Silicon Solar
Reviews and Complaints

Jason of Silicon Solar, learn to read. The complaint has nothing to do with foreign scammers, so don't try to divert the complainer's issue. You're idiot comment here is more evidence of what a useless scam of website you have. Do you still have multiple websites masquerading as different companies to give customers false impressions that there are other options out there when it is the same group of thieves running them all? MBA solar dude, you should move your corporate HQ to Nigeria which would be an improvement on your current deceptive scam you claim is customer service to the uninitiated.

learn to spell.. we have lots of foreign scammers who try to get us to ship places. we assist every order... im in customer service.. if you have an issue contact me... jason.d@siliconsolar.com

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our company. Regarding your statement about fed ex, no we do not use that carrier unless a customer has their own account. Their rates are more expensive then UPS and their damage rating is the same (14.9% nation wide) along with the fact that their transit time is very comparable. As for UPS paying the damage claim, they would only do so if they felt it was sufficiently packaged to their standards which a lot of the times they simply do not do. I've even had an international UPS rep tell me that business's are better off using a third party logistics insurance carrier. We have since significantly improved our return policy to be more transparent and fair to consumers along with the introduction of product warranties. You can review the new policy here http://www.siliconsolar.com/no-hassle-returns.html. If you can provide me with an invoice number it would help me better to rectify this situation.

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our company. I'm sure this has been resolved by now but in order for me to look into it further I would need your invoice number. Can you please provide it for us?

If you can provide me with an invoice number it will help me to rectify the situation.

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our company. Unfortunately batteries are not covered under warranty due to the fragile nature of their life expectancy when combined with solar products for end user use. If a consumer does not properly position their panel at the correct incidence angle, with the proper orientation in a free from shadows area, the battery life expectancy is in danger. Typically a batteries life is 2-3 years. But if not correctly positioned, performance starts to decline eventually leading into premature death. This is because of battery sulfation.

In an analogy, lets think of a battery as and 8 oz glass filled with water. Then let's think of a bottomless container of water being a solar panel. Dumping the water out of the glass can be thought of a device consuming power from a battery. So lets say that your prohibited at any time from spilling more then half of the glass (the circuitry in the light will not allow the battery to deplete beyond 50%). So you spill 4 oz of water out of the glass throughout the night (simulating the light working at night). The following day your only able to fill the glass of water up with 2 oz of water (simulating shadow crossings at some point in the day on the panel which prohibits the panel from charging the battery at all). So that night you can only spill 3 oz of water because there's only a total of 6 oz in the glass (simulating shortness of light operation). The following day again you can only fill 2 oz of water, so that night you can only spill 2.5 oz of water and this cycle continues until your left with only 2 oz of water left in the glass after a refill.

This is much like whats happening with your light. Shadows from obstructions move 360 degrees around objects throughout the day and they get longer in the winter months because the sun gets lower in the sky. So Even if at the time of the initial install there were no shadow crossings on the panel, or even that day for the matter, doesn't mean that that they don't occur throughout the year. That's why we recommend to install the unit on a bright sunny day in the early morning, then between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm check the panel every hour on the hour for shadow crossings. Then do this once a month for an entire year adjusting the panel as necessary. Even the slightest bit of shadow crossing on a solar panel can cease the entire panel from producing power because each cell acts like a power switch to all of those preceding it throughout the panel. If one cells is crossed with shadow then all the cells behind it can't get power through. Much like a road block.

Depreciation in lighting performance (hours of operation or brightness) is directly linked to the charge capacity in a battery bank. The charge capacity is directly linked to the output of the panel which is directly linked to its installed position relevant to the sun and obtrusive shadow crossing objects such as high grass, shrubbery, tree's, other foliage, telephone poles, sheds, houses, decks etc.. If your light begins to under perform before 8 months in a gradual slope, it's a 99% guaranty its directly related to panel positioning. So even if you have the proper inclination and orientation, if a shadow crosses the panel your battery will die prematurely.

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our company. We have put in countermeasures to ensure that customers are notified of product stock at checkout and allows them to choose whether or not to ship partially or wholly depending on stock conditions. your payment is only accepted when the product is shipped to you. Can I get your invoice number so that I can help to reconcile this situation?

I apologize for the experience you had with our company. Just to show you of how the situation occured, here are the internals notes are staff made regarding your concerns.

