Semper Solaris

Geoff S.

We were asked to update our review once we received our deposit back and I am doing that now. The woman who we ended up dealing with to get our deposit back is named Charice and she was quite pleasant and helpful and followed through on everything she said she would do. I did tell them I would not update my review until I received our deposit which seemed to be the primary concern, their review. I will say however, I believe Charice is from their corporate office in San Diego, and it was like night and day dealing with her down there compared to those in Concord. I personally give her a 5-star review, but the company is still a 1 star from our experience with the Concord office. Thank you Charice and it is unfortunate we did not get you from the beginning, you did what you said you would and in a very timely manner.

Adam T.

If you try and get a quote they are slow to respond. But once they call or text you expect several a day all week long for months at a time. Even after you tell them to stop calling you a different person from a slightly different phone number will start doing the same thing. Glad we didn't go with them and went truly local to our city with someone that actually lives here.

Phil G.

Review of Semper Solaris

All in all, we had a very bad experience with Semper Solaris, bad enough that we just can't recommend anybody to use them. We had them replace our roof and put on a solar panel system. The solar panels seem okay so far, but the roof is almost guaranteed to leak.
The old roof was removed and the new roof installed in two days. The job was so obviously flawed that we requested a Semper Solaris supervisor come out and inspect the work. He had no choice but to agree that the work was terrible and they sent a different crew out that spent three days making repairs. So what we have in not a new roof, but a very patched roof. And if you are not someone really familiar with roofing, and not someone who is comfortable climbing up on the roof to inspect the roof from above and also from within your attic, you would never know just how bad a job was done.
Worst of all, the roof is going to leak. Maybe not this year, or even for a few years, but eventually it will leak. That's because the workers nailing down the shingles did not always bother to sink nails that the nail gun left sticking up. [For those that don't know roofing, the nail gun doesn't always get it right, and the roofer is expected, by building code, to take out his hammer and sink the nail flush with the shingle. If you leave the nail sticking up it will eventually wear through the shingle above it and it will leak.] Some of the time the roofer using the nail gun didn't even carry a hammer. Unfortunately, this was not one of the problems that Semper fixed - the only way to properly fix it would have been to remove the roof and start over.
If you do use Semper, keep a close eye on your bank account. Make sure all payments match the contract. For our solar, as an example, they took the entire remaining amount as soon as it was installed. That means we have no recourse if the job doesn't pass inspection. The contract, and the law, says that they withdraw that payment until the job passes final inspection. They also withdrew over $3,000 for a Change Order that we notified Semper we were not having them do, they did not do, but they charged us anyway. They say they will refund it, but we still haven't gotten that money back, Plus they say that they will always inform you before taking a payment from your account, but we found that not to be the case.
More details....
The job started off bad right away. I came out of the house to find the workers throwing the old shingles off the roof without even putting down a tarp. They picked up a lot afterwards, but the yard is still full of pieces of roofing and roofing nails. Imagine running your mower and having roofing nails being thrown across your yard and at your kids.
As they were putting on the new roof I could see that they were not putting in the roof vents that are required by the building code. I talked to the Semper Solaris supervisor and the AM Warrior's roofing workers, was told they would be installed, but the roofers only put on two of the required 10 vents. Then, after the roof was on, they cut holes in the roof and put in the other vents. This is not how vents are made to be installed - they are supposed to be installed as the roof is installed so that the vent is woven in with the shingles and that way it will not leak. I felt it necessary to inspect the vents from within the attic just to see if they ecut the vent holes through the roof. They did, but they did not center the vents over the holes they cut. Some of the vents missed the holes cut in the roof by over 50%. They also did not install the required flashing around the vents to prevent leaks. All the vents needed to be removed, along with the shingles around them, and then redone.
There is a low-slope shed roof over the porch which they roofed with shingles. The building code says that the slope of that roof is too low to allow shingles to be used and needed to be done another way. But the proper method is more expensive and takes a lot more time, so they used the inferior method.

This is only a partial list of the problems. We cannot recommend Semper Solaris, please do not use this firm.

Morton S.

This 5 star rating is specifically to express my appreciation to Rachel Korp, an Account Executive with Semper Solaris. The process of installing solar panels and a backup battery system in my home had many ""ups and downs."" It was a complicated process for me. When Rachel got involved, she assisted me, not only by providing meaningful answers to my questions, but, more importantly, by efficiently and effectively completing the necessary work.

