Astrum/Direct energy is horrible do not use. Our solar has been down for the past four months (summer where we over produce) to this day I still do not have a working system. They will not help. My contract says that our system will be "monitored and maintained by Astrum" and they have in the past system went down I was notified and resolve promptly. I was told monitoring is the customer responsibly. Not per our contract, which they had to agree. If I did not know that in our contract, they would have done nothing. I am $700 electric bills and paying for solar. NOT GOOD! read more

I had solar installed in my home about 6 years ago. Getting service for microinverters was a serious problem. Communication between the company and their contracted service provider and that companies sub-contractor was a nightmare and although my overall production was down 15%, too bad, the overall production met the minimums guaranteed by contract, despite their failure to do required maintenance for faulty parts, my loss. * Now, I have yet to see my SREC payment of $1,600 they claim was mailed two months ago. I called a month ago and was told Massachusetts customers had a problem with checks but wait a week. I did. NO CHECK! * I called 10 days ago and was promised their "special finance group" would investigate and get back to me. Still no word, no promised call back, no check. * Called today, same story except a claim that the "special finance group" was backlogged but service rep promised she would message that special group again to get an answer. Regardless, this is two months, NO CHECK! read more

company is engaging in illegal phone calls to my house, which is listed as a do not call in the national registry. I am not and will not be their customer. further, whoever was on the other end ARGUED WITH ME AND BECAME UGLY. that is NOT the way to impress people but sure can lead to a bad rating. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND ANY COMPANY THAT ENGAGES IN THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR. read more

By the way, if that's your company trying to call you may want to have your "trained customer service" staff leave a message. It's how people communicate. For example, when I call your business and no one is available to assist me, I leave a message. It's a courtesy thing.....you all should try it. You might get better reviews. By the way, still no service assistance. I have no idea how much my panels are generating. Update....I tried calling again, right after I posted the above, was on hold for over 6 min and then was told to leave a message. I did. read more

This company has sure showed their growing pains. We went to a home show in Buffalo and were wowed by the consultants knowledge and readiness to help! Signed the contract and we were ready to get the project started. Well, from the start, things moved quickly! Measurements and all were done within the first 5 weeks of signing the contract.. then came the problems. No communications - I sent emails the the regional operations manager about my project and he could not give me any time line projects. Approx 80 days into the contract (Contract stated project would be done in approx 120 days) I get a notification for a payment I have to make for extra work. When I ask how to make the payment, the HQ couldn't get me an answer! Neither could they give me a reason why the project was delayed! Come to find out, 96 days after the contract signed, they had leasing issues with the lending company about terms from their contract! Never did anyone inform me of this issue until it was too late.... now I sit here, canceled my project, waiting for my deposit and it's been 4 weeks! The company has had so many good reviews but now it shows that they grew too big too fast and couldn't handle it. Shame.. next time I recommend going with someone LOCAL where the HQ is located LOCALLY. read more

What a disappointment. Our town of Lexington, Mass selected Astrum as the preferred solar supplier. I eagerly signed up, buying the gold standard system, and although it's been six months since the system was finally installed, we are still not hooked up to the grid. And our check was cashed long ago. I get zero updates from Astrum, and am about to contact our attorney general. At best this is a company who has grown too fast, taking every order they could without having the necessary systems in place to perform. At worst, criminals. read more

I contraccted with astrum solar for their lease program where you own the panels after astrum recieves the tax credits this gives you a lower initial cost. After placing my deposit astrum got taken over by constellation energy and this plan ceased to exist meaning i now had to cover an additional 12000 dollars for the install i had already taken a 15000 loan for the panel install so the bank astrum sent me too would not give me a loan for the full additional amount. Had I known this from the beginning I would not have needed 2 separate loans. Also the rep was extremly slow to return communications gave wrong or incorrect information multiple times. I am happy they are going to be installing them soon but buyer beware this company has issues which could cause you to regret signing a contract read more

Please avoid this company. We installed the panels a year ago and then the issues started. First, one of the panels didn't work; second it took more than a month to get hooked up to the app to see how much was being generated. Than our bills went down by less than 60% vs promised 123% average use coverage. It took a year, numerous phone calls on our part to get through to customer service. A year later we finally get the answer that, unfortunately, they underestimated our actual usage (but be happy you are still getting some solar energy) and that it was our job as consumers to get into the nitty-gritty of specific KWH of monthly use and raise the alarm that what they used to build the proposal was incorrect. They are not the professionals selling solar panels, we are! At the end of the day, we went with Direct Energy Solar because they promised the best coverage vs price (vs competition) and learned that you get what you pay for. No customer service, no support and no responsibility for lowballing the estimate to sell the proposal. Buyer beware as you sill not get what promised and the system is not cheap to begin with!!!!! read more

