Thirty thousand customers, the possibility of more than $140 million lost, dozens of lawsuits and one solar panel company behind it all.
In October, we told you about Pink Energy and the families in Western North Carolina who said they were scammed.
They believe they were sold solar panels for their homes that never truly worked and are now stuck paying off massive loans.
Since that story, News 13 has continued to follow the case through court and hear from even more victims.
'I FEEL LIKE IT'S JUST FOR LOOKS'
With sunlight covering his mountainside home all day, Justin Leblanc thought solar panels would be an easy and smart investment.
"I only needed a minimum size system to offset all my needs," said Leblanc.
Like so many others, Leblanc bought panels from Power Home Solar and now regrets that decision.
"It's very very stressful. I've lost many hours of sleep and many hours of my day, and lost a lot of money as well trying to fight this," said Leblanc.
He says the 13 panels on his roof are totally worthless, and "just for looks."
Leblanc says the problems started during what he calls a sloppy installation in 2021. He even has pictures and videos of the crews working on his roof. He says panels were supposed to be installed in one day, but it took three.
Once the system was in, Leblanc says it never worked, giving him zero savings on his electric bills. He showed us the contract promising that 99% of his electric bill would be covered.
Leblanc says he did receive a few reimbursement checks, but he's still owed about five months worth that were never sent.
"It's very hard. I've contemplated if I've wanted to stop payment or how it's going to affect me financially or it could destroy my credit," he said.
He says it also doesn't provide him the battery back up he'd been promised.
Which is why he drove to the federal courthouse in Charlotte in November to attend a bankruptcy hearing for the company he believes scammed him and thousands of others.
"I think it was worth it, a little drive, just to be in the fight to confront the CEO himself and have an opportunity to talk to him and ask him and see what he's saying," said Leblanc.
Pink Energy, formerly Power Home Solar, filed for bankruptcy on October 7, saying the widespread system failures led to an overwhelming amount of customer service calls.
Leblanc was one of several upset customers at the hearing who was able to question the man behind Pink Energy, CEO Jayson Waller, face to face. He said Waller showed no signs of remorse.
"No, it just seemed like he was just putting on a front," said LeBlanc.
Leblanc told News 13 that Waller's main response was that the issues fall back on the company that supplied Pink Energy some of the solar panels parts.
"He just kept pushing it back on Generac saying they're waiting on the lawsuit before they can pay back anything," said Leblanc.
"I'M SORRY TO ALL CUSTOMERS"
News 13 reached out to Jayson Waller online. He responded with a long email, including links to court documents and videos.
Waller did apologize, saying "I’m so sorry to all customers with any and all issues" and admitting "we made some mistakes on our own..."
But, he says "almost every system underproducing is because of the firmware and Snap RS." That's a reference to the parts supplied by Generac.
Back in August, Pink Energy filed a lawsuit against Generac, for $190 million. Waller maintains that Generac's faulty product caused thousands of their systems to fail, leading to bankruptcy.
He says the money won in that lawsuit would be used to "to pay each customer and vendor with a claim." But the lawsuits are on hold as the bankruptcy case moves through court.
In a recent filing, News 13 learned just how much money could be claimed against Pink Energy and how much the company claims its assets are worth.
According to the document, claims against Pink Energy are estimated at numbers $142,864,467.91. In the records, Pink Energy says it's personal property assets only total $3,990,327.09.
Leblanc says it's going to be an uphill battle for victims to get back what was lost.
"I'm a fighter so I'm going to keep going through it and it's not a small matter for me or thousands of other people, so it's upsetting... I think the reality is that not everyone will get 100 percent compensation," said Leblanc.
"WE ARE GOING TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN"
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein says their investigation into Pink Energy continues as they learn new information. At last check, his office had received 535 complaints against the solar company.
"People are upset about false promises and advertising, they're upset about untimely and improper installation, and these are big ticket items these solar systems," Stein said.
Stein says his office is now watching the court case unfold as the investigation into Pink Energy continues.
"In the bankruptcy process there will be a review of what assets are available, either in the company itself, or if the companies have co-mingled their assets with the principals themselves and so that process has to work itself out. Our hope is there are sufficient assets to resolve the disputes that folks legitimately have," said Stein.
The attorney general says anyone who feels like they were scammed by Pink Energy or Power Home Solar should call his office for advice.
"It depends on what the issue is. If they think they've been ripped off, they should talk to a private attorney to see what their rights in bankruptcy might be. If it has to do with the financing, they should reach out to the lender to get some kind of resolution, and if it has to do with the machine not working, contact the manufacturer because perhaps they will have some kind of a resolution," said Stein.
