This confused me because our health insurance, Tufts HMO, usually provides 100% coverage after copayments.

I looked up the claim on the Tufts web site and found the following:

1. Simon billed Tufts $285.00.
2. Tufts “allowed” $278.26.
3. Tufts paid 70% of the allowed amount, i.e., $194.78 (a representative of Tufts subsequently explained to me that our policy provides only 70% coverage for “durable medical equipment”).
4. We were liable for the remaining 30%, i.e., $83.48, of the allowed amount.

Insurance companies such as Tufts negotiate agreements with service providers like Simon. These agreements dictate how much the providers are allowed to charge for various services. When a service is discounted because of the agreement between the insurance company and provider, the provider is required to write off the discount; they are most certainly not allowed to ask the patient to pay it.

Nevertheless, that is exactly what Simon did. Tufts told them they were allowed to charge a total of only $278.26 for my wife’s leg brace, but instead of billing my wife for $278.26 – $194.78 as they should have, they billed her for $285.00 – $194.78.

The amount we’re dealing with in this particular incident is small. However, consider that:

• An error like this is never an isolated occurrence. If Simon over-billed my wife, then you can be 100% certain they have over-billed other patients as well and will continue to do so unless something is done to put a stop to it.
• Most people who receive medical bills in the mail pay them without checking whether they’re correct or not.
• Because over-billing is lucrative for the provider and rarely detected by patients, there is a strong disincentive for providers to prevent it from occurring.

When I contacted Tufts about this, they confirmed that we were over-billed. They said they had contacted Simon about the error, and Simon reduced our balance due to the correct amount. Tufts also said “the provider communicated an apology for the mistake.”

I appreciate the apology. However, I think it’s unlikely that Simon has taken any steps in response to our complaint to find out what other patients have been over-billed, apologize (and refund) to them as well, and put measures in place to prevent it from happening in the future.

I have asked Tufts what steps, if any, then plan to take to review Simon’s billing of other Tufts patients so that past over-billing errors can be corrected and future ones prevented. When/if I hear back from them, I will post their response here.

I also intend to send a link to this blog posting to Simon and offer them an opportunity to respond.

There is an important moral to this story: carefully check every bill you receive from a medical service provider. Doing so will both protect you from being overcharged, and enable you to put pressure on the providers doing the overcharging to amend their ways. Preventing over-billing doesn’t just keep more money in your pocket; it helps to keep healthcare costs down for everyone.

Subject:     Re: Lawsuit
Date:     Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:41:49 -0500
From:     Bill Groome <bgroome1012@gmail.com>
To:     <elliottlawgrp@bellsouth.net>
CC:     <jik@kamens.us>

Hi Tom,
It has been a while. Hope this email finds you well.
There is a blog about myself and my business that categorizes me as a “crook and a liar”. This blog is designed and tagged in such a manner as to follow my business on search engines. The blog is intended to smear myself and damage my business. The blog contains inaccurate information of which I have evidence to the contrary.
Here is the blog: http://blog.kamens.us/2010/03/08/bill-groome-owner-of-madhatter-magic-shop-lies-to-me-about-a-product-and-then-refuses-to-refund-my-money/

I have copied Mr. Kamens on this email so that he is fully aware of my intent. I wish to file a lawsuit against Mr. Kamens for damages.
I will call you this afternoon to discuss this matter, or feel free to call me at your convenience.

Best Regards,
Bill Groome
1-866-333-9450

Mr. Groome, since I know you read my blog, I will offer you my response here.

Executive summary: Snort my taint. (h/t Ken @ PopeHat)

I hope that by now Mr. Elliott has explained to you that you have no grounds whatsoever for any sort of legal action against me, and that such action would be so obviously frivolous that you would most likely end up not only losing, but paying my legal fees and expenses as well.

Have you ever heard of the “Streisand effect“? If not, I suggest you read up on it. Your annoyance now about the fact that my blog posting about you shows up right below your web site in search results pales in comparison to how bad you’ll be made to look all over the Internet if you sue me.

Don’t waste your money paying your lawyer to send me a threatening letter. It didn’t work for the last guy to try that, and it won’t work for you.

Please be advised that since you have threatened legal action against me, I will treat all past and future correspondence from you or anyone representing you as public records and publish them as I see fit.

