They walked up to the door, knocking, then again, then pounding on it loudly. Rude and impatient was my first impression. They were two young man, likely in their upper 20s, wearing jackets that said Kumquat. The lettering font matched but jacket colors didn't. Not exactly a company uniform then. The white car parked at the curb had no identifiers.
The started asking questions about my solar company and how much above that bill I was paying to the local electric company.
"None of your business." Just because they were asking didn't mean I had to answer.
They came back with, "It's exactly our business. Your company is (Xxxx), right. Due to their fraud they've been collecting money from you and not paying (my electric company) enough so you've been overpaying your electric bills. They've actually been kicked out of Arizona and our company is here to fix their mess."
OK, never mind how they knew my solar company. How hadn't I heard my solar company had been kicked out of AZ? But I barely got the thought formed before they went on, asking to come in to talk to me about their taking over my solar system. I declined. A convenient just-post-covid coughing fit might have proved handy at that point, but it wasn't to be faked for the first time in a week. I'm supposed to keep coughing just to give the lungs exercise and help keep them clear. One starter cough is usually good for a minute's worth. Even a laugh or lots of talking will do it.
I indicated I wasn't ready to deal with them. Maybe they should approach the new owners once we sold the house? In turn they tried to guilt me into taking care of yet another problem in the long list of pre-marketing the house duties I was dealing with. No way I needed another thing on that list. Without bothering to explain any of that, I indicated I wasn't interested.
The leader of the two started getting a bit more aggressive. He was clearly in the right, I was clearly wrong, per his attitude. So when would be a better time for them to send their engineer out to talk to me and check out our system?
I was just imagining the damage another set of boots tromping around on our shingles would tempt into happening. And just shut the door in their faces. I faintly heard the leader giving his cohort a derogatory description of me as I was walking away from the door to go sit back down.
Then I picked up the phone. Time to call the electric company. I figured if my solar company had been kicked out of the state, since my electric company had to deal with them, they'd know what was going on. If any of it was real, I had best be prepared come selling time. Five very informative minutes later, both ways, their answer was nothing happening here. They suggested I call the solar company.
I immediately did, and got the same answer. In both calls, the person I connected with referred to somebody supervising them to get the latest information. Nobody had heard anything like that.
Since I was on the phone I made inquiries of my own on the process for switching the solar contract over to the new buyer, or what other options there might be. Looks like the transfer of ownership, aka contract, should be a point in the home sale contract. I'll keep that in mind. That done, I started making a few other calls on my moving to-do list, getting the process details straight and written down. Obviously ending water, gas, and garbage pickup is a simple phone call with the next person responsible to start when they moved in and needed those services. Other contracts are a bit more complicated.
The final upshot of the afternoon's "entertainment" is just to let people know to double check anything people at the door want to engage in business with you about, especially including an alleged company called Kumquat!
My next report is to the Attorney General's Fraud Task Force. I think I'll just include a link to this. I also walked next door to our new neighbor. There are a pair of vehicles at her house, and she'd been talking about getting solar. I wanted to make sure she wasn't a target. Turns out her house is getting painted inside, she has a lot more newly empty boxes for me, a realtor to recommend when the time comes, and the Kumquat guys stopped there but she wisely sent them on their way. But she's going to go get a new dog in a few minutes. And fence her back yard.
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