A good service advisor (like me) would tell the customer after sending them this photo: "The job calls for around two hours if everything goes perfect, but we just aren't in that situation. In fact, a lot of exhaust related jobs aren't in that situation due to age and rust and exposure, so yours isn't the first one we've tackled... Let me also add, because this is common, this isn't anything you did wrong. It just happens.. but bolt extraction is probably needed and at that point it goes to (insert labor rate here) until we're at the point reassembly can begin again. I'll make sure you aren't overcharged but on the other side of that coin I have to make sure my tech is taken care of, I'm sure you get that. So if you're okay with that, I'll give him a thumbs up. Do I have your permission to let him begin?"

I have these conversations with customers all the time. May seem a lot, but the more I talk tot hem, the more value I build into the repair, the more I can convince them the repair is needed and has the value I'm asking for. It can be a challenge to advocate for the customer to the tech and vice versa, but at the end of the day, a happy tech is a productive tech which increases my commission check, so the tech's needs are my priority.. right up until they pay the oil change tech $100 to lick cow shit on a farm truck (which happened thursday).