Sopris Solar - Profile & Reviews

Got a contract in May 2019 with Sopris. Seemed good. With lots of "oh yeah, next week we'll start". Finally in August they said an electrician would be out.
After the electrician did the work I find out they never had an approved plan or permit for the work. The electrician then calls and threatens a lien against my property since they hadn't been paid.
At this point I cannot get Sopris to respond. They finally gave some excuses and kept saying the plan would be approved "next week".
After another 2 months of no communication and no work/plan/permits I've given up.
Save your money and use someone else that may actually install solar.

FRAUDULENT.
Stay Away from Sopris. They have defrauded me of 10k and refuse to get back to me through multiple channels.
There are enough other companies with great reviews out there, why take a chance?
I decided to go with Sopris in March 2019 based on positive online reviews up to that point. The salesman (who has since left because he felt they were unethical) was positive and friendly and said they could get me rolling in a 10-12 week window.
I wrote them a check for 10k in advance and took a loan on the rest.
Then nothing. Every communication from that point on was initiated by me, not them. No project timeline or deadline/deliverables.
They finally told me that the city of Fort Collins was holding up the permit process. I believed them. Now, long after the fact I have discovered that Fort Collins never received a single piece of documentation from them till then end of June.
After reaching out to them with several days response time, I finally got a subcontractor at my house in late August for several days.
He abruptly quit after not being paid by Sopris for 4 different jobs and now (apparently) has a lien against Sopris for unpaid bills.
I wrote and called Sopris at that point to cancel our contract and asked for repayment of the remaining 10k.
Since then I’ve emailed/called/texted the president of Sopris, Nathan Billmaier, and project manager Scott Birrell. weekly requesting to be compensated for the 10k down payment and had ZERO responses.
I’m told their ability to operate in Fort Collins has been revoked due to other homeowner’s similar experiences.
November 7th, a third-party PR firm got a hold of me to attempt to get me to give Sopris a chance and let them finish the job. After my firm but polite ‘no’, they have also failed to respond to attempts to reach them.
Sharing my horrid experience seems the only recourse left to me.
Nathan Billmaier please feel free to finally contact me to resolve this.

These guys are scammers! Don't go with them. I agree with all the 1 star reviews!

I have been working in the solar industry for over ten years I highly recommend NOT to go solar with Sopris Solar, work with them, or work for them. There are so many reputable and trustworthy solar companies in Colorado--Photon Brothers, Namaste, Sunrun, Auric Energy, etc.--that are doing great work for their customers and the solar industry, Sopris Solar is not one of them. As an employee of Sopris Solar I had the misfortune of witnessing the company engage in many distasteful practices including writing fake five-star reviews, damaging customer's homes during installation, lying and treating customers poorly in general, and the overall mismanagement of the company.

The company owes me over $15,000, but I am not writing this review as a disgruntled former employee--I am just one of many former employees who are owed a lot of money by Sopris Solar. Since filing a suit with the District Court of Denver in August, the company has not responded, although they are still paying somebody to post fake reviews online in order to "bury" the real reviews from real customers. (Many of the 5-star reviews are fake people with fake Facebook accounts, and do not exist in the company's customer database or in real life.)

I realize that by posting this review it is even less likely that I'll get paid the money I'm owed. If they aren't paying their employees or responding to lawsuits filed against them, ignoring their debts and risking their good standing, it is likely they are headed towards bankruptcy. Of course, I'd love to get paid what they owe me, but it's more important to me that the solar industry continues to grow and that companies like Sopris Solar stop doing poor work and giving the industry a bad name.

By sharing my experience, I hope to discourage homeowners from choosing to work with a solar company that is evidently bound for bankruptcy and will continue to do poor work and treat customers poorly on their way down. At best, I hope this review will encourage Sopris Solar to pay their former employees and start doing a better job for the sake of their customers and the industry. At the very least, I hope it will prevent potential solar customers from making the wrong choice and having a bad experience going solar. Either way, I do not recommend Sopris Solar.

Like other reviewers, I had problems all along, from 6 month breaks in communication to shoddy work, numerous reworks on contracts, permits, even loans (4 tries to get that one right) which culminated in a working (if underperforming) pv system, no nest, no light bulbs, and a lien against my house. Thats right, they do not pay subs and you will end up with a big fat MECHANICS LIEN against your title. I don't know what kind of shady stuff this guy is doing with all the money, but its gone now, law suits are flying left and right (there are at least 13 others atm) civil, criminal, you name it. STAY AWAY FROM SOPRIS SOLAR!

Scott and Nathan did not meet even the worst case contract timelines. While my system is finally working, I still have hardware/panel mounting pieces falling off the roof every few days. They owe me money for the trench work I performed when they could not do the work: they have been talking about paying it since June 2019, including the most recent promise to pay by the end of August: nothing. It was a good design including 60 panels grid tied to two separate meters/junction boxes, extended to a third box in my new barn with a trench run of 500'. I would rate them higher if they hadn't wasted June, July and August-peak solar production months-where I gained no benefit from my panels (that were installed and wired.) Now all the install work was in theory completed by 5 June. My panels were installed in April, wired by 5 June--had to harass them to get the permits approved and meters installed by June 27. First time all arrays worked was 30 Aug: took them two months to verify the system worked from the time everything was done. I gave them the benefit of the doubt all this time because of sub-contractor issues-but not my problem. Scott tells me the Mechanics Lien on my house has been resolved-but I've been told a lot of things over the past year. Were they to pay me what is owed I would probably rate them better-but I still have mount hardware falling off my roof.

