Image Credit: Solar Titan USA / Facebook
A restraining order has been issued by a federal judge against Solar Titan USA, a company based in Knoxville, after numerous customer complaints.
Solar Titan USA is owned by Ideal Horizon Benefits. Customers complained of the company’s deceptive business practices and alleged that the company administrators were using customer funds to pay for personal luxuries such as private jets, yachts, and multi-million dollar homes.
A protective order was sought and obtained against the company by the Attorneys General of Tennessee and Kentucky, and it was placed under the control of a court-appointed receiver.
According to WATE, a number of East Tennessee customers have complained of expensive loans, work that was never completed, and solar panels that did not function properly. Court documents show more than 200 formal complaints against the company since 2020.
Richard Ray, Principal of Tria Financial Consulting, will assume temporary oversight of Solar Titan USA. He was named as the receiver of the company by U.S. District Court Judge Clifton L. Corker.
The following statement was posted to the Solar Titan USA website:
Ideal Horizon Benefits LLC doing business as Solar Titan USA is currently under the control of the United States District Court of East Tennessee at Knoxville, TN. Richard Ray is the court appointed receiver with oversight responsibilities over the Company. He will provide regular updates to the Court as ordered and will provide public announcements via this website as directed by the Court. If you are a customer and wish to file a consumer complaint please go to the “Contact Us” tab of this site and inform us of your complaint.
Customers wanting to lodge a complaint should initiate contact via the website; those who have already filed complaints can visit the website to check the status of those consumer complaints.
As the court-appointed receiver, Ray will oversee all evaluations of those complaints and present his recommendations to the Court for approval.
According to Richard Michael Atnip, who says he is a silent partner in the company, the fault of the company’s failure does not lie with Solar Titan USA. Instead, he blames Generac for providing faulty products to the company and other now-failing companies.
Atnip told WBIR 10News that “Solar Titan and Solar Titan employees along with many of their customers fall victim to Generac and their failure of NOT announcing a national recall and stepping up to the plate to help their installers and customers.”
Atnip also stated that the company is looking into legal measures it can take against Generac. The company is already dealing with three federal lawsuits, including one from Pink Energy, which also claims that Generac caused their business to fail.
Generac maintains that they stand behind all products and offer support for all of their components.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
2 Responses
I’ve had similar issues with both Pink and Generac. 16 months now my Pink installed (?) unit using Generac subsystem is still not up, running and approved. Customer service with Generac resulted in a referral to an electrician firm whom I shall not mention because they just dropped off the radar. Pink/Power Home Solar was totally inept at customer service and Generac isn’t much better. Worst decision I ever made was a solar project.
Yup, go solar.