A-1 Dependable Electric

One man, one van, thirty-six years. A-1 Dependable Electric has worked out of 10 Farwell Ave in Hyde Park since 1990 — the BBB has had a file open on it that long, lists a single employee under owner Richard Wingert, and grades it A+ — and nearly every review of it, good or bad, is really about Richie showing up at your door. When he shows up fast, homeowners are thrilled. The two most recent reviews, both from this March, tell the same short story: out very quickly, problem solved, friendly about it. A review posted on New Year's Day 2026 described calling him on New Year's Eve about an arcing breaker and getting the breaker swapped and a thirty-plus-year-old panel rewired — "Quick, efficient and very reasonable." In a February 2024 review, a customer who had put a nail through a wire wrote that other shops wanted a fee just to come look; he quoted free, arrived inside 30 minutes, cut into the wall, replaced the wire and the breaker, and was finished in two hours. The other half of the story is the invoice, and it clusters in 2025. A January 2025 reviewer said a dead plug turned into a $585 bill with repairs they believed were added to justify the price, and no itemized breakdown when they asked for one. An April 2025 reviewer said they were told they were next in line inside two hours and then nobody arrived, called or rescheduled. A 2021 review is a milder version of the same complaint — the problem got fixed, but with work the customer thought was unnecessary. Google's average sits at 3.8 across 13 ratings, which is about where those two halves meet. The credentials are solid: his Massachusetts electrician licence, number 12223, is active with the state registry under Richard I. Wingert, and permit records on BuildZoom show 11 pulled jobs stretching from Taunton and Milton to Brookline and Chestnut Hill between 2010 and 2024. This is the call for the arcing breaker at 9 p.m., the dead outlet, the panel nobody wants to touch on a holiday. Before he starts, pin the scope and the price down in writing and ask exactly what is included — the complaints that stick are about the bill, not the wiring.