Alliance Express

Alliance Express — also doing business as HOP Energy — is a Chelsea heating-oil and HVAC outfit built around one recurring story: someone loses heat or hot water, and a named person on the other end of the phone gets a truck moving fast. On Google it holds 4.7 stars across 846 ratings, and the Better Business Bureau rates it A+ and lists it accredited for fuel oil, heating, air conditioning, furnaces, boilers, heat pumps and water heaters. The thing customers keep pointing to is speed under pressure. In a 2025 review, a homeowner with no heat had a repair person at the door within 2.5 hours and the system running again the same day. In a 2023 review, a family woke to no heat on a November morning and had a technician on their way within minutes of the first call. When another customer's AC quit in 90-degree weather, that same year, Alliance sent a technician the following Saturday morning while a competitor quoted a week-long wait — he diagnosed and fixed two problems on the spot. That pattern repeats across the company's years-long written record: the same names surface again and again — Darlene, Rita, Phyllis, Crystal, Veronica, Jessica — walking customers through cap-rate contracts, budget plans, and service calls, and reviewers single them out by name for patience and follow-through. The other recurring thread is pricing friction. Several written accounts describe disputes over the annual price-cap program and per-gallon charges: a 2025 review said the company billed $5.40 a gallon against a roughly $3.78 statewide average, and a 2024 review described being asked for a $300 upfront payment to lock a $5-per-gallon rate the same day a competitor quoted $4.26. A handful of others describe long hold times and a hard time reaching anyone to cancel, and a 2025 review described a delivery mishap — a driver overfilling an already-full tank — that led into a costly tank-replacement dispute. Alliance Express is the call for someone who wants an oil and HVAC company that answers fast when the heat goes out and sticks around: the driver, the tech, and the phone rep tend to be the same familiar names year after year. Anyone locking in an annual price-cap plan should get the per-gallon rate and any upfront charges in writing before signing, given how often that's what the complaints are about.