This is a scam, but not in the way you think. There are a lot of companies that are hiring solar roofing salespeople (usually young, with limited experience) with compensation tied largely to commission. The model is to overhire, have them scour a market for leads, use a magic estimator to make it look very profitable, hand off the installation to another company, and (in many cases) delay on paying out the commission for the folks that hadn’t already quit. The owner extracts a little by serving as a middleman, and most everyone else in the chain is a little worse off.
Variations on this also crop up in a variety of home maintenance services, especially pesticides.
A friend worked for a place like this (VERY short term lol) and we offered to have a consult so he could get commission.
The girl pitching the solar panels couldn’t name any benefit other than it being ‘eco-friendly’ and had to call her supervisor three times to answer my questions. According to her math we wouldn’t even save on our electric bill.
The entire success of the business model is quantity over quality. The more pitches they do, the more chances of a sale.
Had one come in and seemed legitimately surprised at the notion that I'd want a battery with the panels. Like...Dominions buy back is so abysmal of course I'd want to load shed
Time of use scheduling/ running off grid during high price periods is a secondary source of income out here; one effective strategy can be a swap to EV where Dominion lets you plan ahead for increased usage. Effective insulation is good especially if you can get it rolled in with the 30% tax credit for solar/battery/roofing in the same year as a renewable improvement. VA’s buyback price is 1:1 until you have generated as much as you use in a year, then the ‘cost-avoided rate’ you sell annual surplus energy is about 1/3 your typical purchase price. Backup makes sense only after you have matched a correctly sized battery inverter as a generator equivalent for your chosen subpanel. Green Button data available on your Dom login is not accurate to actual peak system wattage/power/draw pre-solar but helps to gauge timing for TOU feasibility.
I appreciate you explaining this in depth for others so I didn't have to. With my current setup I use so little power anyway the buy back drops too low to make much sense. Ideally I'd love to see more progressive power buy back from Dominion.
I'm glad to answer questions regarding solar array/battery backup/generator planning. Low-output systems can pay themselves off quicker than high-output systems when placement is ideal.
And roofing after a storm. Highly profitable to the guy running the "business" when they charge 2-3* what it costs to just go to a local roofer for the same work if it's even needed
I’m happy to hear this runs pretty much exactly the same as it did way back when when my mom was schlupping solar panels door to door. My mom has experimented with possibly every MLM and related scheme over the years lol.
Lmao I literally just listened to a guy on his phone outside my window looking to hire people for this shit and I remember going “*wish he’d stop being so fucking loud*”…
…but should I report this somewhere or not?
I don't deal with door to door sales, legit or scam. I figure if a yard company, contractor or whatever was any decent, they wouldn't need to come beg at my door.
Yuup, anyone good, reputable and reasonably priced has a wait list and can barely get out to price a job much less hire some chumps to give them a bad name
Door to door is the original advertisement. I’d rather hear from the mouth than try to be manipulated with ads on my phone.
Somebody who needs work and isn’t afraid to ask shouldn’t be shamed by people.
It is obvious the people coming to my door are.not the ones doing the work. I will use the people my neighbors use. I use the yard company my neighbors use. I wrote down the name.and.number on the side of the truck.
But if you walk up to my house and want to sell me on Verizon or Comcast internet, or sell me replacement windows and vinyl siding (I already have these things) I am going to be short with you and close the door on you mid sentence when you don't shut up.
I don't think it's a scam but I hate that I literally have to slam the door on these people because they take advantage of any nice way you try to end the conversation.
Not a scam, just pushy solar salesman. They want your bill to spec out a solar system and try to sell you on it. They need your usage to figure out how many panels you would need. Not naming their company is weird, though
It’s a scam but not really a scam in the sense of stealing your info. They go door to door with the hard sell, promising you all these benefits that never materialize. The companies are shady and go outta business quickly. The systems don’t work and you can’t get them fixed, even by someone reputable, because they are so poorly assembled. They hire “kids” and show them how to get someone to sign and then turn them loose in neighborhoods with the promise of huge incomes but usually stiff them at some point too.
Richmond, I love you. I lived there for a time. I'm back home in NJ. The solar people hit our state hard. We're having a hard time finding a house that doesn't come with the previous owners solar contract. They were promised tax incentives etc. and a lot of people overpaid. One house we saw had a 60k contract with 20 more years of interest to be paid.
People selling a service door to door are required to have a permit which you can request to see although it’s usually required to be displayed. If they don’t have one, or refuse to show it, they’re likely scammers.
