Changing a Faucet, how much?

The faucet in the bathroom was leaking, and was getting worse over time.

I went to H.D. (not Harley Davidson) and bought an identical faucet, for $30.

Well, I am at the point of my life where laying on a floor and trying to contort to reach things under sinks in not a plesent thought anymore. So after trying it (not very hard) I thought that since there were about 4 or 5 more tasks I could have done around the house, I would call a plumber.

I found a company that looked like (on the web) as a sort of franchised outfit, named after the man on the hunderd dollar bill.

They said (on the website) that they were no nonsense, and fairly priced, so I had them come out. They said it was $59 just to come out, and I guess that is fair as they need to cover expences.

So never mind all the other tasks I thought could be done, how much do you think they said it would cost to just install my $30 bathroom sink faucet?

$701.00

Maybe since I live in the 1960's I had thought it would have been around $100 or so, I mean the car mechanic gets $75 and hour and how long could it take a guy to install a faucet?

I was stunned. I was holding the estimate and was speechless. Was I that far out of the loop to not know that this was what they charged. I asked "is this right?" He said it is standard and competitive. I mentioned someting to the fact that this is Ohio, not New York City, and mumbled something else, that I can't recall about how the economy is bad and how can they do business like that, etc.

I said I just do not have that much money and said to just give me the $59 bill you get for just showing up, geeze, I will just contort, and do it myself, and if the people in Cuba can get 60 year old cars to run, I should be able to change my own faucet.