WEST ALLIS, WI — 'Zero up front cost' and 'zero out of pocket cost'. It sounds too good to be true and it probably is.
These fliers pictured below have been circling around south west Milwaukee for weeks now. Neighbors said it's an advertisement for solar panel installation inspections, but may not be legit.
"It makes me upset. I thought when I found out I was a little bit irritated, and I decided to take some action," West Allis neighbor, Rick Tritz, said.
In January, Tritz said the flier showed up in his mailbox. It caught his eye because of the bright yellow color and the call for We Energies customers.
"As I thought about it and read it over, it was like wait a second, this doesn't sound exactly right. So, I went online to check a couple of things," Tritz explained.
Tritz emailed TMJ4 News after realizing the company phone number on the flier didn't exist.
Tritz's neighbors said they got the same flier and also got a visit from a solicitor. Most of their neighbors didn't answer the door, but a friend of Tritz, who lives a mile away, did.
"It's a guy who's probably in his mid-30s and he's tall and out there saying well there's solar energies and We Energies wants to give you this promotion for this for solar in your house. And I said 'well I'm not interested'. He was very persisent and he just kept talking even as I was closing the door," Mary Jo Nietupski explained.
Tritz called the number on the flier while we were there. A person answered and said they worked for a Milwaukee and Green Bay based company called Solar Consultants.
A quick Google search and that company clearly doesn't exist.
So we called again, this time identifying who we were.
"Is this Solar Consultants, is that correct?" Jenna Rae asked.
"Yes ma'am," the person responded.
"I'm trying to get a little bit more information and speak with someone about a flier that you guys have been passing out. A yellow flier that's been put in some mail boxes," Rae said.
The person on the other end of the phone hung up.
"This is not from us, that's incredibly important. We do not go door-to-door, we don't send out fliers, we don't actually install residential solar," Brendan Conway with We Energies told us.
Conway said they've been fielding calls for months about this particular flier.
"It's frustrating, I think, on behalf of our customers because they are being misled. There's plenty of legitimate solar installers in this state and we would encourage our customers to do their homework before they work with anybody," Conway explained.
Luckily, the neighbors we talked to, did just that.
"Just be aware, think about it, be skeptical about any great deals, and if they mention a company like We Energies or Wisconsin Energies, check with Wisconsin Energies to make sure they are who they are," Nietupski said.
"I'm glad I looked online and checked it, so I decided not to give them a call and sent you a notice instead," Tritz added.
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