Solara AG Solar Panel Warranty Woes

[geoffschultz]

The following chronicles my futile attempts to get Solara AG, a manufacturer of Solar Panels in Germany, to live up to their warranty obligations. My panels failed and it appears that Solara AG has decided to ignore me as well as the dealer and the distributor. While this problem relates to marine panels, Solara AG is also a large provider of land based panels.

In 2003 I moved my sailboat to from the Caribbean to Ft. Lauderdale, FL in order to do some extensive equipment upgrades. One of the projects was the installation of two solar panels. After a lot of research I decided upon Solara AG's SM225M solar panels as they provided the highest output available per their footprint and their flexibility allowed them to be mounted on my hard dodger. The following link provides a good view of the panels as well as information on the panels:http://www.barden-uk.com/semi-flexible-panels.html. I ordered two panels at almost $1000/ea from SE Marine in Oregon. After completing many projects we moved the boat back to the Caribbean. The panels functioned fine during the next cruising season, but upon return to the boat in 2004 they were no longer functioning. One provided no output and the other would only provide output first thing in the morning when the panel was cool.

The panels carry a 20 year warranty, so I felt secure that my problem would be quickly resolved. I contacted SE Marine and they put me in contact with Peter Burcat, who is a founder and executive VP of Solara Energy, Inc. Solara Energy is the primary US distributor of Solara AG solar panels. Solara AG is based in Germany. It was clear that there was no way to get replacement panels down to the Caribbean, so I decided to wait until we passed through the US again. In July of 2006 we once again brought the boat back to the US and I began writing to Peter Burcat even before we arrived. Peter tried to direct me back to SE Marine, but that didn't go very far as they said they had purchased the panels through Peter's company and they couldn't do anything to help me.

After some more finger pointing, Peter had me contact Frank Heise (heise@solara.de) at Solara AG in Germany. Initally Frank and I had very good communication. Frank, who is the export manager, was asking me questions about the installation and the problem that I was having. We exchanged multiple e-mails and I provided photographs of the installation. On July 24th, 2006 I received my last e-mail from Frank. All of my many e-mails to him since then have gone unanswered. I've also called and left voice mail for Frank, but I haven't had any calls returned.

I asked Peter for a list of contacts at Solara, AG and all that he provided was a copy of contacts from Solara AG's web site. This list seemed rather thin as Solara Energy was the exclusive distributor for Solara AG panels. Peter has forwarded copies of my e-mails on to Frank Heise, but apparently has heard nothing from him. If that's true, then clearly something has gone very wrong in the business relationship between the primary distributor and the manufacturer.

I eventually found the e-mail address of Solara AG's CEO, Thomas Rudolfe (rudolfe@solara.de) and e-mailed him. I didn't hear anything back. I also tried info@solara.de, which is listed as their information contact e-mail address on their web site and received no response. SE Marine has sent several e-mails and received no response.

This has been going on for 5 months and I've gotten absolutely nowhere. Further, I don't see any resolution forthcoming. The bottom line is that if you're looking for solar panels, I would stay clear of Solara AG panels. Their products may have excellent specs, but they don't stand behind them. The US distributor has done little to help me resolve this problem and the German company seems to feel that they don't need to resolve foreign warranty claims.

-- Geoff Schultz
www.GeoffSchultz.org

 

[sarabande]

Would you like us to declare that a state of war now exists between us and Germany, on your behalf, then in a few years we can seize the factory, run off a couple of replacement panels for you, in return for which you can lend us some old ships to replace our Navy with which, and charge us £40million a month for the next sixty years ? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Send a registered ICBM, sorry, letter, to the company's headquarters, to the managing director. Don't faff with the distributer or agent. I normally admire USA tv consumer shows for their tough line on dud goods; tell Solara that's what you are going to do. You've suffered too long; call in the media cavalry.

 

[Richard10002]

Agree on not dealing with them.... i will be buying solar panels over the next couple of years, so will cross them off my list, (which doesnt exist yet).

