Osw Landscaping & Construction

Two numbers carry most of the story: on Angi and HomeAdvisor, 57% of the ratings are five stars and 43% are one. There is almost nothing in between. OSW Landscaping & Construction works out of 2 Superior Street in Swampscott. Its BBB profile lists a sole proprietorship started in January 2020 with a single employee, owner Osvaldo Chilel, and the Swampscott chamber lists it as a member. The posted service list is ordinary yard work — spring and fall cleanups, mulch and soil delivery, sod, landscape installation — plus fencing in wood, vinyl and wrought iron, and handyman jobs. The customers who came away happy describe exactly that yard work, done cleanly. A May 2024 Google reviewer ran through spring cleaning, tree trimming, edging and new mulch with nothing to add. Someone writing in August 2023 said the crew was tidy and the price fair, and that a neighbor watching the job hired them the same day. Two Angi reviewers in February 2023 said the price was explained before the work and the job finished as agreed. The other half repeats itself, which is what makes it hard to set aside. In a May 2023 Google review a homeowner said a fence deposit went in and three months later there was neither fence nor refund. A March 2023 reviewer paid for a one-day cleanup and never saw the trash hauled off. A fall-cleanup customer in November 2022 was told the leaf pile would go on the second visit, then got no reply to calls or texts. A September 2022 reviewer used one line: he took the money and never returned it. The most recent of them, posted to Angi in December 2024, describes a down payment taken, nobody showing up, calls unanswered — and says the writer was one of several people then in court with him; a 2023 reviewer said the same about going to court. A February 2025 review is about handyman work instead of the yard: clocks and shelves hung crooked, and one shelf off the wall four months later. The written history runs 2022 through early 2025, so none of this is this season's news. Google's 2.5 across 8 ratings sits below the 3.1 that Angi and HomeAdvisor each publish from the same seven reviews, and its BBB page shows an A+ with nothing logged against it — a plainer picture than customers gave elsewhere. If you call, settle payment terms before any money moves: what is due up front, what is due on completion, and who hauls the debris. Get it in writing.