Sears Appliance Repair

We contacted Sears to replace the heating element in a Kenmore range at a rental house we own. My daughter, Kathleen, who is the property manager, was told that the service visit was $85.00 and that additional costs would be communicated by the technician upon examination of the range. When booking the appointment, Kathleen asked that she be called with the estimate before work was done and provided her cell phone number. She also said she would be paying for the work by credit card over the phone. She
phoned the day of the appointment to reiterate these details. When the technician arrived, he installed the heating element (we had provided make and model numbers to insure the correct part),
a process that, according to our tenant, took 12 minutes. The technician did not phone before installing the part, took payment from our tenant and charged us $273.50. According to the bill, the part was $54.99 so that leaves $218.51 for 12 minutes of labour. We are on our fourth call to Sears customer service without any resolution. My daughter was actually told by a supervisor that she wasn't paying for time but "expertise." I guess if you don't pay close to $1000/hr, you get someone who has no expertise? We are reasonable people and are happy to pay a fair wage for fair work. This is ridiculous.

Update: The service department stood by its labour charge but a very helpful customer service supervisor named Barb offered to defray $70.00 of the cost. Dealing with Barb was the only positive part of our interaction with Sears. She was conscientious, friendly and helpful.