HOW DO YOU CHOOSE?
So, now you have bids. You have heard the sales pitches. How do you choose a heating and air-conditioning contractor? Let us tell you some of the reasons to choose Amerine Mechanical.

WHO ARE WE?
We are a second-generation business. Gene Amerine has been in the heating and air-conditioning/refrigeration industry since the early sixties. The current owners, Josh and Justin Amerine, grew up in the industry and have literally been on job sites since childhood. After college, Josh and Justin have taken the family business to the next level. Gene is still in the office most days helping with commercial bids and complicated trouble-shooting. This gives Amerine Mechanical a significant pool of refrigeration knowledge and experience.

NON-NEGOTIABLE
It seems there are few things in life that are not negotiable. Someone is always ready to compromise or change to get something. We have a rule in our business that honesty is a non-negotiable part of employment. Anyone that works in our organization is constantly and consistently held to a rigid standard of honesty. We have no desire to deal with someone that is not truthful, and we know our customers certainly don’t either.

We encourage this honesty in a couple of ways. First, no person in the organization makes a commission on the sale of any part or equipment. We pay our employees an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work. It is very tempting for those working on commission to try to sell a customer something that is not necessary. Furthermore, we don’t push our employees to finish a specific task in a certain amount of time. Everyone is told to do his best work in a timely, efficient manner. A quick way to be in trouble at Amerine Mechanical is to hurry through a job and leave it substandard. Any job that needs a second going over is done by one of the owners, personally. This helps discourage sloppy work by everyone in the organization. We believe that honesty makes us money. When customers trust our work and our products, they are more likely to trade with us even if someone else is a few dollars cheaper.

THE FLASHY THINGS
The first thing most people notice is that we don’t drive fancy white trucks with our name all over them. We have considered buying fleet trucks in the past, but have decided not to. The problem as we see it is:  “Who pays for those trucks?” If we buy $50,000 worth of vehicles in a year, then our customers in that year have to pay for their air-conditioning work and part of a truck. It is just that simple. The same problem exists with advertising. If we buy a full page ad in the yellow pages that costs us $900 a month, which customers do we charge extra for the advertising? Our plan is to keep our overhead as low as possible so that our customers’ money actually goes for air-conditioning machinery and work, instead of paying for trucks and advertising.

COMPETITION
The heating and air-conditioning industry has gotten highly competitive in the last few years. It has become easier to obtain a license to do residential work. Many installers have decided to seek their fortunes by going into business for themselves. We think that competition is healthy, and it keeps us on our toes. An unfortunate by-product of fierce competition is mudslinging. We are not very good at bad-mouthing other companies or equipment lines; therefore, we don’t. We believe in letting our reputation for good work and honest business practices stand on its own.

EQUIPMENT BRANDS
For twenty years, Amerine Mechanical carried the full line of General Electric heating and air-conditioning systems. In the early 1980’s, GE sold out to the Trane Corporation. This signaled a real change in the industry.  At one time, dealers were associated with one of the major equipment manufacturers, and that manufacturer's equipment was the only brand the dealer installed.  Dealers were granted exclusive areas by the manufacturer in which no other dealer would be allowed to sell that equipment line.  No more.  Now there is little loyalty.  Most equipment manufacturers will sell to any licensed installer.

Occasionally, you will see dealers use phrases like "factory authorized dealer" or "factory trained dealer."  These usually mean that the dealer has paid the equipment distributor to use the phrase.  It often has nothing to do with training or expertise.

For these reasons we have chosen to associate ourselves with Carrier.  The Carrier line of equipment represents excellent quality and value.  With that said, we do not limit ourselves or our customers.  If we feel there is a better choice available in another line, we won't sell our customers short.  For that reason, we often install Lennox brand equipment.  Lennox has several types of systems that are hard to beat.

We do what is best for our customers regardless of the brand name on the equipment.

THE REAL DIFFERENCES IN EQUIPMENT BRANDS
The real difference is the longevity, and to a lesser extent, the performance of various system types is not the name on the outside, but the quality of the installation procedures. An air-conditioning system is not like a car that is self-contained and relatively independent of the person who sold it. Small differences in refrigerant piping sizes, evacuation procedures, and refrigerant handling can shorten the life of a system. Small amounts of moisture or debris in the refrigerant system are deadly to compressors. It is not difficult to get the work done right; nevertheless, it is often done incorrectly.

We think that a full 50% of the life of the system is the result of the installation. Everything else—brand name, equipment grade, compressor type, and cost—comprises the other 50% of the life. We have often seen less expensive equipment last for 20 or more years; conversely, we have seen top-of-the-line equipment lose compressors in the first month. The installation makes the difference.

WARRANTIES
Amerine Mechanical warrants all material and workmanship for a full year. This is the industry standard warranty. Commonly, all problems under the contractor’s control will become apparent during the first year of operation. The problems can then be corrected to the customer’s advantage. Several equipment manufacturers are now offering extended parts warranties that can save the customer significantly should a problem arise during the period. This leaves the customer responsible only for the installation labor for the warranty part. The latest fad has been to offer customer parts and labor warranties for as long as five to ten years. We have looked at this and can not find a way to offer it that doesn’t involve higher initial prices or an ongoing service contract. We believe that our customers are better served with a normal warranty that doesn’t artificially increase the initial cost of the system. We also suggest that any long-term warranties offered by others be thoroughly investigated by the customer. The money for those warranties has to come from someplace.  If the customer hasn’t paid for the extended warranty up front, the contractor could not do the warranty work and still stay in business.

FINANCING
We generally don’t offer in-house financing or financing through one of the big credit companies because the interests rates and terms make this type of financing quite expensive for the customer.  Essentially, these are revolving credit loans similar to credit cards. Instead, we work closely with First American Bank in offering home improvement loans that are much more favorable to our customers.  However, we do accept credit cards should a customer choose this form of payment.

OUR COMMITMENT
Our first priority has always been to offer our customers excellent work at honest prices. If, on occasion, our quote is slightly higher than one of our competitors, our customers who already know us are confident they that can trust us to have their best interests in mind.  Even if the customer doesn’t know the details of everything we do for them, they know they can trust us to do the right thing. For most people, piece of mind is worth a few dollars more.

We are not looking to be the biggest air-conditioning outfit around.  If we were, we couldn’t do the quality work we do now. Instead, we are interested in building a large base of loyal customers which will keep our business prosperous and our patrons comfortable year round.  That’s our commitment to you:  product satisfaction, peace of mind, and honest prices.

Thanks for considering us.