Maria's Oil

Maria's Oil is a Peabody, Massachusetts heating-oil dealer that also installs and services oil and gas heating systems, air conditioning and plumbing, with roots the company traces to 1996 and offices in Chelsea and Reading. The written record — twelve Google reviews — runs from 2021 through late 2025, with nothing posted in the past several months. On the positive side, several reviewers describe fast turnaround: one says the company comes out same-day or next-day whenever called, another describes technicians finding and replacing a hard-to-source part on a 20-year-old furnace, and a couple mention reasonable, competitive pricing and friendly staff. But billing and service-follow-through complaints show up repeatedly across the same years. In a 2023 review, a customer describes the company delivering 100 gallons of paid-for oil into a neighboring tenant's tank by mistake, then, when asked to make it right, suggesting the customer buy more oil, ask the neighbor for reimbursement, or pump the misdelivered oil back out themselves. In a 2022 review, a customer describes being quoted $5.25 a gallon over the phone, then charged $5.69 less than 24 hours later with no notice of the change. Another 2022 review describes being charged $125 for a repair the customer says was needed only because of the company's own earlier service call, with a phone representative who dismissed the complaint. And in a 2021 review, a customer describes paying to have a boiler primed, finding a receipt for the service but no evidence it was actually done, and then being hung up on and ignored when they called back. There's no dispute that these are the same company across reviews — the complaints and the praise both name Maria's Oil directly. Given how often the disputes involve billing and follow-through rather than the underlying repair work itself, it's worth asking for a written quote before any delivery or job, and confirming completed work in person rather than by receipt alone.