Thermal camera on a fridge compressor taught me a $400 lesson

Picked up one of those cheap FLIR phone attachments last month mostly for checking breaker panels, but decided to try it on a no-cool fridge job in Bellevue. The compressor was running hot, like 190 degrees hot, and I figured it was just a bad start relay again. Swapped the relay and capacitor, still hot, so I told the customer they needed a new compressor and quoted around $400. Turns out the condenser fan motor was spinning but barely, and the thermal image showed the coil was completely blocked with dog hair and dust. I pulled the shroud, cleaned it out, and the temps dropped to normal in ten minutes. Customer canceled the repair and I felt like an idiot for not checking airflow first. Now I always scan around the whole system before I blame the sealed part. Anyone else get burned by skipping basic airflow checks on sealed systems?