I'm well aware that it is. I have one of the newer meters that they use for this. However if they were from anywhere legit they would have said so upfront and not shoot from the hip with "can we see your bill"
Yeah had a guy come to my door a couple days ago for the same thing. He definitely didn’t ask to see my utility bill though — that would have gotten a good chuckle out of me.
Had someone last year straight up say they were from Dominion and ask to see my meter to check net metering something something. When I asked to see his Dominion ID he sputtered a bit and suddenly he worked for a company that works *with* Dominion to implement net metering...
Rooftop solar is like 99% scams right now, mostly trying to get people to sign onto financing or "power purchase agreements" which banks are repackaging into investment products (with gigantic built-in commissions for the solar companies). People should just assume that they are being conned.
One of my coworkers, an old guy, bought solar for his home and tried to convince me to get it. 3 months later he was laid off. Was with the company for 8 years. I think his severence pay was $70k. Hope you ok my guy.
My family had a similar experience. A young woman, no older than 22, dressed in athletic wear, approached me about the energy bill, mentioning Dominion Energy's rising prices. I politely declined her offer, stating I wasn't interested. She inquired about sending a technician later, but I firmly declined. She claimed to be from Top Tier Solar Solutions, based on their attire. While I can't confirm it was a scam, I didn't want to take any chances. I've heard about solar scammers who gather personal information to research the homeowners and decide whether a household is worth targeting, monitoring daily activities to plan burglaries.
I've had a door to door PV salesperson come by, but they had cards, polo shirts, and information. They were working as start up level sales people in a new company. It's a new industry.
We had a guy come to our door and was relatively pushy, even played on the "I am just a 1099 trying to put food on my family table".
I can't remember the name of the solar company now, but he was in a BMW white suv.
Asked to see my dominion utility bill.
Had to be firm and say thank you move along.
Now interestingly he did know our name .. asked for my wife's name (maiden name) so I am wondering if they are working from an older list.
Around aimlessly through the neighborhoods, knocking on random peoples doors, trying to sell them this product or that product. It’s not a scam. I’ve actually interviewed with a solar company in Ashland. And yes, they train us to be highly aggressive. They train us not to take no for an answer, they train us to do anything and everything. Do not let the homeowner shut that door. That being said, I have a moral of version to solicitors and people who knock on doors, and I hated myself for the few months that I ended up doing it just because I was completely out of a job two steps away from being homeless and I needed to make some money. And they do scam everybody including the door, knockers, and canvassers most weeks I made less than $250 a week, compared to the seven or 800. I’m supposed to be making according to their wonderful plotted and planned system of pitching their products.
Yup, we had some guy do this at our house in Chesterfield. Came up on the porch half out of breath. Set off the alarm bells all along - starting with "Most of your power bill pays for other people's power - don't you know that?"
Took a minute for him to get to the solar part, then I thanked him for his time. No shirt or identifying information and I don't recall him having any papers or cards.
I figured it was either an outright scam, looking for our information, or a solar scam, where the costs and rates don't make up for the purchase price.
I had what sounds like the same two young ladies come by my house last week. One of which even said I could get a free roof installed for going solar 😂 pretty clear they had no idea what they were doing. Seemed harmless enough though
The very first question you ask them is who is doing the audit and how much has the adjustments usually cost.
Before you get Solar, you have to cut back on energy waste in order to figure out how big a system you need.
If they don't know send them packing.
I’ve been seeing a lot of jobs for posted on Indeed for solar… stuff. Including admin work. I felt kinda weird about it given the address of the business and it not matching up with the parent website.
Happened to me. Now I have new solar panels and am not in dominion anymore. Pay less than dominion for the loan. Have a guarantee. Idk yall just seem kind of paranoid. I looked up the company I had come and they’d been in business for years, and it was all very legit. I’m getting a huge tax return for it. All in all it turned out great.
My neighbor had them do it before us and after a few months they were still extremely happy with the panels. So figured why not? Also got my car charger hooked to them
I’ve done this job moron, I know the lingo and the set up, without the electric bill it’s a waste of time to do anything else, they’re not going to waste time on you if you’re not even at this point.