So far so good. Everything they said would happen, did. Reports show that the panels are performing exactly as expected. Customer service has been excellent. Good planning, execution, and follow-up. read more

From start to finish Astrum Solar employees were professional, helpful and caring. So far this summer my Electric bill has been slashed by 75%, There are two ways to go with SOLAR, leasing and purchase. I chose purchase because I plan to stay in this house for many years. Every minute the sun shines I see money in my pocket. With the Tax credits (30% from IRS, $1000 from Maryland, and the Solar Energy Renewable certs, county property tax credit) my system will be paid off in about 5 years. read more

We got solar panels through Astrum in Washington DC and we couldn't be happier. Our average electric bill for the last 5 years has been less than $25 a month. Astrum did almost all of the paperwork for the installation and helped us work through some issues with Pepco. We highly recommend Astrum and in fact have convinced many of our friends to go with them. read more

UNETHICAL PRACTICES AT THE EXPENSE OF THE UNKOWING PUBLIC We were stuck with Direct Energy when they purchased Astrum Solar shortly after Astrum installed our solar panels near Ithaca NY. Since that time, it has been a nightmare. They will not honor our limited production warranty, our buy back warranty and continue to claim that damage done to our system should fall under the contract's well-defined Force Majeure clause, which states that Force Majeure includes Acts of God, Floods, Fires, Earthquakes, War, etc. Our home is located on 5 country acres and is surrounded by trees, which the sales person was well- aware of. The damage is due to squirrels and, though this company sells squirrel guards, they did not alert us to the possibility of squirrel damage at the contract signing nor until damage had been done. Now, they are holding us hostage by wanting to charge (after the fact) just under $1000 for squirrel guards saying that squirrel damage was not foreseeable by them (Why, then, would they make squired guards?) AND hundreds of dollars for damage repair. A guaranteed revenue stream for them the cost of which exceeds our solar energy savings. Please comment if you know who we reach out to about any class actions or government interventions being taken! read more

This review might not matter to many since Direct Energy Solar has exited the residential business (except for "maintenance"), but they are still carrying the Direct Energy brand which is (and should be) taking a beating due to the horrendous customer support to their existing customer base of residential solar customers. A couple of my experiences worth telling (I have others about technical issues, but they seem covered by other reviews) to provide some color to the statements: 1) Their pre-sales team (former Astrum Solar) was excellent....I really liked them. Even their post-sales project manager was very responsive. BUT, they fired him right in the middle of my project and they lost all of the communications we had had regarding the billing on my project. Since I was not notified about the firing of my project manager I assumed our mutual agreement to adjust the pricing would be taken care of (I have the emails). But they apparently didn't do any transition on my account so Direct Energy treated me as delinquent and shut off my solar array....at which point I finally was clued into the fact that my emails to the project manager weren't getting through. I decided not to fight them over the 4 days of lost production, but it was a bit jarring to see them handle the transition this way. They terminated another customer service person I was working with in a similar way...no transition, no notice to me. Not a sign of a great company and not a good customer experience. 2) After 2 years, the system has never met the production guarantee. After emailing their customer service for a month (not an exaggeration) they finally agreed that they were under-performing and calculated a payment adjustment (less the 4 days of downtime from October which they counted as 4 seriously over-performing days to help reduce their payout calculation.) But now that they've finally agreed to pay, their "payment check printing system is down" and has been unable to be fixed for the past 2 weeks. Despite offers for them to pay me via some other means (wire, ach, venmo, whatever) they refuse and say I'll just have to wait to get the payment. I once felt quite good about the Direct Energy brand (signed with them for electrical production for 2 years), but they've done their best to erode that trust to the point where I would not use any of the other Direct Energy businesses based upon my experience with how they treat their current 9000+ residential solar customers. The 1-star I give them is because they had some great pre-sales folks and also project managers who deserve better. read more

