The NBC Connecticut Responds Hotline helped put money back in viewer George Hunkele’s pocket. He’d been fighting for a refund from solar energy company, Solar City.
He told our Consumer Investigative team that he “found out he was being charged 1200 kilowatts over his agreed rate” for his solar panels.
In an email sent to Solar City, Hunkele, of Hartford, said “As I got my bill info over the phone I was told that this was for 1600 kw and the powerguide says I made only 400-500 kw which is one third of the bill number.”
Through multiple calls and emails with the company, he says he learned there was a malfunction with his monitoring system.
In another email sent to Solar City, he said “I should not be accountable for production that does not match the monitoring system you provided at a time when the entire array was not working right- your technician's words not mine.”
Two weeks later, Solar City agreed to credit George on his next bill for the energy he did not produce. He told them that still didn’t cover what he says he was overcharged.
So he reached out to the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, who then ordered the company to pay the customer $260 for what he was overcharged. Even after that, Hunkele said he still never received that refund.
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When our consumer team reached out to Solar City, the company agreed to refund Hunkele the $260 he was owed, which he now has in his pocket.
We still wanted to know though, why he was overcharged.
“The inverter installed at Mr. Hunkele’s home was not communicating with the monitoring system. Inverter monitoring failures are rare, but we corrected it and compensated the customer to his satisfaction," a spokesperson for Solar City said in a statement.
