On Crappy Contractors - a Solar Powered RANT

I'm trying to get solar panels on my house under the MicroFIT program.  It's been a process so fraught with frustration, I'm thinking of forgetting the whole thing.  A colleague told me, "This could only happen to you," which offered a strange sort of comfort.  At least it acknowledges that it's a crappy situation, full of incompetent people, and that this sort of thing comes my way ALL THE FREAKING TIME!   Well, too much of the time anyway.

First, I did my research very carefully and, after scrutinizing three companies, I chose one that seemed to have the best reputation from satisfied customers, offered the best explanations for how it all worked, always e-mailed me back immediately to answer any further questions, and was in the mid-range for prices.  Then, the weirdest part, one of the sales people from a company I DIDN'T choose started phoning and e-mailing me several times a day, fanatically begging to be chosen and questioning, almost in tears, why I didn't go with his company.  I had to threaten to call the cops if he didn't stop harassing me.  

This is when my colleague first suggested, with a pitying head-shake, "Only to you, Snyder."  

I went with eclipsall energy corp through Solar Brokers Canada.  I signed the contract on October 2nd, and was assured it would all be done by Christmas!  I locked into the rate at 54.9 cents return on electricity created - a rate guaranteed for 20 years from the date of the contract, and waited with anticipation for my Christmas present of 7 kWh of energy created on my roof.  But then there were myriad delays.  AND the installation must be completed within six months of the formal application date of Oct. 16, which gives them five weeks to finish (April 16), and they haven't even gotten a building permit yet.  If they don't finish in time, I have to start the application over again at a much lower rate of return.  ETA, when the P.Eng was here, he looked at my documents and told me April 16, but it was the wrong document, and we've got until April 14th - whew!  BUT They can only fit enough for 5 kWh - that's 30% less than the original estimate, and I've got to wonder why their estimate was so far off and if it's just a scam to get me to sign or an honest mistake.

When I ask about all the delays - why sometimes, since no longer dealing with the sales person, I don't get an e-mail returned for weeks - they keep saying that I just don't understand how busy they are.  That's great that they're so busy, but, when dealing with time-sensitive contracts, the company HAS TO take into account how busy they might be before taking on more work that they can complete.  Either don't take on more clients than you can serve or hire more staff.   Saying "We were too busy to get to you in time - sorry it cost you a small fortune, but there's nothing we can do," doesn't cut it.  AT ALL.

They came last week to look at the structural integrity of my house built in 1927.  My attic is my son's bedroom, so I had to cut out a piece of drywall and dig out the foam insulation to show them the rafters.  At first they said I needed to cut a section 2' x 8' out of each wall.  I questioned that because the end walls are only 8' wide and have windows and doors in them, and they came back with needing just a section at the peak and the floor - not too small.  I'm so glad I asked!   I immediately emailed back, "What does 'not too small' mean??"  They never responded, so I cut a piece about 1' x 2' then waited for them to come to see if that was enough.  

It was big enough, so we dug out the insulation together.  Kudos to the P.Eng. willing to get covered in foam with me, BUT he's an electrical engineer, not structural.  He was there to take pictures and report back to the structural engineer who is also a professor and far too busy to come himself.  The fact that they don't hire a structural engineer who can be available to actually GO to the job site is shocking to me.  It might have been okay, except this guy didn't seem to really know what he was looking for.  

I had started cutting the drywall at the rafter, which I located easily because of the skylight on the other side of it.  But when the engineer started cutting out the foam, he couldn't find the rafter because he was cutting away from it.  I had to show him where it was.  That didn't give me a whole lot of confidence in him.

Then he needed to take a photo of the ridge board that the rafters butt up to,  but there is NO ridge board.  The rafters butt up to each other.  But he insisted we keep on digging around looking for the ridge board - like we just couldn't find it!  I had to send him a few links about old houses not having ridge boards and ones that suggest they're more for ease of building than structural, gleaning all my info from google searches, but we dug around anyway.  He thought there might be one on top of the rafters, higher up, but a quick look outside made it clear to me that wasn't possible.  There's nothing above the rafters but plywood.  

After he confirmed there's no ridge board, he told me I could re-spray insulation and patch the drywall today, but I'm really not sure it's all okay.  And my roof is already sagging.  I'm not comfortable letting them put more weight on it without a real structural engineer coming to take a look.  BUT we only have five weeks total to get this all done, and the building permit takes 2-3 weeks to secure.  

AND, I keep asking them about getting individual inverters for each panel, so if one panel is shaded, they don't all turn off.  But they keep dissuading me, insisting that they cost more and the more I have, the more likely one will break down, and there's no shade problem on the roof anyway.  But what about the tree right beside the roof??  They tell me, "It just needs a bit of trimming."  That really means I need to cut the top third of the tree clear off.  I could live with that, maybe, except my mothers ashes are under that tree.  

Once again, I might be out a ton of money if it goes past the final date or if it won't work at all.  And I have to destroy the tree I planted for my mother almost 17 years ago.  I'm at a point that I don't care about solar panels on my house any more, and I'm sorry I suggested people get them!  

Let's just all go quietly shall we.  Some say it'll be too hot to survive by the end of the century anyway.  Maybe I should spend more money on beer, and less on solutions that are a waste of my time and resources, and they won't work anyway especially if I won't cut down that tree.   

It's been a discouraging start to the break!

ETA - There's more!  I have many friends who work in the trades, and they all have the same prejudice:  Never trust an engineer with any real practical application in a building.  So I'm a bit wary, but trying to be open-minded.  The P.Eng on this job, after we dug out the spray foam insulation, told me to just get a can of foam and spray it in there, and it's good as new!  So I did.  And it doesn't stick as well as one might expect, and IT ALL FELL ON MY HEAD.  Good thing I suited up for the occasion, but jeesh!  Don't give advice if you haven't tried it yourself, dammit!