[Rick Lee]

Yes, it's common. Happened to me with RotoRooter years ago when my sink was clogged up beyond my abilities to repair it. The guy came out and said it was something like $50 for the visit. When he was all done, it was another $200 or so for the fix, which took about 15 min. and $3 worth of parts.

My current heater had a runoff drainage problem. I have a maint. contract with these guys, so I get a discount. $89 for the visit and they charged $100 for the fix, which I could have easily done myself once they had diagnosed the problem. It had really stumped me and even one of them. But the real smart other guy figured it out. Time before that the guy came out and charged me just for the visit and told me how to fix it myself for under $5, while he would have had to charge me over $100.