THE OIL CONNECTION

The Oil Connection is a Chelsea, Massachusetts heating-oil delivery company that has operated for 22 years, according to its Better Business Bureau listing, which also gives it an A+ grade even though it is not a BBB Accredited Business. The clearest thread running through its reviews is that customers who stuck around for years came away satisfied with the price. A customer who had bought oil there for more than four years, writing in 2019, called the pricing very good and said any billing issues were always resolved fairly. Another customer, writing in 2017 after roughly three years, said prices stayed among the lowest around and deliveries ran on time, with easy online ordering. Set against that are three complaints, spanning 2017 through 2021, about deliveries that didn't show up when promised. In 2017, a reviewer said a Sunday delivery never arrived during the coldest stretch of that winter, even though payment had already gone through two days earlier. In 2019, another customer described an order confirmed for delivery on a Tuesday that still hadn't arrived by Thanksgiving, leaving the household without heat and hot water. The newest account, from February 2021, raised a different concern — being charged before oil arrived and facing a raised minimum order during the pandemic. None of these accounts is more recent than 2021, so it's hard to say whether the delivery timing and billing habits they describe are still current — but they're worth asking about directly before signing up: how firm the delivery window is, and when the card gets charged relative to the fill-up. For someone considering a heating-oil supplier with two decades of history and loyal repeat customers, that's the trade-off to weigh going in.