why would canon estimate $990.00?

I have a Canon 20d camera that was used about a year,has about 30,000 shots. The sensor started "banding" the prints(lines through them) like when your printer is out of ink...They sent an estimate of $990.00 to repair it. A refurbished camera is about 895.00 with warranty. Is this absurd or what? Nikon is getting ready to sell a lot of cameras to our firm!

Any ideas as to why the high quote? Thanks!

Nikon uses SONY sensors and sony has a recall going because of bad sensors. I had a Kodak and it got bad pixels and had to be repaired, luckly it was under warranty. The reason that Canon would do this is that you are using a Consumer Grade camera in a Commercial application. They probably do not want to assume the libility of it coming back in the warranty period again. I had one repaired in my old D60 out of warranty and that cost me $330. I only had 11,800 actuations on it. Consumer cameras are warranteed for 50,000 actuations in non-commercial applicaitons. Commercial use can reduce the warranty for just about all makers. I would try and ask Canon Customer service as an individual instead of a employee of a company and see what price you get. My D60 has a 1 year parts warranty on the materials except the shutter. My warranty says this period is reduced to 90 days for commercial use. My 5D has no fine print for commercial use. Maybe they are just planning on sending you a refurbished camera and then fixing yours to sell as another refurb... I argee with you, though. i suppose dr. sam could be true. might as well get a new camera imo. I have no idea why they feel this price is justified.