I don't know the US market and haven't had much experience of getting Leicas serviced (although my M6 is off to CRR in Luton in a week or so) but I have had a lot of work done on Pentax's.
I don't think that the "CLA" price is affected that much by reputation but more on "working practice" and overheads although these will in turn affect the reputation. If you look at the CRR website and having spoken to them, there is no definition of CLA. They give a guide price about the same as DAG etc for a "general service" but there are also guide prices for shutter repairs, meter and rangefinder repairs and wind/transport repairs. When I spoke to them about the M6, they said they prefer to get the camera and assess what needs to be done and then quote for it.
I have a very good repair tech near me in the UK. Because of ill health, he cannot keep regular hours and therefore cannot work for a company although he has worked for many of the big names in the past. As a result he effectively works from home and so has low overheads. Although his work is excellent, he is limited in spares and therefore there is a limit to what he can do. For many of the jobs he has done for me, he has done what is necessary to get the camera fully working and to correct any faults and he has prices to match. For the "cheaper" cameras, this works very well. On the other hand I also use a Pentax specialist in London. He works from the old Pentax HQ near London and when Pentax moved, he bought most of the older stock of spares. His overheads are therefore that much higher but he can deal with many more problems. He also works on the principle that he will give a "complete" service while the camera is in pieces on the priciple that much of it may be preventative rather than correction. As such, it will probably be a greater time period before the camera needs attention again. Needless to say his costs are a bit higher. In both these cases, I think they are excellent techs and fully trust the work they do. Both have very good reputations and are well regarded. Which I use will depend ion a variety of factors.
I can't make a judgement on Melanie's camera or the work but she had a shutter problem. If this was the only fault with it, and Leicas do seem to go on much longer without needing too much attention, then perhaps just her shutter was serviced and while to top was off, the VF was cleaned. If so this could explain the price difference.
Kim
