u/PerfectPrintHouse

I’ve seen this post several times through the years . The people who volunteer are mostly 65+ . I fell like it’s taking advantage but not sure if it’s legal or a gray area ?
Edit for clarification.
I have been a vendor at one of the locations . I didn’t work the counter so I paid full price for the booth I rented plus fees . The volunteer position is you work at the register and check out any items that are purchased from any booth . The best booths are the front ones . So the ad basically says we will only rent the booth to someone who will volunteer a certain amount of hours and get a break on rent and fees in exchange for. This is how all the “employees” are done . I believe there is only 1 paid employee who is the manager .

I 39 (m) in Texas got into what feels like a scam of a PPA Here is what happened. I am not putting any company names in this due to possible litigation .
8/10/2022- I signed a 25-year loan for a solar system, The installer was company A Besides the leaks we always had from the roof it was a good system
- They filed an interconnection agreement with Oncor stating the system was 46 panels and 46 Inverters(Just caught this week)
- System was the following:
- 36 Solar Ever 410W panels
- 36 Enphase IQ7+ Inverters
- Roof Mounted
Sometime around October of 2024 someone knocked on our door and said they could check our system and remove any defective panels as well as get us 10 more panels free. I know there had to be a catch, but they said all I needed to do was sign over the tax credit they would file on the panels and everything else would be free.
11/18/2024-I signed an agreement with B Finance and C installer, and we got 10 more panels added to our roof. (This is where I messed up, I now know this but was unaware what I got myself into in 2024)
- This made my system was the following(at least this is what I thought and signed for)
- 36 410W panels
- 10 400W panels
- 46 Enphase IQ7+( I only know this because I watched them take them off and put back on)
- System maintainer and installer: C Installer
02/13/2025 PTO was issues from Oncore
02/01/2026- I contacted C installer as my solar system maintainer to quote me to remove the system from the roof so I could have the roof replaced. They ended up redoing our roof and reinstalling the solar system on a ground mount at our request
05/5/2026 - Started working with a company that was going to install a battery system on our home. This had us start the process of gathering the information for the current soler system as they were going to have to refill with Oncor.

During this process I requested the interconnection agreement that C Installer filed with Oncor in 2025. This is when we noticed something seemed off. The document filed with Oncor states they removed the 410W system and were replacing with a 46-400W panels. When they removed my system from the roof to ground mount, the system went from a 46-panel system when it was on the roof to a 52-panel system after they put on the ground mounts. Because my system is ground mounted, I’m able to see the back of the panels and this is when we noticed that all our panels were replaced with 6-365W panels and 46-385W panels.

This made me start digging deeper and this is when we realized that they filed an interconnection agreement with Oncor and nothing in it was correct. For C installer to claim they were replacing the system I had installed in 2022 with a new one they filed that the Enphase inverters were getting replaced but that never happened and they are still on the system. When I asked where my 410W panels where it was started that they sell them on eBay and they must replace all of the panels in order to qualify for the tax credit but there was nothing wrong with my system that needed replaced..

What this looks like to me is they C installer removed the 36-410W panels, sold them for a profit. Then installed a lower wattage of panel to claim they “replaced” my system in order for the company to claim the tax credit.

I now realize the following:

I still have a loan with a remaining balance of $60,000 for a system I no longer have.
I got myself entered in a Prepaid PPA(Power Purchase Agreement) for the current system on my property
I lost ownership of my solar system for the next 6 years and have zero control over this system.
My system is made up of lower wattage panels then I had before C installer showed up at my door
For some reason when C installer re did my roof and mounded my solar system on the ground I ended up with 52 panels when it was only 46 on my roof.
- This is when I feel like they took my 410W panels and replaced them with a lower wattage panel and had to add more to make up the difference, but I can’t prove this(Yet, still digging)WE are going through the video footage from our cameras over the next couple days .
Has anyone ever heard of this happening? is this normal ? Fraud ? Tell me your thoughts.

Is this legal ? Volunteer working position?

PPA took working system and gave me cheaper system.