Suspicious of their billing model

After reading other feedback on pricing I approached Autogate with caution. Their process is to invoice for a callout fee of R650, and on receipt of payment send a technician to quote on work required. The R650 callout fee is deducted from the work carried out (if quote is accepted).<br> <br> When I received the invoice for callout, I asked a few questions including the hourly labour rate. All questions except hourly rate were answered. I then again asked for hourly labour rate - no response.<br> <br> Almost in parallel to this I received a call from a technician asking what repairs were needed. After discussion I understood from him that the repair would take about 30mins, and that the quote would be in the region of R950! That works to an hourly rate of R1900!<br> <br> Needless to say, I did not proceed.<br> <br> My complaint is that their billing model seems *********. You pay R650 callout fee for a quote at an outrageous hourly rate, and are then left with the choice of throwing good money after bad, or cutting your losses at R650 for the honour of receiving a quote.