Where I work the standard cleaning, adjustment and oiling is $69 for electronic and $59 for manual machines. We encourage customers to tell us what's the ceiling for repair; it the technician feels he's going to hit that ceiling, he doesn't touch it. We often get machines in that,"my husband, the engineer" repaired, almost beyond repair. Sometimes the parts on older machines are not easily accessible and must be special ordered and shipped. Sometimes the parts are no longer made. Often, as in the case of gears, they should be replaced in pairs, and often if one set of gears has deteriorated, so will the remaining ones in a little while. Sometimes, as Lostin51 pointed out a teardown must take place (very time consuming). I recently had a plumber check for a gas leak in my dryer and fix two sinks that were dripping...$538, and my faucets aren't nearly as expensive as my sewing machine. Could I have done it myself? Possibly, but I could also blow up the house and make a bigger problem and still have to call the plumber. Servicing on anything (cars, appliances,sewing machines) does have a cost. I happily pay our technician for my sewing machine repairs (by the way, my sewing machine is worth 3.5 the value of my dryer.