Good morning,

Has anybody maybe had interactions with the company "RV Solar Solutions" operating in the Cape town area? The owner is Ricardo. 

https://www.rvsolarsolutions.co.za/

I am about to use them for an installation, and just hoping for some feedback before pulling the trigger. They seem very clued up and professional, but it never hurts to check personal experience. 

@LongFielddid you go ahead with RVSOLARSOLUTIONS and what was your experience. 

Good morning @AndrewJdc @LongField we are also considering to go with rvsolarsolutions for a solar installation. Can you recommend them? Thank you Michael 

Hi @Michael_48, I have been running after RV solar to come and do my install since December last year.  At first I wasn't sure if they existed or not.  I managed to track down some random people on Facebook who generally had a good opinion.  However, it did appear that he is somewhat unorganised but good installer. (all 3 unrelated people said this) 

 

I drove to their office and can confirm that they exist in Capricorn Park Muizenberg.  I had to literally beg them to come and do a site inspection to confirm the quote.  I eventually went to go fetch Ricardo's brother myself and take him to my house to conduct inspection in my car.  The brother confirmed that I can only fit 8 panels on my roof as opposed to 10.  I contacted Ricardo to ask if he was briefed by his brother concerning my install.  That was 25 Jan 2023.  To date he has not come back to me.  My thoughts:  why am I running after someone to take my R200 000?

It was a done deal but he messed it up.  He was gona install 8kw sunsynk inverter, 2 batteries and 10 panels.  He had best price.  In his defence I think he is just overwhelmed with the amount of work.  

The additional problem that could arise is if after-install support is needed....

Please note that I don't now this compony or person.

Only seeing a lot of installs being done by them on Facebook.

Maybe contact them

Thorne Solar Installations

http://www.thornesolar.co.za/

Hi @Michael_48, I have been running after RV solar to come and do my install since December last year.  At first I wasn't sure if they existed or not.  I managed to track down some random people on Facebook who generally had a good opinion.  However, it did appear that he is somewhat unorganised but good installer. (all 3 unrelated people said this) 

 

I drove to their office and can confirm that they exist in Capricorn Park Muizenberg.  I had to literally beg them to come and do a site inspection to confirm the quote.  I eventually went to go fetch Ricardo's brother myself and take him to my house to conduct inspection in my car.  The brother confirmed that I can only fit 8 panels on my roof as opposed to 10.  I contacted Ricardo to ask if he was briefed by his brother concerning my install.  That was 25 Jan 2023.  To date he has not come back to me.  My thoughts:  why am I running after someone to take my R200 000?

It was a done deal but he messed it up.  He was gona install 8kw sunsynk inverter, 2 batteries and 10 panels.  He had best price.  In his defence I think he is just overwhelmed with the amount of work.  

7 hours ago, Michael_48 said:

Good morning @AndrewJdc @LongField we are also considering to go with rvsolarsolutions for a solar installation. Can you recommend them? Thank you Michael 

Hi. I had my installation done by Ricardo. Amazing product and service. I've referred him to another colleague and they've been quoted and installation will take place shortly. After sales service is excellent as he would make sure that your needs, queries are attended to. Since the demand for alternative energy is high currently, I would expect that he is very busy...but he still manages to get back to his current clients when he is needed. I am very happy with the solution he proposed and will recommend his services to any one in need of good quality. 

1 hour ago, Tania said:

Hi. I had my installation done by Ricardo. Amazing product and service. I've referred him to another colleague and they've been quoted and installation will take place shortly. After sales service is excellent as he would make sure that your needs, queries are attended to. Since the demand for alternative energy is high currently, I would expect that he is very busy...but he still manages to get back to his current clients when he is needed. I am very happy with the solution he proposed and will recommend his services to any one in need of good quality. 

It is great to get feedback, but the cynic in me questions the fact that you joined just to post this.  Aside from that, based on what do you state the portion in red?

6 hours ago, AndrewJdc said:

.  In his defence I think he is just overwhelmed with the amount of work

Thats his problem, not yours. 

I said it before and I'll say it again,  it's very difficult to get a recommend installer in Cape Town.  Search this forum for installers in Cape Town and you'll find none.  

This is a perfect opportunity for solar businesses to build a brand and not just a quick buck but short sightedness will chose the buck. 

