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Red flags and common sales tactics
Most solar installers are honest people doing careful work. A minority are not, and they are unusually good at their jobs. Here’s how to tell them apart.
The one signal that works every time: urgency. A legitimate solar quote is good for weeks. If a price expires tonight, if the offer is only for houses that sign this week, if the salesperson won’t leave — that is not a deal. That is the tactic.
This is a real and growing problem
The Federal Trade Commission received more than 7,000 solar fraud complaints in 2025, making it one of the fastest-growing categories of consumer fraud in the country. In 2024 the FTC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Treasury Department launched a joint effort specifically to warn homeowners about deceptive solar sales.
State attorneys general have followed. Florida and Connecticut brought actions over high-pressure sales and misleading claims about tax credits. New York sued a solar company alleging it repeatedly targeted elderly, low-income homeowners with promises of tax credits they were never going to qualify for. Texas opened an industry-wide investigation in April 2026 into misrepresented savings and performance claims.
None of this means solar is a scam. It means the money moving through the industry has attracted people who sell aggressively, and you should know their playbook before one of them is standing on your porch.
The 2026 lie you’re most likely to hear
“You’ll get 30% back from the federal government.”
If you are buying a system with cash or a loan in 2026, this is false. The residential federal solar tax credit expired on December 31, 2025. A homeowner who buys today receives nothing from the IRS.
A salesperson saying otherwise is either deliberately lying or has not kept up with the law — and you should not want either one wiring up your house. The full explanation is here.
Watch for softer versions of the same claim: “incentives cover about a third of it,” “you’ll get most of that back at tax time,” or a savings sheet with a large credit line item that isn’t explained. Ask directly: which specific program, and am I eligible?
This was a problem even before the credit expired. It was nonrefundable — it reduced tax you owed rather than paying you cash. Retired homeowners with little tax liability often couldn’t use it at all, even while being sold on it. That was the substance of the New York case.
Door-to-door: who gets approached
A 2025 AARP analysis found homeowners aged 65 and older were more than twice as likely to be approached by door-to-door solar crews as younger homeowners — and far less likely to seek help afterward if they’d been misled.
That’s not an accident. If you have an older parent living alone, this section is worth forwarding to them.
The tactics, and what to say
| What you’ll hear | What’s happening |
|---|---|
| “This price is only good today.” | Nothing about solar pricing changes overnight. The deadline exists to stop you getting a second quote. |
| “Your neighborhood has been selected for a program.” | There is no program. It’s an opener designed to sound official and to imply your neighbors are already in. |
| “I’m with the utility” — or a vague “I’m here about the energy program” | Utilities do not send salespeople door to door to sell solar. Ask for a business card and look the company up before you say anything else. |
| “It’s free solar” / “no cost to you” | Almost always a lease or PPA. You don’t own it, you pay monthly for decades, and the payment usually rises every year. |
| “Your payment will be lower than your electric bill.” | May be true in year one. Ask what it is in year fifteen, and what utility rate increase they assumed to get there. |
| “Just sign here so we can run the numbers.” | Never sign anything to receive a quote. People have discovered they signed a financing agreement, not a proposal. |
| “Let me just take a photo of your bill and your ID.” | Enough to submit a credit application in your name. Give a bill only to a company you’ve already checked out. |
Red flags in the paperwork
- You’re shown a monthly payment instead of a total price. If you can’t easily find what the system costs, that was a decision someone made.
- Signing on the salesperson’s tablet. You are entitled to read every page, on your own screen, on your own time. Ask them to email it and leave.
- Savings projections with no stated assumptions. Twenty-five-year savings depend entirely on an assumed annual utility rate increase. Ask for the number. Above roughly 4% a year is optimistic.
- A system much bigger than your usage. Commission usually scales with system size. Compare the proposal against your actual annual kilowatt-hours.
- Blank spaces in a document you’re signing. Never sign a form with empty fields.
- No cash price offered. Covered on the quote page — it’s the clearest single red flag in solar buying.
The three sentences that end any high-pressure pitch
“I don’t sign anything the same day I’m shown it.”
“Email me the full proposal and I’ll read it this week.”
“I’m getting two other quotes before I decide.”
An honest salesperson will accept all three without complaint, because their offer survives comparison. Watch what happens to the friendly tone when you say them. That reaction is the most useful information you’ll get all evening.
If you’ve already signed
You may still be able to cancel. Under a longstanding federal rule, sales made at your home for more than $25 generally carry a three-business-day right to cancel, and the seller is required to tell you about it and provide a cancellation form.
Many states give you longer for solar specifically, and some require additional disclosures. Act quickly rather than waiting — and put your cancellation in writing, keeping a copy and proof of when you sent it.
If the window has passed, you still have options:
- Your state attorney general’s consumer protection office. Given the number of active investigations, complaints are being taken seriously.
- The FTC, at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
- The CFPB, if the problem is the financing rather than the installation.
- A consumer protection attorney. Many offer a free initial consultation, and some state laws provide for the other side to pay legal fees in deceptive practice cases.
If someone in your family has been approached, the most useful thing you can do is ask to see the paperwork — and ask whether they were told they’d get a federal tax credit. In 2026 that claim alone tells you what kind of company you’re dealing with.
The second question: was a cash price ever offered? If not, that conversation was never about the best deal for them.
What good looks like
Not every trait here is required, but a company doing most of this is behaving well:
- Gives a cash price without being pushed
- Quotes a system sized to your actual usage, and shows the calculation
- Puts exclusions in writing rather than leaving them out
- States its assumed utility rate increase
- Leaves you alone to think, and follows up once rather than daily
- Is happy to be compared against two other quotes
- Has a physical local address and a state electrical license you can look up
Sources
- Benesch Law, Increased enforcement scrutiny on solar industry targets savings claims — Texas, Florida and Connecticut actions.
- Mac Murray & Shuster, Regulators take aim at solar energy sales practices.
- New York Focus, New York sues solar company, March 2026.
- Federal Trade Commission, Report Fraud.
- Federal Trade Commission, Buyer’s remorse: the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule may help.
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Submit a complaint.