Coffs Solar Energy

Polite & Super Friendly staff. Sadly, a mistake led to the kitchen ceiling caving in - pics attached – SHORT VERSION As a result of two tiles not replaced correctly by Coffs Solar Energy after putting the footing in for the solar panels, rain was able to enter our roof cavity. The rain pooled on the kitchen ceiling, and it caved in. Our friends and family have been watching our situation from the side lines. Understandably, none of them will be… Read more

contacting Coffs Solar Energy if/when they require solar panels, nor recommending them to anyone they know.

All the staff we’ve interacted with, from sales and admin to installers have been incredibly friendly and polite. But sadly, as a result of the mistakes, the overall experience has taken a huge emotional toll. It’s been distressing, draining and stressful.

To date, we’ve received no apology.

LONG VERSION

We were impressed with the friendly salesperson from Coffs Solar Energy who came out to provide a quote.

We informed him that we needed to get our roof tiles painted. He recommended a roof restoration company that they often coordinate with.

He said it’s best that:

1. The Coffs Solar Energy team put the footing for the solar panels in first.

2. The roof restoration company come on a different day to paint the roof tiles.

3. Then, Coffs Solar Energy return at a later date to install the solar panels into the footing.

We decided to proceed with Coffs Solar Energy, and we also hired the roof restoration company they recommended.

As planned, the Coffs Solar Energy installers put the footing in, as per step 1. We were then waiting for the roof company to come out and paint the tiles, as per step 2.

However, something happened before the painting took place. As a result of tiles not replaced correctly by Coffs Solar Energy after putting the footing in, rain was able to enter our roof cavity. We’d had many days of rain, and that water pooled on the ceiling, initially causing a leak, and eventually, the kitchen ceiling collapsed.

This happened on a Saturday (December 3, 2022). We called our insurance company who sent a “Make Safe” team out. This team put the tiles back correctly, and made temporary repairs to the kitchen ceiling.

We notified Coffs Solar Energy on Monday, who sent staff out, one of whom was an installer. The installer inspected, and told us he didn’t believe that he or any of his team did not replace the tiles correctly.

We agreed that we’d wait for the insurance report to come back.

When it came back, it stated that the ceiling collapse was due to tiles not being replaced correctly. The initial Make Safe team had taken photographs as well.

The insurance company wouldn’t fix the roof (sarking needed fixing), but they’d fix the resulting damage to the kitchen ceiling. Coffs Solar Energy avoided a large repair bill.

We emailed Coffs Solar Energy, asking them to pay for:

1) Our $500 insurance claim excess 2) Repairs to fix the roof sarking – $352 3) An amount decided by them, as compensation for the stress & inconvenience of our ceiling caving in.

They decided on an amount of $1000. So, after removing the insurance excess and roof repairs, we were left with $148.00 in compensation.

To date, we’ve received no apology from anyone at Coffs Solar Energy, most notably, nothing from the owner and manager. Not one check-in or email after the ceiling caved in, and no apology thereafter. No one can believe this.

We did, however, receive apologies from a lovely staff member for something entirely different: After the roof tiles were eventually painted by the roof restoration company, Coffs Solar Energy came to install the panels. Within 2 hours of the installation, they’d dislodged a cable that disrupted our internet. We both work from home and rely on the internet. They fixed it the next day, but we lost our internet for over 24 hours. (A note to that friendly staff member: Thank you so much. Your apology was sincere, and meant a lot to us.)

My partner was happy to move on without writing a review. I feel differently because I chose Coffs Solar Energy based on all their 5 star reviews. Sadly, we didn't enjoy a 5 star experience.