Totally different story with @Leshen and @Steve87.  They always come highly recommended. Also, they so willing to share their experience on this forum, which will stand them in good stead.  
 

7 minutes ago, AndrewJdc said:

I said it before and I'll say it again,  it's very difficult to get a recommend installer in Cape Town.  Search this forum for installers in Cape Town and you'll find none.  

This is a perfect opportunity for solar businesses to build a brand and not just a quick buck but short sightedness will chose the buck. 

Totally different story with @Leshen and @Steve87.  They always come highly recommended. Also, they so willing to share their experience on this forum, which will stand them in good stead.  
 

Thank you for your kind words Andrew. Much appreciated. 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Unit+3,+Urban+Eden+Solar+Energy,+Glenkey+Place,+49+Aviation+Cres,+Airport+City,+Cape+Town,+7525/@-33.9808546,18.5900783,16z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x1dcc5ea65c0540df:0x1bbf3cb2d5ac3ecf!8m2!3d-33.9808546!4d18.5900783!16s%2Fg%2F1tgw797h

 

https://urbaneden.co.za/

 

They look good 

Master installers 

Good reviews on Google maps. Haven't used them obviously 

Simple... ask them about the CT clamp and the neutral earth bond relay.. If they not gonna install these, stay away

Thank you all for your feedback. Seems to be tricky to find a reliable installer while everyone is flooded with requests for solar installations. We will nevertheless try our luck with RVsolarsolutions and will share our experiences in a couple of weeks. 

RV Solar Solutions did my install a couple of months go. I contacted powerforum-store and they recommended RV Solar Solutions.

Ricardo was very responsive in my dealings with him. Came out to do a site inspection within a couple of days. Was open for proposals on where to install the inverter and panels. Quickly received the quote.

Unfortunately was also hampered by the supply shortage but system was installed and working 100%. 

Response to technical questions/issues is not that great. But if you are patient they eventually resolve it.

Only gripe now is I have been waiting for more than a month for the COC and SSEG

TL;DR - electrical installation is good, but aftercare is really bad once all paid up in my experience. Restored faith in aftercare but very long wait, have to have a lot of patience if you're having issues.

02/05/2023 - Updated as after waiting through the long weekend with no responses, Ricardo organised this morning to get me a temporary battery while sending mine back into Hubble for them to look at. Took a lot of messages and ignored calls but eventually organising a temporary 5KWH battery was worth the wait, as I searched all of CT and couldn't find anyone that did hiring or had stock.

RV Solar did my installation for me 2 years ago on 19/04/2021, fitting a Sunsynk 5kw with panels and a Hubble Am2. The initial fitment was not the best as they caused a small leak in my roof, which would be a few drops whenever it rained. However, they returned to try and fix the leak which took them about 4  or 5 trips (the latter of which required lots and lots of phone calls to get them back). I withheld the payment of the SSEG registration, intending to complete it once this was resolved. I eventually fixed the roof leak myself after getting tired of trying to get them back which went on for about 6 months. (The SSEG never got completed as well). I didn't really hold it against them though as the rest of the installation was good and I didn't have any other issues.

Fast forward to this year 22 March 2023, I started having problems with my battery, it would just drop from 40% to 0 in an instant which seems to be a common problem with it so I contacted Ricardo about it over WhatsApp and he responded that it was probably a dead cell and Hubble asked me to bring it in for an assessment. It's now gone just over a month, as of posting this message, since I've tried to arrange for them to disconnect the battery for me to take it in even stating that I'm happy to pay extra for their time to do this. Would not get responses over WhatsApp and seems like when I call, it was ignored and never returned (similar to when I tried to get my leak sorted out).

The closest I got was one of their junior technicians that's come in last week to tell me my settings were wrong (Lithium mode vs AGM V mode - these were unchanged since Ricardo installed them apart from schedule adjustments by myself). Just hours after he changed them, I had load shedding and the battery dropped to 0% 30min in, leaving me in darkness for a 4-hour block. I then tried to get a hold of them so I can reset/make any adjustments so that I could at least get it to last 2 hours for the weekend but still waiting for that as well. Resorted to just leaving it to sit at 100% all the time now which is probably killing the lifespan even further. 