I did get the system installed (April 2019), but several months later than expected, and after much hassle. This system works, but there are some things I have asked to have rectified -- things that would have been prevented by taking 5 minutes to ask my opinion before / during the installation. I've had multiple "senior" people at the company ensure me it would get done "this week", but now 4 months later, nothing has been done and communication has completely stopped.

Not good leaving people hanging your contract company is putting liens on people's home and no one at your company is returning our phone calls now your partner says he no longer works for your company your salesperson no longer works for your company our attorney will be contacting you

After dealing with an amazingly helpful sales rep, the actual installer/contractor won't return calls or email. go somewhere else. No communication from anyone other than the sales rep. He is helping me get my install through another contractor and is frustrated as well.

So I signed my contract on 09/17/2018. Since that time I think I was forgotten. For some reason all of the good reviews are from Denver area homes, I am in the mountains and I don't think this company actually does installations in the mountains. I have had excuses like permits were not approved by the town, parts are on back order. But I have a neighbor that got his installation done in 4 weeks, start to finish. Doesn't seem like an issue with the town. Again, maybe they are great for the Denver installs, but in the Colorado mountains I would chose someone else.

Incompetent liars. Don’t waste your time or money with them. All they will do is lie and screw up every single step. They will tell you they will install a Nest thermostat and replace your incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs. They won’t do either without continued insistence from you. They’ll say they will submit your permit to your city after you approve the design; then it will be 1-6 weeks for the city to approve the design. They will submit the design you approved, 4 weeks after you approve the design. After that, then it will be 1-6 weeks. They will tell you the system will be operational in 2 months – it will take several months of headaches to get them to do their job, if ever. You will have to repeatedly contact them to get them to schedule appointments, submit permits, etc. They will show up 5 hours late to an appointment due to missing parts; and they still won’t have all the parts. They will have to come back the next day to finish the job forcing you to take another day off work. They will schedule multiple appointments and not show up, call, or contact you in any way. You like wasting multiple vacation days due to the screw ups of other people right? Sopris will say they know how to handle permits in your city – they won’t. The owner doesn’t care about customer service, he will never contact you. If you get a loan you will be paying on the loan for 6 months and still have an electric bill because the system won’t be operational. After the panels sit on your roof, non-functional, for 2.5 months they will need to be removed for inspection (remember when I said they don’t know how inspections work in your city?). After the panels are removed they will sit in your garage for weeks before they will come out to put them back up. Once they finally come back to reinstall the panels, they won’t be able to because they broke a cable when taking the panels off. It will take Sopris 2 weeks to order the replacement cable (not 2 weeks for the cable to come in, 2 weeks for them just to order it). Sopris will say the installers are not incompetent, that cable breaks often. If it breaks so often, why does Sopris not have spares on hand (nope no incompetence found there)? After the cable comes in, then the panels can be put back on your roof. Then, eventually, Sopris will schedule the final inspection on your system. Final inspection will fail because installers did not secure wires under the panels properly. Sopris will come out to secure wires. Next inspection will also fail because Sopris did not secure all the wires because they are completely incompetent. So the inspector will have to come out for a 5th time. And after only 8 months, 12 days of missed work, you too might have a technically operational system. You’ll still have to remind Sopris to submit permits to your power company to get a new meter installed. Sopris will say they will do this, weeks will pass by, and you’ll hear nothing from your power company. You’ll contact your power company to learn that (big surprise) Sopris, once again, has not done their job. At least I only had to email Sopris twice (to do something they should have done 3 weeks ago) before they submitted the paper work to my power company. I’m highly suspicious of all the good reviews. Only thing Sopris is good at is literally screwing up every single step of the process. If I could get a refund I would. Sopris will rarely answer your calls, return your calls, or return email. I had to file complaints with the CO attorney general and the BBB just to get them to call me.

As a skeptical "old lady" I wasn't too sure about solar panels, nor did I know much about it - but I'm so glad about my choice to go solar and save money with Sopris Solar. I received outstanding service and all the employees were extremely helpful and courteous. (especially Nathan and Tom) Naturally, I had a LOT of questions (things about net metering, financing, roof repair. . . etc.) and they were all candidly answered without pressure before I made my decision. It's been over a year and everything has been perfect. Thank you Sopris Solar. - (They also did some minor roof repairs for me that were great, needed, and affordable).

We could not be more pleased with the level of service we received from Sopris Solar. The sales staff was outstanding and really made sure we understood everything. Everyone we worked with - including the installation crew was friendly and professional. Our representative handled all the paperwork and after our panels were up they checked in on us to make sure we were doing okay. We couldn't be happier with our decision to use Sopris Solar for our business solar needs. Highly recommended.

