Not a stealership story.
I've been getting my oil changes done at a local place, it's pretty much a one tech and one office person operation (all they do is fluid changes and ignition interlocks) and I really like the place, the cost of getting it done there is like $35-40 for labor and they use AMSOIL. Last year they moved from their downtown shop to a nearby place and they share shop space with a larger auto repair business.
They had my oil changed a couple of weeks ago, and when the tech asked if there was anything in special I wanted him to check, and I said yes, the front diff is leaking but I'm not sure where. After changing the oil, he said it was the output seal (which I already suspected, just wanted confirmation). So he asked if I wanted to get the other business to quote the fix, so I figured why not, I was already there and wasn't in a rush.
The guy from the repair place browsed around in his computer, clicked and typed a few things, and printed an estimate page and highlighted a number. Said 10.1 hours to change a seal (according to ondemand5) and he said that the differential had to be removed. I asked if he was sure if it couldn't get done just by removing the cv shaft, and he checked and said nope, you are correct in saying that the CV shaft is a 2-3 hour job to R&R, but the diff has to come out to change the seal, it is like that in a few vehicles. I told him I was going to look into it then, get the money (he said it was going to be just over $1000) and then call or visit him again.
Got that done between yesterday and today with a friend, a total of 3-3.5 hours and maybe $65 or so in parts, tools, fluids, etc. And a dinner for my friend one of these days, since he helped me a lot and allowed me to use his garage. I do have to return the seal driver to Checker's to get my money back though, so right now I'm out of maybe $120.