Let me offer you some advice, which I’m sure you won’t take:

Admit that you gave me inaccurate information about a product. Admit that you should have fully refunded my money because of your error. Admit that you treated me rudely. Admit that you should not have threatened to sue me. Apologize. Promise to try to do better in the future.

If you do these things, then I will post your apology at the top of my blog postings about you, and that will undo some of the damage that you have done to your own reputation by treating me the way you have.

That is the best outcome you can hope for at this point. If your lawyer is any good, he’ll give you the same advice.

UPDATE [February 6, 2012]: As it turns out, I’m not the only documented case of Bill Groome being rude to a dissatisfied customer, nor of Groome responding to a negative review by threatening to sue. See also:

http://mad-hatter-magic-shop.pissedconsumer.com/mad-hatter-magic-shop-defective-products-poor-customer-service-20081024140886.html

• They fixed the duct opening which their subcontractor made too small, and replaced the screw in the duct cover that was damaged when I had to unscrew the cover from its frame because the frame was wedged to tightly into the too-small opening.
• They fixed the air leaking from the furnace manifold.
• At their expense, they replaced the whole-house humidifier that was wasting a huge amount of water, with a Humid-a-Mist humidifier that doesn’t.

The fact that they addressed these issues, as well as the manner in which they went about doing so, suggests to me that they really are trying to do right by their customers, or at least what they perceive as doing right by their customers. Having said that, there are some caveats deserving of mention with the repairs listed above:

• The frame of the aforementioned duct cover is still irreparably bent from having been jammed into the too-small opening, but I didn’t really expect them to fix that and didn’t press the issue.
• Surely a huge air leak in the furnace manifold is something they should have noticed and addressed when they were installing the system.
• They programmed the thermostat for the new humidifier incorrectly when they installed it, such that it was humidifying the house in the summer when the furnace wasn’t running (bad both because of the wasted water and because who wants their house humidified in the summer?). They did come back and fix this when I complained, but this is a rookie mistake that shouldn’t have happened.

Furthermore, some of the issues I mentioned in my previous postings still remain, e.g., their inability to process a simple credit-card change for many months, and their offer to replace a toilet handle, a 15-minute job involving a $5 part, for the absurdly high price of $238.

Given all I’ve experienced with them, here’s my take on Winters Plumbing:

1. They try to do quality work, but they don’t always succeed.
2. Their rates are high.
3. If you are an educated consumer and you know how to stand up for yourself, then they will address any issues with their work that you bring to their attention. If, on the other hand, you just leave everything to them and don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, the odds are pretty good that they’ll screw something up.

In a nutshell, Honda Village lied to us when we bought our car, lied to us after the fact, ignored our complaints, sent us (and others) intentionally misleading junk mail and refused to stop when asked, sent us lots of spam and refused to stop when asked, and did mediocre auto-body work for us which took multiple attempts to get right (this last point was Village Collision, another business within the Village Automotive Group umbrella of which Honda Village is a part).

Nevertheless, Honda Village is where we bought our Honda Odyssey minivan, and they are the closest Honda dealership to our house, so when we need service done that is warranty- or recall-related and/or inexpensive and hard enough for them to screw up, we take our van there. Or so I thought.

A number of months ago, I brought our van to Honda Village for some simple service or recall or something; I forget the details. After looking up our van in the computer, the associate informed me that I had to speak to the service department manager about something. I went into the manager’s office, where he informed me that Honda Village would not service my vehicle.

Honda Village has never apologized for any of the things I complained to them about. They have never acknowledged doing anything wrong, unless you consider it an “apology” when they paid me the refund I demanded for the warranty which they convinced me to purchase by outright lying to me about its coverage (fraud!).

Their response to my legitimate complaints was not to acknowledge them and try to improve. No, their response has been to continue on with business as usual and refuse to serve me.

Judge for yourself whether this is a business which deserves your patronage.

P.S. I just realized that I never got around to posting what happened after my last letter to Honda Village’s lawyer. So, for those who are curious… Their lawyer sent back a response asserting that the precedents on which I was relying were out-of-date, and citing a newer precedent which he claimed precluded my filing a Chapter 93a claim against Honda Village. After reviewing that newer precedent, I thought he was probably right, and in any case didn’t have any more time to waste on it, so I dropped it.

