For 17 documents, the bill isn't unreasonable. But the quality of the
work IS unreasonable.

I recently had extended interaction with a professional researcher. I
asked a question similar to yours: I wanted information on the family of
my maternal grandmother. I knew brothers' names >from my father, but had
no dates. He gave me an estimate for what it would cost to search for the
family in revision lists. It seemed reasonable & I paid it & he found
them. I had to pay extra for photocopies, but that was stated up front.
He then suggested further search to find a previous generation & I agreed
to the estimate for that. And so it went. He didn't go beyond the
agreed-upon scope without checking with me first, & I was the one who
chose the direction of further work either >from suggestions he made or by
asking for other specific types of information.

This is, I think, what your experience should have been like but wasn't.

Irene Newhouse
Kihei HI