Solar Guide Reviews 243

Received a call within minutes of posting my request and an email immediately after the call confirming the details of potential installers of solar panels.

We have had confirmation that the 3 companies put forward to us will all be visiting us within days

A very swift and efficient response to my enquiry.

Ian Beattie and his knowledgeable team did a thorough, professional job. had a good in depth discussion about install process and time span. panel fitters arrived as planned spent day one fitting panels. day two Ian and assistant arrived and spent day fitting hardware. job completed that day. no fuss no mess. excellent result.Ian thoroughly knowledgeable about system and running of it. This was a great experience for me and have had follow up contact with Ian to check how things are. All together this was an excellent choice of installers.

With the spiralling popularity of solar panels recently, direct enquiries with solar companies invariably return no response in my experience. By contrast, Solar Guide do at least put you in touch with companies who want your business. They are friendly and helpful.

I dealt with Solar Guide twice. The first time they disappointingly provided only one company, ECH Group. I signed up with them and paid a 25% deposit. Unfortunately they proved to be a poorly managed company and ultimately wasted three months of my time. I would strongly suggest Solar Guide cease referring this company to avoid customer dissatisfaction and damage to their own reputation.

My second dealing with Solar Guide three months after my first experience, proved more successful. This time they referred three companies to us:

Confusingly one was from a company operating under a different name to that offered. However, unlike ECH, they carried out a site survey and were responsive, competitive and helpful.

I was put off the second company by the person claiming to be the owner. His telephone sales patter employed hard sell tactics and inaccurate claims about his company and the components they and other companies do and do not supply, plus the sheer number of pushy emails, texts and follow-up phone calls received.

I’m pleased to say I ended up using the third company, CRG Direct and have absolutely no complaints. From start to finish they did everything the way it should be done, in a friendly, efficient and professional manner for a competitive price. I am very pleased with the result. So thank you Solar Guide for referring them.

In conclusion, Solar Guide provide a useful service which can produce very good results and very poor results. It would be good for future customers if they looked deeper into the companies they refer and weed out those that don’t have a proven track record, employ questionable practices and/or fail to live up to their claims.

I was given three companies to chose from, two of which had set up as Ltd companies within this financial year - no track record of delivery. This is likely to be a big investment, not one I would entrust with a start-up. One of the companies had disolved and renamed itself...

True to there word people did ring some were pushy others very helpful ,this is still a mine field of truthful people and pushy timeshare salesmen hopefully will filter out

They did exactly what they said they would, identifying two very competent, accredited suppliers.

Very efficient, I was contacted by three viable alternative installers within an hour.

Professional, knowledgeable and friendly.

I was lost in the process of starting a search into solar panel installation and issues around that.
A message to Solar Guide evoked a response from a team who know about these issues and they continued the search on my behalf and found me several contacts who, in turn advised and supported my efforts.
Very pleased 😀

Very quick response to my request but I’m sure you said you would find three local companies. We live in east anglia and one of the companies was from Stockport and another from Leeds. I wanted to deal with local companies so only one met this criteria.

Solar guide themselves were very helpful, including calling me when I had given a mistyped email address.
Only 1 company provided a quote and they were very quick to provide a reasonably priced quote based on a desktop survey. Prior to this we couldn’t get any direct quotes ourselves as all the solar companies are so busy they don’t seem to get back to you.
The good ended there. This review is more to warn people about how hopeless ECH solar are, who are the company we did get the quote from. I would strongly suggest that Solar guide discontinues working with them, due to the reputational damage it will and is causing them.

Problems with ECH solar listed below:
You can’t speak to them, so every communication is a painful email back and forth with unanswered questions wasting everyone’s time. In the end we just had to accept the quote without all the info we wanted.

They have no sales people. This should be a plus with lower prices, but means that nothing seems to happen and the owner (Carl) doesn’t seem to “manage” the business in any meaningful way, other than providing the quotes.

In the end we agreed a date that was a couple of months away and then as per the contract paid 25% a week in advance. When the company failed to arrive on the agreed day and also failed to contact us, we obviously became very concerned. Turns out parts weren’t available (even though the job had been booked months ahead), but this was only communicated when we chased. And then nothing. No communication. A call was promised, no call was made. Got very worried that they were scammers, especially as you can’t call them and can only pay via bank transfer. Also we believed that this company only has employees and not contractors, so if there were no parts available then surely that is a lot of staff available to speak to customers. Turns out they are not scammers, they are just super flaky and unable/willing to communicate. Even a call to say we don’t know when would have been fine. At least their finance director is sensible and we got our deposit back. I’m an NHS worker and took time off work for the installation, which didn’t happen, as well a cancelling a family holiday. The worst bit really, apart from the stress, is that we have wasted 3 months and have to start again with a new company (that we have found direct). Let’s hope they do better!

Update November 2022.

Thank you solar guide for considering my feedback. I understand there is a shortage of materials due to, amongst other factors, high demand for installations.

My greater concerns were due to the lack of communication, would the install ever go ahead and how well this implied we would be covered for warranty repair work in the future.

The contract we were sent mentioned the HIES scheme (protects deposits), however when we checked with HIES, ECH we’re not in fact a member.

Have finally been contacted by ECH approximately 1 month after the failed install. This unfortunately was not to offer a new date. It was to ask for an additional £1000, due to increased material costs. While I accept that material costs are likely to have increased our neighbour who had also signed up, but for a bigger install, was contacted with a request for the same amount. Odd as his material costs would have been significantly higher than ours. This suggests that the £1000 is simply an arbitrary figure. Those who are desperate and can afford may accept, despite this being a breach of the agreed contract. Those who can’t/have given up with ECH will help them reduce their waiting list.

During these times of energy price instability, companies behaving in this way will no doubt continue to operate as before, as there is insufficient incentive to make improvements. It’s a shame that in this case it would be so easy for them to improve. Coming from the NHS I am clearly mistaken in the belief that we all want to do our best!

Used this company to jump start the process of getting solar quotes. But not very impressed by their recommendations. Of the three they suggested, one appears to be highly dodgy, another didn't bother to show up to a survey, and another just did a desk-based assessment and quote. To be honest, I think you're better off just looking up good reliable local companies with good reviews and starting there.

This service is brilliant. I had no idea where to start looking, answered a few short questions, then suddenly was presented with a number of choices. Within hours, I was receiving calls and emails asking for further info with no hard sell and all are accredited. We're still reviewing our options but are definitely in a great position to choose the supplier giving us the deal we desire at the right price.

Superb service. Many thanks Tim. Looking forward to having my solar panels up and working

I was impressed with the process and, given the high demand at present, pleased that two companies responded almost immediately. We were able to hire one of them on the spot and the work will be carried out next week. The other company send a surveyor but has not contacted us since.

They were keen to collect info from me to get quotes but this is the second time we have requested quotes a few months apart and it is clear they cannot service our area. I would have preferred them to be honest and say this rather than pretend they do. I would respect them more for transparency like that.

They didn't achieve their own outcome where they said they would deliver contact from 3 companies.

They may aspire to a good networking site for installers but as the market conditions change they are not able to respond to the changed circumstances. They need some more "perspiration" to get on telephones, emails, websites, social media and have face to face discussions with potential suppliers.

Focus on the outcomes for the customers rather than your own internal process steps.

GGRS Ltd they are a fantastic Company would highly recommend them, they are so helpful and samantha who answers the phone is so nice and pleasant and so were the engineers who came to the property thumbs up from me .