A NASTY EXPERIENCE : DO NOT TOUCH SOLAR 4 AFRICA

Harbass · January 17, 2021

The Solar System that I ordered and paid for from SOLAR 4 AFRICA/Mr TYRON TRIETSCH on 21 December 2020 was the 2kW Complete Portable Sub-Station Solar Power System valued at R12,900.00 and this according to the web site and WhatsApp messages should have consisted of the following:-

1 x 200W Solar Panel.

1 x 20A Regulator.

2 x 100Ah Batteries.

1 x 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter.

10m of 4mm Solar Cable Red.

10m of 4mm Solar Cable Black.

10m of 4mm Solar Grounding cable.

MC4 Connectors, Battery Cables (Red & Black) of suitable length, various Lugs, battery connectors, fuses, fuse holders, Cables (Red & Black) to connect to the Inverter.

In other words a Complete Kit ready to be assembled & commissioned.

The goods that were delivered to me were:-

1 x 100W Solar Panel.

1 x 20A Regulator (Solar Charge Controller).

1 x 100Ah Battery with Dual Red & Black connector pods.

1 x 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter not in a box and without a Manual.

2 x Battery Cables (Red & Black) of 50cm length with bulldog clips.

4 x Fuses.

I notice that prices and specifications of his Portable Sub-Station systems are different to that on his website. So you don’t know what you will get when the system is delivered to you. Another reason why you should not do business with this company.

The battery I received is a Leoch BCI 31AT-800 12V 100Ah AUTOMOTIVE battery which will last 1-3 months if used in a solar application. It is totally the wrong battery for any solar PV system.

Tyron Trietsch offered (21 December 2020) to organise The Courier Guy to deliver the order to me. In spite of many assurances from him nothing arrived and both The Courier Guy & their express delivery company Xpress Online Courier had no record of ever dealing with Solar 4 Africa or Mr Tyron Trietsch.

On 4 January 2021 Mr Tyron Trietsch asked me to organise a courier at my expense and he would refund me the R650.00 courier fee paid on the invoice. As of 15 January 2021 I have not received the refund.

Mr Tyron Trietsch has not responded to my email and WhatsApp messages sent 11 – 15 January 2021.

My courier, Star Express, delivered the goods to my address in Somerset West on Monday 11 January 2021.

SOLAR 4 AFRICA OR Mr TYRON TRIETSCH can be contacted on email [email protected] or Cell & WharsApp: 081 525 3464 or https://www.solar4africa.co.za. His invoice has his address as Solar 4 Africa, Tyron, Tyron T, Edenvale, Gauteng 1426, South Africa. The pickup address is 20 Welkom Street, Klopper Park, Germiston 1426 (same post code as for the Edenvale address!!).

lexor · January 23, 2021

May I suggest that you also place this negative review on HelloPeter to warn more potential victims.

https://www.hellopeter.com/

Also consider taking the owner to the small claims court.

Yellow Measure · January 23, 2021

On 2021/01/17 at 8:25 AM, Harbass said:

The Solar System that I ordered and paid for from SOLAR 4 AFRICA/Mr TYRON TRIETSCH on 21 December 2020 was the 2kW Complete Portable Sub-Station Solar Power System valued at R12,900.00 and this according to the web site and WhatsApp messages should have consisted of the following:-

1 x 200W Solar Panel.

1 x 20A Regulator.

2 x 100Ah Batteries.

1 x 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter.

10m of 4mm Solar Cable Red.

10m of 4mm Solar Cable Black.

10m of 4mm Solar Grounding cable.

MC4 Connectors, Battery Cables (Red & Black) of suitable length, various Lugs, battery connectors, fuses, fuse holders, Cables (Red & Black) to connect to the Inverter.

In other words a Complete Kit ready to be assembled & commissioned.

The goods that were delivered to me were:-

1 x 100W Solar Panel.

1 x 20A Regulator (Solar Charge Controller).

1 x 100Ah Battery with Dual Red & Black connector pods.

1 x 2000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter not in a box and without a Manual.

2 x Battery Cables (Red & Black) of 50cm length with bulldog clips.

4 x Fuses.

I notice that prices and specifications of his Portable Sub-Station systems are different to that on his website. So you don’t know what you will get when the system is delivered to you. Another reason why you should not do business with this company.

The battery I received is a Leoch BCI 31AT-800 12V 100Ah AUTOMOTIVE battery which will last 1-3 months if used in a solar application. It is totally the wrong battery for any solar PV system.

Tyron Trietsch offered (21 December 2020) to organise The Courier Guy to deliver the order to me. In spite of many assurances from him nothing arrived and both The Courier Guy & their express delivery company Xpress Online Courier had no record of ever dealing with Solar 4 Africa or Mr Tyron Trietsch.

On 4 January 2021 Mr Tyron Trietsch asked me to organise a courier at my expense and he would refund me the R650.00 courier fee paid on the invoice. As of 15 January 2021 I have not received the refund.

Mr Tyron Trietsch has not responded to my email and WhatsApp messages sent 11 – 15 January 2021.

