I would like to know how much money is "too much money just to check fault codes" and is it really "to check fault codes" or is it a service call to come to your location, and troubleshoot and quote the proper repair for these codes. seems to me they could have given you an answer over the phone as to what the codes basically mean, since you know what the codes are, but checking them out, clearing the code and accurately knowing what to repair/adjust/replace might be a little more time consuming.
And I would like to be able to compare what you get for the $ in Cali as opposed to North Carolina, just out of curiosity.