FullyCompletely,

Not all pros are attempting to steal your wallet. Certainly, there are costs involved and the pro needs to make a living too. I assume that you are some sort of professional who charges for services rendered and that you offer value. This is no different for the A/V pro who has also invested time and money to learn his trade.

Maybe you have contacted the wrong pro. I have no problem with setting up a system, then enabling the client to make small adjustments to the remote configuration -- such as updating a cable channel number. Not all clients want to or are able to do this, but it saves me a lot of aggravation and the client can have instant satisfaction. While it may seem excessive, if I wanted to be fair to myself, I'd need to charge at least $150 to $200 for the combination of travel time and making a few small changes on site. It would be great customer service if I could do all of this for free, but "free" business grows very rapidly while time available for paid business shrinks.