STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — After dealing with a faulty solar power system for roughly a year, an Eltingville man said he is finally getting financial and energy relief.
Anthony Magnavito, 80, a customer of SunStrong — formerly part of the SunPower Corporation prior to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2024 — said he has been dealing with unanswered requests for service for months after his inverter broke.
Magnavito said he was living off half the power he is supposed to receive from his solar power system and the financial burden of the dysfunctional system was taking a toll.
“…when I had an inverter replaced by SunPower, they came right away, replaced it, there was no problem. Now these people don’t seem to want to help me. They just say, ‘Yes, yes, yes,’ and they don’t come,” Magnavito said.
However, after the Advance/SILive.com reached out to SunStrong about Magnavito’s situation, a repair team was deployed to his home two days later.
Magnavito said his months-long inverter nightmare had ended.
SunStrong told the Advance/SILive.com that due to the bankruptcy transition from SunPower to SunStrong, they didn’t get all the necessary information for every account they took over.
Magnavito is not the first Staten Islander to suffer from the bankruptcy proceedings.
Tottenville resident Phyllis Cicalo reached out to the Advance/SILive.com after all her inverters were nonfunctional for two years.
Cicalo said she was billed $32,000 by the company, and was in “financial ruin” as a result.
Without another option, Cicalo 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.
Following a June 8 Advance/SILive.com article, Cicalo said a SunStrong representative came out to her home, assessed the situation, and later installed a completely new system for her.
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