MacBook Pro Update #3
I was at a party last night and I ran into a guy who works for another “Macintosh Authorized Dealer” in Century City. He told me that his shop usually charged a 1.5X markup on their parts and $75/hr in labor. That would make replacing the fan cost $75 plus another $75 in labor = $150 total.
That’s significantly better than MacService.com who quoted approx $195 but still a whopping 50% more expensive than DiNo computers (who charged me an at cost $50 for the part and $50 for the labor).
According to the guy this price was actually very competitive and wayyy less shady than the Mac authorized deal he formally worked at. Finding a decent computer shop is as bad as finding an auto mechanic!