Lead Time (Start To Finish)

[WRDEnergy]

Hey Guys,

I am still only a month or 2 into the solar PV side of things but I wanted to ask those of you that have been around awhile longer what you average lead time is. by this i mean say you came round my house today, how long would you expect me to sign up (assuming I do sign up) I guess we could also add to this what % of people go with the quotes you give them.

I understnad some people might be like a 1 day turn around time and others half a year etc... but if we ignore the fast ones and the slow ones what would you say is average ? main reason I ask is I have quoted so many people recently but am not sure how best to chace them up.


I hope the above makes sense.


Thanks in advance.

Will

 

[FB.]

Well, as a customer, here's my story:


I incorrectly assumed that I had to "play the haggling game" (as per double glazing) and didn't realise that the R.E.A.L forbids companies from making revised offers to the customer (not that a few don't break the rule, of course).

So I got quotes from three companies. I also noted the prices on two other company websites.

Two companies surveyed the next day (a Tuesday), while the other surveyed the day after that (Wednesday).

The decision was made on the Wednesday evening, a few hours after the last rep had been round, and we contacted the preferred company the following morning (Thursday). I sent money via bank transfer (fortunately I use the same bank so they had 25% deposit cleared in their account on the Friday Morning; three days after their initial survey and outline design).
Full details of the installation were drawn up about a week later and the installation went ahead about a week after that.

On the Thursday or Friday when the deposit was sent to our chosen company, I emailed the other companies to regretfully inform them that we did not wish to proceed.

That caused an interesting sequence of events.

One company emailed a "revised" system design, for several percent less (and easily the lowest quote we'd had). However, I said that, much as I like the quote, I do not want to break a deal - even though R.E.A.L gave me a week's cooling-off period.

Another company made a "courtesy call" on the phone in response to my email, asking whether I was happy with the rep they sent and did I want to proceed with their quote (of course, they knew I didn't, but it gave them an excuse to try to talk me round to them). I told them that their initial quote was £2k above an identical-spec system (4kWp, same panels etc) and they responded with
"well, we're forbidden by R.E.A.L to haggle, but we can say "yes" or "no" if you make us an offer".
I said that I'd be prepared to talk business £2k less and they said they'd accept a job at at price. I told them, however, that I had already paid a deposit to another company and would not go back on my word unless the company I had chosen messed me about.
The company then proceeded to inquire about who was doing my job, and what they were using. Many makes of solar equipment from all the other companies were talked-down and discredited during this conversation, presumably in an attempt to unsettle me into buying their kit (which, admittedly, was above-average quality).

I hope that's useful.

 

[sedgy34]

Hey Guys,

I am still only a month or 2 into the solar PV side of things but I wanted to ask those of you that have been around awhile longer what you average lead time is. by this i mean say you came round my house today, how long would you expect me to sign up (assuming I do sign up) I guess we could also add to this what % of people go with the quotes you give them.

I understnad some people might be like a 1 day turn around time and others half a year etc... but if we ignore the fast ones and the slow ones what would you say is average ? main reason I ask is I have quoted so many people recently but am not sure how best to chace them up.


I hope the above makes sense.


Thanks in advance.

Will

normally 1 week if they have done all there home work they come back to you assuming they accept your quotation

 

[FB.]

if they have done all there home work

Yes, I had done my homework in the few weeks leading up to getting an installer to quote. I don't spend the best part of a Stocks-and-Shares ISA allowance, or enough to buy a new car, without giving careful thought to it and running my own "what's it worth to me" calculations and ignoring the sales spin of the company reps (I just nod and smile).
What ended up being fitted and where it was fitted was exactly the layout that I had originally envisaged.

 

[Eco Deal]

on average I would say by the 9th day from first contact the customer usually knows what they want to do.

some wait around for a few weeks after leave it till last min then call you a week or two before a deadline.

other like to get on with it a get the job done stright after cool off.

every customer is diffrent but Id say 9 days is average they know what they want to do and who they going to go with etc etc .

 

[Gavin A]

average is probably 2-4 weeks, but we've gone ahead 2 days from receiving the go ahead with some customers, others have been maybe 6-9 months, with some reappearing over a year after our initial quote.

 

[WRDEnergy]

thanks for the replys guys.... been a big help.


Would love to hear from others still to get a "true average" from a few others (I havent been to school for awhile )


Thanks again

 

[dansk]

agree with the above, normally a week to two, sometimes the next day, other times a month or so, as a rule if you havent heard anything for a week just follow up with a polite phone call.

 

[Earthstore]

Go on, someone be brave enough to say "if I do not get an order on the day, it is never going to happen"....

 

[Glen Powell]

Go on, someone be brave enough to say "if I do not get an order on the day, it is never going to happen"....

Unfortunately it does happen, but not from any of us here I hope, 7 to 10 days would be about right for survey to order, although I have had some 2 years on.

 

[SolarCity]

Longest we had was 12 months. Generally it can be anything from a few days to a couple of months.

 

[SRE]

We've only ever had one sign on the day and we tried to stop him doing it. I prefer our customers to have time to make sure it's right for them. We're very similar to everyone else - if there's a deadline looming it's a couple of days, if it's sunny outside with a sunny summer in prospect it's within a week if it's winter then it's usually a bit longer cos there's no rush. Longest we've had is 12 months, customer decided to move and when they couldn't sell they came back to us and have decided to stay put for 10 years.