A fair point; however, DJ is not a one-person company. I don't know how many employees it has, but I do know that the service was performed by an employee. Danny and a second employee installed the mini-split.

I expect that there are many like me that prefer to do business with smaller, family owned operations. That said, I have used Superior and was quite happy, including a response on a weekend and the "loan" of a blower motor when ours had failed.

As you mentioned, some people like the personal touch of a smaller company but what I've learned is the larger companies buy significantly more equipment so they get better pricing from the manufacturer than a small company. With a reputable company like Sunshine for example, they will have significantly cheaper equipment costs than the competition for the same exact equipment and installation and you will probably get a cheaper price to do a new installation than the rest.

All this said, there are different "markups" for different systems. So, for the basic "builder grade", "the Good" system that most use to replace their systems because it's the cheapest, the "markup" is small so the difference between companies will be small. For the more efficient systems like the "Better" and "Best" systems which only some may buy because the sales person tells them the energy savings is not worth the extra money for the system and there are no parts and everything is way more expensive when you have repairs, the markup is greater plus some manufacturers will have more rebates on these systems so there is more room to offer a lower price if you pay less for the equipment becasue of the volume you buy annually. Also, a larger company that is an "authorized" dealer will have access quicker to replacement systems, parts and support.

HVAC is probably one of the most mis-understood topics becasue on the surface, the techonlogy seems very basic and it is, but it's also can be very complex. It's a topic complex enough where the average homeowner has to rely on the honesty and integrity of the HVAC company they choose. On the flip side, reputable companies also understand if one of their employees does something unethical and it gets reported their reputation will be harmed. This balance usually works.

I can tell you although Sunshine, who I use, is a very large company, when they answer the phone when I call and know who I am (from their database), they try their best to be personable and do whatever they can to support me as if they were a small company. They have sales/tech support people who once assigned to you, will even come to your home to answer any questions such as how to do something on your thermostat or anything else that needs to be addressed for free without a tech coming out. When I recently upgraded my system I now have one of these support people who I can even text if I have any questions on my new Carrier Infinity system and he usually responds quickly or calls. I don't know how more presonal you can get.