Freeman Fuel Co

Freeman Fuel Co. is a third-generation, family-run outfit in Methuen that the company says has delivered heating oil and serviced gas, oil, radiant, cooling and plumbing systems across the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire for more than 60 years; BBB records list it as incorporated in 1979, started in 1953, with John H. Freeman as president, and give it an A+ grade. A March 2026 review from a self-described 50-year customer calls the service outstanding and the pricing fair. Older reviews from 2022 through mid-2024 mostly describe responsive, professional visits — a same-day boiler diagnosis and repair in a 2024 review, a clean AC install by two technicians in an August 2025 review, and reliable oil deliveries over 13 years with quick after-hours emergency response described in a 2023 review. But two reviews from January 2024, days apart, describe the same complaint. One customer says Freeman refused to service a boiler it had installed three years earlier once the customer stopped buying oil from them, and reports the boiler later caught fire in the basement, with the fire department called. A second, separate review from the same week states flatly that the company will only service equipment if you buy their oil for life. Both are specific enough, and close enough together, to be worth asking about directly — namely, whether service is still tied to an ongoing oil-purchase requirement. On licensing: BuildZoom and the company's own site both list a Massachusetts Plumbing Business license (#3771), but neither we nor BuildZoom has verified it against the state registry, so treat it as the company's own claim rather than a confirmed credential.