Myplanet UK Solar Panels ...... A Warning !!!

gstyle

Hi Everyone,

I hope I can save someone from the same experience.

It all started last week when I received a cold call from My Planet UK Solar, I don't usually answer these calls as I have caller ID but on this occasion it came up as a mobile number so I thought it may be a friend or family. Usually once I know what the call is I say i'm not interested and put the phone down, but for some reason this time I listened. The girl asked if someone could ring me back with a view to having solar panels installed this is where I should have said no but again for some reason I said yes                                                                                                                                                

Someone called me back and arranged for a sales person to come round in the next couple of days again I should have said not interested but again I agreed                                                                                                                                                

A salesman came round a couple of days later and to be fair to him he was pleasant and not pushy at all, he went through everything and it seemed like quite a decent company until it came to the price and this is where the alarm bells should have started ringing.

He gave us a quote for a 1.5kw 6 panel system fully fitted with everything including a geo solo 2 monitor and 20 led light bulbs for £7659 this would be financed by a loan from creation finance over 10 years total cost £11538.40                                                                                                                                                  The price he showed me was between 7659 - about 8500, he said the difference was the quicker we decided and said it didnt matter to him if we bought or not as he still got paid either way (more alarm bells).

I wasn't too worried about the finance because I can pay the whole amount off in a couple of years so wouldn't be paying anywhere near that final amount.

Having done no research and not having any other quotes to go off I agreed and a survey date was set a couple of days later and once that was done an installation date for yesterday was arranged. During this time I should have done the research and cancelled but for some reason I didn't, I have no idea why I didn't I think my brain wasn't functioning correctly !!!

Anyway everything was installed on Tuesday by a couple of polish guys using a ladder and a small amount of temporary scaffolding. To be fair to them they worked all day and left no mess and everything went smoothly.

As i said at the beginning I am angry with myself which is why i wanted to write this, and although very expensive the company has done everything it said it would, It is just annoying how company's can charge twice as much as anyone else and stupid people like me fall for it                                                                                                                                                

I am now stuck with this system and it will probably take me 20 years for it to pay itself off.

I would suggest anyone getting a call from My Planet Uk should definitely say they are not interested as there are much cheaper suppliers supplying the same quality panels.

Anyway sorry for the long post and hopefully it may help someone save some money !!

Cheers.                                                                                                                                        

Nerox

Holy [email protected] that's expensive.

My best mate just had a 3kw - 12 panel system installed for a bit over £5000.

All i can suggest is to learn from your experience and make the most of your free electric!

With a bit of wise usage you will be able to make your system much more worthwhile

gstyle

Cheers Nerox,

Yeah i know, can't believe what an idiot i've been, just need everyone to know about this company so they dont make the same mistake!!

I'm doing my best to make the most of it !

Philly112

Make sure you stagger things like dishwashers and washing machines. So dishwasher on at say 11am, and washing machine at 1pm when the first's finished. Always in the day time, when the sun's highest (most important in the winter, when the sun is not particularly strong). We have a couple of cheap timers which work well. Charge phones etc in the daytime. It's all common sense, just remember that everything 'electrical' you used to do at night you now need to do in the day if you possibly can.
Re the cost, yes you were ripped off, but hey, we all have been at some time. Your system works, so it could have been worse. We spent £9k on a 3kw system 3 years ago, so you can see how much prices have tumbled. But then we benefit from the high FIT, so we make around £1.2k a year from that, with lower energy bills on top.
Cheers and enjoy the lower bills.
Phil

SteveCritten

Gstyle I think you should change the title of this as I think the blame is 70/30 to you. All sales people start high and expect to haggle, yes this was extremely high but perhaps if you questioned it he would have come out with the oh if you book today you will get 50% off. And then not to check how much comparable systems are when he has left is just silly. I am not saying these sorts of sales practices are right as I believe they should give their best price from the start but every body and his dog knows that's not how it works.

gstyle

Steve, the price I paid was with a £1000 discount !!!! and I highly doubt I would have got a 50% discount ! So when you buy something from Asda or Argos they expect you to haggle??

SteveCritten

G I did say I didn't agree with this sort of sales practice and no I don't expect to haggle at Argos or Asda but they do not have salesmen, and they do not use the same techniques to sell their wares. Now if you had said DFS that do use similar techniques then yes I would haggle in there for sure.

killo123

I had a phone call last night & sales woman around this morning from MyPlanet which made me go on net to find out about them & this is how I came across this thread.
I,ve been offered a 2.5KW system of 10 panels costing £10000.
When i asked for all details to be put in writing all I got was an estimation of costs sheet, if I do get the panels I will look into other companys costs as well.
Thanks to this forum i have been pre warned.

SteveCritten

Dont pay more than £3k for a system that size as even that's dear

killo123

Thanks thats interesting will see how much other companies will charge