ORLANDO, Fla. — Pesky solicitors at the door can make some homeowners’ blood boil. Action 9 launched an investigation after a consumer from Volusia County had a run-in with solar sales reps that kept showing up after the homeowners told them to go away.
Christina Bishop showed the Action 9 team doorbell videos of encounters with workers for Lumio, a solar energy company based in Utah.
One video shows a woman approach and say, “Hi. How are you guys?”
Bishop answered, “Can you get off my property?”
The woman who identified herself as working for Lumio two days earlier replied, “Oh, yeah.”
Christina Bishop’s husband informed the worker, “This is the third time you guys have been here.”
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On the videos, you can hear the frustration bubbling up in the voices of the homeowners. They’re upset about Lumio solicitors who invaded their Port Orange neighborhood.
On the company website, Lumio bills itself as “one of the top three nation-wide, residential solar companies in the United States.”
Christina Bishop showed Action 9 a different video clip from five months later with another Lumio salesperson at the door.
Bishop is heard on the video saying, “We’re not talking to you. We don’t want solar. Go away.”
Bishop told Action 9, “With this particular company they were pretty pushy, a little aggressive, condescending. I don’t get why they can’t take ‘No!’ for an answer.”
The family has a no soliciting sign on the front door, but even with that sign and the family telling them to leave, Bishop said they just kept returning over and over again.
She told Action 9, at first, they were polite to the sales team, but after a second visit things escalated.
On the doorbell video, we heard her husband say, “I’m not interested in solar. Yet, you guys are still here.”
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One of the workers responded, “Well, it seems like you’re having a bad day dude. I hope it gets better.” But as the worker started walking away, he turned back toward the home and directed a nasty slur at Bishop’s husband. That slur was also captured on the doorbell camera.
Christina Bishop told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal, “I was really upset, and then wanted to say something, and I was like, I’ll kind of let it go, whatever. And then when they showed up again, I was like, ‘What is wrong with these people?’”
Bishop said the workers at first represented they were affiliated with power company FPL, but later admitted they were with Lumio. The workers informed her they weren’t selling anything.
During one encounter, Bishop asked a young man to see his home solicitation permit. He claimed it was in the car, but Bishop said he never returned to show her the permit.
The clerk of court’s office in Volusia County told Action 9 only fifteen permits have been issued so far in 2024. Not one of them listed Lumio as their employer. Under Florida law, solicitors are supposed to have a permit that includes being fingerprinted and background checked if selling anything over $25.
When Action 9 stopped at a Lumio office in Winter Park, Jeff Deal asked a worker inside, “Do any of your salespeople have permits to solicit in Volusia County?” The worker claimed he wasn’t involved in the sales side of the business and referred the team to the company website for answers.
Ironically, the Lumio office in Winter Park has a no soliciting sign posted on the front window.
Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal reached out to the Lumio corporate office by phone and email. (UPDATE) Lumio sent Jeff Deal the following statement after the story aired: Lumio maintains the highest standards for its sales representatives. We have thoroughly reviewed the complaint and taken immediate disciplinary action where breaches of company policy were observed.
But the Bishop family isn’t alone in its complaints. Action 9 saw other online reviews about Lumio workers. One wrote, the workers “continuously harass me at my home.”
The reviewer posted a video showing the Lumio worker giving the homeowners the middle finger.
Christina Bishop has now added a second sign by her door and wants the Lumio workers to stop visiting.
She said, “It’s very frustrating when you say ‘No.’ You say ‘no’ again... ‘No thank you. Get off my property’ and they still don’t care. They’re not listening. They’re not respectful.”
Home solicitation without a permit in Florida is a first-degree misdemeanor with a punishment of up to a year in jail. A second violation is a third-degree felony.
Action 9 checked with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office and the Port Orange Police Department and found not one person has been cited or arrested under Florida’s home solicitation statute in the past two years.
If you have a solicitor stop at your door, you should ask to see their permit. The solicitors are required by law to display it “to all prospective buyers before initiating the solicitation of a sale, lease, or rental.”
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