Staten Island woman: Solar company bankruptcy led her to ‘financial ruin’ over broken system

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — A Tottenville woman sys she has been pushed to financial ruin after a solar power company filed for bankruptcy, but allegedly continued to charge for their services — even after her system broke.

SunPower Corporation, according to its website, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August of 2024. However, a company called Complete Solar began to buy up SunPower’s assets, like Blue Raven Solar.

Other parts of the company, including the one that Tottenville resident Phyllis Cicalo was left to deal with, are now SunStrong.

After her energy inverters broke two years ago, she said SunPower — while it operated under that name — “did more harm than they did good trying to fix that.”

She claims that the issue has been ongoing for two years now, and that SunStrong has not been helpful despite frequent calls to the company’s customer service line.

Cicalo said she has been billed $32,000 by the company.

Without another option, Cicalo — who said she suffers from a form of epilepsy that is stress-induced — turned back to Con Edison for energy. She said she paid for the system meant to power her house while it remained inoperable, until she couldn’t anymore.

She also blames the company for damaging her credit.

“When you get bills and you can’t pay them, and now you get boxed in, and you’re selling all your assets to pay bills, it’s terrible,” Cicalo said. “I’m in tears three-quarters of the time.”

Cicalo said she last reached out to SunStrong on May 15 at the time of the interview. An Advance/SILive.com reporter called the same day to SunStrong’s customer service line.

The opening message upon calling the line is: “Calling SunStrong Management, formerly SunPower Financial. We are now responsible for servicing your accounts.”

Upon speaking with a SunStrong representative, the representative said that there is a backlog of requests that SunStrong is dealing with.

However, the representative said that “our customers don’t wait that long for maintenance” and that due to SunPower’s bankruptcy, they wouldn’t have been “able to provide any maintenance.”

Though the representative wasn’t sure when SunStrong took over SunPower’s accounts, Cicalo said it was sometime last year.

After submitting a request for maintenance, the installers are given an “estimated time of 30 days for them to get in touch with [the homeowner]… if within that time frame they don’t get in touch with them, they can give us a call back, we can submit a complaint, and that can potentially speed up the process,” said the company customer service representative.

However, this has not been the reality for Cicalo.

“It’s hell,” Cicalo said. “No one should have to go through this.”

When the Advance/SILive.com reached out to SunStrong again on June 3 for more information regarding Cicalo’s situation, the reporter was placed on hold by the representative and then hung up on.

The Advance/SILive.com also could not reach a spokesperson for the company.

SunPower has been in the news for stories similar to Cicalo’s.

In April, a New Jersey family reached out to CBS News for help with their SunPower system after the batteries broke and the metering system failed.

“So, the panels are still producing electricity, but it’s not letting our electric company know that, so now we’re paying our full electric bill, on top of paying for the financing on the panels, and the batteries are still not working,” Kira Traore said to CBS News.

After CBS News investigated the situation, the company in charge of their SunPower system post-bankruptcy, Complete Solar, sent a technician to help the Traores.