Hard to reach this company about a problem with their installation. Strongly urge anyone to avoid them totally, especially for any type of residential issue. They ultimately came through but it was intensely aggravating. I don't think they want residential business. read more

Had a reasonably good experience with ASTRUM solar designing and installing a system in December 2012. 5 years later with Direct Energy and we have a relatively simple squirrel issue, but the problem seems to be as others have stated an apparent case of understaffing or incompetence. Absolutely NOTHING can be done expeditiously. Phone calls either not returned or take several days for response. Any email needs at least a week for response. We've had our system shut down for 3 months now and still don't know when it will get fixed. The tech guys are great, customer service at the office is pathetic. Any future issues will be addressed with a third party. So disappointed, I've never seen anything like this.... read more

Early in the summer, I had panels installed on my house and have still continued to receive the usual high summer electric bills. No one in the company seems to take responsibility for fixing the issue and they keep saying next month. . . read more

If you like dealing with someone over the phone and not really looking at your property, than this is the company, Astrum is for you. It seems they want to sell you the whole thing or nothing at all. We were looking at just getting some type of system but they appeared that they did not want to do business. Said something about not enough roof space but if they would have come to the property and saw we have 4 out buildings also that has the area to do the whole block. But I guess they were to busy so I will look elsewhere. Very poor customer relations read more

Astrum solar was the most knowledgeable solar installer in the area. I installed panels with Astrum Solar in 2008 and the panels have reduced my power consumption by 80%. With state incentives and local incentives as well as the sale of SRECs the investment has already almost paid itself back, 2 whole years in advance of the estimated payback date. Astrum solar was really clear in making sure that we understood the process and making sure that everything was taken care of as part of their turnkey process. The company is also committed to protecting the environment with their estimators all driving fuel efficient vehicles. Keep in mind that as you go solar, if your house is not efficient, then your solar install will not have as much impact. Before installing solar, make sure that you are running the minimum number possible of fridges for your house (some people like to have 2, when they might only need 1) make sure that your appliances are not older than 8-10 years old, and update your central air conditioning to make sure that it runs as efficiently as possible. These are just a few of the changes that will make your solar panels do the best kind of work for you. read more

I chose Direct Energy Solar because they had the most competitive financing options. I did not have the money to pay for my system up front and I did not want a lease. Direct Energy had a very straight forward loan option. Contract was signed in June 2015, however due to the permitting process by Pepco and Montgomery County it was not installed until October, and I was not able to turn it on until 3 weeks after that. None of these things are Direct Energy's fault. In fact once the county gave the final approval they installed my system within 2 weeks. The install guys were very professional and the system looks great on my roof. What I find most impressive is Direct Energy's commitment to their special offers. When I signed on to the system they guaranteed a 60 day install or I would revive a check for $500. My system install was closer to 120 days and true to their word I revived a check for $500 about a month after my system went online. After 2 months of use the system works great. I can monitor my daily solar generation and I have not had any problems so far. I would recommend read more

Our professional relationship with Direct Energy Solar in Massachusetts has been mixed. Sales and installation were excellent. SERVICE TO FIX POST PRODUCTION ISSUES IS TERRIBLE! I did not want to write this review but now feel required to warn other people. The initial sales and installtion process was a five star rating. Since I have been upable to produce any solar energy for 6 weeks withut getting any Service, my overall rating is a one star. I spent a lot of money fo rhte installation and am getting NOTHING out of it right now. Our Sales and Installation processes was wonderful and possibly best in class. The salesman, Steve Swindell, gave us plenty of time and helped educate us on the whole solar process. He was fantasic and the primary reason we selected Direct Energy over the other companies with which we talked. The installation team was fantastic. They had some issues with local building inspection and electical inspecton requirements and smoothly cleared these issues quickly. John Daly was a great installation project lead, The system worked like a charm from July through mid-Novmeber. Our electric bills were zero (producing more energy than we used) through September and minor (10% of original) in October. Then we had to deal with the Service Department!!! THE SERVICE DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE!!! In mid-November our system stopped working. I reported this to Direct Energy, after finding it myself on November 24, 2016. They added us to the Service request queue. As I write this on December 26, 2016, we still have not seen a service person or even had a service date scheduled. I have called them a number of times and still do not have any service date. This is ridiculous. My gut feel is that the company focus is on installations since that is where the cash flow comes from. They have insufficient resources dedicated to service and repair. BE WARNED.. .YES ,THEY SUPPLY SERVICE AS THEY STATE (I PRESUME). I AM JUST NOT SURE WHEN THE SERVICE MIGHT ACTUALLY HAPP{EN. I will be lucky to get any service for a non-functioning system in the SAME YEAR that I requested it. BAD, BAD, BAD. This is pathetic. I feel that they are victims of their own sales and installation success. THE CANNOT KEEP UP WITH SERVICE REQUESTS. My DIRECY ENERGY Solar System has produced ZERO Energy since the middle of November. read more

