The proper protocol in this situation would be to locate the source of the issue causing the breaker to trip, charge for that service, then present to the customer (visually showing and documenting in writing) any further recommended service based on safety concerns and/or preventitive maintenance based on a projected assumption of imminent failure.
I will go out on a limb here and accuse this "electricain" of attempting to gouge this customer and make himself a little extra holiday cash at the expense of an unsuspecting innocent.
If it were my friend, I would recommend reporting this "person" to the AHJ. These idiots give us all a bad name and make our lives a lot more difficult when dealing with previously-scorned clients.
The kicker here is that, had the customer fallen for the "breaker replacement", the problem would have still existed.
