Compass Home & Lifestyle

Stay Away!! – DO NOT USE this company.Very very poor workmanship and do not take responsibility. After trying to have my matter resolved for 2 years, had to take them to the tribunal. They left a huge cracked roof tile under the panels and caused a lot of damage to my interior walls and ceiling.Still not working because they needed to order inverter. I have not been able to use solar for the last 3 months.

Basically Happy Customer – We installed our system in 2016 and have enjoyed greatly reduced Electricity costs since then. Recently the Inverter we chose failed and we were advised since the Warranty had ended to contact that company directly. We did so and received a replacement Inverter delivered to our door approximately 2 weeks from the request. Our greatest challenge… Read more

has been to have Compass arrange an installer to come and swap the inverters.

Today I was told to expect the installer on Monday next. I trust that will be the end of these difficulties. Overall happy client but affected recently by 6 - 8 weeks wait without any benefit for our earlier investment.

WARNING! Will not return deposit – After agreeing on a system, they rocked up on the installation date with panels of different colour and a different sized inverter. Then they tried to offer me lower powered panels, different brand panels, and cheaper inverters, because the Fronius which was agreed upon was not available. They have the audacity to claim they don't legally have… Read more

to refund the deposit, even though they cannot and will not deliver on the system that was agreed upon.

Happy Customer – I had my system installed by Compass in January 2017 between two heat waves. I cannot comment on after sales service as some reviewers have done, as I haven’t needed to ask for it. I dealt with Jesse, and found him very helpful, and offering valued advice. My experience with the company has been quite different from that of some of the… Read more

reviewers listed on this site. However, an opportunity for an independent assessment of the work came last month when I was contacted by the office of the Commonwealth Department that oversees the installations and (I think) approves the subsidies. I agreed to a visit from their private contractor to assess the installation. After he completed his inspection, the worst thing he could say was that the installer had failed to place the screw covers on the Inverter switch at the side of the house. Hardly an earth-shattering omission. I am now enjoying my electricity bills a lot more than was the case before this year.

BEWARE AVOID USING THEM AT ALL – We purchased a system from what was Horizon Solar Tech in 2012 system had problems early in peace. They replaced inverter in 2014. Inverter failed again Jan 2017 still in 5 yr warranty period. The following is provided by Dept Fair Trading after lodging complaint. Mr Bassam Farhat has been Director of 3 companies Horizon Solar Tech went into… Read more

Admin; Horizon Energy P/L into Admin 2014 being deregistered; now Director Compass Home and Lifestyle. He is still operating out of same original premises. By going into voluntary admin and then deregistering company he has no legal obligation to any previous customers even though he was Director of these companies. He accused us of purchasing and inferior product during these negotiations- funny as he not only recommended the product but was happy to sell it to us. KEEP AS FAR AWAY FROM MR FARHAT AS YOU CAN. We now have non functioning system even though it still has 2 yrs of warranty on it and no one wants to touch it.

no customer service post sale – zero service after sale even after telling them I needed to replace panels after a storm. They also either lie or dont know how many panels are needed to do the job specified.

Poor or should I say bad customer service after sale – I have keep my promise and have taken down bad review for the reason my partner trust that they will do the right thing on Monday 6 February 2017 that they will get level 2 electrician come out and fix our solar system. The email confirms between 9 to 12 pm. On Monday morning and I got this feeling that they were not coming out. I have ask my… Read more

partner to call them and ask if they are on the way, which by the way at 10.30am. The level 2 electrician advise that he was coming this afternoon and was not aware that he was supposed to come out in Morning. As you can see the right hand doesn't speak with the left hand. Really bad customer services. If my partner did not call he would seat at home and waste his time also. And by the time it was around 2 pm my partner got a call advise that he will not make it today due to he been held up...how ironic right and then of course they say they will come out tomorrow first thing in Morning. I just love how they think that we are idiot people ... but it is ok.... if they like to play around with people times and waste people money...

Reason for me to say this, is because I know exactly what is happening. I know exactly that on Tuesday it will rain very heavy and it will continue to run until the end of the week. And guess what? Nothing will be done.... sure enough for them to say that they can not control the weather bureau. But only if the keep the word and come out as they would say on the email than this would have been resolved.

Firstly I would like to advice all reader do not go with this solar compass (Compass Home & Lifestyle) due to there is no services after when you hand over your money....or if there is services after purchase it would properly take few months for them to come and fix!

Secondly if you decided to go with them be mindful that there electrician could install wrong and it could cause short circuit... my switch board for the solar panel keep turn off automatically. Reason why I found out is because calling solaredge and they advise that he could have install a wrong circuit for the inverter.

Solaredge company they are nice people, however the person that I have been dealing with total in his own world. I have advice him many time that I'm only a customer from solar compass and that solar compass have been created a file for them send new inverter but for some reason they keep call me advice that I aim the owner solar compass company and that I aim person to communicate with and talk about electrician jargon words.

The whole point that I'm trying to say is...be mindful when you also deal with big company who manufacturing the inverter there is really no customer services, by me say this that they do not listen to what you say and not try deal with retail person directly and find out the problem...

Thirdly I guess my partner had the kind heart and allow them have there way, but nor do they realise I aim not like my partner. I believe if you pay for an item and services and both is not been deliver to customer than it is always good for other readers to know how bad Solar Compass (Compass home and Lifestyle) company.

Please feel free reader and ask any question and I be happy to reply.

Ps system still not working and think it has again shut down automatically by it self. And another think is my roof tiles has been broken by the installer and of course leak inside my house and damage my federation ceiling. And I have not ask for a compensation.

