Family gets solar panels
A Glendale family of four was scammed out of a solar panel installation. Another company stepped up and donated a $30,000 rooftop solar system just in time for Christmas after reading an article in The Arizona Republic about the family’s situation.
A gift installed in time for Christmas made one Glendale family merry and, once it’s switched on, will make their home bright.
Jason and Alyssa Feeser and their two children received a donated $30,000 rooftop solar system from One World Energy this month, after the Phoenix solar company’s CEO read an article in The Arizona Republic about the family getting scammed.
Jason, 29, is an assistant pastor at Calvary Community Church, a graduate student and a carpenter who makes tables and cutting boards in his garage. Alyssa is a homemaker, a photographer and recently took a job as a Starbucks barista to help make ends meet.
A year ago, the Feesers took out a $24,000 loan to pay solar company AEOS Energy to install panels on their home.
They generally try to avoid debt, Jason said, but hoped to save on utility costs in the long run and be kinder to the environment.
Other members of their church had good experiences installing solar, Feeser said.
He found no bad reviews of AEOS Energy online, and even his father gave the thumbs-up after looking over the contract.
“We’re trying to make our house be long-term, green and eco-friendly and save us some money. Praise God, let’s go for it,” he said the couple thought at the time.
But AEOS Energy did no work, shut its doors and refused to refund the Feesers and at least six other Arizona homeowners, according to documents shared by Feeser and an investigation by the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, which revoked the company’s license in April.
The Republic was unable to reach company representatives for comment.
“It’s one of those things you would never expect,” Feeser said at the time. “To take out (a loan) this big and get basically scammed, it’s a huge disappointment.”
Caleb Antonucci, who started Our World Energy in 2016, said as soon as an employee sent him the story, he contacted the newspaper’s Call For Action team.
“Thank you for covering the story of the pastor who was scammed out of $24,000,” Antonucci emailed The Republic. “My company and I would like to participate in helping this pastor by donating a solar system to his family.”
The CEO said he was touched by the family’s plight as a father of four whose dad is a pastor.
“This guy with his family and kids is serving the community and he gets royally screwed,” Antonucci said in an interview Thursday. “As soon as I was reading this story, I thought, ‘Someone has to help this guy.’”
Antonucci called a staff meeting and put up a challenge he said his employees immediately embraced: A portion of every solar sale in the remaining nine months of 2019 would go toward covering the cost of a system for the Feesers.
“It’s surreal to give a system away. We’ve never done that before,” Antonucci said. But “we’re people of our word.”
He met personally with the Feesers, never mentioning that he was head of the company, Jason said. Employees kept in constant contact and even worked with the family’s insurance company to fix their weather-damaged roof before installing the panels, he said.
“Caleb and the team at Our World Energy were amazing,” Jason said. “This is how it’s supposed to be.”
The installation was completed in December. Once inspections are finished, the system will be turned on, well before summer temperatures send utility bills soaring.
The Feesers are still paying off the $24,000 loan they took out to pay AEOS Energy, but they may get help with it soon.
The family applied for a refund through the Registrar of Contractors Recovery Fund, which reimburses homeowners for shoddy or non-existent work in cases where contractors’ licenses are suspended or revoked.
One customer of AEOS Energy already has received a refund, while other applications, including from the Feesers, should be finished in a few weeks, Registrar of Contractors spokesman Jim Knupp said.
Helping the family “was pure joy,” Antonucci said. “Jason has such a great energy about him. He’s very kind. He’s positive.”
Jason said it was “crazy” that the family’s story of getting scammed turned into a heartwarming tale.
He quoted a Bible verse from the Book of Genesis to make the point: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”