Stein also joined other attorneys general in asking the loan companies to stop collecting payments on solar panels that don't work.
"We ask that these consumers’ payment obligations be suspended until an investigation into the individual consumers’ complaints can be completed," said Stein.
NEW COMPANIES
News 13 also learned that former Pink Energy leaders have started new solar companies in other locations, like LightSkye Energy.
We reached out to LightSkye for a comment, but didn't hear back.
Leblanc says it was heated in court when that information was revealed.
"They're trying to disconnect any ties there possibly could be but it's really hard when you have executives from one company going bankrupt starting another company with a similar business model," said Leblanc.
News 13 what Stein's office could do to stop solar scams from taking more victims under different names.
"Well that's part of our investigation. We want to know who made the decisions, what were the consequences, and are they going to try to do this again? And depending on what we conclude in our investigation, we may take legal action," said Stein.
If you think you've been a victim of Pink Energy, you can all the consumer hotline toll free within North Carolina at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or (919) 716-6000. You can also file a consumer complaint online HERE.
COMPLETE RESPONSES FROM PINK ENERGY AND GENERAC
Here is the entire statement sent from Pink Energy CEO Jayson Waller:
Karen unfortunately I wish there was more we could have done. I assure you we tried and fought hard to stay open. We were able to manage the normal service issues month over month and year over year with our growth and maintain an A+ and maintain great service and products for our customers.
When the tens of thousands of customers were failing due to the firmware update early 2022 (because the 801 Snap RS)that made them partially work and produce less. This created over 30,000 phones calls in one month where we averaged about 800 a month normally.
I assure you we did not forget to sell or install solar the correct way. Yes we have made some mistakes and some systems aren’t a Generac issue it would be a pink issue but that percentage of the issues is very small. Almost every system underproducing is because of the firmware and Snap RS.
All our resources were used for the tens of thousands of systems that didn’t work due to failure of the snap RS. That made the issues we are responsible for escalated and not handled in a timely matter. As you will see in the Pink lawsuit vs Generac and now 2 yes 2 class action lawsuits against (consumers) Generac this is a major issue. Infact the Florida class came from other installers customers not Pink Energy.
We were not operating in Florida.
I’m so sorry to all customers with any and all issues. I assure you if a national recall was done we could have handled our normal few hundred service tickets a month and continued to provide a great service to these customers. But the fact is this wave of ten thousand plus overnight not working,failing, and not producing dried the company resources out. What people aren’t seeing is that we really tried to make it right and have always tried to do the right thing. This was crippling and Generac lied to us and lied to the consumers about the product.
The executive not only went off payroll in April but put in several million dollars to cover payroll and expenses at the end.
My only hope now is each and every customer with an issue or a claim will file a claim in this Bankruptcy and that in this bankruptcy the trustee doesn’t settle early and wins this case Vs Generac for several hundred million dollars to pay each customer and vendor with a claim.
We made some mistakes on our own for sure but they were manageable as they always have been until this catastrophic failure of parts happened.
I also will say this the almost 40,000 customers chose us because we had the best reviews and did the best job for the existence of our company. 7+ years A+ at the BBB in all locations and solar installed at 5 NFL stadiums and almost 40,000 customers. We didn’t have these AG issues or Bad news reports till March when we started to see the tens of thousands of failing systems.
Do the right thing and report the real news.
Here is Pink Energy's official response to the Generac issues and employee training guide.
In a previous report, Generac provided this statement to News 13:
In certain situations, especially when product installation guidelines have not been followed, as appears to be the case with some Pink Energy installations, customers may have experienced certain issues with a particular Generac component of their solar energy system – the SnapRS 801 or 801A. We have introduced a new next-generation rapid shutdown device, which has been designed and engineered to the highest reliability standards. We are committed to getting those upgrades and warranty replacements taken care of as quickly as possible and those steps are well underway.
Generac is a leading manufacturer of solar + storage solutions, and we sell our products to a wide range of distributors and solar contractors. (It is important to note that Generac does not manufacturer, offer or sell any solar panels.) We’ve been in business for more than 60 years, and we’ve done that by standing by our promises and products.
We are aware of Pink Energy’s recent Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. Over the past few weeks, we have already contracted with high-quality third-party providers to perform warranty services on Generac’s products, now that Pink Energy will no longer be providing this service to its customers.
We understand that consumers are frustrated with Pink Energy and their inaction. However, Generac remains committed to our customers. Customers with questions about the Generac components of their solar systems can reach out to solarsupport@generac.com or 1-800-396-1281 for assistance.
We ask for your patience as we work to assist customers as quickly as possible.
News 13 will continue to follow this case. If you have an issues you'd like to Help Desk to investigate, email us at iteam@wlos.com.