N.J. family's solar panel system breaks as company files for bankruptcy. Here's how CBS News New York helped.
A New Jersey family bought an expensive solar panel system from one of the most established companies in the country, but then, last year, that company suddenly filed for bankruptcy just as the family's system broke down.
They turned to CBS News New York investigator Mahsa Saeidi for help, and she got them results.
"Our electric bill was zero dollars every month"
Three years ago, the Traore family signed a contract with SunPower, an icon in the solar industry.
"I'm from a culture that we believe tomorrow the sun will always come out. And collecting energy from that is priceless," Sidi Traore said.
The price to harness the power of the sun, however, was $54,907.69.
"Our electric bill was zero dollars every month," Kira Traore said. "We lose power a lot, and the backup batteries would kick on seamlessly."
But since SunPower's sudden collapse, Sidi Traore says the system has generated little more than frustration.
In August, when the family still owed thousands on the solar loan, SunPower filed for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
By December, Kira Traore says the system's batteries broke. Then, the metering system malfunctioned.
"So, the panels are still producing electricity, but it's not letting our electric company know that, so now we're paying our full electric bill, on top of paying for the financing on the panels, and the batteries are still not working," Kira Traore said.
"Every day, looking at it in my basement," Sidi Traore said. "I'm powerless."
"Who is looking out for the consumer here?"
In an online portal, Kira Traore pleaded for a tech, writing, "I will not continue to pay."
"Like, who is looking out for the consumer here?" Kira Traore said.
She says she got no response, but they do have an active warranty. On SunPower's website, there's links to navigate warranties with an assurance the company is "working diligently to expand these resources."
"We went to consumer advocacy lawyers, they told us to go to bankruptcy lawyers. We went to bankruptcy lawyers, they told us to go to creditor lawyers," Kira Traore told Saeidi. "We've sort of gotten the whole runaround ... So, I emailed you."
The New Jersey attorney general's office referred the Traores to government officials in California, where SunPower is headquartered. Officials there tell Saeidi they're taking action to revoke SunPower's contractor license, with an administrative hearing scheduled for May.
SunPower's listed number isn't operational and their bankruptcy attorneys have not responded to Saeidi's emails.
Frank Curran, who sold and installed SunPower systems, says he can't help customers, either.
"That to me is real salt in the wounds, is when SunPower is telling the customers to call us," Curran said.
Stunned by the bankruptcy, he says he had to downsize.
"We were left with trying to juggle our own cashflow, and saying, hey, we want to go out and help our customers, right, but SunPower is no longer reimbursing us for that," Curran said. "Those customers now felt, a little uncertain about us, even, because we were associated with SunPower."
He says without SunPower's tech support, he can't fix the batteries.
"Basically, I think we're kind of out of luck for any sort of tech support on any future issues," Curran said.
"We're so happy that you intervened!"
Saeidi contacted executives at Complete Solar, the company that bought much of SunPower's business amid the bankruptcy proceeding.
A senior vice president responded, saying Complete Solar is not responsible for fixing systems since they didn't purchase warranties.
Still, to help, they sent a tech to troubleshoot.
Kira Traore says the system is now charging again.
"And the engineers there were able to do the backend work and they found a whole bunch of errors, and they just worked through those errors, one by one, and about an hour and half, two hours, and they had the system back up and running, which we never thought was going to happen," she said.
She told Saeidi, "We're so happy that you intervened ... You guys were fantastic and got down to the bottom of the problem, and got the problem solved it."
Tuesday, Complete Solar CEO T.J. Rodgers called Saeidi and provided more context into the issue with SunPower's batteries. He says there's a bug in SunPower's software; the batteries lock up, and periodically, the systems must be rebooted.
Rodgers says that issue largely caused SunPower to collapse, so he couldn't take on that part of their business and stay afloat. He did say, however, depending on the need, he's going to try to create a solution to help the over-100,000 people who have these batteries.
He wants to create a service system to reboot these batteries for certain customers, and he's trying to provide a solution. Rodgers says he wouldn't be making a profit, but he couldn't do it for free.