Install was by Astrum Solar, they were great. Then they were bought by Direct Energy Solar. Their service sucks, think in terms of months before they even come out, and that's only because we keep bugging them about it. read more

I initially purchased and had my solar system installed by Astrum Solar several years ago and would rate that company highly. Since that initial installation by Astrum Solar, the company was bought by Direct Energy Solar and my experience with this company has been a total let down. I can not rate Direct Energy's installation process but have found that, for customers having problems with an an existing system, its customer service operation is terrible. My current problem began 4 months ago when one inverter stopped functioning properly. I had placed several calls and written several emails before receiving a response from customer service and was then informed that they were very busy and would call me when they had an opening to provide service. Now, with the sun shining, I have three more failed inverters not generating any energy while calls to customer service result in the same old response which boils down to "sorry, we're very busy..don't-call-us-we'll-call-you-when-we-are-ready". The customer service reps are polite and courteous even though having to work in a stressful environment which requires them to make excuses to the customers instead of actually resolving their problems. Apparently Direct Energy gives high priority to establishing new customers but low priority to existing ones as it does not have the personell or the inventory required to provide a timely response to existing customers experiencing even minor problems and this points to an upper management issue. See Chrysa T's comment below which, I think, describes and clarifies the current situation quite well. Hopefully this situation improves and I can come back and give them a thumbs up. read more

As a customer who stumbled onto the solar wave Direct Energy was informative and very comfortable to work with. Was not really sure how the whole process worked and was ready to get into it but then had some reservations. After speaking with Luis Bonilla he had his supervisor call me and not in a "sell" mode more of a "support" mode. This made me more comfortable that it was not just a selling game but more of making the customer comfortable. I signed with Direct Energy and needed to install around my schedule. Darren Benson was my project coordinator and he was just as great as Luis was. Kept me updated and kept my schedule in mind as he planned his measuring visit and the ultimate install. Both guys stopped by during the install to check the progress and field any questions. They have a great team of installers that worked very well together. they all seemed to communicate effortlessly and get the job done in no time. Now just waiting on inspections and to turn on the job which I am sure will be just as flawless as the project thus far. Thank you Luis Bonilla, Darren Benson, the team of Installers and everyone at Direct Energy for making it easy to convert to Solar Power. read more

where do I start. first of all the system they initially designed, they did not install. i found out about this by questioning the systems output after a few months. Crystal in customer support (after numerous phone calls) told me "it was in the contract you signed" to which my reply was " well i am an auto mechanic all this is greek to me. i didnt know i needed a team of lawyers and electrical engineers to review it first. i took your rep at his word". next and more recent. in septembers production report it showed an ongoing problem since 9/18/18 so i called customer service again. first reply "thats not with us, thats with Enhance". second reply "i have to submit it to see if its covered under warranty". 3rd reply "the company said they will cover it but there isnt anyone scheduled to be in your area for 2 weeks". 4th reply (a month later) "we just had someone in that area and they wont be back in that area for a couple of weeks. will be in touch to schedule". 5th reply "still gonna be a couple of weeks. will be in touch to schedule". Last phone call on 11/17/18. i asked Crystal how long does it typically take to get a repair done. her reply "4 to 6 weeks". my response, "its been 8. doesnt that put your company in breach of contract?" i wish they would come and take this system back but as told previously by Crystal "tough, you signed a contract". well, so did direct energy solar and as far i can tell they are failing to live up to there end. read more

I was happy with Direct Energy Solar (formerly Astrum Solar) until recently. Now, after about 5 years, I have 2 Microinverters failed and for 2 months I am now trying to get them to come and service the installation. They have retreated from Ohio a while back and have no installation or service crews anywhere nearby. As a result, they simply do not fulfil their contractual obligation to repair the installation. read more

