I hate getting ripped off

I've been around family garages all my life, and worked in a few too, so I have learned quite a lot, and tend to do those things myself.
Although, a 4 wheel alignment requires specialist equipment of course.

It's not just garages that try to rip people off of course, most trades have con men who charge 10 times what a reasonable price would be.

The best option is to phone a handful of your local garages, from dealerships to small one/two man firms and get prices from everyone.
You might find it is a fair price. For example the wheel bearing itself might only be available from the dealership (i.e. no "after-market" parts from a non-manufacturer source), and it may be a lot of money which puts up the price.

Wheel bearings "usually" aren't too much problem.
Haynes do fantastic manuals in the UK, not sure if they have them elsewhere or if there's a good equivalent. But if you're not scared to get your hands dirty then using the guides makes it straight forward (easy for me to say with mechanical experience of course).

It might also be a tricky time consuming job and require specialist tools. I've found that with some jobs, on one vehicle it's a 30 min job, whereas on another it's a 3 hour job. Simply due to the difference in design of the vehicles and components surrounding the job and requirements of tools.

All that said a "LOOSE" wheel bearing indicates it only needs tightening, and for someone with all the equipment I can't see it being too time consuming, even if it's a tricky job.
Also, without taking the wheel off and the hub apart to access the bearing, it is difficult to tell if it requires replacement or "nipping up". Most cases an educated guess can be reasonably accurate as to whether it's bust or not, but even educated mechanics need to dismantle and investigate the part itself before knowing for sure.

I would definitely have a good phone around. You might find everyone tells you roughly the same price as it is a chewy job.
And if a few garages who seem trust able tell you it needs specialist tools and is a time consuming job, you should be wary of others who say it isn't and they can do it without the specialist tools.
Often, they are uneducated and unprofessional and don't consider the true requirements of a job and just want the work. They run into problems and I have seen plenty of times people not being able to finish a job due to their lack of knowledge and lack of equipment.

Phoning plenty of garages will give a decent amount of info to make a decision.

I go a mechanic my lawyer goes to, and for anything out of his scope of work (transmission, ac, etc), I go to where that mechanic takes his cars.

Oh, for tire / alignment type work I go to a local family owned tire shop, and that is just from 20+ years experience with them. I love places like that. If I even think I need tires, I pull in give them the keys and can trust that if they say I need them, I do, and don't have to worry about the tire, they ask the simple question, are you selling it soon or keeping it, and based on that is what tire they put on. 100% trust that is what type i need.

I agree is so hard to find a place you can trust even HALF that much.

Bottom on my list of places to trust: Dealerships in my area. Here is an example:

My wife's van, has a very slow leak in break line somewhere, if you don't top off, after about 2 months it will be empty the way she drives. Well had an issue with the breaks that didn't seem mechanical, so my mechanic, and giving it a complete going over, recommended taking it to a dealer to have the ABS computer tested to make sure it was behaving right.

I call up the dealership, tell them the exact problems. Tell them my mechanic just looked it over, I need them to only hook up computer and test it. They say to drop it off.

I go to my mechanic, BS'ing with him for a bit, and right before I leave he topped out the brake fluid. I drive maybe 3 miles to dealership to drop off the keys, leave the same instructions on the key envelope as I did over the phone.

The next day they call and tell me rotors need replaced, there is a severe leak in read drums, they are soaked with break fluid, pads are worn and need replaced. I ask them what the heck are they doing looking at all that, i just needed the computer checked for it reporting any errors. I tell them put the vehicle back together, it is going stright back to my mechanic. they give me all the crap about how unsafe it is to drive.

I tell them put everything in writing that they claim, i'll come pick it up after work. I pick it up. there is NOTHING on the paperwork. I ask them, they tell me "oh there was a misunderstanding of what all was wrong with the car". Yet they wanted me to authorize several hundred dollars of work over the phone!

I drive about 10 miles to home. I get home, open the hood. Get this, the break fluid resivoir is almost completely dry! I topped it back off, drove it for the next month, and guess what, it remained at the same fluid loss that it has had since i owned it.

My gut reaction, the opened the break line to bled fluid to make it look like it was leaking. If they would have found that a fitting was loose, then it should have been written on paperwork as I requested. They didn't even mention a leak on the paperwork, so in my book, they were trying to scam me!

As much as I feel for the people who work in the auto industry (grew up in a family of employees of GM) I hope this dealership is one of the Chrysler ones shutting down in this area. (had a few years ago another bad experience with them too, which is why I specified to only hook up the computer to see if errors are present).

Midas, here is another place that is a joke, Go in for front brake pads to be replaced, one guy is slowly doing that while larry moe and curly are checking coolant, wipers, exhaust, rear breaks (which i specifically told them not to even look at). I told the manager "you know i'd be out of here in half the time if those other three were helping to do what i came in here to get done, and then you could get more people in througout the day (they were swamped!)

Oh man this post got my blood boiling... LOL I'm gonna go relax..

-Greg

I always worked on my car with my dad. (Read: my Dad fixes my car while I watch).

Usually what they do if get you a cheap price to get your car in their garage, and then they happen to find other problems. You can get the original issue fixed, and then try to get other quotes on the other issue.

I drive a Toyota - my car is 6 years old and I've only had to have routine maintenance done on it . Oh yeah, and a few body jobs due to an act of vandalism and some minor mishaps .

When I do need work done I tend to avoid chain shops (Canadian Tire is really bad). Midas is okay for oil changes as long as they just do that. I had a bad experience with them last month (bad customer service - they told me I could come in at 5:00 for an oil change, I ended up waiting for half an hour before they even got my car in).

I haven't been to the dealership for anything yet...

Luckily, my dad is pretty handy with basic diagnostics at least; that is, if something is wrong he can at least narrow it down to an area where something is wrong. Then, between my uncle, who is a certified mechanic; my other uncle, who does body work; and my brother-in-law, who isn't certified but can do a lot, and for free, I can typically find the help I need from FAMILY, which is the best solution if it's available.

I really feel for you though because that happens in all kinds of areas, and I've seen it happen with my relatives too. It's too bad too many people think that scamming is more lucrative than straightforward, honest business.