Should've Called the House Fairy

My cooktop is less than a year and a half old. A month ago, one of the burners stopped functioning properly, working only in the extremes of barely tepid or arc welding. Anything under the "high" setting barely warms the burner. I figured I'd live without it "for now." I mean, I rarely have two large pots going at one time, so I thought I could adapt.

Last week, however, my other large-sized burner quit on me. I was boiling potatoes to mash, had the thing set on 7 (out of a possible 9), and it took a while but the water was juuuuust under a simmer. I moved it up half a notch and it quickly brought my potato water to a nice boil, then to violently boiling over. I reduced the heat, but it still kept the water at a high boil. I turned the burner off, and the blasted thing kept cycling anyway (didn't shut off). I had to throw the breaker to turn off the blinkin' stove.

I considered calling the House Fairy and decided against it. I remember the bee-yotch of a time they had installing the thing, and I thought that if a paid service guy ended up cracking my cooktop, it would be on them and not on us to buy a replacement. I saw nothing but a can of worms for the House Fairy, and sparing him the hassle seemed like the better option. He has enough going on with DEB these days.

I called an appliance repair service from the list recommended by the manufacturer. The service guy arrived today. He was finished in under fifteen minutes, and I still do not have a functioning stove.

He arrived, and I described the problem. After turning the misbehaving burners on and off quickly, he says my elements are functioning, so I need new switches for those two burners. Okay; fine.

He crawls beneath the stove and gets the model & serial numbers. Then he tells me they'll call when the parts come in. Oh, by the way, I need to have someone remove any sealant around the stove edges so he can lift it out because they don't do that. That'll be $70.49, ma'am.

Huhwhat? That's it? Am I going to be able to cook Christmas dinner?

To say that I'm seething is an understatement. First off, I said nothing different to this guy than I did when I placed the service call. While on the phone, I easily could have turned the burners off and on to test the elements, and I certainly could've crawled beneath the stove and obtained the model and serial numbers, sparing this guy a trip and saving myself the expense. Lastly, I could have had any sealant removed long before he came if anyone at the office had bothered mentioning it when I scheduled the appointment.

If I'm going to pay seventy bucks for someone to screw me, shouldn't he at least dim the lights first? YIKES!!!!!!!