I-Team's Call For Action Gets Results For Woman Waiting Months For Solar Panels To Be Reinstalled

BOSTON (CBS) - The sounds of a drill on her roof is music to the ears of Susan Barnes. The Oxford woman has been waiting months to have her solar panels reinstalled after having her roof replaced. "It's such a relief to have this work finally done," she said. "It's been a long time coming."

It all started in February when she had a new metal roof installed on her ranch-style home. "It [has] a lifetime warranty and I never have to do it again, and it's beautiful," she said.

Barnes paid Vivint Solar $499 to remove her existing solar panels and reinstall them when the job was finished. But it turns out the mounting brackets installed by the roofing company from the old system were not compatible with a metal roof. She spent six months on the phone, and even went to the Vivint offices in Shrewsbury, trying to work something out.

In the meantime, Barnes says she ways paying Vivint for the energy the panels would have generated had they been on the roof. "It makes me feel like they are holding me hostage," she said. "And we are still paying the big National Grid bills because we are not getting the credits."

Frustrated, Barnes reached out to the I-Team's Call for Action and we reached out to Vivint. The company responded immediately saying, in part, "... the issues Ms. Barnes encountered are extremely rare and were unfortunately exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are doing everything we can to quickly correct the situation and resolve this matter."

About two weeks later, a crew reinstalled her solar solar system. "They are giving us credit back for all the money they charged us while we didn't have the solar panels on, and they are refunding all of our electric bills since February which is almost $1,000," Barnes said.

"Thank you so much CBS, Ch. 4. I Didn't know where to turn and you certainly got results for me," she said.

Vivint also covered the cost of the new mounting brackets and refunded the $499 re-installation fee.