That's my point a good tuner and $500 and you're done, they have your base and can have a tune ready for mods with a phone call and you get dyno time.
It will be more than $500, and you wont be done with one chip tune i guarantee that. With a good standalone you have a datalogger that can be reviewed when you make changes to the tune. You can find a tuner to put a base tune in a MS box and make small tweeks yourself from there to perfect things.
IF you get the base where you want it is a big word, not everyone has the knowledge, experience or time to get it right, every time I read about someone with a MS type system you read for like a zillion years how they are trying to "get it where it needs to be"
Nobody is born with any knowledge, its really not that hard, i read one book(which really helped), and paid a tuner to dyno the car and get it close, i watched him work and asked questions when i had them, and when i left i had gained some great knowledge. The tunes are never done, there is always tweeks here and there to be made as you gather data, just getting a chip tune and saying "yup, its all done" is selling yourself short.
Not being a jerk just pointing out this stuff is difficult, frustrating and for most it comes out acceptable not perfected. I wouldnt want to spend all my time doing that anymore than trying to fix the darn idle surge we all get on a regular basis...
I dont think you are being a jerk... Welcome to Hot Rodding, the whole reason i went to a standalone system is because i was sick of being tied to the dyno tuner every time my car wouldnt idle... Since i have taken control of the tune and got rid of the stock computer i am happy to say that idle surge, bucking, and the rpm hanging after i rev the car or kick the clutch in is all gone.
The real problem is it takes HOURS and hours to do all of this, no tuner in his right mind is going to sit there and mess with the idle until it is perfect, and then, even if it is perfect to him, it might not be perfect to you, 95% of the "tuners" in this market want to make some dyno pulls, do a little part throttle tuning, make the car idle halfway decent and get paid. They dont wanna sit there for a few hours getting the idle right
if that is what it takes. My time is free, so if i want to sit there and screw with the idle for a while, that's fine with me, but idle and part throttle take the most time and most guys just get it close and ship the car to the customer.