My wife and I have used them numerous times for many different services, including routine maintenance (e.g., oil and filter), auto-body work, repairing a broken automatic minivan door, and tire repair and replacement.

In all cases they have been friendly, responsive, and affordable and have delivered high-quality work on time.

Here are two examples of how great they are:

1. We needed a couple of body panels repaired and repainted after someone borrowing our minivan ran it into the side of his garage door (d’oh!). Stadium Auto Body said that all of the damaged panels would have to be replaced and gave us an estimate of $2,400. A-Z repaired the existing panels — no replacement parts needed — for only $860. While they were at it, they detailed the interior of the minivan at no extra charge!

2. Herb Chambers Honda said it would cost $400 to fix one of our automatic minivan doors, which was repeatedly sticking when we tried to open or close it. A-Z did the repair for only $169.

In all of our dealings with A-Z, it has felt like they were being completely honest and up-front with us. Not once have we gotten that unpleasant feeling, so common with car-repair places, that they were trying to jack up the price of a repair or sell us something we didn’t need. In short, these guys are great, and we heartily recommend them!

Hey guys this is Sara Ellis here.

Hey we spoke on the phone last week [lie!] about possibly trying to lower your interest rates and reducing your monthly payments on your credit card.

So I wanted to let you know that I did find a solution.

Um we’ve got a program that can lower those interest rates to as low as 1.5% and possibly cut your monthly payments in half.

And since you were only making the minimum payments [lie!] this would be a great opportunity for you.

This will be my last courtesy call so please give me a ring today.

You can reach me here at 1-877-723-1419.

Again, my number is 1-877-723-1419.

If you Google 406-623-3644 or 877-723-1419 you will see that a bunch of people are getting this call. It looks like it may be a new scam that just started up.

I’ve filed complaints with the FCC, the FTC and the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.

Beware of unsolicited calls about consolidating credit card debt! At best, it’s a slimy debt consolidation service looking to charge you ridiculous fees for their service. At worst, it’s criminals looking to get their hands on your credit card numbers so they can then use them to make fraudulent purchases.

Here’s the whole story…

My wife and I recently ordered a Carolina Cottage Double Dresser, manufactured by Carolina Furniture Works, from Linens ‘n Things.

Carolina claims on their Web site that their furniture is “rigidly inspected” and they’ve been “manufacturing quality furniture since 1946″ (emphasis added). Their Web site also says, “The company is known for producing fine bedroom products,” and that they have “a dedication to a family of satisfied customers.”

Our dresser was shipped directly from Carolina to our house. When it arrived, it was visibly, obviously damaged. There were numerous dents and chips:

Dent in back right corner	Dent in back left corner
Dent in side of dresser top	Chip in drawer top
Paint scrape on top

Aside from the actual damage mentioned above, the workmanship was rather poor:

Top left drawer tilts right and exposes gap	Top right drawer tilts left and exposes gap
Gap in joinery	Bigger gap in joinery
Even bigger gap in joinery

But the real icing on the cake was the condition of the dresser back:

Not only was the back hanging off for more than half the width of the dresser, but there were several areas of splintered wood where someone at the factory clearly aimed badly when stapling. Note that I didn’t pry the back to take this picture; it was already hanging off like this, and I just bent it back a little bit to get the photo.

Note, also, that the box that the dresser came in was almost completely intact when it arrived at our house:

Boxed dresser before unpacking

Furthermore, the dresser was packed very securely in the box. It is therefore exceedingly unlikely that any of the damage shown above happened in transit; rather, it seems clear that the dresser left the factory like this.

Do you think the dresser was “rigidly inspected” before it left the factory, and Carolina thinks it’s OK to ship obviously damaged furniture, or do you think “rigidly inspected” is a load of hooey?

I emailed Linens ‘n Things immediately after inspecting the dresser, including these photos, and asked what they were going to do about the problem. However, I thought it was so outrageous that Carolina shipped a dresser like this that I decided to contact them as well.

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done. There’s no phone number on their web site, no fax number, and no email address. There is only a contact form which allows only 100 characters of text, doesn’t allow any attachments, and doesn’t offer feedback about products as one of the contact categories. It’s almost like Carolina doesn’t want to hear from the people who buy its furniture.

