Hollywood Motorcycle

A tale:
I stopped by Hollywood Motorcycle off Vine today for an electrical problem. Though I’m hardly knowledgeable in bike mechanics, I thought it seemed like a pretty simple problem. A number of electrical parts of my Honda Shadow VT600 weren’t working, and they all went out at the same time.
I told the gentleman who ran the joint what the issue was, and he had an immediate solution: That I sign a form consenting to pay $ 500 for their services, before they had to call me for permission to charge more.
Five hundred dollars? Who am I, the Duke of Wellington? I don’t know about you, but I figure if he has something I’ve signed agreeing to possibly spend a certain amount of money, he’s going to charge just that amount.
Furthermore, he explained the possible alternatives: Either they could call me the next day and say I only owe them $ 65, or they could call me and say it’ll cost $ 1500. At which point, when I come to pick up my bike, I’ll only have to pay $ 200. For diagnosis. Obviously.
So I got the hell out of there in a hurry, and here’s the best part:
I got home and pulled out my Hanes manual for an electrical diagram. Lo and behold, all the malfunctioning electrical systems (brake lights, turn signals, horn, etc) were connected to the same fuse! In ten minutes, with the broken-​off extension phillips’ head end of a screwdriver, I took out the busted fused, replaced it with a SPARE that comes in the fusebox, and was up and turn signalling like a bat out of hell.
For free. Not $ 1500, $ 500, $ 200, or even $ 65. If that guy had taken 2 seconds to show me he gave a damn about my problem, and offered the suggestion that it could be a fuse, I’d be giving him 5 stars right now.
Oh, and another funny part to the story: After talking to him for a moment, I repeated my thought that it seemed to be a fairly simple problem, he reponded, almost verbatim: «I only know one thing: I’ve been working on these things longer than you’ve been alive, I know these bikes inside out, but there is no simple solution to this problem. This is going to be a very complicated fix.»
Also: «I know $ 500 seems like a lot, but you’re paying for expertise you can’t find anywhere else in this city.»
Hahaha. How about LA Green, where my man Quang comes to YOU to fix your scooter or bike (818−687−8696)? Or Honda Motorcycles in NoHo, which literally quoted me $ 20 MORE than they ended up charging me?
Ladies and gentlemen, skip Hollywood Motorcycle. They’re obviously desperate for business, and for good reason.