Yesterday I tuned the house AC off because I was draining a water bed with a hose out the window. So when I leave for work my wife turns the AC back on, only it dosent come back on.  So she calls the same contractor we had to replace the compressor a few months ago.  They come out and find that it isn't the commpresor it's the thermestat which isn't covered under my warrenty. My wife tells them to go ahaid and fix it. When I get home I find a bill for $167.75. Is it just me or does this seem a little bit outragous for a THERMOSTAT and the new one is not even digital or anything its just like the ones at Home Depot for $15.  

I can understand the $69.00 charge for diagnostics. but $98.75 for a thermostat seems like highway robbery to me. So does anyone here do AC work, did I get robbed or is this normal?

I'm a mechanical contractor,
The price would be slightly on the high end in this part of CA but a legitmate price.
Being in Texas I would think that the labor would cost less.
As far as the thermostat, it sounds like he doubled or tripled the price.
For a service call I consider that acceptable and do it all the time.
If he was doing a larger project the materials would normally marked up 30%.