My courier, Star Express, delivered the goods to my address in Somerset West on Monday 11 January 2021.

SOLAR 4 AFRICA OR Mr TYRON TRIETSCH can be contacted on email [email protected] or Cell & WharsApp: 081 525 3464 or https://www.solar4africa.co.za. His invoice has his address as Solar 4 Africa, Tyron, Tyron T, Edenvale, Gauteng 1426, South Africa. The pickup address is 20 Welkom Street, Klopper Park, Germiston 1426 (same post code as for the Edenvale address!!).

How did you pay, by credit card? If so, and if I were you, I would simply return it and request a refund..., if nothing forthcoming, lean on the bank to reverse the transaction/s.

The website (https://www.solar4africa.co.za) and number (081 525 3464) is listed on Facebook with many complaints, and one or two good ones that appear to be bots / fake accounts:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/solarforafrica/reviews/

They don't use Google in their marketing at all, and then there's a seemingly legitimate business in Pretoria with a similar sounding name, that has no website or domain name associated. This may or may not be a decoy..., but IMHO who provides a google listing without a domain name? To what purpose? 012 329 7355 is listed in Truecaller as "Solar Africa", not "Solar For Africa".

And a whole lot of adverts using fairly low-key sites. Tons of them...

http://kempton-park.southafricanlisted.com/garden-house/inverters-at-cost-price-081-525-3464_1488690.html

http://www.findglocal.com/ZA/Johannesburg/1643145932582271/Solar-4-Africa

https://www.gumtree.co.za/s-inverter+pure+sine+wave+inverters/v1q0p1

http://solar4africa.co.za.bitverzo.com/

https://www.apollo.io/companies/Hotpools/55698e6773696425c0745700?chart=count

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2BQiuG1Ne4YJ:https://www.howzit.co.za/a/wanted/edenvale/235628/new-600w-pure-sine-wave-inverter-12v-on-special-at-r169000-081-525-3464.html+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=za&client=firefox-b-d

https://www.clasf.co.za/solar-power-complete-kit-system-12kw-r750000-081-in-johannesburg-2008324/

And piggy back marketing on some sites:

https://www.tuugo.co.za/Companies/off-the-grid-solar/0260003601872

https://www.bouwcentercollier.be/71fj0c

Warnings of potential scam here:

http://websites.milonic.com/solar4africa.co.za

and here (you might want to do a review :-))

https://www.scamadviser.com/check-website/solar4africa.co.za

To me it is quite clear, they "fly under the radar" with advertising, and where this is impossible (like with Facebook) they use fake accounts / bots to keep reviews high. One has to wonder why a legitimate company would want do this, and what their motivation is.

Their domain has all of the info redacted to the public, registered in 2015. https://coza.net.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=solar4africa&Enter=Enter

They currently host their website in South Africa with 1grid.com, or Grid-1.com (the old Webafrica, not exactly renowned for their great service).

https://talosintelligence.com/reputation_center/lookup?search=41.185.8.122&__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=6d558681d4f6a8c469aa76dd92cc56908a52e1cf-1611392213-0-AXgdA8NfRWhErC9EE3kfp1TvYPkAGbhYaax2TXM3bB1ZDjD0POmXLLKFGj6ryufaBDO25Qn_5rH6sJsKfc8fCMK8mdtyZQNQfndyheF4ZYkzoQyG79iQ_x1jwjyMDXLc7MYNnRIoqkDPWZvsLrjEruc07D8H7q_xZGFh4P9u49R8C7qrqoLCG4HrnR3_U5iu1Vcp5Su3dp8vGz056cae6hYIjY3E3teJjeU8fPUljepO5MB9Xv7PFF92Hm4PDhe5PxgYiLIxtQVvFOd7n17GhaP4vjhmHL63TO5QocfxtdYBMolj9apaEdixUDOeYJZaJ_WTVWPJDnk8o9Djt53QMFg_WOkTLB_uU3ixYEhCK6d6cZ-CGhiGm4Bl2ez28mCd_Yw8FiMvFZWbpJ1y44eqjP9dt2EYLdslauyPXu9a8fqI#whois

https://hostings.info/1-grid-com.html#reviews_user_h

Their email is also handled by 1-Grid:

solar4africa.co.za      MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = 1-grid-mx04.com
solar4africa.co.za      MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = 1-grid-mx01.co.za
solar4africa.co.za      MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = 1-grid-mx02.com
solar4africa.co.za      MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = 1-grid-mx03.co.za

Edited January 23, 2021 by YellowTapemeasure

Yellow Measure · January 23, 2021

Looking a bit closer at the Facebook marketing posts (which appear to have ended sometime in 2019), they state:

"Check The Photos To See Our Workmanship"

So do these photographs look like they are of South African homes?

Why do they not look South African?

Is it because the roof pitch is very high (like those in cold Northern hemisphere countries that get snow in winter)?

Or is it because they mostly seem to have chimneys?

And if they are fake, of homes in other countries, why would a legitimate South African business want to put up photographs of them and pass them off as examples of their own workmanship?

Caveat Emptor.

Edited January 23, 2021 by YellowTapemeasure