Couple who says they were ripped off by solar company finally goes green
by Meredith Yeomans
azfamily.com
Posted on March 2, 2010 at 9:50 PM
Updated
Wednesday, Mar 3 at 11:12 AM
This was the response 3 On Your Side received when we tried to talk with a man named Raymond Baxter four months ago about the solar installation job he did on this Sun City home.
Luther and Marilyn Abrahamson own the home, and hired Baxter to install solar panels on their roof, but say about $30,000 later, all they had was a mess.
“If this is typical of the workmanship that's being tolerated and accepted, Arizona is going to pay the price, I think,” Luther said.
After our report aired, a company called Green Fuel Technologies contacted 3 On Your Side, wanting to repair the Abrahamson project, and best of all, Green Fuel said they were willing to do it for free!
“It was just kind of overwhelming to see how much of an impact your program does make,” Luther said.
“We saw the original story and what we worry about in the industry is that with all the influx of new companies and potentially bad business that the industry can get a bad name,” Green Fuel owner John Casey said.
Casey and his crew came out, completely disassembled and reinstalled the system.
“In Arizona, [a solar panel] sitting flat is not an optimal situation,” Casey said. “We had some dead end wires out here that were potentially a fire hazard so there was a number of misses.”
Luther says he waited months and 3 On Your Side to get this done.
“Once Channel 3 became involved, once this was aired, up until that time we were being stonewalled by the previous installer,” Luther said.
It took only one day for Green Fuel Technologies to complete the project and Luther says he couldn't be more grateful for the outcome.
“We don't know how we can express our whole thank you,” Luther said. “We've been put under a lot of stress, and we're grateful that's gone, that's behind us and maybe we can start to live.”
In a statement, the owner of the company involved in our initial report told us the job was done properly.
Meantime, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors wants to make it easier for homeowners to determine whether a contractor is properly licensed, and the type of work they're qualified to do.
Their new website outlines what all the different types of licenses mean, along with their specialties.
