Richard's Electric Co

Richard's Electric Co has been wiring East Boston houses since the Carter administration — the BBB lists it as established in Massachusetts in 1979, a three-person shop run by owner Richard Fringuelli with Karen Fringuelli managing. On its Porch page the company describes itself as a small family-run operation doing electric heat, power and lighting, plus complete wiring for townhouses and small homes. Nearly five decades in, the written history is remarkably short: two reviews, one in 2018 and one in 2021, and they point in opposite directions. The 2018 review is a straightforward recommendation — friendly, on time, competent. The 2021 one is the specific kind that matters: a reviewer said their parents hired Richard to separate the second- and third-floor electrical panels, that the job was left in a state where a third-floor switch kills the second-floor light and vice versa, and that they were then charged to correct it. That account is five years old, so it shouldn't be read as how the shop works today — but it is a detailed complaint about the actual work, and it is the single most substantive thing anyone has written about them. The platform numbers sit in the middle: 3 stars from two Google ratings, 3.4 from five on Porch. The BBB grades the firm A+, though it is not BBB-accredited and no complaints are published there. Porch also carries the company's own statement that it holds an electrician licence in Massachusetts and New Hampshire — that is the business's self-report on a directory page, with no number given, not a verified registry record. If you call, ask for the master electrician's licence number so you can check it against the state board yourself, get the scope of a panel job written down in detail, and agree up front who pays if something has to be redone.