However, I am a stubborn man, and after digging around quite a bit on the web, I managed to find their fax number, which is +1-803-775-0251 (for those of you who have stumbled upon this blog entry because of your own problems with Carolina’s products and would like to let them know how you feel).

I took a copy of the email I’d sent to Linens ‘n Things and faxed a copy of it to Carolina. Almost before the fax was finished transmitting, I got a call back from a man at Carolina. He was arrogant, snotty, and unhelpful.

He said he wouldn’t talk to me about my problem; I had to go through the dealer from whom I bought the dresser.

He admitted to having looked at my fax (although he couldn’t have looked at it for very long) but refused to comment on whether the damage in the photos was typical or acceptable.

He said, “Some people like our furniture and some people don’t.” As if it’s a matter of personal taste whether the furniture was shipped with extensive damage! As if there’s anybody in the world who likes paying hundreds of dollars for a “rigidly inspected,” “quality” piece of furniture, only to find it extensively damaged upon arrival! Please, don’t be absurd. Nobody “likes” being sold damaged goods.

I am still in discussion with Linens ‘n Things about what is going to happen with the dresser. They offered to send a replacement at no cost to us, but given that the damage happened at the factory and the man at the factory with whom I spoke showed no inclination to make sure it wouldn’t happen a second time, the replacement could be as bad as or even worse than the original. When I mentioned that to them, they said they could send a second replacement if the first was also damaged, but how many days of work can I miss to stay home accepting deliveries of damaged dressers?

My wife and I were willing to attempt one replacement, as long as we could keep the original dresser until the replacement arrived, and then inspect the replacement and keep whichever dresser is less damaged. But Linens ‘n Things said they couldn’t do that — the original needed to be picked up before a replacement could be sent — and the possibility of ending up with a dresser even more damaged than the first one is not a gamble we’re willing to take.

If it were my choice alone, I would have told Linens ‘n Things to come take back their dresser and give us a refund. However, the dresser is my daughter’s, and although she’s unhappy with its condition, she would rather keep it than continue to do without a dresser while looking for an affordable one to replace it. So in the end, Linens ‘n Things and Carolina Furniture Works have made a profit selling us damaged furniture.

When I informed Linens ‘n Things that we were going to keep the dresser despite the damage and gave them a piece of my mind about it, they said they’d try to get a discount from Carolina to pass on to us. We’ll see how well that plays out; I don’t honestly expect anything to come of it. [UPDATE: I was wrong; see below.]

UPDATE: On October 11, Linens ‘n Things issued me a $99 partial refund, which is 25% of the total cost (including shipping) we paid for the dresser. That’s a very fair amount given how damaged the dresser was upon arrival. I want to give Linens ‘n Things credit here for trying to do the right thing. I think they did the best they could with a bad situation, a situation for which I primarily blame Carolina Furniture Works. I don’t know whether the refund was paid for by Carolina or Linens ‘n Things.

Cost and incentives

Here are the incentives I’m taking advantage of in my solar panel installation project:

• 30% federal tax credit on the total cost of the system
• 15% state tax credit on the total cost of the system, capped at $1,000
• state Commonwealth Solar rebate based on the capacity of the system
• $750/kW base incentive
• $850/kW “adder” because my home’s assessed value is considered “moderate”
• Renew Boston rebate equal to 1/3 of the state rebate
• Solar Renewable Energy Credits, a.k.a., SRECs (pronounced “ess-recs”), through which the utility companies will pay me to produce solar energy for at least the next ten years
• Massachusetts law prohibits towns and cities from adding the value of installed solar panels to the assessed value of a home for 20 years after the panels are installed.
• Because my roof was too old and needed to be re-shingled before I could install the solar panels, I am able to include the cost of the re-shingling job in the total cost of the solar project, so I get the 30% federal tax credit on that as well.

In addition to the moderate home value “adder” for the state rebate, there’s also a moderate income “adder” of the same amount; you can only get one or the other of those, not both. There’s also a $100/kW “adder” if your system is built out of solar panels or inverters manufactured in Massachusetts, but my system doesn’t qualify for that adder (because of the size of my roof, I needed to use high-efficiency panels that aren’t manufactured in Massachusetts, and because of the shading conditions, I needed to use micro-inverters, ditto.)

Note that Commonwealth Solar rebate applications have been closed for “block 7,” the block of rebates my system is being installed under, but block 8 is scheduled to start taking applications in October 2011.