Janine F.

I have never given a one star review but this is my last resort. Semper had great communication up until taking my $2k and then crickets. I cannot get ahold of the two people I have been dealing with. I signed a roof and solar contract and when it was time for the roofers to come they started work and then I find out by just chit chatting with the supervisor who came 1 hour after his workers that they are only doing partial roof. Not the entire roof. Nowhere in the contract does it state that. At no point did I even think to do a partial roof. The supervisor didn't go over the scope of work prior to starting. I showed him emails stating full roof. The workers stopped and put everything back and 6 months later I am still out of my $2k and had to scramble to find another roofer that was more honest and reliable than this company. I had high hopes since my friend used the company with no issues.

Marilu E.

We are so happy to literally be part of the Semper Solaris family. We actually won a contest for solar panels and could have stopped right there, but decided we wanted more than just lowering our electricity bill. They have a veteran program where they give away solar panels (supplied and installed) to vets once every couple of months. It was a big deal! We were on the t.v. and radio. The grand reveal happened to be on Veteran's Day.

We also needed backup in case of a power shortage, so we bought the Tesla battery. There were electrical issues, covid and the fires stalked us during the process two years ago. The attitude and persistence of this group to positively get the job done (even though we had obstacles) was always extremely light, bright and helpful to get through some very rough patches.

We got to know some of the technicians and supervisors very well. Hats off to Casey (SF Bay Area) for going above and beyond the call of duty. We really liked him and he saved us once or twice from going absolutely bonkers during lockdown. The first Tesla battery was defective and kept registering errors. It took a while to get it all working properly, but at no fault to Semper Solaris. Casey assured us that they would fix the problem and kept on it until the job was done.

Gio A.

Rebecca did an awesome job by following up the work.
Been waiting for 10 months but Rebecca working really hard to make sure the job is done! Thank you Rebecca!

Randall M.

I'm thrilled with my new solar panels. I was provided with excellent advice from the beginning without being up sold on things that I didn't need. I literally only needed to write a check when it was over. Everyone one at this company was kind, friendly, knowledgeable and professional and were people that I'd do business with again. Plus, being a military veteran and getting a veteran discount didn't hurt either.

Wurli S.

Many mishaps and much aggravation! My solar experience with Semper was not pleasant.
-Installer missed studs and sent drill bit into my bedroom 5 times
-Unnecessary anchor drilled into roof to lift panels (called ""lazy"" work by another Semper employee)
-It took MANY calls, emails, and visits to get permanent roof patches done
-Crew member arrived without ladder and had to reschedule
-One employee refused to wear covid mask properly inside my home (twice)
-Crew sent to fix roof were actually electricians, had to reschedule
The roof was eventually fixed, but it took a significant amount of my time and missed work to make it happen. Also, I'm left with a large, discolored patch where the anchor mount was.

The employee sent to the city inspection was on his second day on the job and arrived without a ladder. We had to borrow one from my neighbor (the inspector was visibly aggravated!) Inspection failed due to not having the bollard required by the city. A Semper phone rep said they were aware of this code requirement, but I guess not aware enough to install it prior to inspection. Due to failing inspection, the project did not complete by the end of year which complicated my taxes.

Despite the above, I did encounter several quality employees along the way, and my panels do work. My sense is that the company has grown too quickly, and they've taken on more work than they can handle. I escalated my concerns to management and was told multiple times that things happen during construction. I can accept this, but not Semper's pattern of poor customer service, incompetence, and disrespect. I do hope that the company improves as I now have their system on my roof. It seems that they are prioritizing quantity over quality. I'd suggest slowing down growth until you're getting 4 - 5 stars from all of your customers. Give your employees enough time to measure and install correctly, take good notes so that the next person knows what needs to be done, and pass the inspection on the first try. If you only focus on short term profits, you may be out of business in a few years.

Lowry S.

I have to agree completely with Brad L.s review of this solar battery installation. Our install date was 11/1/20 and after many runarounds with semper Solaris customer service, ineptitude of field management, revolving installers, and missed appointments, the Tesla batteries were finally turned up and released to us 1/3/21. Do not use this company for tesla battery installation for your sanity and health.