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I-Team: Hidden cameras reveal dark side of solar power - YouTube
Channel: FOX 5 Atlanta
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to the i-team now a hidden camera fox 5
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i-team investigation takes the shine off
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some big promises made to georgia
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homeowners about solar power talk about
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frustrating some solar customers ended
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up spending even more for power than
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they did before fox 5 i-team reporter
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randy travis shows you the right
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questions to ask
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in this growing industry randy russ and
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courtney the sales adds to ghost solar
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are everywhere on social media so we
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invited two of the bigger advertisers to
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a house outfitted with hidden cameras
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and since both sales people just
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recently started with those companies we
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decided to show them to you this way
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i've never worked anywhere that
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everybody's so happy her happy employer
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is power home solar now changing its
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name to pink energy based in north
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carolina the largest home solar company
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in the southeast the cost for
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electricity and the cost for power are
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going up they're going up quickly he
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works for solar titan usa out of
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knoxville tennessee also making a big
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push into georgia these days but despite
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their upbeat sales pitches both
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companies made promises to georgia
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customers that quickly turned those
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smiles upside down it's not turned out
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to be what was promised they know it's
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not working and they don't ever respond
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to anything rod culver agreed to pay
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solar titan usa 43 thousand dollars to
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outfit his douglas full home with the
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promise to give him backup power and
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reduce his electric bill it was supposed
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to go down
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about 80 or 90 percent we'll never know
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according to the douglas county building
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inspector solar titan failed to pull a
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building permit to do the work without
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that permit culver can't hook up the
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system to the grid it's a worthless
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system it's not ever going to be running
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and they want me to pay for it a
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spokesman for solar titan usa told us
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they did pull an electrical permit but
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didn't know douglasville required a
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building permit too
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they've called culvert to reach a
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resolution
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he wants the system removed did the
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salesman tell you things that turned out
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not to be true absolutely almost
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everything he said turned out to not be
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true like how amy and nathan tatro would
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be able to sell extra solar power back
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to their utility thus giving the
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lafayette couple a negative electric
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bill have you seen
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a negative power bill
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no
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never
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their power home solar system cost 91
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thousand dollars financed over 25 years
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her north georgia emc bills have barely
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budged if i hadn't known all this i
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would have never made this decision i
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would have stayed with my
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regular old power company it's an
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understandable feeling for some
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homeowners solar power is a legitimate
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option if they want to try to cut back
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on rising energy costs but many of them
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don't know the right questions to ask
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well we do know the right questions but
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listen to the answers we got power home
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solar decided not to use their happy
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salesperson to make the hard sell for us
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instead we were patched in to speak
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virtually to andrew who said he was a
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senior account manager so we're showing
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his face these are expensive systems
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a lot of people think
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five ten grand
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but really
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we're eliminating a lifelong utility
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bill that's right he said eliminate to
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do that andrew quoted us sixty nine
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thousand nine hundred ninety nine
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dollars later guaranteeing a 67 percent
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reduction in our power bill worst case
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scenario is you'll have
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23 percent of your bill left
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but that really is probably going to be
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in the winner when we're not producing
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as much we had two local companies
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design solar systems for the same house
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creative solar usa and alternative
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energy southeast
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because of shade and the roof design
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neither said it would reduce our utility
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bill by 67 percent
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not even by 50 percent but their cost
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was drastically lower than power home
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solar's price and this is why it's good
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to get a number of quotes
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to compare and then the truth serum
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comes out but you also have
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andrew wrongly promised that we get full
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credit for every unused solar kilowatt
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we sent to our electric company it's
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called net metering and can reduce your
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electric bill dramatically you'll get
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bills in the summer more likely that
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same negative balance is because in the
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summer
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we produce a lot more electric than we
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actually need but walton emc the utility
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that services this home doesn't offer
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net metering
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power home solar said it fired andrew
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because what he told us did not act in
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accordance with our sales guidelines and
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trainings or our ethics
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they also agreed to cancel amy and
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nathan's contract and take down their
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system again citing a rather significant
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miscommunication by their sales rep it's
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almost going to be harder and harder to
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get solar in the next couple of years
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solar titan's recommended estimate for
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our house was almost as high nearly 58
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thousand dollars that's 345 dollars a
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month
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for 20 years am i still going to pay for
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power
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no no that's the so what this is right
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here you'd pay this would take care of
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all your all your all of your usage so
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this would be about 100 of your usage
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right now randy travis with fox 5 news
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we've had some complaints about your
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company so we want to kind of hear how
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the sales pitch went yeah how can you
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promise her that her power bill had no
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consumption charge at all
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with this unit how can you make that
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promise
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i'm not going to answer any questions
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from you man
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this is real
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uncomfortable for me right well imagine
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the people who have been told that and
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they get power bills even after they've
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spent so much money on the system they'd
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be uncomfortable too don't you think
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well
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well solar titan usa told us none other
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salespeople should be saying that their
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system will replace 100 of your power
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bill and to do so is a firing offense
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they said that they are not firing that
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salesman they're just retraining him
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well to still have any kind of a bill
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after shelling out what you were quoted
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almost seventy thousand dollars they
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should be pretty upfront about that
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sounds like you'll have more on this
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tomorrow night yeah both companies also
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promised that we'd be able to save a
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bunch of money by using a 26 percent tax
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credit a federal tax credit but that
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only works if you pay that much in
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federal taxes and our producer told both
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companies that she was on disability so
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we'll show you what happens tomorrow
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night all right very interesting fire
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beware and you're helping us out thank
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you
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thanks randy
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