Solar Edge Support is Terrible... I would certainly NEVER use their products again!

[Quinten]

I swear this company is dysfunctional! I did have an issue with an optimizer, chatted online and everything seemed good. They created an RMA and were going to send a replacement. After a week or so with no indication they shipped I chatted online again, they said it was on tier two support and they will message them. The contractor indicated they spoke with Solar Edge and said the replacement was shipped. I never received any info on shipping so after a few days I called and waited the 50 minutes to speak with someone. They told me that for some reason it was indicated shipped when in fact ir wasn't. They did eventually get it sorted out and I actually received an email a few days later and the optimizer a few days after the email. Now that's not too bad, but now it gets worse...

The electricians were out troubleshooting an issue with one string of 11 panels that went out when the inverter was reset trying to re-pair the modules. Had worked with solar edge support on that issue as part of the original optimizer issue.

They were actually able to get in touch with Solar Edge on a Saturday ( not a normal tech support day) and worked with the electricians to determine the inverter was bad. There were some signs of burning inside by the two large white relay looking items. They indicated I should shut the system down and wait for a replacement which was being sent to the electricians who were working with solar edge support.

That was a week ago... Nothing from solar edge on when they will ship, they are impossible to get a hold of and do not return calls to the contractor. I did get the case number today and will spend my hour or more on hold on Monday to see if I can find out when they may actually ship the replacement.

If you are considering using Solar Edge and care at all about support, you may want to go with a different company as I can't see support being any worse!

I'll update this when I get more info...

If I knew what I know about Solar Edge support now I would not have used their equipment!!!

[sensij]

If I knew what I know about Solar Edge support now I would not have used their equipment!!!

Yep, they are the worst, except for all the rest.

[ButchDeal]

Yep, they are the worst, except for all the rest.

They have seen great growth and are having to scale up Support.

[solarix]

I've been waiting a month on Enphase to send a replacement microinverter (on a job I did not install). They claim some b.s. about having a warehouse problem and having to change to a different one....

[GRickard]

I was having problems getting a response from them and finally got my Renvu rep involved. He got me in touch with a SE engineer (Tom "TJ" Simpson) that has been really helpful any time I've emailed him. Opening a case with them may or may not get a response.

Greg

[solardreamer]

Based the postings in the forum it seems difficult/slow for home owners to get replacement from main inverter manufacturers. Given the trend of more panel vendors incorporating inverters themselves I am wondering how much worse it will get for the inverter manufacturers. I am lucky enough to not have needed inverter replacement so far but if I was a new buyer now I would ask for a spare in the initial system purchase. At least for micro inverters it would be a low cost insurance policy that's cheaper than going out buying a single replacement and faster than waiting for manufacturer replacement.

[solarix]

I think poor service from tech support is an indication that a brand is having a lot of reliability problems.
A big reason I use SMA is that failures have been rare and when there is a problem they have always been available and ship out a replacement with out hassle.

[Syberdog]

I just received my SE 5000H inverter and 20 P320 optimisers... if I had known they were made in China i would have gotten something else. Now I hear about dysfunctional support... aghhhhh

Buying a spare optimizer sounds like a good idea.

[Quinten]

To update... From most comments on here, it seems support is hard to come by regardless of which company you are dealing with. I can say that Solar Edge has been responsive to my electrician as the replacement inverter was delivered earlier this week (10 days from support call) and installed today. I did also receive the replacement optimizer and that was put in also.

Now just waiting on tech support to help get the new inverter configured in the monitoring portal.

If I could edit the topic, I would not recommend against using Solar Edge as they do stand behind their products and supply replacements in a timely fashion.