9/22/08hp Chat- customer was wondering if the pumps come with flanges i advised the customer that they do. placed a missing item rma to have flanges sent out to the customer. 9/22/08Hp -Authorized- please ship out missing flanges to the customer. 10/6/08 DV customer still has not received missing flanges and is also missing sensors 10/8/08 DV customer called as he still has not been shipped the items. Told customer I will check on shipping status. I emailed the customer info rec. from HP that SHW equipment in due in our warehouse this week (has been on b/o) so the missing equipment should go out tomorrow or Friday I emailed the customer this information and apologized for any inconvenience this causes in regard to the plans he had to install the unit for his customer this weekend. 2/9/09Hp- customer never received flanges and now has realized that the pump will not work for their needs. Customer is to send back pump and be issued a credit minus restocking fees. 2-16-09 TC RECEIVED LG PUMP W/ CONTROLLER(0011 & GL30) IN NEW CONDITION ON 2-13-09, CUSTOMER WOULD LIKE CREDIT MINUS RSF 2/23/09Hp customer sent email checking the status of their refund advised customer that the refund should be issued shortly. To contact corey or mary for further information.

We are sorry that you have not been happy with or service, in an effort to reconcile any outstanding complaints against us, we wish for you to supply us with an invoice number and/or any other information for which we can formally identify you in our database. This is an attempt to authenticate you as an actual customer. If you can provide your invoice number or other identification that we could use to find you in our system to the following e-mail address reviews@siliconsolar.com, we will do our best to investigate and possibly compensate you for your negative experience. This will be on a per case basis of which compensation, if any, will be determined based on the history of the account. This is just one of the steps in which we are taking to reconcile complaints. We have taken many other steps such as instituting a new Return Policy that protects both the consumer and us to make the purchasing experience better. We have also created our own complaint/review site which is located at http://www.siliconsolar.com/silicon-solar-customer-satisfaction-guaranteed.php for customers to post negative or positive reviews of which we will constantly respond to. You will also be able to review our complaint vs customer history and see that we actually have a 99.8% customer satisfaction rate.

Sincerely,
Joshua Kenyon
Managing Director

I ordered a $14 pump, paid $12 for shipping, got the WRONG PUMP, DEMANDED MY MONEY BACK, got the $14 but not the $12 for Shipping me a pump that they screwed up on. It has been so long since I dealt with these people that I honestly forgot HOW BAD THEIR SERVICE IS/WAS. Back in [protected] I purchased something from them. I never got what I ordered, THEY DID NO RETURN PHONE CALLS THEN, AND THEY ARE NOT RETURNING MY PHONE CALLS NOW. Back in [protected] my Credit Card Company had to get involved, and I got my money back. This time I paid with Pay Pal. FORGET Silicon Solar. CHUMP ROOKIES.

We are sorry that you have not been happy with our service, in an effort to reconcile any outstanding complaints against us, we wish for you to supply us with an invoice number and/or any other information for which we can formally identify you in our database. This is an attempt to authenticate you as an actual customer. If you can provide your invoice number or other identification that we could use to find you in our system to the following e-mail address reviews@siliconsolar.com, we will do our best to investigate and possibly compensate you for your negative experience. This will be on a per case basis of which compensation, if any, will be determined based on the history of the account. This is just one of the steps in which we are taking to reconcile complaints. We have taken many other steps such as instituting a new Return Policy that protects both the consumer and us to make the purchasing experience better. We have also created our own complaint/review site which is located at http://www.siliconsolar.com/silicon-solar-customer-satisfaction-guaranteed.php for customers to post negative or positive reviews of which we will constantly respond to. You will also be able to review our complaint vs customer history and see that we actually have a 99.8% customer satisfaction rate.

Sincerely,
Joshua Kenyon
Managing Director

This company has provided terrible service. I still have not received the correct product- they have charged me for the item.

In May, I ordered an iSol Plus by phone and they delivered a different product -the iSol Plus 2X (similar name, PN is only 1 digit off) I know I requested the unit with the variable voltage as recommended by the sales guy.

Easy to see how they slipped up.

I quickly returned the product, was assured they would ship the correct unit on receipt. They have had the return over 11 days and I cannot confirm if they have shipped or not. I have not received any tracking information.

My emails, help ticket and voicemails are not returned.

I asked to be credited for the $4 return shipment and was told no - somehow it was my fault for the incorrect order (?)

I strongly recommend you buy elsewhere. If they are this screwed up over returns - how can you expect them to stand by their product.

Turns out the phone sales guy was an "owner" and denies that he put the order in wrong. What legit business gets is shorts in a knot over $4?

Will report on the product if it ever arrives. I am now talking to my credit card and the NY State Consumer Board.

