Friend at work mentioned that, at his house, his wife said that a circuit breaker kept tripping. So she calls an electrician to find and fix the problem. He hears back from his wife that the electrician says that half the circuit breakers in the panel need to be replaced, and the estimate is $1800. Ten breakers. Not a new panel, just new breakers. Seems a little high... Anyway, my friend talks to the electrician and asks if he can fix the original problem, the breaker tripping. A little later, it turns out that some Xmas lights outside the house developed a short, and once unplugged, the problem went away.

So it didn't seem that he really needed new breakers. It's a little hard to give this electrician a benefit of a doubt (I'm assuming! that he was licensed...)...

Or am I being too harsh on this electrician?