They disqualified me based on my credit score before even coming out to do a survey. I guess they didn't want my business or the cash I had to pay for the system. Their loss and probably my gain if that is how they treat their customers! read more

Had my panel for almost 6 yrs. Large 58 panel install. Install went well for the most part, Good communication. Problem is after install service. Enphase is to monitor your system. They never tell me when a panel is down. I have to email them. Worse now that direct energy bought Astrum Solar which is who sold me my system. Understaffed. Have only 1-2 repair techs for area. One injured, or unavilable leadtime doubles. Already at 6 weeks to replace inverter. Another week to bring it online. Customer support overwhelmed, high turnover of staff. Do not stock parts so have to wait for Enphase each time inverter goes down. Tech comes out and customer service doesn't even know about it. I have to tell them. Four inverters down in the last 12 months. Escalation is just more excuses. Said they were going to hire more and stock parts. Neither happened. Laying off with direct energy merger. I love my panels and don't pay a utility bill at least 9 months out of the year. But their customer service makes me wish I had gone elsewhere. I have recommended two customers that installed worth over $50k. Won't do it again. Their lack of customer service is costing them more than the small amt. they pay us when they panels are down. Its costing the thousands of dollars of revenue for new installs due to referrals. Very short sighted. Premium price for less than acceptable service. Their employees (installers, repair techs and most customer service agents) are wonderful, but they are strapped by the company not staffing correctly, or addressing issues with stocking inventory, making Enphase do their job etc. Its the management that is the problem. Do your homework before choosing Direct Energy. read more

Want to learn more about Astrum Solar? Just wait for their relentless unsolicited junk mail sent to your address every 1-2 weeks...even after calling to "opt-out." Being such a green company one would think that they'd be interested in being green with their mailings...but yet they continue to ignore my requests even after they assure me they've removed me from their database. I did not sign up for more info or anything. I hadn't even heard of this company before they started spamming me. My information was bought from a list/database, or so said the person I spoke with on the phone. Hey, at least they're honest about it. I told this person on the phone that since I do not own the property I live in that there is no way this would apply to me. The guy on the phone was a bit slow...as in seemingly pre-occupied and took several seconds to respond to me after I finished talking. I was polite for the entire phone conversation, as that is how I handle things regardless of how annoying a company is. Not rocket science, just please remove me from your database! Besides, even if I was in a position to obtain solar panels for a house in the future (which I'm strongly considering, as a matter of fact), I will be sure not to consider Astrum Solar. You just lost a potential customer for life. And you're still wasting trees with your large, unwanted mailings. Go away and leave me alone. read more

We had our system installed as part of a town wide initiative when they were still called Astrum Solar. The sales process was fine and they came out and measured for our system etc. That is when the good ended. Once we signed on the dotted line the "1-2 day" installation for which we would hardly have to be home was over a week of people in and out of the house and my husband or I having to be home the entire time. The subs would show up and ask *us* what they were supposed to be doing because there was not guidance for them. Then 15 mos after the system is up and running we get an email saying we were not eligible for the $2K state grant we were assured our system would qualify for. When I asked for more information they said "Sometimes a site falls through the cracks." Now we are out 2K. I really think they sent a super terse email hoping we would not notice. Their design was bad too. Their guys planned a system that had a panel in the same spot as a plumbing vent.... uh no. If I were to install a system in future there is no way I would work with these people again. read more

If I could do it all over again I would never have signed a contract with this company. The best experince with this company was meeting with their initial sales consultant after that it all went down hill and fast. Communication with my Solar Lead was sparse at best unless I initiated, I understand it's a long process to get solar but timely updates are important. During the install my property was damaged as well as treated by the installers as their own personal workshop, leaving wire and metal shavings in my driveway as well as on my deck, thanks guys I have little kids pretty thoughtful, and the damage I was told to get a quote for still hasn't been repaired despite repeated requests. Then after my install it took over a month to get active, due to an issue with the town, although I was told by Direct Energy that were handling, I finally got frustrated and dealt with the town myself and guess what 2 days later all set, maybe I should be a Project Lead. So I lost an entire month's worth of production waiting for Direct Energy. To attempt to get resolve I emailed everyone in the company, operational leads, the executive board and again no contact. So my $43,000 investment to a company who has yearly revenues in the millions means nothing. So take a piece of advice from me find a company who cares about their customers because Direct Energy does not, and communication I'm not sure that is part of the job requirement to work there. read more