Needham Oil & Air

Kudos to Bobby, our technician, who persisted until both repairs were completed, and our a/​c worked again!

Back in Aug. I set up an appt for service. The day of the service they called and said they lost their tech. and would call me back. They never did. By Nov. I called again and they gave me the same story. Never called back. I found a new co that came right away and did the service. If they don’t respond for reg. service what about an emergency? Forget this co. As a long time customer they just blew me off. There are lots of good reliable co. out there stay away from this one.

Charged $ 364.00 to replace a defective thermostat that they original installed. The new thermostat could be had for $ 39.00 online. I would never ever use this company again

By far the best oil company in metro boston. They are professional, caring and have extraordinary service department. We highly recommend Needham Oil and Air.

I was a customer of Needham Oil for many years, left and tried a different company and came back based on their pitch of «top notch» service. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I called them at 8AM telling them I had no heat and the woman that answered the phone was very nice and assured me they would have someone out to our house as soon as possible. After several more calls throughout the day, and no service tech, at 3PM I call again and am told that I am «next on the list». At 6PM I call back and am told that the office is closed. The answering service sends me to the on-​call tech who has no record of us at all and is completely unaware of the problem. The answering service is useless and cannot access anyone after hours except the beleaguered tech. 10 hours later the house temperature is 46 degrees, and there is no responsible human being at Needham Oil. Completely unreliable service — the very last thing you need when you are relying on someone to fix your heat.
After finally getting a service tech to arrive, I was told there was no oil in my tank (Needham Oil is supposed to automatically fill your tank, but apparently never did). 10 gallons were put in the tank which I was told would last approximately 10 hours bringing us to 5AM. I told the tech we need more oil as I did not want the heat to go off at 5AM. He told me «no go» (his words) and that it was company policy. I told him this was not acceptable, and he laughed (literally) and said I could call him at 5AM and he would come out and put another 10 gallons in.
This is what these folks call customer service. I would run, not walk from them. Completely unprofessional, disrespectful, and obviously couldn’t care less about their customers.

If you’re new to oil be careful and make sure you negotiate a fixed rate up front otherwise you’ll be charged decent rates the first few times and then it’ll slowly go a dollar or more above the average.
Generally stick with places that publish their prices on these aggregate sites like the one I pasted below or at the very least companies that are willing to disclose their daily rate.
Needham Oil wants your info first so they can give you the appropriate price depending on how much they are ripping you off.
Despite all this I like the service the staff I call into for billing are helpful and Mike is good.

We were customers of Needham Oil for 5 years. I paid for an automatic service plan (although they never serviced the burner or any part of the system). Each winter for the past 5 years, they’ve let our oil run out completely and have given us the run-​around time and again regarding specific reasons why. A few times this happened after 1am in extremely cold (teens or below) weather.
Last month, they called to inform me that I was no longer on an automatic plan but they would only be filling the tank 50 gallons at a time. They told me I had to keep an eye on the gauge and then proceeded to tell me the gauge is broken. They said it would be $ 156 to fix (not sure why that wasn’t addressed BEFORE they decided to bump us off their automatic plan, but I think it has something to do with a little thing called more money– essentially gouging us for a gauge– very clever). I asked again why these changes were occurring and the poor girl on the phone was fumbling for words. None of what she said resembled an explanation by any means. I was transferred to a man who was extremely short and pushy. I could tell he wanted me off the phone. Nobody would explain in plain terms what the problem was. He spewed a little industry jargon as to why they decided to ration our oil without our consent (and without a gauge to read).
ENOUGH.
Today I had another service provider come out to do a tune up and start delivering. The service person said we had less than 10 gallons left in the tank and put a new gauge in at no cost (covered under their plan!) When I called to cancel with Needham, I was given even more attitude. Its 3 days before a major holiday and they almost left us hanging AGAIN. I don’t have the time or energy to play games. I just want heat in the winter. I’m so glad to be done with Needham Oil and would never recommend them to anyone.

I called Needham Oil for ac service maintenance. They rescheduled me the day before 4^th of July, told me that there was a family emergency for one of the technicians. I understand that, but the day before a holiday makes you think if it is real. I told them that my AC was not working and it was in the 90s. I had spoke to someone over the phone to troubleshoot which did not work. I called back and they were willing to squeeze me in to have someone stop by and look at the unit. I had to push for this. The technician was very nice and fixed the problem. I rescheduled my service maintenance for the AC, giving them another chance. Then again, they called me the same day of the appointment, telling me they had to reschedule due to being backed up with other people who’s AC was not working. I understand that but rescheduling twice in a row as a new customer, I wasn’t buying their excuses. I went with someone else. Better not to deal with this. People take time off for these appointments and you cannot keep calling the same day to reschedule. I gave an extra star since the technician was very helpful and friendly.

We’ve used this company for several years. Service is generally responsive had one situation when the unit was being cleaned where an incorrect part was put in causing problem for the heat come fall. Called them about a conversion to gas and rep. came to house but after one prompt never received an estimate. The company was more than willing to fill our entire tank of oil in the summer right when the gas line was being installed. Interesting as we have electric water and our oil use in summer is minimal to none. Not a company I would recommend on several fronts.

I originally switched to Needham Oil becuase I thought they had good service:
But last summer they left me without air conditioning for almost a month because their technician forgot to follow up on a service call.
And for two years they couldn’t fix a furnace that often leaked oily smoke in the basement. They told me it was too big a furnace and didn’t have enough ventilation – and wanted to sell me an $ 1100 project to bring i more outside air. My new oil company discovered that the ignitor electronics were defective – and fixed it in 30 minutes.
It also seemed that their pricing was consistently about $ 0.30 above the local market
Very disappointing experience.