You have been fobbed off

For this amount of money, I would be taking SE Marine and the US Distributor to court in a joint action in the US. I would write to every boat and house building magazine, a variety of newspapers, and some TV and radio shows.

Firstly, I would write recorded delivery to them both confirming your intentions, giving them 7 days to provide you with either a full refund, plus compensation, or a new set of panels plus compensation.

If they dont sort it out in 7 days, start the letters to the media, with a cc of every letter to both parties, then, maybe a week or so later, i would start an action..... dont know if you can do it yourself over there, or if you have to have a lawyer.

Did this Frank guy deny or accept the responsibility, or hadnt he got that far?

Good Luck

 

[geoffschultz]

Thanks for the feeback. Solara AG doesn't appear to be selling panels in the US anymore due to the Euro-Dollar exchange rate. As a result I don't think that they care about this market and by the time that the exchange ratio gets back to where their panels are cost adventageous, this will have been forgotten.

Frank Heiss, the export manager, told me that they would exchange the panels...until he stopped writing to me. I think that he was over-ruled by someone further up the chain.

-- Geoff

 

[Gazza]

I'm in the process of discussing a warranty claim in connection with a Solara panel in the UK with Barden, the sole agents.
The problem with mine, with under four year's use, was corrosion of the positive lead from underside of the panel to the connector. I've delivered it back to Barden, who sent it back to Germany, but nothing has resolved as yet.
I've found Barden very helpful, but it may be that the German end will be less so.
My recourse will, if all else fails, be the Small Claims Court.
We shall see......

 

[Richard10002]

You seem reluctant to take any legal action against the firm who sold it to you... any particular reason?

 

[geoffschultz]

Please post your results to this forum. I'll be very interested to see how you make out. Good luck!

-- Geoff

 

[geoffschultz]

About a week after posting the above note in multiple sailing and solar energy related Internet forums (mid-December, 2006) I received a message from Solara AG informing me that they would replace the panels. They blamed Solara Energy (the US distributor) for not doing anything to help me.

They also claimed that the warranty period for the panels is 2 years and not the 20 years listed on web sites in the USA, Australia and Great Britain. I wonder how all of these sites got the same wrong information? I also wonder how they compete when their competitors have warranties in excess of 20 years?

Anyhow, they offered to replace the panels if I paid half of the shipping from Germany. This works out to 100 Euro or about $132 US. Considering that these panels cost me $2000, this was a bargain and I immediately agreed. Someone from customer service contacted me and sent invoice. I noted that the invoice was for a single panel instead of two and questioned this. The customer service person said that they would check on this and get back to me when the manager who approved this got back to the office.

A week went by. I sent more e-mail questioning what's going on. Nothing...More e-mail from my side...nothing. I keep sending e-mail to everyone who was corresponding with me and nothing comes back. So at this point I'm stuck again. Other than flying to Germany and coming back with the panels (they actually suggested this , I don't see any solution.

In case you have any doubts about the veracity of my reporting of the events, I've created a web page with all of the e-mail correspondence with the various parties. It's even color coded so you can easily see who sent what to whom. You can find it at http://www.geoffschultz.org/Solara/e-mail.shtml .

I'll be headed off cruising to the Turks and Caicos at the end of February and it looks like I won't have working solar panels again. To me this is incredibly bad customer service and anyone who is thinking about purchasing solar panels manufactured by Solara AG should take this into consideration.

-- Geoff

 

[geoffschultz]

I am happy to report that when we arrived at the boat that there were 2 panels waiting for me. Other than the fact that they changed the location of the holes on the modules which required filling and repainting the fiberglass dodger that they were mounted on, I am very happy to have working solar panels again. I do believe that if I wouldn't have mounted an Internet campaign to let potential purchasers of their products know about their abysmal warranty practices, that they probably wouldn't have replaced the panels. I hope that they learned their lesson and will be much more willing meet their contractural warranty obligations.

I would like to thank SE Marine for their support during this saga. They always tried to help resolve this issue compared to Solara Energy who just tried to pass the buck.

Now I just need some favorable winds to get across the Gulf Stream and begin this cruising season!

-- Geoff