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Yeah he's feeding you a TON of BS. He is trying to tell you that putting a spring compressor (essentially a metal plate with some bolts and a wingnut on top that allows you to compress the spring safely while removing the top hat) on top of the removed spring/strut assembly takes one hour to use to remove a spring from a strut. It takes about 5min each, tops, and that's if you're slow. Maybe he's taking a lunch break in between each strut and quoting based on that time.
Never do this kind of work at a dealership unless you have a friend there that won't gouge you. Find a reputable mechanic, it doesn't even need to be Subaru specific. For a mechanic, this should be no more than 2-3 hours of labor at the MOST. Most people decent with a wrench can do this in their garage in 2-3 hours.
FWIW, even when you do have a buddy at the dealership (I'm friends with a service advisor), Santa Monica Subaru wanted to charge me $700 to do this job, and that apparently was my "friend" quote; they said they usually charge $900. For some perspective, the place that ultimately did the work, Infamous Performance, charged me somewhere between $200-300 (can't remember where exactly, but I think closer to $200). Having been a service advisor myself in the past for motorcycle shops, I can tell you this is standard practice to gouge the hell out of people that don't know any better.
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