Standard Survey Price

I'm a little bothered by the phrase "standard survey price".

I had submitted a proposal for an ALTA survey in Shelbyville recently that involved an apartment building and was near a railroad that we'd have to deal with. After looking at it, I proposed a fee of about $3,000. When the potential client received the faxed proposal, he called me to inquire why the fee was so much. I explained to him the steps we had to go through to complete the survey and he replied "Okay, but I was looking for a standard survey price of $1,500." While I was trying to explain to him that there was no standard survey, he interrupted me and ended the phone conversation.

Later last week, I was reading a popular survey message board (which makes me a big survey geek just by association) and someone was asking about fees for an elevation certificate. This person was doing multiple certs in one area and was wondering if he should reduce his fee from his "standard survey price" of $700.

Somebody's gonna have to educate me, I guess, since I've never done a "standard survey" yet. If someone else has, please send me a copy so I can see what a "standard survey" is.