SAINT CLOUD, Fla — An Osceola County homeowner claims she’s paying thousands of dollars for a home solar system that doesn’t always work. This is not the first time Action 9 has received complaints about the company she hired, Meraki Solar/Meraki Installers.
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Showing Action 9 her home solar system, Catalina Jaramillo said she thought it would be a good thing, but she now regrets the day she even thought about hiring Meraki to install solar panels on the roof of her Saint Cloud home.
Jaramillo explained, “Because it’s like a way to save money, you know, and to protect the environment, but it’s been the worst decision that we make in our lives.”
When she signed the contract in March of 2022 she said at first the panels were great, but after six months the system stopped working and did not produce power for two-and-a-half months. At the time, it wasn’t bad. She said Meraki provided a gift card with money to cover her solar panel payments.
“They reimburse me what I pay monthly. So, they give me a gift card for that amount of that two-and-a-half months,” Jaramillo said.
The system was back up and running but went down again in July of last year. This time she said it was down for four months. After she sent several emails and made phone calls another company contracted by Meraki came out and replaced 15 panels. She said the system stopped working again a few weeks later and the app she uses to monitor the system doesn’t seem to be working. That makes it difficult to tell when or if the panels are producing power.
In November, Connie White-Carter made similar complaints to Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal.
“I feel jilted. I feel angry. I feel like there was a lot of false promises made,” White-Carter said back then.
After Action started asking questions, a contractor for Meraki replaced the inverter and got her system back up and running. Meraki has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau for unanswered complaints. Catalina Jaramillo believes that rating is fair since she’s had a hard time reaching anyone at Meraki. Plus, she’s now stuck paying for the solar panels and her regular power bills at the same time.
Jeff Deal asked, “What would you say to anybody who’s thinking about getting solar panels from this company?” Catalina Jaramillo answered, “Don’t use them, believe me, is the worst nightmare that you could get involved.”
With more than 22 years left on the loan for the panels, she feels like she’s not getting what she was promised and wants the company to rip up the contract and take the panels back.
So far, Meraki has not responded to Action 9′s inquiries about these cases.