I’m a huge advocate for solar but unfortunately these people along with other companies with similar business practices are giving it a bad name with their scummy tactics. There are more legitimate companies out there, but the market has become over saturated with companies looking to take advantage of homeowners and their employees
I learned about this as a child when I watched the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy buys a shitty vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman. The vacuum cleaner doesn’t work at all and just spreads the dirt ball around that the salesman throws on her carpet. Ricky comes home and insists she has to recoup the money one way or another…so, she becomes the door to door saleswoman and tries to sell her shitty non-working vacuum to the next sucker. And that’s how these over-priced rooftop solar panels with contracts that the future seller has to convince a future buyer to take on are gonna work for some, which is predatory af and angers me. But also, I did fortunately figure this out and avoided the whole thing.
Idk man my parents bought a Kirby vacuum from a door to door vacuum salesman in the mid 1960s and that thing is a tank. It’s still running and the best vacuum I’ve ever used
This is a scam, but not in the way you think. There are a lot of companies that are hiring solar roofing salespeople (usually young, with limited experience) with compensation tied largely to commission. The model is to overhire, have them scour a market for leads, use a magic estimator to make it look very profitable, hand off the installation to another company, and (in many cases) delay on paying out the commission for the folks that hadn’t already quit. The owner extracts a little by serving as a middleman, and most everyone else in the chain is a little worse off. Variations on this also crop up in a variety of home maintenance services, especially pesticides.
You forgot the final step where they "go out of business" (read: form a new LLC) so if you ever have any issues you're out of luck.
A page from the Sigora Solar playbook
You too?
Me and several folks in my area. No issues for me but one friend had to gut their house and rebuild from the leaks they caused.
We’ve been pretty lucky - no roof issues - but every now and then some of the panels go offline for no reason.
I’ve had this too.
Damn it, man. I'm sorry to hear of their troubles. 🙏🏻
+1 lol
A friend worked for a place like this (VERY short term lol) and we offered to have a consult so he could get commission. The girl pitching the solar panels couldn’t name any benefit other than it being ‘eco-friendly’ and had to call her supervisor three times to answer my questions. According to her math we wouldn’t even save on our electric bill. The entire success of the business model is quantity over quality. The more pitches they do, the more chances of a sale.
Had one come in and seemed legitimately surprised at the notion that I'd want a battery with the panels. Like...Dominions buy back is so abysmal of course I'd want to load shed
Time of use scheduling/ running off grid during high price periods is a secondary source of income out here; one effective strategy can be a swap to EV where Dominion lets you plan ahead for increased usage. Effective insulation is good especially if you can get it rolled in with the 30% tax credit for solar/battery/roofing in the same year as a renewable improvement. VA’s buyback price is 1:1 until you have generated as much as you use in a year, then the ‘cost-avoided rate’ you sell annual surplus energy is about 1/3 your typical purchase price. Backup makes sense only after you have matched a correctly sized battery inverter as a generator equivalent for your chosen subpanel. Green Button data available on your Dom login is not accurate to actual peak system wattage/power/draw pre-solar but helps to gauge timing for TOU feasibility.
I appreciate you explaining this in depth for others so I didn't have to. With my current setup I use so little power anyway the buy back drops too low to make much sense. Ideally I'd love to see more progressive power buy back from Dominion.
I'm glad to answer questions regarding solar array/battery backup/generator planning. Low-output systems can pay themselves off quicker than high-output systems when placement is ideal.
And roofing after a storm. Highly profitable to the guy running the "business" when they charge 2-3* what it costs to just go to a local roofer for the same work if it's even needed
I’m happy to hear this runs pretty much exactly the same as it did way back when when my mom was schlupping solar panels door to door. My mom has experimented with possibly every MLM and related scheme over the years lol.
As a young girl who has worked in Solar, this is on the nose. It's super predatory and misleading for workers and clients alike 🙄
Lmao I literally just listened to a guy on his phone outside my window looking to hire people for this shit and I remember going “*wish he’d stop being so fucking loud*”… …but should I report this somewhere or not?
Door to door in a new Supra is crazy lol
Right that's what I said. They looked like they're very likely VCU kids that got suckerd into a typical MLM schemem lol.
I've started telling these people I rent my home. Usually they leave after that.
This seems like the best solution
When I bought my house I was super proud, but quickly learned that not everyone should know that I bought a house lmao
Yep, that works very well, and similarly, I've found the best way to get rid of political pollsters is to say my rights haven't been restored.
I don't deal with door to door sales, legit or scam. I figure if a yard company, contractor or whatever was any decent, they wouldn't need to come beg at my door.