Note that the state and city rebates are taxable income. As the one hand giveth (tax credits), the other taketh away (tax on rebates). Go figure.

In terms of raw cost, a 5kW system (the size at which tax credits and rebates start to cap) can cost upwards of $30,000 before all of the incentives listed above.

What you need to qualify

Basically, you need to have a south-facing roof that is mostly unshaded. A little shade is OK, but if a shading analysis (the installer will do one) shows that your system will operate at less than 80% of maximum capacity overall, you won’t qualify for the Commonwealth Solar rebate. That’ll probably be moot, though, since in that situation it probably won’t be cost-effective for you to install a system anyway.

You need to have free space on the wall near the electrical panel in your basement to install the inverter (unless your system uses micro-inverters) and monitoring equipment.

What a solar panel system consists of

Solar panels

Obviously. When sun shines on the panels, they make DC electricity.

Inverters

One or more inverters convert the DC into AC that’s compatible with the electric grid.

If your roof gets very little shade, your system will probably have all the panels connected in series to a single inverter. If, however, your roof gets shade that varies across your roof, it’ll probably make more sense for your system to use micro-inverters, i.e., a little DC-to-AC inverter connected to each panel on the roof.

This is because if all the panels are serially connected to one big inverter, then the efficiency of the entire system will be limited to that of the least efficient (i.e., most shaded) panel, whereas with micro-inverters, different panels can operate at different efficiencies without dragging each other down.

Monitoring stuff

At a minimum, you’ll have a box in your basement, separate from your utility company meter, which keeps a running tally of how much electricity your system has generated. This is necessary so you can claim your SRECs.

However, you may also have access to more complex and powerful monitoring capabilities. For example the Enphase micro-inverters that will be installed in my system include extensive monitoring at no additional cost, and the installer I’m using also provides its own monitoring.

New electric meter

The electric company will install a new electric meter capable of handling net metering, described below.

Connection to your electric panel

Your inverter and/or micro-inverters will be connected to your home power grid. Any solar-generated power you don’t use will be fed back through the utility meter onto its grid, and you’ll get credited for it as described below.

External disconnect

There will be a box on the outside of your house containing a big rocker switch that the electric company can use to quickly disconnect your solar generation system from their grid. This is a safety precaution in case your inverter fails to shut down properly when the power goes out (see below).

What happens when the power goes out?

In a normal solar panel installation, you cannot use power from your solar panels when the utility company power is out. For safety reasons — to prevent your panels from feeding electricity back onto the grid and electrocuting workers trying to repair it — your system will detect when utility company power goes down and automatically shut itself down until the power comes back on.

Solar panel systems can be designed to charge batteries instead of feeding directly into your home electric grid. Such a system can be designed to automatically switch over to battery power when utility power goes down.

However, such systems are significantly more expensive and higher maintenance, and are almost certainly not worth the expense unless you live in a rural area where the power goes down often and/or for extended periods of time.

Payback

With all these incentives, a solar panel installation can easily pay for itself in only a few years. In my case, payback is going to take a bit longer, for two reasons:

• As noted above, I had to use high-efficiency panels and micro-inverters, both of which are more expensive; homes with more roof space and less shade than us would be able to get by with less expensive components.
• Also as noted above, my panels are going to be a bit shaded, so the system isn’t always going to be operating at maximum capacity.

I expect my system to entirely pay for itself, including paying back the interest on the money I am borrowing from my home equity line to pay for installing it, in well under ten years.

It is also worth noting that the preliminary data that’s available suggests that you get back >90% of the money spent on solar panels when you sell your home. Therefore, even if you move before your system pays for itself, the odds are that you’ll end up ahead.

Net metering

Included in my payback calculations is the electricity that the panels are producing. I expect my system to produce about half of the electricity that is used by my home in a year.

Home solar panel installations in Massachusetts are interconnected with the power grid, and electric utilities in Massachusetts are required by law to support “net metering.” What that means, in a nutshell, is that when I’m producing more electricity than my home is using, it gets fed back into the electric grid and my electric meter runs backward.

If I produce more electricity than I use in any given month, then my electric bill will show a credit instead of a balance due. That credit will offset future electric bills, but note that it’s not the same as cash — I can’t ask NStar to send me a check for it. It’s therefore not cost-effective to install solar panels with more capacity than your home needs over time.

