worth it just yet. I installed mine in June/July. Sounds like you had a contractor? If all was installed properly shouldn't be many issues. The only issues I had were Nagging flickering lights which is an inherant issue with the 6500"s. SS has helped me through all the hurdles I ran into with that and now all is well. The real fix was an update and installing the missing neutral ground bond screws that should have been there in the first place. My frustrations were the amount of time wasted with low level techs before they would escalate me to someone who could get to the bottom of a simple fix that should have taken place weeks earlier. All well now though, patience and perseverance prevailed. Now just managing dead of winter in PA, no fault of the system!

I too have some flicker and no bonding screw. However with the inverter hooked to my main panel for grid charging. I have left it alone as the neutral ground bond occurs there. Did you have a different situation? I have found that running an egc conductor from my panel frames to my inverter egc helped.

 

[Tumalo]

I must say I am disappointed in signature solar's billing long before shipping policy. I have a 6500ex that i ordered December 2022. I have been using it for a year. I decided this past December to buy an inverter generator for the winter gray days as a backup. Then I ordered a chargeverter from signature solar. They were saying at the time of my purchase that they would be shipped in mid January. My credit card was charged 423.00. On December 27th so I hoped they were preparing to ship. Now that the winter storms are here this week I was really hoping to receive my chargeverter.
So today I go on the site to check the progress of my order and NOW they are saying that they will ship them in MARCH! Which of course is AFTER the winter is over. Essentially what this has turned into is an interest free 423.00 loan for four months to signature solar. They should never have charged my credit card for a product they do not even have available to ship. It's real simple like booking a hotel room. Your credit card gets charged upon rendering the product or service. Now I realize they could very well do it again in march and bump it to July.. should I just go ahead and contact my credit card to have it removed? After all if I wanted to wait 4 months I would have ordered one from China myself. What would you do?

I feel your pain. Dealing with Signature Solar is the worst customer service I have ever delt with. In Dec I ordered an inverter and a full battery rack system. That same day I discovered that the batteries would not work with the inverter without a firmware update. After reading so many problems that owners experienced with the updating process I canceled the inverter order. Because I really wanted the inverter I thought I would try to do a firmware update on the EG 4 batteries I already owned. While on the website I noticed a BMS test download and thought I would try that first. After much frustration I was finally able to get it done. I ran the test and found that only three of my four batteries would show up. After many hpurs of trying different setting I finally decided to tor call SS. After over an hour of waiting on the phone I decided to email them. Days later I finally got a response. They requested some information and pictures which I sent them within minutes of their request. I was a week before they responded, even though I sent several emails during that time asking for a response. They said that they were going to turn me over to anothe tech that could better help me and that they wanted more information (it was the same information I had already sent them). At this point I decided that I would cancel my battery order because I didn't want 6 more batteries if I couldn't get help with the ones I have. This was a whole new nightmare with too many details to go into here, but it took days and hours on the phone before I finally got a refund. It has been another two weeks since I last heard from a tech. Still no resoultion on my problems.
I decided that there was no advantage in buying from a US based company if there was no customer service so I ordered a battery system from Ruixu. I recieved the batteries 5 days after placing the order. It came well packaged and arrived with no damage and no items missing. The quality of the equipment is unreal and everything went together without a hitch. I pluged into my Growatt inverter, made one adjustment in the settings and it fired right up. Everything is working flawlessly at this point.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

I feel your pain. Dealing with Signature Solar is the worst customer service I have ever delt with. In Dec I ordered an inverter and a full battery rack system. That same day I discovered that the batteries would not work with the inverter without a firmware update. After reading so many problems that owners experienced with the updating process I canceled the inverter order. Because I really wanted the inverter I thought I would try to do a firmware update on the EG 4 batteries I already owned. While on the website I noticed a BMS test download and thought I would try that first. After much frustration I was finally able to get it done. I ran the test and found that only three of my four batteries would show up. After many hpurs of trying different setting I finally decided to tor call SS. After over an hour of waiting on the phone I decided to email them. Days later I finally got a response. They requested some information and pictures which I sent them within minutes of their request. I was a week before they responded, even though I sent several emails during that time asking for a response. They said that they were going to turn me over to anothe tech that could better help me and that they wanted more information (it was the same information I had already sent them). At this point I decided that I would cancel my battery order because I didn't want 6 more batteries if I couldn't get help with the ones I have. This was a whole new nightmare with too many details to go into here, but it took days and hours on the phone before I finally got a refund. It has been another two weeks since I last heard from a tech. Still no resoultion on my problems.
I decided that there was no advantage in buying from a US based company if there was no customer service so I ordered a battery system from Ruixu. I recieved the batteries 5 days after placing the order. It came well packaged and arrived with no damage and no items missing. The quality of the equipment is unreal and everything went together without a hitch. I pluged into my Growatt inverter, made one adjustment in the settings and it fired right up. Everything is working flawlessly at this point.

