Portuguese companies only finish things for 60% then disappear

So we spent €30,000 on solar panels and batteries for our house here.

In August we talked the solar company and the owner/boss came to our house discussing the options. A smart guy, nice, and explained how it would work. 2 batteries and 2 lanes of solar panels on our roof. The time to install would be next month in September because it was busy and holiday season. All good part 1.

We paid 50% of the money.

In late September, there was still no sign of the solar panels or the guy. No communication. Note: this is not a shady seller, this is the official Tesla distributor of batteries in Portugal.

We messaged and called him and he said it would now be soon in October, because it was busy. Okay these things can happen, one month delay. All good part 2.

Then mid-October, there’s no solar panels. No communication. We ask again, he says he’s on holiday so cannot help us now. Okay, holiday, I guess people have to relax. All good part 3.

We then keep messaging him asking for a timeline, and we’re getting more annoyed with him. He says he’ll come by.

Late October he finally shows up (almost 2 months late now). He acts like everything is normal (it’s not), he says it’ll be done in 4 days, and drops of 2 African electricians (probably Mozambique or Angola) and then he disappears again. The electricians do not speak a single word of English but have lots of questions for us which we try to answer. They’re visibly annoyed with this ordeal of being dropped of without any guidance by a Portuguese guy. All good part 3.

They then drill through our roof water drain and start shouting us for help. I say what you want me to do? You should call your boss LOL. The technicians are scared to call their boss (the guy who showed up at our house and dropped them off) and instead ask us to call him. So we do and then Facetime him. He’ll say it’ll all be solved.

We say there’s now a hole in our wall and water will enter. He says yes you need to find a guy to fix this and then I will pay you. I say “No YOU drilled a hole in my wall, YOU need to find a guy”. What the actual fuck? He says “Okay no problem I will”. He doesn’t find a guy, but lets his electricians spray rubber in the hole. Not the solution recommended by our construction guys but okay it works.

The next few days are just endlessly disappointment. The electricians show up late every day, around 1pm they arrive, ring the doorbell, then tell us “we’re going for lunch”. Okay why you tell me this LOL. Then they literally disappear for 2-3 hours, come back 4pm, do some work, and disappear again at 6pm.

One day they don’t show up at all, I ask the boss where his people are, he says “it’s raining now in our town so we can’t install”, I look outside and see sunlight. He comes by. I show my iPhone weather app that shows it’s sunny here (different than the town he’s from), I tell him to add our town on his iPhone in the weather app. He asks me what weather app I have. I say literally the iPhone weather app. 😂👌 All good part 4.

The next day the electricians show up as usual late in the afternoon. I ask the boss via Whatsapp if he’s actually gonna make it in the 4 days. He says yes no problem. I ask the African guys how it’s going, and if they’re gonna make it. They say absolutely not because the weather. I look at the weather and it’s gonna rain tomorrow. I say they should start installing the solar now because today is sunny.

Any way, this stuff just goes on and on and after 2 weeks there’s still no solar panels installed. We have to keep messaging the guy to get anything done.

Then we find out WHY he was delaying it so much. Our neighbor saw we were installing solar panels, so he sold solar panels to our neighbor. To save money he delayed the whole operation, so he could install 2 solar panels in the same week and only pay for one crane. 🤦

Finally he finishes the job. It works. I go to the roof to check and it’s chaos. There’s metal bars, screws, plastic packaging, and just a total mess littered all over the roof. They installed and then never cleaned up their mess.

In Portugal they have the best sales presentation, then you pay and what you paid for is always delayed, then you have to haunt them for months and when then it’s done for just 60% and then they disappear!

So I say fuck it, I’ll clean it up myself.

One thing good about Portugal is it makes you highly self-sufficient, because their quality of work is such absolute bottom-tier, you have no other choice.