June 10th 2017 Update: Cut corners and try to get away of the problems

Hi Readers

I have manage to get SolarEdge to come out to the site, it is not normal for a manufacture to come out. The only reason why they have decided to come out is that I post on Facebook on the pages how bad they are and that they hungry for money did not care! [name removed] from SolerEdge was amazing he did some test and found the problem. SolarCompass has done wrong wiring and blown out not just 1 but 2 inverter and also burn out 5 optimiser. [name removed] advise because the person from SolarCompass did not follow the Lay out and wiring for the system hence it was overload and system keep shutting down. Lucky my house was not burn down. The electrician [name removed] from SolarCompass was so arrogant he thinks he has done very thing correct and if so why was 5 optimizers and 2 inverter was replace? They are so dodgy, cut corner and they hope to get away with the problem.

Finally the system is up and running from end of May, it has taken nearly 6 months! If any of you decide to go with Solar Compass, be mindful they use to be call Horizon...you can also find information on them at https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2512974 the same problem.

They have damage my property and also lost of revenue of energy we waited and waited no reimbursement to the energy bills. I'm going to take them NCAT and get my money back from the damage to my ceiling which need a new paint job ...which is not simple job because ceiling is Federation style ceiling which you can't just get a roller and paint...has to be done by brash, energy bill and also I guess I want them to take the system down because as you can see there is no services after the job has been done!

I really strongly advise to all readers to avoid the company SolarCompass.

Poor customer service, communication and overall care, a lot of money for little in return – Our initial contact with this company was to fix an issue with our existing solar panels - approx 2Kw - (not installed by them). We ended up signing up for a "5Kw" system with a dual inverter so we could use any power we generated first before taking power from the grid. We were shown a plan taken of our house where the new panels would be placed… Read more

and told someone would call out to fix the issue with our old system and someone would do a "check measure" for the new system.

It took about 4 weeks for someone to look at the old system who said we needed a new switch and he would organise it. It took all up about 6-7 weeks before a date was set for installing the new system - so no power generated at all, no rebate of 60c per Kw.

A contractor came out with two others (apprentices?) and within a short time told us the panels would not fit on the roof as proposed. I asked what happened to the "check measure"? We were told the company “always” did a check measure and that it happened while we were out -Consequently, we have no north facing panels. Some panels were put some on the south side of the house which would only lose "24%". Our alternative was 6 less panels and a reduction of $750 but no reduction for less installation.

Installation began - "we want to remove your Whirly Birds". This was another issue that would have been addressed had there been the "check measure" as promised.

Later, I saw the head contractor and he said he had installed a new switch on the old system but it wasn't working, then it started to work which indicated to me that there was still a fault. He said he would talk to the office about it as it may need a new inverter.

I rang head office to discuss this job and the old system which they were asked to repair and was told by "[name removed]" that it should be re-wired. I asked for a report as the damage occurred during a storm and it may be covered under our policy.

A short time later the lead installer said he had another job to do - (in a suburb that I knew was at least an hours drive away if he was lucky) and said he'd leave the boys there and come back for them. He left and within 2 mins came back and said he just realised how long it would take to get there and could he take the boys now as he promised to come back tomorrow. I found out later, when the office put the job into the computer, they entered the address and the computer auto-filled the suburb with a suburb completely different to ours and the data entry person simply did not check it.

The contractor came back the next day and finished the job in about 3-4 hours, got us to sign the paperwork AND his rating which HE filled out!!

They were packing up and a few minutes later I went outside and he working on the switch for the old system again.

I asked if he had replaced the switch again. He said he was and that he had accidentally drilled through the cable and it caught fire and luckily he was able to put it out before it got up into our roof!! Had I not gone outside and spoken to him, I would never have known. We don't know to what extent the cable was burnt and if it was replaced - I was too much in shock to ask.

The following day I contacted the office and spoke to “[name removed]" again, and asked again for a report on our old solar system as his two contractors who had seen it said the wiring was "dodgy". In fact the wiring was done to standard in 2009 and there is a different standard now but that doesn't mean the wiring ins dodgy. I asked [name removed] what he would recommend and he said if it was his house, he would re-wire it to today's standard otherwise we may have the same issues again. I asked him to write a report for me to send it to the insurance company to see if what they had to say about it.

I then asked him about the switch they replaced and how much warranty was on the new switch they installed. He said none. I told him under Consumer Laws it should have a warranty. He didn't seem to know about that but when I explained just a small part of it, suddenly he "knew" about it.

He told me it was only a temporary fix or a patch up job - I told him I did not ask for a temporary fix - I asked him to repair it. He offered me a couple of choices - he would refund my the cost of the switch, he would take the new switch off, and reinstall the old broken switch (which means it wouldn't work) or we take our chances and of the switch fails in "one day/one week" etc. then we pay for a new switch to be installed.

We also also told that another contractor would contact us to arrange to change over the metre so that our new system would connect to our energy provider and that all the paper work had already been sent to him and it should take a week to 2 weeks max, it's been longer than two weeks and it means that our new system has missed seeing connected to the provider and won't take effect for another 3 months. Great.

Oh, and the interest free loan for the new system, only when we got the paperwork about the loan some 3 weeks or so following installation of the new system did we first learn we would be charge $3.50 per month in fees and although we could payout the loan earlier, unless we informed them that we wanted to close the account, they would continue to deduct $3.50 per month in fees.



Since the panels have been up, we can see how much is being generated. Our old “dodgy” 2Kw system generates about 1/3 more than our new “more efficient” 5Kw system.

In my opinion, I don't think the wiring in my old system is anywhere near as "dodgy" as our experience with Compass Solar/Compass Home & Lifestyle.