Solar panels - nuisance calls

[Peter Johnson]

Anyone else with solar panels receiving calls from someone asking if they are working alright and if the feed in tarrif payments are coming through? I can never make out where they are calling from and as I don't own the panels assume that whatever they are after is irrelevant to me. I think it's the same people (a man and a woman) ringing each time. Number withheld. I've usually just said it's of no interest to me or not relevant and hang up. When I said was interested to know where they had got my details from and that they shouldn't have any information about me and the panels the woman hung up. Anyone know what this is all about?

[Fredxx]

Do they ask for you by name?

If so do what I do, say you're going to get Peter and leave them dangling for as long as their patience allows. Replace handset when you hear the howler.

Its very satisfying too.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Pratts incorporated by the sound of it. I had a bloke trying to sell me wheelchairs and stairlifts on my mobile the other day, Now I'm registered disabled, but I am not physically disabled, but of course if they have a disabled list they would not know that, would they?

He sounded like a Scouse and always avoided naming a company. I got the impression it was either a scam as obviously disabled =mug or retard to these folk, or he was merely checking out a mug list for somebody else. Brian

[Peter Johnson]

They do know who I am and that I have solar panels. They phoned again today, a different woman. She said that the company is called Safe Direct Energy and that they want to check that the solar installation was installed properly and is working properly. Couldn't say whee they got my details from, citing data protection - how strange. There's no company called Safe Direct Energy registered with Companies House. The company that owns the panels soon knows if there's anything wrong with the installation because the generation stops. When the inverter packed up a couple of years ago they had someone round to change it in a couple of days. (The electrician had several dead inverters in the back of his van.)

[Vir Campestris]

We had a spate of calls from people trying to sell us panels. They gave up in the end after my wife had patiently explained several times that you can't fit them to the thatched roof of a Listed building.

Andy

[bert]

LOL

[Chris J Dixon]

AFAIK, the list of those who have panels installed is publicly available.

I have had two categories of callers, one wants to sell me air-to-air heat exchangers to "make use of my generated electricity", whilst the others claim, wrongly, that my original installer is no longer in business, so they can offer to "take care of" my system.

I generally send them off with a flea in their ear, unless I am bored, in which case I attempt a little education.

Chris

[Jonathan]

We get them for our solar panels and our solar hot water tubes. They claim for the latter that they have maintained them in the past (not true), we have never had them maintained, and when I tell them that they insist the systemy must need it. I always ask them why - in a good summer, we have had free hot water for weeks. They obviously are still working fine over ten years since we had them installed.

Jonathan

[Andrew]

Solar water panels should still be usable even in overcast weather (unlike solar PV), so even in winter you should get some benefit.

[charles]

I remember seeing (about 10 years ago) a house with solar water panels after a lot of snow. The snow had melted off the panels.

[Fredxx]

Usable, but produce very little power, could be less than 1/10 for a short day too. A 250W panel will produce a little as 12W in the early afternoon in current weather.

[Lesley]

The same woman SDE called me again today after a month; I managed to fob her off again but she said she will call back again next month. I had only just entered the house and was unprepared and (annoyingly) answered a few questions about the age of the panels, position of inverter, etc.... first. She is very persistent but she won't get anywhere and I'm afraid will probably get quite nasty when I ask her firmly next time to stop calling me. She sounds a bit rough. When I sought info like the name of her company, what they did and why she was phoning me, she didn't give clear concise answers as any bona fide company would. They are "in the area tomorrow" and want to check everything is working properly. I don't want them in my house! Unfortunately, as you say. they withhold their number so that you can't block them.

[wasbit]

The next time they call tell them you are on the Telephone Preference Service & to remove your number from their call list. That's a bluff until such time as you sign up with the TPS. If you join (register) & they then call again you can report them. -

[Peter Johnson]

Sounds similar to what I had recently, an unsolicited call telling me that they wanted to check the solar installation was working OK and the government was paying for the visit, but they couldn't say why the government hadn't told me directly and was relying on a third party. Grudgingly I agreed to the visit. Guy turns up a couple of days later and I ask him what he is to do and why. 'Checking the installation for the home energy certificate,' he says. 'Why do I need one of thiose,' I ask. 'Can't claim feed-in tarriff without one,' he says 'Don't claim feed-in tarriff,' I said. 'Oh. You're on the rent-a-roof scheme. You don't need one. Sorry I bothered you. I'll tell the office they should check.' Then he tried to sell me some spray-on loft insullation that his own company installed.