On Sunday, December 10, 2017 at 10:37:38 PM UTC-5, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 10 Dec 2017 19:17:24 -0400, pjp
wrote:

What I dislike about their fixed cost repair arrangements is that if it
doesn't take that long we are giving them money for nothing

I hate to bring up my blown engine again, but when I had my car towed
into the shop last summer, he charged me about $90 for diagnosing the
problem -- that's his standard rate -- even though I figure he knew what
the problem was in 1 minute, just based on the sound.

Maybe he did some other looking around. I don't know and he didnt' say.

So like someone here said, he wins some, he loses some. This time he
won.

So I'm not angry, but otoh, I did go somewhere else to get my next car's
safety inspection.

But I didnt' tell him I went somewhere else and now I feel like I'm
seeing two girls at the same time.

It certainly is the closest I've come in quite a while to seeing two
girls at the same time.

What exactly is your complaint? $90 to diagnose a blown engine doesn't
sound unreasonable to me. I guess if it came in with a connecting rod
sticking out and oil pouring out, then it would be excessive. I'd do
that one for free. But otherwise, $90 seems OK to me.