Houston woman says solar panel sales pitch lands her in $138K contract

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Delores Wigal and Maria Garcia don't know each other, but both women said their recent interactions with solar panel salesmen were nearly identical.

"The government has a new program that will give people, elderly people your age, a free solar panel," Wigal said a door-to-door salesman told her.

Maria Garcia, an 81-year-old retired driver living on a fixed income, said she received a similar pitch from someone who showed up at her door in Houston.

"They're going to put me (on) the solar panel and I don't have to pay nothing because they say that it is a program for the government and it's going to be free," Garcia said the salesman told her.

Wigal and Garcia said they ended up signing 25-year contracts that were far from what they thought would be free.

Wigal, a 78-year-old retired special needs school bus driver, said she just stopped working last year and now lives on a fixed income in a home she owns outright.

She said a salesman with Solar Pros visited her in October. She said he was friendly and spent two hours with her, explaining how she could save money on her electricity bills with what she understood to be free solar panels.

"I said, 'what's the catch?' He said, 'no catch,'" Wigal told 13 Investigates. "I said, 'free? You're saying free solar panels.' He said, 'yes ma'am.'"

Wigal said it was appealing because her power bill is several hundred dollars a month in the summer.

She said she told the salesman she needed a new roof for the panels, and she said the salesman said they would replace that for free too.

That day, Wigal signed a digital 47-page contract and provided the salesman her bank information. She said she was under the impression it was to auto debit her electricity bill.

"I was just tickled pink. I was so thrilled," Wigal said.

She got a new roof and more than 20 solar panels were installed and her electricity bill dropped down to just a few dollars a month.

Then, she got a bill for $315 that she said she wasn't expecting.

That's when she told her daughter, Deanna Corbett, who was later able to get a copy of the contract.

According to the contract that Corbett shared with 13 Investigates, it's a 25-year agreement with a solar financing company called EnFin and totals $138,053.

The contract says she has to pay or "you risk having a lien placed on your home. This can mean that you may have to pay twice, or face the forced sale of your Home to pay what you owe."

Wigal told 13 Investigates, "They made a real sucker out of me."

Garcia's story is similar.

According to her contract, a different salesman from Solar Pros was listed in Garcia's contract.

According to Garcia, the salesman befriended her, asking if he could call her mama and brought her pastries.

She said he spoke to her in Spanish, which is her first language, but had her sign a contract in English.

According to that contract, Garcia had a 25-year agreement with EnFin, totaling $82,769.76 or face the threat of a lien on her home.

Garcia showed us an email she said she received from EnFin on March 22 asking for the title to her home, but she said she never provided it to them.

"I work all my life. I never have a house and this is my first house that I bought myself," Garcia said.

Her daughter, Maria Main, said she learned about the contract shortly after it was signed and was able to cancel the agreement before the solar panels were installed.

EnFin tells 13 Investigates they canceled the contract because of a discrepancy in application.

But, according to the contract, Garcia is still on the hook for $1,200 for a video doorbell the company installed and a smart thermostat that is still sitting in its box at her home.

"I am so extremely thankful that I caught it when I did because my mom would not have survived it," Main said.

According to officials, the women are not alone.

The FBI El Paso office posted on social media warning of a sales pitch similar to what the women say they heard - free panels through a government program.

"While there are some government-funded solar programs for households that qualify, 'going solar' isn't free. Honest businesses will tell you exactly how much it'll cost to get and install solar panels," the FBI said in its post last September.

The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency that promotes consumer protection, also put out warnings after reporting that from January of 2022 to June of 2024, people reported losing more than $250 million in solar-related complaints.

During the same period of time, the FTC received over 120,000 complaints about unwanted calls pitching solar, energy, and other utilities.

Both Garcia and Wigal's daughters said they have been calling all of the companies associated with the agreements, trying to fully get their elderly mothers completely out of it, but they aren't getting anywhere.

Corbett Parker, a corporate transactional law attorney and partner at Pagel, Davis & Hill, P.C., said he has represented a client who wanted out of a solar panel contract with a different company, so he is very aware of the tactics used to sell the panels.

"It's meant to really wear out the consumers," Parker said. "The unfair bargaining really comes down to the fact that we have a professional person trained to get you to yes."

Parker said he was able to get his client out of their contract, but since then, companies have become more aggressive in enforcing them.

Now, he calls it a dogfight, but that might change soon.

The Texas legislature passed a bill this session that would require solar salespeople to register with the state and prohibit any misleading practices or claims, with a penalty of up to $100,000. It's been sent to the governor and will take effect on September 1 if signed.

Until then, Parker said to be leery of people showing up at your home to sell you something.

"Don't sign a contract on the spot. It sounds obvious, but it is without a doubt the easiest way to protect yourself," Parker said.

Around the time Wigal said she realized she signed a nearly $140,000 contract, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was put on hospice. When we spoke with Wigal two weeks ago, she said she was hoping to leave her home to her children after she dies. 13 Investigates learned Wigal died on Tuesday.

"That's what I worked so hard for all my life, is something I could leave my kids. Now I've got nothing," Wigal said.

We found a lien has already been placed on Wigal's home. Her children and grandchildren say they don't have the money to hire an attorney to fight the contract or the lien, so it's possible Wigal won't be around to see what happens to the home she's treasured for 36 years.

We heard back from EnFin, the company that is responsible for the financing.

They said in a statement that they did an investigation into the two cases and maintain that their role in the projects align with industry practices and requirements.

"Solar financing is entirely separate from solar sales; we provide financing solutions, but we have no oversight or involvement in door-to-door sales or the direct marketing of solar products. Therefore, we cannot speak to the allegations of these customers surrounding the initial sales process," EnFin said in a statement.

Freedom Forever, the installers, got back to us as well and said their priority is that every homeowner understands their contract terms in their preferred language. They also said they are actively reviewing both projects to ensure procedures were followed.

"We encourage our customers to reach out with any questions, and the team is always available to support our customers and their families with dedicated assistance. Protecting our customers' trust and well-being is our top priority," Freedom Forever said in a statement.

Solar Pros does not have a phone number listed on its website, but we tried reaching out to them several other ways, including directly to the women's salesmen. We never got in touch with anyone.

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