Warranty Issues with Sunpower

[J.P.M.]

I'm not a lawyer. As such, I can't give legal opinions and anything I say about laws is merely the words of a layman.

That said, it sure seems like Jpjannarone has a valid problem. If he can get an independent engineering firm or licensed engineer to certify that the system is not performing to specifications, he would have a strong case against Sunpower.

There is a legal concept of implied warranty, which in many cases, can't be waived, even if the printed warranty claims that this excludes implied warranties. From what I've read, an implied warranty reqires that good sold are guaranteed to work for the intended purpose and also guaranteed to work as specified. Laws on these warranties vary from state to state. Sunpower operates across state lines, so may be judged to a higher standard as well. It's all very complicated.

The bottom line is that, IF the system is not working as intended and it can be proven, Sunpower may be legally obligated to correct it in a timely fashion. Two different courts in the same city could decide the case differently. One court might rule punative damages on top of repair. Another might dismiss the whole case.

Please let us know if this is ever resolved.

I'll readily admit that if things turn ugly, the success or failure of a claim under a performance warranty may well depend on convincing some judge, or if mandatory arbitration is used, some arbitrator of the rightness of your cause. As a practical matter, that's kind of a luck of the draw sort of thing.

If Sunpower (or any panel mfg.) gets porky about it, the rub will come down to proving the product is not performing to warranted standards, or if things get noisy enough, the mfg. or installer or both might see the wisdom of caving and cut a deal with the customer if they (the mfg. or vendor) think the bad will created and made visible in the media is more costly than buying the customer off and hopefully shutting the customer up.

Or, in doing so, maybe turning the customer away from the dark side by giving the customer more than they're bitching about and so turning them into a testimonial. FWIW, having been a peddler, if I was peddling S.P. stuff, I'd lobby for moving in such a direction.

Reading the Sunpower warranty, under section 1 of "Sunpower Limited Power and Product Warranty for PV Panels", and footnote 2 at the bottom of the 1st page of that warranty that covers details and testing specs used to determine power output, testing to a couple of standards is required.

Since such testing requires test equipment not easily transported to a site - I don't know for certain, but I suspect there aren't too many panel flash testers that will fit on a roof or for that matter are portable at all, particularly for placement on a residential roof - I'd suggest that such conformance requires removal of the suspect product.

Questions:
1.) Who pays for the removal, transport, testing and reinstallation if the panels prove to be within warranty limits ?
2.) How many users know how to read a production warranty and the S.O.P. for making a claim ?

NOMB, but finding out such details might make some folks change their mind about warranty claims, their value and purpose. Their main value is to mfgs. as a marketing tool.

[Souler]

Good morning all. First time poster and thanks for this thread it has been very helpful. My screen grabs look like yours showing dramatically reduced production and I am getting the same treatment as many describe here. I do have a question for some here who may know. If my twelve panel system had 11 type E inverters and one type C inverter would that cause me problems?

I appreciate any input.