Scam Alert: Sunsmart Solar

[AlexCT]

If you're thinking about approaching ECASA to question how their members are either flouting the rules and regulations or are wholly inept at their job, and are hoping for some remedial action to be taken, allow me to say the following.

LOL

Ultimately DoEL. Remember, we have a somewhat functional government in the WC. The inspection I am having done is by a company called Bravo Scan. They are an approved inspection authority and endorsed by the DoEL.

At least I will have a report where the installer has not done things to code. And grounds to peruse things further. Do not think these guys are untouchable for putting out work that is not compliant. It is criminal and the actual electrician who signed the coc can also be held accountable.

I'll let you know in 4 weeks.

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk

[Raskal]

If this post helped in one less person being scammed, I'm glad!

They also run Heatsmart that does heat pumps and Coolsmart that does air conditioning, so more "services" to look out for...

Make that 2 people you’ve saved. I was literally going to pay them now but I got sidetracked scrolling through the forum. I can’t believe it’s a coincidence I came across this post.
Thanks the most

[Pirate]

Make that 2 people you’ve saved. I was literally going to pay them now but I got sidetracked scrolling through the forum. I can’t believe it’s a coincidence I came across this post.
Thanks the most

Glad you saw it. I should have been more active but my energy to deal with them is low.

My system got installed and it works. however, only 10 of the 12 panels I paid for was delivered, and its an ongoing struggle communicating with them, trying to follow up on the promised repayment. 2 month back they came to issue me with CoC (2 months after the installation was "completed") , Electrician pointed out to them that they neglected to install DC surge arrestors. I actually have the components that they brought, just didn't install, in retrospect they didn't bring the right size box for the DC DB board and didn't have space to fit the surge arrestors. was promised by "Jonathan" that they would come to fix the next day, I'm still waiting 2 months later. I've actually again been promised that it will be tomorrow!

workmanship is absolutely atrocious. recently discovered my panels shake when strong wind blows. turns out the spacing of the brackets to fix the aluminium extrusions to the roof structure is uneven (starting out real close together on one side and then spreading far from each other) and of the 5 sets of brackets, only 3 is actually mounted to the roof trusses, the 2 others are just hooked into the tiles.

The actual technical installation happens without any oversight, so they avoid any accountability. late or no show always because of something outside their control. when argued into a corner, "Jonathan" will become aggressive and abusive and threatening over the phone. He'll also claim to have nothing to do with Sales/Business side, that is "Grant's" side. but over the phone at least the two voices are just way too close...

So in summary, functionally my system works well, but the "saving" is not worth the effort in dealing with an unscrupulous person.

[Trundle]

People getting scammed with solar is the new fashion. The backyard / bakkie brigade installer will always be there.

Cheap Chinese Shit and bargain prices will never attract a high caliber of installer. And this I believe is the crux of the matter.

As always, any supplier can screw you over however on the balance of probabilities, when you buy top-end kit you typically get top-end service.

As an aside for interest sake.

When we started our solar journey we excluded any inverter supplier that was of Chinese origin.
We settled for Victron kit for a few reasons. Modularity and scalability were high on the list.
i had read far too many reviews where a single component in the "all-in-one" inverters disabled an entire installation.
The modular approach of Victron allows for work arounds, especially at scale.

On batteries you are pretty much stuck with Chinese stuff, but again there is a broad spectrum in terms of quality.
These guys will provide very good real world feedback https://itpau.com.au/projects/lithiu...battery-trial/
We chose Pylontech, specifically as it was one of two batteries that literally had zero issues over the installed lifetime.

On panels, it's hard not to get Chinese stuff again. However Canadian Solar is one of the better brands. They have factories in both Canada and China, of the 3 tranches of installed panels, two were from Canada and one from China.

At the end of the day, there WILL be issues on any installation. It's how the company resolves those issues.
I'm happy to have issues that are resolved, of which my installation had many.
Every single issue that we raised was resolved. Bakkie brigade installers are chasing the next payday, if you have paid you are no longer of value.

[Vaal]

I know of a R300k system with top of the range equipment used but it never worked as supposed to. It cost another R100k to fix the previous installers crap. I was dropped by a guy who was supposed to install my system but I decided f/u and installed it myself, beter than a lot of installations I've seen. I couldn't do the coc myself. I must say I am in the wire and electrical trade, it helped a lot.

[oafpatroll]

I put in a whole house UPS (no solar) in 2008 when the ANC invented load shedding and my wife's business was tanking as a result. I did the majority of the installation and then had an actual sparky connect it up and commission. I then had another do the coc. Was consulting in the insurance industry at the time and had done an analysis of homeowners claims repudiated. More than a few were from dodgy electrical installations. With the explosion of 'solar installers' I'm guessing there'll be a bit of this going around.

[MrK]

Not just solar. I've been watching a company that advertises battery backup/UPS systems on social media. A supposed 3kW system for R5000. Brand name of product is carefully removed on the pictures, same crop of commenters that claim "I can run my whole house for 8 hours" type stories. I think they are on their third profile now. It seems they have unfortunately scammed quite a lot of people. Lately they delete all negative comments. I have reported them as a scam several times, but the profile crops up after a few days again.

[AGreeff]

Try www.weselltech.co.za

We're new in the industry but all our stock are sourced through the official channels.