Native, Inc. - Profile & Reviews

Native has a great business culture! No matter who you work with at Native they all have the same friendly attitude to help and solve problems. Nothing goes perfect in any project, but Native was always on top of things to make sure they were delivering what was promised. There is a saying that goes like this-''What goes well ends well'' And we had a happy ending!!

Native installed my solar over a year ago and I was very pleased with them. My salesperson was Jay and he was very knowledgeable in presenting different options. Since the install, I have had mostly negative electric bills and now Austin Energy actually owes me money! I love it!!!

We had always planned to use alternative power at our home in the Texas Hill Country to reduce out "footprint", adding to our rainwater collection that also serves the whole house. And of course to reduce energy bills. We waited a few years to ensure that we had the best possible technology. We talked to some friends who had used Native/1Sun to plan and install their ground-based solar system, so contacted Jay at Native. From start to finish, their process was informative, clear, and professional. We are totally happy with our 40-panel ground-based installation, and are now depositing power onto the grid for the future! We have worked with many contractors in building houses, pools, irrigation, and home improvements over the years. We cannot recommend Native more highly!

Not sure if I just had bad luck or this is the beginning of downward spiral on what was once a good company. Short version: READ EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU VERY CLOSELY especially before signing.
It's crazy but this is the brief version. We were interested in solar and they were one of the companies that friends recommended and they were referred thru energy sage too. First sales person came out and we really liked him. They weren't the cheapest but with something that's going to be a 25 year relationship, cheapest isn't the object. Then when we started to move forward things got very slimy very quickly. He'd send me emails with proposed system specs and costs in the text of the email but then the formal proposal would be different. Different system output, different design, different cost. Thought we'd worked it out but then the official sign here contract had something different again. Final straw for me so I moved on to our second choice vendor. They came out for a site assessment and found that our home actually wasn't going to be good for solar. Too many big trees. Not a terrible problem to have but disappointing. Second company said they didn't want to move forward because they didn't feel like we would end up happy with the output or the cost. So, now we think well maybe that's why Native came so highly recommend, they can do things others can't. Back to slimy sales guy but now, per Longhorn's recommendation, I'd like confirmation for the AE person about the system design. Now I get a lot about how great Native is and that won't be necessary. Trust us. Okay, don't know about you but that really sets off alarm bells for me. I request a different sales person. Who knows, maybe this guy and I just aren't compatible. Then nothing for like two weeks until out of the blue I get a call from someone with the company asking how things are going. Is it that you really don't know the answer to that question or are you trying to gloss things over? Turns out so-and-so is no longer with the company. They are terribly sorry and are going to do what it takes to "make things right". Next day I get a call from sales person number two. She doesn't seem to have any information about my situation other then she's supposed to fix it. And she assures me she's going to do that. Now I'm a little optimistic again, these things happen. Companies can have problems with individual employees. But then I get a proposal from her. She's "upgraded" me to a micro inverter system. So in fact the other guy was likely going to sell me a giant paperweight for my roof. The output is less and the cost is more. Oh and the proposal lists 14 panels and 11 inverters. I'm no solar expert but seems like those numbers need to be the same. She confirms yes they do and kindly sends me another proposal with an even higher price fixing her incorrect count and a note about being out of town for the next week so we'll talk later. Also there was a 1.74% discount to show their concern for my two months of headache. Now I'm furious. My reply is there needs to be a big discount or we're done. Unfortunately some companies only respond when it's about money. Here's the part that takes the cake. She again assures me that they care and things will be okay, they have this great new product that I will really be pleased with. But she tells me she needs me to get approval from their preferred financing company before she can really get things worked out. I do that, then let her know I won't be going with Dividend Solar financing because their interest rate is 2% over Velocity. She says that's fine, with a little bit of a tone, then proceeds to send me a proposal that costs even more per kW then the previous proposal even with their "knock out incentive"! Really you just tried to upsell me?!?!?
It's disappointing because we really wanted solar but beware there are companies that will prey on that. Also, if you move forward with these guys see if you can find out who assumes the liability for the installers they use? They use a third party they are very close with but I couldn't ever get a straight answer what would happen if one of them fell off my roof.