GREENSBORO, N.C. — Almost 20 years ago Joyce Coupoe bought a single-story house in Greensboro. Through the years Coupoe has invested in the home and spent extra money to renovate and improve it.
“It (the home) means a lot to me,” Coupoe said.
Since the home is paid off, Coupoe wasn’t as worried about taking on a new monthly lease payment for a new solar panel system on her roof.
“I've always liked the idea solar panels (to) reduce your carbon footprint would be a good thing,” Coupoe said.
After thinking about it for a little bit Coupoe decided to take the plunge and have several panels installed. The plan was the panels would be up and running a few months after she signed the contract.
“I don’t know what all happened, what was wrong, I do know different people came out to try and fix what was wrong,” Coupoe said.
About four months after signing the contract Coupoe started to get bills from the loan company to pay for the panels. The monthly bill was expected, but the system was still offline.
Coupoe made numerous calls to the company to get the system up and running without any luck. Technicians came out but it still wasn’t working properly. After more than six months of trying and failing, Coupoe was losing hope.
“I get an email (from the solar company) describing how I can turn the system on, you know you got all these warnings all over (the electrical box) right,” Coupoe said.
She tried, but it wasn’t working. After about eight months and with the system still not working Coupoe decided to call WFMY News 2. At this point, she had also received several lease payments for the system.
“I was kind of fed up, I didn’t know what to do, it was crazy,” Coupoe said.
We contacted the solar company and while it still took a few weeks the system was eventually hooked up and the company agreed to pay for the lease payments prior to the system being connected.
“That was great, I was stuck and didn’t know what to do or who to call,” Coupoe said.