Same deal as many of the other complaints - slow to ship, difficult to contact, never replies to emails or voice mails. They rarely answer the customer service phone line, but the trick is to call the sales line, they will pick up immediately and the staff iss the same as the customer service line. I talked with Matt and he told me my order was shipping the same day and I would get a tracking number via email - that did not happen. Called back 2 days later and got someone else - same story, will ship today and will send a tracking number - again that did not happen. Found Matt Ferrell's ( COO ) phone number and left a message, and surprise, he actually called me back and gave me a tracking number. Unfortunately they never shipped product with that tracking number. I filed a dispute with PayPal to try to get some action going, but they never responded to PayPal either.
A week later I called the sales number and was per FedEx told product was due to be delivered the same day, even though I was looking at the tracking data which said FedEx had never picked up a package. I called FedEx and confirmed they did not have my package. I escalated my dispute with PayPal and called Matt back to cancel the order. To my surprise, I got a email the next day with a new tracking number which showed they shipped the package that day? The saga goes on...
DO NOT do business with Silicon Solar. I wish I had searched for reviews before placing my order - lesson learned!

I bought a water fountain it didnt work I chatted with someone several times no reply not very helpful I would like to use my fountain but I cant it just wont pump and we have had alot of sun.dont buy from this company they dont backup their product I paided for the product but cannot enjoy it

liz

We are sorry that you have not been happy with our service, in an effort to reconcile any outstanding complaints against us, we wish for you to supply us with an invoice number and/or any other information for which we can formally identify you in our database. This is an attempt to authenticate you as an actual customer. If you can provide your invoice number or other identification that we could use to find you in our system to the following e-mail address reviews@siliconsolar.com, we will do our best to investigate and possibly compensate you for your negative experience. This will be on a per case basis of which compensation, if any, will be determined based on the history of the account. This is just one of the steps in which we are taking to reconcile complaints. We have taken many other steps such as instituting a new Return Policy that protects both the consumer and us to make the purchasing experience better. We have also created our own complaint/review site which is located at http://www.siliconsolar.com/silicon-solar-customer-satisfaction-guaranteed.php for customers to post negative or positive reviews of which we will constantly respond to. You will also be able to review our complaint vs customer history and see that we actually have a 99.8% customer satisfaction rate.

Sincerely,
Joshua Kenyon
Managing Director

If you provide me with an invoice number I can give you a $20 credit to reconcile the situation. No, shipping the incorrect product to you is not your fault and you shouldn't have been charged for return shipping on an incorrect product. I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced with our company.

We are sorry that you have not been happy with our service, in an effort to reconcile any outstanding complaints against us, we wish for you to supply us with an invoice number and/or any other information for which we can formally identify you in our database. This is an attempt to authenticate you as an actual customer. If you can provide your invoice number or other identification that we could use to find you in our system to the following e-mail address reviews@siliconsolar.com, we will do our best to investigate and possibly compensate you for your negative experience. This will be on a per case basis of which compensation, if any, will be determined based on the history of the account. This is just one of the steps in which we are taking to reconcile complaints. We have taken many other steps such as instituting a new Return Policy that protects both the consumer and us to make the purchasing experience better. We have also created our own complaint/review site which is located at http://www.siliconsolar.com/silicon-solar-customer-satisfaction-guaranteed.php for customers to post negative or positive reviews of which we will constantly respond to. You will also be able to review our complaint vs customer history and see that we actually have a 99.8% customer satisfaction rate.

Sincerely,
Joshua Kenyon
Managing Director

Lies all lies, they change their return policy and clean house every two years, they need to go out of business, and their products are crappy chinese made stuff, with huge markups

We are sorry that you have not been happy with our service, in an effort to reconcile any outstanding complaints against us, we wish for you to supply us with an invoice number and/or any other information for which we can formally identify you in our database. This is an attempt to authenticate you as an actual customer. If you can provide your invoice number or other identification that we could use to find you in our system to the following e-mail address reviews@siliconsolar.com, we will do our best to investigate and possibly compensate you for your negative experience. This will be on a per case basis of which compensation, if any, will be determined based on the history of the account. This is just one of the steps in which we are taking to reconcile complaints. We have taken many other steps such as instituting a new Return Policy that protects both the consumer and us to make the purchasing experience better. We have also created our own complaint/review site which is located at http://www.siliconsolar.com/silicon-solar-customer-satisfaction-guaranteed.php for customers to post negative or positive reviews of which we will constantly respond to. You will also be able to review our complaint vs customer history and see that we actually have a 99.8% customer satisfaction rate.

Sincerely,
Joshua Kenyon
Managing Director

i have had a similar experience with this company. i was ordering a replacement pump for a garden pond and ordered the wrong one. when i inquired about a return it was going to cost more to return it than the pump cost once shipping and %25 restock fee was applied. so i decided to keep the pump to gift to a friend. i called to find out about buying the panel that runs the thing and found out it cost more to buy the panel than the kit!
i am looking elsewhere for solar supplies!

I've had to replace two of their 6V pumps in two seasons of use (they are only used in summer). When you call customer service, they remind you that the pumps only carry a 60 day warranty. I do not recommend buying from this company.