I'd rather not say the name of the shop on a public forum. Like I said, I don't think they were trying to rip me off, I think the guy was thinking linearly in terms of rebuilding the carburetor is what should be done. If you message me, I will tell you who it was--if you want to save time, the shop we went to was in Monmouth County. I would definitely go there again because the service was otherwise excellent and they were straight shooters. They are one of the better shops in the area for power equipment sales and repair.
You make a good point. Most of the reviews of the replacement carburetors said they held up for 3 or 4 years, which to me, seems like a good tradeoff. I have done a fair amount of small engine repair, and like I said, I cleaned and rebuilt a carburetor on a large generator, and it took me the better part of a weekend day. Funny thing, the engine and carburetor OEM parts are Tecumseh, and from reviews I read on Amazon, people said the Tecumseh replacements were cheap Chinese-made. I have no way of verifying that, but what I am going to do is buy the replacement carburetor made by Oregon, take off the original, and clean and rebuild it, with the goal of putting the original one back on the snowblower.
No.