Financing options

I’m buying my system outright. When it’s finished and turned on, I will own it and all the electricity and SRECs it generates.

Some of the solar installers offer various other financing and leasing options. I’m not going to get into them here. All I will say that if you have the money to pay outright for your system or you can borrow it for a low interest rate, you will definitely make out better in the end by buying your system rather than leasing it. Any installer who tells you otherwise is selling you a pack of lies and you should run, not walk, away from that installer and find a different one.

Warranty, maintenance, system lifetime

Commonwealth Solar requires any systems installed under its aegis to be warrantied for parts and labor for five years.

Solar panels are pretty plug-in-play, so the odds of one failing after the five-year burn-in period are quite low. Having said that, there’s always the possibility of failure, or indeed of a tree falling on your panels. This is the one thing that could reasonably be construed as an advantage of leasing — if someone else owns the system, and it breaks, then it’s their responsibility rather than yours to fix it. Having said that, the odds of this happening are sufficiently low that it doesn’t come close to justifying the significant decrease in ROI when you lease rather than buy.

The efficiency of solar panels degrades by 1-2% per year. Even after 50 years, the panels will still be producing a significant amount of electricity. After 20-30 years the panels on the market may be so much better that you’ll want to install new ones even though the old ones are still working. However, even if you’re too lazy to bother doing that, you’ll still continue to generate electricity and save money, and by that point the system will have paid for itself long ago, so it’s all gravy.

Inverters and micro-inverters tend to die before solar panels. Reputable installers will factor into their ROI calculations the cost of replacing your inverter(s) once during the lifetime of your system. Note, however, that inverters are getting better all the time. For example, the Enphase micro-inverters in my system have a 25-year warranty.

Solar installers I looked at

SunBug Solar

SunBug is the first installer I spoke with. They were my favorite from the start, and they were the ones I ended up choosing to install my system.

I spoke first with Ben Mayer. He spent a very long time on the phone with me, patiently answering my questions and educating me about everything. After that, Dan Covey came out to my home to do the site assessment. He, too, has been consistently knowledgeable, competent, and helpful.

SunBug is a small, local company. All of their installation work is performed by employees, not subcontractors, with the exception of the final electrical interconnection work, which is handled by a subcontracted electrician with whom they have a working relationship.

Small companies are often run in a chaotic and ad hoc fashion, but that does not seem to be the case with SunBug. They give the distinct impression of running a very tight ship.

SunBug originally proposed a system that was only half the capacity of the system proposed by Transformations Inc. I wanted the higher capacity system, but I was also feeling slightly more comfortable with SunBug than Transformations, so I asked SunBug if they could submit a second proposal for a higher capacity system. They did, and that’s the system we ended up going with.

By the way, SunBug offers a referral bonus, so if you contact them, please let them know I sent you!

Transformations Inc.

I liked Transformations, and they were my second choice if SunBug hadn’t worked out.

The guys I spoke with at Transformations seemed just slightly less “with it” than Ben and Dan at SunBug. It’s not like they made mistakes or anything like that; they seemed just a little bit less on the ball. When all was said and done, I felt just a little more comfortable with SunBug than with Transformations.

The other reason I chose SunBug over Transformations was because SunBug’s monitoring capabilities were more extensive, and that appealed to me.

For the record, I think Transformations would have done a perfectly good job if I had opted to use them instead of SunBug.

SolarCity

I recommend strongly against using SolarCity.

They’re a big, big, national company, and they act like it in all the stereotypical, bad ways.

They didn’t send a technical guy to do a site assessment. Instead, they sent a sales guy to give me a hard sell.

He handed me a proposal which he said up-front wasn’t final and wouldn’t be final until I signed on the dotted line. Only then would SolarCity’s engineers get involved in actually assessing the site and designing the system. If I didn’t like the result, I would be free to back out, but by then weeks would have been wasted and I probably would have missed the Commonwealth Solar block and ended up waiting months to try again with another installer in the next block.

He tried really, really hard to convince me that leasing was a better option than buying, even though it, well, isn’t. Under the terms of SolarCity’s leasing programs, homeowners can’t buy the system at the end of the lease — the only choices are signing a new lease, upgrading to a new system, or having SolarCity remove the system completely. Only a fool would enter into a deal like that.

