Sticker shock on gas furnace repair

[Soren Ager]

I wanted to share my sticker shock that I had in the world of furnace repair. I might be wrong, and NO I am not looking for a "poor you" its a learning and I wanted to share it. It might be me, that is just not aware, of the cost, I admit that freely.

Furnace broke during Christmas (of course it's always at the worst time it breaks) call my goto contractor who goes and looks, said he can fix it the day after, I never get a call. I call and call him, suddenly his wife picks up the phone, and informs me that his health took at turn for the worse and he is done working.
So called a new heating contractor. They came out the next day (normal working day) found the issue. One gas valve and one ignitor. (I know the parts costs are 86$ for both) Here comes the kicker... 682$ for this repair. It took the guy less that 45 min to do the whole repair. 

I of course has listened to BP on how much to set aside each month, and I well below that in repair cost.

But is that just the going rate for furnace repairs?  Most of all I am curious.