This company was very good the whole way through until they royally screwed it up in the end. It turns out they installed my system before they even had a permit from the County to do the work. Now I've paid thousands of dollars for an entire solar system and I can't get anyone to come out to do an inspection because there was no permit. Because I can't get the system inspected I can't have it turned on and all I get is the run around from the company. Sopris Solar sucks. Don't use them.

These guys are total professionals! Our neighbors used Sopris Solar and recommended them to us after they had a great experience and everything was awesome. Our initial meetings with the sales staff were clear and Nathan thoroughly explained the entire process. We did not feel pressured at all. The installation was fast, clean, and quiet. We have two little ones at home so we were concerned about noise/mess/general disruption. Everything went smoothly and on schedule. Sopris Solar is excellent - highly recommended.

From our initial consultation to installation and follow-up, Sopris Solar has 100% had our back. There were no questions left unanswered and Nathan even reached out to us on his days off to make sure we were happy. Our main concern was the installation process (possible noise, mess. . .etc.), but the install was so neat and clean and FAST! - And all the workers were awesome to our dogs!

We knew we wanted solar panels but were not sure what company to go with. I contacted Sopris Solar because of their good online reviews (google, energysage, solar reviews, facebook...etc). I was talking with two other companies and Sopris Solar was not pushy even after I told them I needed more time to research. We eventually chose Sopris because they were local and they knew everything about the net-metering in our area and helped us figure out financing without any pressure. Installation was fast and clean. We only paid about $8 a month to Xcel at first and now we pay nothing. Panels paid for themselves. (We got Upsolar panels)

The entire process with Sopris Solar was fast and smooth. Had a residential solar panel system installed and bought Upsolar model UP-M300M-B panels. I have not had any problems. Had a bad hail storm in Colorado last March and not a single panel was damaged. Efficiency is the same if not more than a different panel system and installer that my cousin used and Sopris Solar was cheaper. 100% satisfied and highly recommended. Sales guys were great too!

Sopris Solar was great. Even though I was referred to this company by a neighbor, I did my fair share of research and decided on Sopris after talking to 4 other installers. Sales process was honest and to the point, installation was flawless, and Nathan and his customer service team was exemplary. The panels installed were Upsolar (UP-M300M-B) and they were better priced than other offers and exceeded the efficiency that was averaged. I no longer have an electricity bill and my panels went thru a terrible hail storm without any damage so I know that they are top-tier.

My husband wanted to get solar panels in order to save money on our utility bills. He contacted two other companies and ended up choosing to go with Sopris because of good reviews and because the other company had pushy sales people. I had NO CLUE about anything having to do with solar energy, but Sopris Solar was so great at answering my questions (as stupid as some were) and the entire staff was really nice and helpful. We have a medium sized home and at the end of the day we went with Upsolar 300Watt panels. The efficiency is top notch and we got a rebate check at the end of the year from Xcel. Sopris still checks in with us to make sure we are happy and we have NO COMPLAINTS! If you are thinking about getting panels, I would recommend calling Sopris Solar. They made me feel very comfortable about our decision.

Sopris Solar is a group of true professionals. I did not feel pressured by anyone on the sales team and everyone was extremely knowledgeable. I went with 300 Watt Upsolar Panels (UP-M300M-B) and they are very efficient and look great. The installation process was quick and clean.

I was hesitant about solar panel installation, but Nathan and the team at Sopris Solar were very patient with me and answered every single question I had without any pressure. Even after installation, the customer service has been incredible. The panels on my home look very sleek and there has been no hassle with Xcel energy and I've saved the money that was estimated. Very happy with Sopris Solar.

I was recommended to Sopris from a guy at work. I did my fair share of research and decided to give them a shot. They were excellent to work with- high quality equipment and professional all the way thru. They also had a lot of options as far as panels go.

Nathan and his crew were great to work with. Everything was very straight forward. Our panels look great and we are saving money. Highly recommended!

My family is 100% satisfied with Sopris Solar. The installation process was quiet and seamless. The entire staff was wonderful to work with. All of our questions were clearly answered and we couldn't be happier with our choice. We are also saving money at the amount we projected.

What I like the most about Sopris Solar is the after sale support. They have been very helpful in maintaining the panels and they have provided me with the perfect support. I am no technical experts in managing these things. These guys have helped me from the start and helping me to maintain it properly. The money I spent here is totally worth it.

Sopris Solar deserves 5 stars. They have been excellent in the communication, quality of service and professionalism. The after sale support is top notch. If someone is looking for solar solutions, Sopris Solar is the way to go. They have been amazing right from the start. I am so happy that I chose them. They provide perfect solar power solutions.

I never thought I would be able to find a good solar energy company to meet all of my requirements. Sopris Solar has some excellent services and I selected them because they have good positive reviews. I researched the company and checked the references of their satisfied clients. I immediately decided that I should hire them. They gave me perfect solution according to my requirements and I am so glad that I chose them.