As part of trying to convince me that leasing would be better than buying the system outright, he told me that the SREC program “could disappear tomorrow,” which would hurt me a lot financially if I bought the system outright, but wouldn’t hurt me at all if I leased. The problem is that it’s simply not true — the SREC program is pretty much guaranteed to be around for at least ten years after my system is installed. Either the salesman was totally clueless, or he was lying scum. Either way, no thanks, I’m not interested.

Alternate Energy

Steve Pitney at Alternate Energy seems like a nice guy, and he has a huge amount of experience in the solar energy business. However, he definitely seems to fit the “chaotic, ad hoc” small company stereotype, which made me pretty uncomfortable.

For one thing, he missed our scheduled site assessment appointment without calling to let me know.

When he did come and do the assessment, the system he proposed to install was one which I was fairly certain, from what I’d learned from the other installers, wouldn’t actually fit on our roof.

Furthermore, he didn’t see any need to use micro-inverters, even though both SunBug and Transformations were convinced that they were essential because of the shading conditions on my roof.

Steve said he could not quote a 5kW system for my roof without putting up weirdly angled panels on my dormer, even though SunBug and Transformations were both able to do so.

Steve’s quoted prices for the systems he was able to quote were in the same per-kW range as the quotes from the other installers, but his system didn’t include any web-based monitoring.

If Alternate Energy had been the only installer I spoke with, they probably would have done an OK job and I probably would have been happy with it. However, after speaking to multiple installers and educating myself, Alternate Energy definitely wasn’t the front-runner.

The steps in the process

Here, in a nutshell, is what it takes to get solar panels installed on your roof:

1. Assemble a list of candidate installers (in my case, the list was predetermined by the vendors certified for the Renew Boston rebate program).
2. Call them all. Chat with them on the phone. Make site assessment appointments with the ones you’re comfortable with.
3. Wait for them to submit proposals to you after the site assessments.
4. Compare and contrast the proposals. Ask hard questions. Pick an installer.
5. Do tons of paperwork. Put down a deposit.
6. Wait about six weeks for Commonwealth Solar to approve your rebate. The installer can’t start work until the rebate is approved.
7. While you’re doing that, get your roof re-shingled if the installer told you it needs to be done before solar panels are installed. Make sure the roofer removes the old shingles rather than putting new ones over them; with the weight of solar panels on your roof, you don’t want the weight of extra shingles as well. How to find a decent roofer is beyond the scope of this document.
8. Once the rebate is approved, give another chunk of money to the installer so they can order all the materials.
9. You and the installer wait a few weeks for the building department to get around to approving the project and for the all the materials to arrive. The building department will probably take longer than the materials (at least, that seems to be the case in Boston).
10. The installer does the installation work.
11. Wait for the city to come inspect. The inspection is coordinated and supervised by the installer.
12. Wait for the electric utility to come inspect. Again, the inspection is coordinated and supervised by the installer.
13. The installer turns on the system, and you start saving money on your electric bill.
14. Once a month, report how much electricity your system generated through the web site that manages SRECs.
15. When you’ve generated enough electricity to produce an SREC, the web site will broker a sale of the SREC and deposit cash in your bank account.

My letter contained all of the information that the AG’s office could possibly need to investigate the company in question.

They apparently forwarded my complaint to the Department of Consumer Affairs of Ocean County, New Jersey. Hey, Attorney General Paula Dow, it’s nice to see you passing the buck instead of doing your job and investigating large-scale fraud!

The Ocean County DCA sent me a form letter and a complaint form to fill out and send back. There isn’t a single piece of information requested on the form which I had not already provided in my letter. The letter said that only after I sent back the form would they “review the information to determine whether we have jurisdiction to process the complaint.”

I called the investigator listed on the form and told him that (a) every question on the form was already answered in my letter; (b) I had already received a refund from the company and had written to them only to encourage them to investigate the company to prevent others from being ripped off; and (c) I had no intention of wasting my time and money sending back their form.

The investigator responded, “We can’t investigate your complaint without a signed form,” to which I responded, “My letter was signed. If you’d rather enforce bureaucratic red tape than investigate criminals, that’s your choice, but I’m all done here,” and hung up.