Understand that they are probably super busy making money with new installs and don't really owe me anything as they've been paid already. But even offering to pay them further to get help has gotten me nowhere. Would have been nice just to return my call or a message saying Im busy at the moment or will get to you the next day or something, just a little bit of courtesy after having given them my business in an industry that's now saturated. 1 thing I wish had done when doing the installation was to get some sort of guarantee in writing as I can't really hold them to anything for aftercare as well.

Actually came across this thread looking for alternative help in the forum, if there are any recommendations will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

Edited May 2, 20233 yr by Sumith
Installer responded

I still suspect SSEG  is quoted for but it's never the intention to have it done. It's a case of 1. Consumer ignorance and  2.trust that it will be done,  being exploited. 

I recommend you have your installer starting SSEG whilst waiting for stock.  If they not willing to do that they probably cut corners in doing the install.  

 

SSEG gives some sort of protection to the comsumer that at least install is compliant. Just an observation. 

7 hours ago, Sumith said:

TL;DR - electrical installation is good, but aftercare is really bad once all paid up in my experience.

RV Solar did my installation for me 2 years ago on 19/04/2021, fitting a Sunsynk 5kw with panels and a Hubble Am2. The initial fitment was not the best as they caused a small leak in my roof, which would be a few drops whenever it rained. However, they returned to try and fix the leak which took them about 4  or 5 trips (the latter of which required lots and lots of phone calls to get them back). I withheld the payment of the SSEG registration, intending to complete it once this was resolved. I eventually fixed the roof leak myself after getting tired of trying to get them back which went on for about 6 months. (The SSEG never got completed as well). I didn't really hold it against them though as the rest of the installation was good and I didn't have any other issues.

Fast forward to this year 22 March 2023, I started having problems with my battery, it would just drop from 40% to 0 in an instant which seems to be a common problem with it so I contacted Ricardo about it over WhatsApp and he responded that it was probably a dead cell and Hubble asked me to bring it in for an assessment. It's now gone just over a month, as of posting this message, since I've tried to arrange for them to disconnect the battery for me to take it in even stating that I'm happy to pay extra for their time to do this. Would not get responses over WhatsApp and seems like when I call, it was ignored and never returned (similar to when I tried to get my leak sorted out).

The closest I got was one of their junior technicians that's come in last week to tell me my settings were wrong (Lithium mode vs AGM V mode - these were unchanged since Ricardo installed them apart from schedule adjustments by myself). Just hours after he changed them, I had load shedding and the battery dropped to 0% 30min in, leaving me in darkness for a 4-hour block. I then tried to get a hold of them so I can reset/make any adjustments so that I could at least get it to last 2 hours for the weekend but still waiting for that as well. Resorted to just leaving it to sit at 100% all the time now which is probably killing the lifespan even further. 

Understand that they are probably super busy making money with new installs and don't really owe me anything as they've been paid already. But even offering to pay them further to get help has gotten me nowhere. Would have been nice just to return my call or a message saying Im busy at the moment or will get to you the next day or something, just a little bit of courtesy after having given them my business in an industry that's now saturated. 1 thing I wish had done when doing the installation was to get some sort of guarantee in writing as I can't really hold them to anything for aftercare as well.

Actually came across this thread looking for alternative help in the forum, if there are any recommendations will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

Try thorne.co.za 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/670147713111206/

 

But everyone is super busy these days 

Edited April 27, 20233 yr by abd7

On 2023/04/27 at 8:57 PM, abd7 said:

Try thorne.co.za 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/670147713111206/

 

But everyone is super busy these days 

Messaged them on WhatsApp but still waiting for a response 1 week later. Again though, I think unless it's a new install, these guys don't care about assisting with smaller work that's not going to make them money.

Edited May 2, 20233 yr by Sumith
Removed personal opinion

Try calling 

Hi there.

I will ask Richardo to read this thread.

Sincerely

Jason

26 minutes ago, Energy-Jason said:

Hi there.

I will ask Richardo to read this thread.

Sincerely

Jason

Thanks however they did manage to sort it out today so I've updated my original post as well. Took alot of patience though because I was understanding they're super busy 

Good to hear. They a good reputable company.

Sincerely

Jason

On 2023/05/02 at 7:37 PM, Sumith said:

Thanks however they did manage to sort it out today so I've updated my original post as well. Took alot of patience though because I was understanding they're super busy 

From where I sit - it seems that once the doodoo hits the fan in public forums, suddenly support appears, especially when the founder makes a direct call. Interesting how things work in this messed up world.