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Comment by tw600040 | Hacker News Reader

I was of the same opinion and had respect for what Tesla stands for and what they do. Until I encountered Tesla Solar. The contracts these guys try to get you into makes Comcast or Exxon Mobil or medical insurance companies feel like saints.They have door to door salesmen who sell this to unsuspecting 80 year olds who don't even understand what they are signing up for

There is a thing called PPA. Usual lease terms is for 20 years or more. No way to get out of them without signing your life away. They make you pay for what it generates, not what you use.. I had to walk away from a really good house just because it came with a Tesla Solar PPA..

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I just directly signed up for Tesla Solar and it's a pretty good deal for me. 10 year financing at 0.99 APR.

I get salespeople at the door almost every day from other solar companies trying to push all sorts of shady contracts but I have never once seen a Tesla salesperson.

> but I have never once seen a Tesla salesperson.

They only have one, you can find him on twitter.

Pretty sure Tesla is/has moved away from those and they were simply a holdover from the solarcity days. I don't see it as an option anymore on the Tesla Solar site.

What are they doing to those who are currently stuck with these horrible 20 year contracts? The one their door to door salesmen sold to unsuspecting seniors without properly explaining the lease terms?

I know what they are doing. They are asking for 35K to get them out of the contract.

are you in one of these contracts?

The sellers of a house I gave an offer for is.

Tesla has no door to door salespeople. That was all SolarCity. Tesla Solar has it's own shortcoming but old contracts are kind of a weird situation that I don't even know what the right solution would be. Obviously they're not going to just wipe them out.

Wouldn't you know SolarCity was run by his cousin/brother who runs it into ground and Musk thinks its appropriate for Tesla to acquire it.

It's hard to know what this means. Insinuation best avoided on the internet!

I think it means SolarCity was run by Elon Musk’s cousin and his cousin’s brother, who ran it into the ground, and then Elon Musk acquired it.

Aaah! I didn't know they were cousins. Thanks.

This is very uninformed.

This person has not actually encountered tesla solar.

If you compared Tesla Solar even to solarcity or ANY of the other players it's actually significantly IMPROVED.

The terms are very public and transparent.

https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/VT_Energy_Purchase...

is an example. Importantly - they will file warranty claims ON YOUR BEHALF if needed - plenty of other installers will just send you on the wild goose chase between panel / inverter warranty handling.

They offer two products where I live, purchase for cash or use a loan.

This is pretty much as vanilla as you get.

> They make you pay for what it generates, not what you use.

It would be a shame if the roof got sufficiently dusty to balance generation and usage.

They have clauses for this in the contract and also penalties for that.

Clearly the solution is to mine Bitcoin with the excess.

What percentage of rooftop solar homes is a net producer? I have a friend in that business at a different company. It would surprise me if even 1% of users produce more power than they consume.

When I put solar on my roof (In Illinois) they were trying to make me net zero overall, or a slight consumer of the grid: the utility net meters, but anything excess I send to the grid is worth zero dollars to me so there is no point in trying to generate extra.

After SolarCity acquisition Tesla have quickly moved away from PPA and sales stands at Home Depot.

These days you can order Tesla solar directly from their website, no third parties involved. And, no PPA.

Out of curiosity was does the amount of that liability? How much more does that add to the price of the house for a buyer?

>"They make you pay for what it generates, not what you use" For the uninitiated, what's the significance between this cost model for a consumer? Do most houses produce much more than they consume? So your paying for something you can't use?

Got an article? ie. were these Solarcity/Tesla employees or just 'contractors' peddling PACE loans[0]?

0: https://youtu.be/zv8ZPFOxJEc

Does anyone know what TSLA is doing with all that data? I think everyone knows now that home power monitoring lets you know every web page visited, every show watched, and every appliance purchased. Who are they selling it to, is there a way to find out? I always wonder when people sign up for solar why this is ok. https://epic.org/privacy/smartgrid/smartgrid.html

Also sudden price increases after not delivering the order on time. It was posted on hn before.

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