Hey, Ocean County DCA Director Stephen Scaturro, It’s nice to see that your investigators are so dedicated to preventing consumers from committing the unforgivable sin of notifying you of large-scale fraud without using the proper form!

After researching online prices for this dresser, we found one site, PriceFalls.com, with a price significantly lower than all of the others. It turns out that PriceFalls storefronts other merchants as well as selling its own stuff, and this particular deal was actually being offered by Unbeatable Sale, a.k.a. UnbeatableSales.com, Bon’Cui, PlayingKitchen.com, ComfortMarket, TechnoOutlet.com, FunToyMall.com, ToolsChest, GreaterMedical, TravelBagsMall.com, HalloweenMall, PetShopUSA.com, WeddingPartyMall, and lord only knows what else.

I’ll let the letter I sent earlier today to the Cyber Fraud Unit of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs pick up the story from here…

To whom it may concern:

On September 1, I ordered a dresser from Unbeatable Sale, 195 Lehigh Avenue, Lakewood, NJ 08701 (tel: 732-363-0606; email: david@unbeatablesale.com). The order was placed through pricefalls.com. A copy of the order is attached. Both pricefalls.com and unbeatablesale.com indicated then, and continue to indicate today, that the item is in stock; printouts from both web sites are attached.

Today, I received email from notifying me that my order had been canceled: “Due to high demand for the Carolina Furniture 415600 Cottage Double Dresser Furniture In White, it has become unavailable for the foreseeable future, so as a result we had to cancel your order.” A copy of this email is attached.

I called Unbeatable Sale and spoke to a woman who identified herself as Ashley. She put me on hold for about ten minutes and then came back and said she didn’t know why the order had been canceled but if I wanted she could give me the extension of a sales manager who would call me back later.

I told her that was not acceptable. Offering a product for sale, claiming that it is in stock, taking a customer’s money for it, and then refusing to deliver the product is an illegal bait-and-switch, and I did not have the time or inclination to play phone tag with a sales manager who would no doubt not, in fact, return my calls. I told her I expected her to solve the problem now and find out how to deliver to me the product that I ordered at the price for which they offered it.

She put me on hold for about another ten minutes and then came back with another story. According to her this time, my order was canceled because UPS refused to deliver the item because it was too large or heavy or something (I forget exactly what she said), and that the cost of shipping the item by freight instead would be $230, much higher than the $91.99 shipping charge I had been quoted when I placed the order. She offered at that time to reopen my order if I was willing to pay the higher shipping charge.

I told her that, too, was not acceptable. Unbeatable Sale was aware of the size and weight of the item when offering it for sale; if they calculated the shipping wrong, that was their problem, not mine. They were legally obligated to deliver the product for the price they offered, and if they refused to do so, I would file a complaint with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. I told her I wasn’t going to sit on hold for yet another ten minutes, and she had five minutes to come back onto the phone and tell me that Unbeatable Sale was, in fact, going to deliver my order as promised.

She put me on hold for another few minutes and then came back and told me there was no way they were going to reinstate my order unless I agreed to pay $230 for shipping, and if I didn’t like it I could go ahead and file a complaint with the government. Hence this letter.

When I search for “unbeatablesale.com” and “unbeatablesales.com” on the internet, which I should have done before I ordered something from them, I see that they have been scamming people like this for years.

This company is clearly engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices which are clearly illegal, and I hope that you will investigate their activities and bring the full power of your office to bear on stopping them.

If you wish to discuss this with me further, you can reach me at (___) ___-____ or by email (preferred) at jik@kamens.us.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

UPDATE [September 12, 2011]: Today, I received an email message from Unbeatable Sale saying they “would like to make this situation right” and offering to sell me the dresser at the originally quoted price. I responded as follows:

I have already placed a new order for the dresser from Linens N Things. Your offer is too little, too late.

Furthermore, since I am now convinced that your company knowingly engages in dishonest business practices, I would not willingly do business with you even if I hadn’t already ordered the dresser from someone else.

In addition, Unbeatable Sale is now showing a shipping cost for this item of $237.99 when purchased either directly from them or via PriceFalls.com, making them far and away the most expensive option for this item on froogle.com. This looks to me an awful lot like an ex post facto attempt to cover their asses should the AG decide to investigate my complaint.

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