After 3 minutes of physically working on our clothes dryer, my mother received a bill for $145 before being given an estimate. The repairman said he just had to replace the sensor, showing her what I found out later was actually a fuse.
He charged her $75 for the fuse and $64 for labor. Not knowing any better, she went ahead and paid the bill. After looking up some prices online, I found the fuse to cost between $9 and $13. To change the fuse he only had to remove the used one and replace it with a new one.
We contacted the company who just forward us to the repairman. He said they could charge whatever they wanted for parts and services. He may have been right, but ethically, he should have discussed the price before performing any repair without approval.
I don't expect the money back, I just wanted to write this as a heads-up for this particular company.
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