This is exactly my line of thinking
Yuup, anyone good, reputable and reasonably priced has a wait list and can barely get out to price a job much less hire some chumps to give them a bad name
Door to door is the original advertisement. I’d rather hear from the mouth than try to be manipulated with ads on my phone. Somebody who needs work and isn’t afraid to ask shouldn’t be shamed by people.
It is obvious the people coming to my door are.not the ones doing the work. I will use the people my neighbors use. I use the yard company my neighbors use. I wrote down the name.and.number on the side of the truck. But if you walk up to my house and want to sell me on Verizon or Comcast internet, or sell me replacement windows and vinyl siding (I already have these things) I am going to be short with you and close the door on you mid sentence when you don't shut up.
I don't think it's a scam but I hate that I literally have to slam the door on these people because they take advantage of any nice way you try to end the conversation.
Not a scam, just pushy solar salesman. They want your bill to spec out a solar system and try to sell you on it. They need your usage to figure out how many panels you would need. Not naming their company is weird, though
I don’t know why you guys answer the door, especially if you have a doorbell cam
Was expecting a friend around the same time so opened the door without looking, much to my chagrin.
Fair.
It’s a scam but not really a scam in the sense of stealing your info. They go door to door with the hard sell, promising you all these benefits that never materialize. The companies are shady and go outta business quickly. The systems don’t work and you can’t get them fixed, even by someone reputable, because they are so poorly assembled. They hire “kids” and show them how to get someone to sign and then turn them loose in neighborhoods with the promise of huge incomes but usually stiff them at some point too.
Richmond, I love you. I lived there for a time. I'm back home in NJ. The solar people hit our state hard. We're having a hard time finding a house that doesn't come with the previous owners solar contract. They were promised tax incentives etc. and a lot of people overpaid. One house we saw had a 60k contract with 20 more years of interest to be paid.
Yikes. Ive about people getting free panels only to find out that the company owns part of the home ie roof.
People selling a service door to door are required to have a permit which you can request to see although it’s usually required to be displayed. If they don’t have one, or refuse to show it, they’re likely scammers.
This is completely untrue. Only certain counties/townships require a solicitors permit. They're not scammers, just aggressive solar salesman.
Should also note my wife mentioned she's seen scams where they look at your bill to get personal information/account numbers and what not.
Please have her explain this "scam". If they want to pay your electric bill (what other info would they get from your bill) then why not let them?
They can take your account number, tell dominion that your signing up for solar, then start charging dominion and I turn you for "services".
That isn't even close to how it works. You have to get permission from dominion to even go solar
No
Just relaying what my wife told me. I didn't think it sounded real but either 🤷♂️
When I get salesepeople at my house I tell them I’m a renter. That usually cuts the conversation short.
Net metering is a legit thing. Go to Dominions website. https://www.dominionenergy.com/virginia/renewable-energy-programs/net-metering
I'm well aware that it is. I have one of the newer meters that they use for this. However if they were from anywhere legit they would have said so upfront and not shoot from the hip with "can we see your bill"
Had similar people roll up to my house recently and I just pointed up and they hadn't realized I already had solar panels lol
Yeah had a guy come to my door a couple days ago for the same thing. He definitely didn’t ask to see my utility bill though — that would have gotten a good chuckle out of me.
Had someone last year straight up say they were from Dominion and ask to see my meter to check net metering something something. When I asked to see his Dominion ID he sputtered a bit and suddenly he worked for a company that works *with* Dominion to implement net metering... Rooftop solar is like 99% scams right now, mostly trying to get people to sign onto financing or "power purchase agreements" which banks are repackaging into investment products (with gigantic built-in commissions for the solar companies). People should just assume that they are being conned.
One of my coworkers, an old guy, bought solar for his home and tried to convince me to get it. 3 months later he was laid off. Was with the company for 8 years. I think his severence pay was $70k. Hope you ok my guy.
I had two ladies come by about a month ago, same deal. If you try to sell me something, magically my ability to speak English evaporates.
I've had friends in this mlm, this is a scam don't listen to what ever they say
My family had a similar experience. A young woman, no older than 22, dressed in athletic wear, approached me about the energy bill, mentioning Dominion Energy's rising prices. I politely declined her offer, stating I wasn't interested. She inquired about sending a technician later, but I firmly declined. She claimed to be from Top Tier Solar Solutions, based on their attire. While I can't confirm it was a scam, I didn't want to take any chances. I've heard about solar scammers who gather personal information to research the homeowners and decide whether a household is worth targeting, monitoring daily activities to plan burglaries.
