Is anyone here knowledgeable on outdoor signs?

Everyone on this site seems to know a ton of great information, so I'm curious if anyone is familiar without door neon signs. I recently posted our sign in the Photoshop request it, it sits on top of our little grocery store and it was in dire need of a refurbishment. A bunch of the neon lettering was out, and both sides of the paint was completely chipping off. I called around for a few quotes to get the sign done, and I was pretty much blown away at the price. I thought for that the amount of money they were charging, it would be a much more thorough job, but the company that we hired pretty much just slapped a coat of paint on the sign and is replacing a few of the neon transformers.

I'm mostly just curious why it was so expensive. I know it's a specialty item, and that they have to use a bucket truck for access, but I feel like it was around 12 hours of work total for an extortionate price. Maybe we just hired a bad company?

 

Without numbers hard to know very much.

I would guess a few hundred per hour

 

That's what I figured as well, but our bill was 20 grand and know exaggeration, I think they've spent about 15 hours of labor on the sign, and that's being generous

 

I gotta agree you had no estimate first?
That is crazy even more for a poor job.
California for you!!

 

Look into LED strip neon alternatives, some vendors make them and they cost less than neon, probably easier to maintain too

 

20 Grand...

 

Oh, we had an estimate And I actually got three separate quotes, all of them right around 20 k. We didn't even go with the cheapest option, but I feel like their work is not great. They literally used Home Depot outdoor paint on the sign. Don't get me wrong, it looks fine but for 20 grand I was just expecting so much more.

 

Just how big of a sign? For $20 grand I hope it was huge.

 

Not particularly huge, maybe 6 ft tall and 10 ft wide, but it sits on top of a building