Reliable The Fence People

Reliable The Fence People is a Woburn-based fence installer that calls itself New England's top name in fence for more than 70 years, working in vinyl, cedar, ornamental aluminum, and chain link across Eastern and Central Massachusetts, the Cape, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire and Maine. Reddit threads going back to 2023 keep naming it as one of the two or three companies locals actually recommend for fence work in the Boston area. Most of what customers describe is straightforward and well executed: a chain-link fence crushed by two fallen trees repaired the same day the trees came down, a vinyl fence fitted to conform to badly uneven ground, and a fence installed roughly 20 years ago that's still standing — the same customer called Reliable again for a recent repair rather than look elsewhere. Several reviews describe comparing Reliable against a handful of other companies before choosing it on price and communication. Set against that is a real cluster of recent, specific complaints worth taking seriously. A May 2026 review describes a fence installed over six feet tall without a permit, a crew that didn't know the property lines, and police getting called over a dispute with a neighbor — a compliance problem that shows up only in a customer's own account, not anywhere it would otherwise be tracked. A Reddit post from April 2026 describes a cracked foundation from pulling out an old fence and a poorly installed gate. Other reviews describe latches breaking within a year with little follow-up support, an installation done "eyeballed" without a laser or string line that came out crooked, and — separately — a customer whose yard was left with aluminum shards near young kids and a dog, plus frost heaves from a walkway that had to be cut for a gate post. A couple of 2024 reviews also describe trouble simply getting a quote returned or getting the company to come back for a follow-up issue. Its BBB grade is A+, and it holds a 4.7 average on Google (about 1,090 ratings) as well as matching 4.7s on Angi and HomeAdvisor (each from 401 ratings — likely the same underlying data rather than two separate samples). For a standard fence install or repair, Reliable's long track record and the volume of specific, satisfied customers make it a reasonable call; for anything that touches a property line or needs a permit, confirm in writing that the company is pulling the permit and has surveyed the boundary before work starts.