I agree with that. I've had one really bad experience with a local repair shop and decided to learn to do it myself as much as I can. I had a stuck Schneider lens, brought it to a camera store who sent it god knows where. When the lens came back, it was mis-reassembled and I ended up having to fix it myself. Lucky for me the camera store didn't charge me for it.
But I also had a terrific experience with Nikon Canada's repair service in Montreal.