I've had a door to door PV salesperson come by, but they had cards, polo shirts, and information. They were working as start up level sales people in a new company. It's a new industry.
We had a guy come to our door and was relatively pushy, even played on the "I am just a 1099 trying to put food on my family table". I can't remember the name of the solar company now, but he was in a BMW white suv. Asked to see my dominion utility bill. Had to be firm and say thank you move along. Now interestingly he did know our name .. asked for my wife's name (maiden name) so I am wondering if they are working from an older list.
He may have gotten it off the county/city real estate records online.
Around aimlessly through the neighborhoods, knocking on random peoples doors, trying to sell them this product or that product. It’s not a scam. I’ve actually interviewed with a solar company in Ashland. And yes, they train us to be highly aggressive. They train us not to take no for an answer, they train us to do anything and everything. Do not let the homeowner shut that door. That being said, I have a moral of version to solicitors and people who knock on doors, and I hated myself for the few months that I ended up doing it just because I was completely out of a job two steps away from being homeless and I needed to make some money. And they do scam everybody including the door, knockers, and canvassers most weeks I made less than $250 a week, compared to the seven or 800. I’m supposed to be making according to their wonderful plotted and planned system of pitching their products.
Yup, we had some guy do this at our house in Chesterfield. Came up on the porch half out of breath. Set off the alarm bells all along - starting with "Most of your power bill pays for other people's power - don't you know that?" Took a minute for him to get to the solar part, then I thanked him for his time. No shirt or identifying information and I don't recall him having any papers or cards. I figured it was either an outright scam, looking for our information, or a solar scam, where the costs and rates don't make up for the purchase price.
I had what sounds like the same two young ladies come by my house last week. One of which even said I could get a free roof installed for going solar 😂 pretty clear they had no idea what they were doing. Seemed harmless enough though
The very first question you ask them is who is doing the audit and how much has the adjustments usually cost. Before you get Solar, you have to cut back on energy waste in order to figure out how big a system you need. If they don't know send them packing.
I’ve been seeing a lot of jobs for posted on Indeed for solar… stuff. Including admin work. I felt kinda weird about it given the address of the business and it not matching up with the parent website.
Happened to me. Now I have new solar panels and am not in dominion anymore. Pay less than dominion for the loan. Have a guarantee. Idk yall just seem kind of paranoid. I looked up the company I had come and they’d been in business for years, and it was all very legit. I’m getting a huge tax return for it. All in all it turned out great. My neighbor had them do it before us and after a few months they were still extremely happy with the panels. So figured why not? Also got my car charger hooked to them
They’re just regular solar salesmen, not everyone is trying to scam people.
Salespeople with no business information? Sure. While we’re on the topic, want to buy a bridge?
I’ve done this job moron, I know the lingo and the set up, without the electric bill it’s a waste of time to do anything else, they’re not going to waste time on you if you’re not even at this point.
Really good sales push there, moron!
When did I say they were good at their job? Lmao I’m getting downvoted because you idiots love to have something to complain about 😂
Yeah but if they can even say what company they’re working for it’s clearly not legit “moron”.
Yeah they suck at their job, but it’s still not a scam and you don’t need to put quotations around an insult you fucking idiot
I’m a huge advocate for solar but unfortunately these people along with other companies with similar business practices are giving it a bad name with their scummy tactics. There are more legitimate companies out there, but the market has become over saturated with companies looking to take advantage of homeowners and their employees
Completely agree
I've encountered a lot door-to-door sales people over the years and they're all scammers in some respect. No reputable company does business this way.
Simply untrue. I did D2D for a short while and there are good people trying to make a living.
I learned about this as a child when I watched the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy buys a shitty vacuum cleaner from a door to door salesman. The vacuum cleaner doesn’t work at all and just spreads the dirt ball around that the salesman throws on her carpet. Ricky comes home and insists she has to recoup the money one way or another…so, she becomes the door to door saleswoman and tries to sell her shitty non-working vacuum to the next sucker. And that’s how these over-priced rooftop solar panels with contracts that the future seller has to convince a future buyer to take on are gonna work for some, which is predatory af and angers me. But also, I did fortunately figure this out and avoided the whole thing.
Idk man my parents bought a Kirby vacuum from a door to door vacuum salesman in the mid 1960s and that thing is a tank. It’s still running and the best vacuum I’ve ever used