I'm so sorry this has been your experience thus far @Tumalo ! If you'd like to reach out to me at engagement@signaturesolar.com, we can absolutely get you taken care of!

 

[jimdandy]

Just had my first support call with Signature solar. They picked up quickly and (hopefully) resolved my issue. I wont know until the sun goes down=). Anyhow, was a good experience for me. I worked with Payton. Now about that Chargeverter i ordered a month+ ago and haven't received... I know they are backordered by I am impatient.

Now that the sun has gone down a few times I am looking forward to an update.

 

[Nonlin]

Really curious how long it will take them to ship one item purchase...
OK it arrived last week, just checked the mail. Was thrown off since it still says awaiting shipment.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Really curious how long it will take them to ship one item purchase...

View attachment 195022

If you'd like to send me your order number, I can get you an update!

 

[jbkrntrprz]

I've got basically the same system. 12 eg4 48v batteries. Nothing but problems!!! Now I find out that they no longer make the eg4 6500ex 48v inverters!!!! I have not had them quite a year. I had them installed in Sept/Oct 23.!!!!

Good grief I feel I made a huge mistake buying from SS. I'm a neighbor of yours, 30 miles west of vincennes in IL. Want to trade Governors?

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Good grief I feel I made a huge mistake buying from SS. I'm a neighbor of yours, 30 miles west of vincennes in IL. Want to trade Governors?

Have you heard about our upgrade program?

 

[LegoRV]

've emailed Signature Solar about 3 times on various questions and have received adequate responses every time. I've never emailed McDonalds and wonder if I'd even get a response if I did.

I would offer that you didn't pay between 500-several thousand dollars for that hamburger, and it wasn't DOA, or didn't function as described.

 

[jbkrntrprz]

Have you heard about our upgrade program?

I'm curious, why did you stop selling the 6500 inverters and why are you offering an upgrade? Too many problems?

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Sorry i contacted them before their black friday sale and got naught and shyte for a reply. then three days after the sale they started bombarding my email inbox with various offers... Why would I buy from you when you ignore my initial email and request for quotation.

Jess don't bother, if you had a beard and were butt ugly most of these guys would not allow the BS to continue. I am now pestering and harassing Dexter... as at least he has not ignored me... @HighTechLab "I have nothing but eyes for you honey bunzs"...

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Sorry i contacted them before their black friday sale and got naught and shyte for a reply. then three days after the sale they started bombarding my email inbox with various offers... Why would I buy from you when you ignore my initial email and request for quotation.

Jess don't bother, if you had a beard and were butt ugly most of these guys would not allow the BS to continue. I am now pestering and harassing Dexter... as at least he has not ignored me... @HighTechLab "I have nothing but eyes for you honey bunzs"...

Well, I'm so sorry, and I'm here to help if you'd like it

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

I'm curious, why did you stop selling the 6500 inverters and why are you offering an upgrade? Too many problems?

The 6.5s were phased out for many reasons including their predictable reliability. In response, We (Signature Solar) with the support of EG4 are now providing upgrade pricing to customers who had previously purchased the 6.5s. We want to ensure access to the latest and most reliable solar technology at an affordable cost.

 

[jbkrntrprz]

Phased out for many reasons including their predictable reliability in this case means a defective product! Could you please tell me what are the reliability issues with this product?

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Phased out for many reasons including their predictable reliability in this case means a defective product! Could you please tell me what are the reliability issues with this product?

Technology has improved but many of these units are still in commission, working without any problems. Some of these units had issues, but not all. The upgrade program is even extended to those whose units are working perfectly

 

[jbkrntrprz]

Technology has improved but many of these units are still in commission, working without any problems. Some of these units had issues, but not all. The upgrade program is even extended to those whose units are working perfectly

Could I please have a list so I can tell if I am having the same issues. For instance a new one came up today and I plan on contacting tech dept but other known issues would be helpful.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Could I please have a list so I can tell if I am having the same issues. For instance a new one came up today and I plan on contacting tech dept but other known issues would be helpful.

The most common issue has been the flickering lights. Our call wait time for tech right now is only 2 minutes, now would be a great time to call to get connected right away!

 

[jbkrntrprz]

The most common issue has been the flickering lights. Our call wait time for tech right now is only 2 minutes, now would be a great time to call to get connected right away!

I've got the flickering lights. How about instead of the upgrade, you give us a full refund. Will be calling shortly. Thank you for reaching out.