AES Solar has set up a helpline for people who may have fallen victim to scammers offering unrequired upgrades, fixes and maintenance to their solar panels.

AES Solar has reacted to demand from customers after being inundated with calls from people who have been approached by individuals making claims they need work done on their panels or associated parts to ensure they are working properly.

Last month, AES Solar backed Moray Council which issued a warning about the bogus workers, but the Forres-based company has been left astounded at the amount of calls it has received after the warning was raised. And setting up the designated helpline has been applauded by Richard Lochhead MSP for Moray.

Freephone helpline

Jamie Di Sotto, AES Solar’s commercial director said: “By setting up this free-phone helpline we are reacting to a demand created by these unscrupulous companies. Moray Council reacted quickly to get a warning out. Since then we’ve had calls and customers dropping into the office saying they’ve been approached and seeking our genuine advice. We fear people are still at risk, hence why we have set up this number to offer advice and help.”

Explaining the cold callers are approaching people with panels already installed Jamie said: “They visit people who already have panels with suggestions to make their systems work efficiently they need to get a new inverter. Inverters do fail sometimes, but the customer would know this by an error code on the display. It doesn’t take someone to knock on the door and tell you.”

He added: “These workmen are also misleading people by suggesting a component is broken or faulty or that a battery will boost the performance of the system. These claims simply aren’t true. Often they are charging anywhere between £4000 and £7000 for work that is completely unnecessary.”

Forward-thinking

Richard Lochhead MSP for Moray said: “To hear the people of Moray are being approached in this way and are potentially being conned out of large amounts of money for unnecessary work or work that can be done at a lower price is disgraceful. I applaud the forward thinking of companies such as AES Solar who have taken this step to help people who may have fallen foul of these traders. The advice would be to contact a reputable local company and/or Moray Council’s trading standards department who can assist in matters such as this.”

One local couple who were approached almost lost out on thousands of pounds until they contacted AES Solar for advice.

The customer who did not wish to be named said: “We were called by a firm in Liverpool offering us a maintenance and insurance contract which we initially signed up for. They sent someone to look at our system. We were told because we have two rows of eight panels they would recommend we get a system in place which would alert us if one of the panels went wrong. They also advised we would benefit from a voltage regulator to ensure our system worked more efficiently. They said the cost of all of this would be £4699 and we would need to make a 10% deposit straight away. They also implied if we didn’t do the work we may not be covered on the maintenance agreement.”

Use local solar firms

The customer added: “The information given by the engineers sounded sensible though expensive, but we agreed and paid the deposit. However, we were anxious about the cost and possible benefit so we contacted AES Solar. Straight away the team there knew what we were being told wasn’t entirely correct. There are systems that can identify which panel may not be working, but the costs were extortionate.

“Our advice if anyone else is in a similar situation is to first contact a local company like AES. They spent so much time with us, we would trust them 100% and we would not go anywhere else now.”

AES Solar has been involved in a number of landmark projects such as the first ever domestic Solar PV/Thermal roof installation in the UK in 1995. More recently it has carried out work on a project on the Royal Estate at Balmoral.

The company trades worldwide and has export customers in markets as diverse as Scandinavia, Africa and South America.

If you want free advice from the AES Solar team call them on 0800 61010 91