Trinity Solar Lawsuit: Robocall Class Actions, OSHA, and Arbitration

The Trinity Solar lawsuit picture is not one big case but several smaller fronts: two federal robocall class actions under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, an OSHA fight over a worker’s fatal fall that the company ultimately won on the merits, a New Jersey contract case pushed into arbitration, and a steady stream of consumer complaints about sales promises and third-party financing. Here is what has actually been filed, what has been decided, and what it means if you are a customer.

The Robocall Class Actions

Trinity Solar has been sued twice in federal court for allegedly placing telemarketing calls to cell phones with an autodialer, which the TCPA restricts.

The first case, Boger v. Trinity Heating & Air, Inc. et al. (Case No. 8:17-cv-01729-TDC), was filed June 23, 2017, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. It named Trinity Heating & Air, doing business as Trinity Solar, alongside a marketing partner, Media Mix 365, LLC.¹

The second, Charman v. Trinity Solar Inc. (Case No. 3:21-cv-01423), was filed August 9, 2021 by a San Diego County resident. According to the complaint, the call opened with a telltale pause and audible tone before a live voice came on. When the plaintiff asked the caller to say a random word to prove the call was not automated, the caller allegedly laughed nervously, identified Trinity Solar, and warned that local installers “may use an automatic dialing system just like what I’ve used today.” The plaintiff said he had never been a Trinity Solar customer and had never given the company his number.²

The proposed class in Charman covered anyone in the U.S. who received a similar call on a cell phone within the four years before class certification without having consented. Neither TCPA case has produced a publicly reported settlement or trial verdict.³

The Fatal Fall and the OSHA Case That Was Vacated

On October 4, 2022, a 53-year-old Trinity Solar installer fell 22 feet from a residential roof in South Orange, New Jersey, while installing solar panels. He was not wearing fall protection and died of head trauma and multiple fractures. OSHA issued a repeat-serious citation under the fall-protection standard at 29 C.F.R. § 1926.501(b)(13) and proposed a penalty of $85,938.⁴

The “repeat” label had history behind it. Trinity Solar had already received a final order for the same fall-protection standard following a Swansea, Massachusetts inspection with a final order date of November 26, 2014.⁵ Additional final orders on the same standard followed in Massachusetts in September 2019 and in New York in August 2022, weeks before the fatal fall.⁶

A separate inspection on November 23, 2022, at a home in Yonkers, New York, produced two more citations: a serious violation for failing to provide head protection to workers below rooftop installers, and another repeat violation of the same fall-protection standard. Proposed penalties in Yonkers totaled $98,216. Trinity Solar contested those too.⁷

Trinity Solar took the South Orange citation to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. In a decision dated December 26, 2024, Administrative Law Judge Carol A. Baumerich vacated the citation. She found that the Secretary of Labor had not proven by a preponderance of the evidence that the worker actually fell from the roof rather than a ladder, or that workers were on the roof without fall protection when the incident happened. The ruling described the OSHA inspector’s conclusions as based on “inferences rather than facts in the record.”⁸ The $85,938 penalty was vacated along with the citation.⁶ On February 11, 2025, the ALJ’s decision became a final order of the Commission.⁹

What Customers Are Actually Complaining About

Formal lawsuits aside, the bigger picture for a typical customer sits in the complaint files. Trinity Solar’s Better Business Bureau profile, based in Wall Township, New Jersey, listed 224 complaints over the preceding three years as of mid-2026, with 100 closed in the most recent 12 months. Service or repair issues drove the volume at 150 complaints, followed by 39 order issues and 14 product issues. Of the total, 183 were categorized as “answered” and 41 as “resolved.” The company keeps BBB accreditation with an A+ rating.¹⁰

The recurring themes: systems that underperform against what was pitched, long delays between installation and utility activation, difficulty getting refunds after cancellations, and confusion about lease terms handled by a third-party financing company called GoodLeap.¹⁰

The sales-pitch allegations are the sharpest. Customers have described being told to expect electric bill reductions of 50% to 90% and later seeing 10% to 30%. Some were promised “$0 bills” and ended up with monthly payments in the hundreds. Complaints also allege that salespeople misrepresented tax credit eligibility, failed to disclose annual payment escalators built into leases, and pressured homeowners to sign on the spot during door-to-door visits.¹¹

The GoodLeap Financing Complaints

GoodLeap manages loans, credit checks, and payment processing for many Trinity Solar installations. Multiple BBB complaints describe a gap between what the Trinity Solar salesperson said at the door and what customers later found in their financial obligations. Some reported signing GoodLeap-branded documents during the sales process without realizing they were entering a separate financial agreement. Others said they didn’t learn GoodLeap existed until the billing started.¹⁰

When something goes wrong, customers describe being bounced between the two companies. In at least one complaint, a customer was told that Trinity Solar “no longer handles our loan or warranty” and that GoodLeap managed those matters. Trinity Solar’s own responses to BBB complaints confirm that GoodLeap administers its solar lease agreements and financing documentation.¹⁰

A 2024 industry report found that finance companies like GoodLeap pay installers at project milestones and often bar installers from disclosing the markup between the cash price of a system and the amount financed. The report called inflated system prices a “critical problem,” with the difference retained by the finance company, and noted that virtually all solar financing contracts contain forced arbitration clauses that block class actions.¹²

Arbitration Can Keep You Out of Court

In Savage v. Trinity Solar, Inc., a New Jersey contract dispute over the installation and financing of a solar panel system, the trial court granted Trinity Solar’s motion to compel arbitration. The plaintiffs appealed, and the case was before a New Jersey appellate court on April 8, 2025.¹³

Whether you are bound by mandatory arbitration depends on the contract you signed. Customers whose contracts include an arbitration clause generally cannot pursue claims in traditional court, though small claims court remains available for certain financial disputes. If your contract was signed at your home during a door-to-door visit, federal and state consumer protection rules give you a three-day cooling-off period to cancel without penalty.¹¹

If you already own or lease a Trinity Solar system, pull your paperwork before you do anything else. Check who holds your loan or lease (Trinity Solar or GoodLeap), whether there is an annual escalator on your payments, and whether an arbitration clause governs disputes. Those three answers determine almost everything about your options if the system doesn’t perform the way you were told it would.

1
ClassAction.org. Trinity Heating and Air Hit With Class Action Over Robocalls
2
ClassAction.org. Trinity Solar Hit With Class Action Over Alleged Robocalls
3
ClassAction.org. Trinity Solar Class Action Lawsuits
4
OSHA. Inspection Detail – Trinity Solar, Inc.
5
OSHA. Violation Detail – Trinity Solar
6
OSHRC. ALJ Decision, OSHRC Docket No. 23-0712
7
OSHRC. Trinity Solar LLC as Successor to Trinity Solar Inc.
8
OSHA Defense Report. Key OSHRC Rulings Explained: Secretary of Labor v. Trinity Solar LLC
9
OSHRC. ALJ Decision in Trinity Solar LLC Becomes a Final Order of the Commission
10
BBB. Trinity Solar BBB Complaints
11
FairShake. Trinity Solar Lawsuit Questions Answered
12
Center for Responsible Lending. The Shady Side of Solar Financing
13
NJ Law Journal. Savage v. Trinity Solar, Inc.