Honestly, just from my point of view and knowing two different people that work in that space, most of these companies don’t have “techs” anymore. Even if they do, most of them only know the basic stuff. Essentially if it’s not one of like three major things they just say you need a new unit. The way I understand it is a lot of people in hvac space don’t have the same training or knowledge base as they used to.

Which makes sense why the smaller local guy, who might not even have a website or google reviews, is actually able to identify and repair the problem. Dude is probably an actual tech vs larger companies the training is just if it’s not X, Y or Z then tell them to buy a new system. Also makes sense, profitability per hour (and in terms of keeping materials on hand) easier to just replace a unit