Agreed, although I don't trust the VIP's and Autozone's of the world much more either. It's really sort of a toss up -- bring it to the dealership = pay more, but you know it's got a better shot at being done right. Bring it to an autoparts place = less expensive, but not necessarily the same level of expertise. For instance: Being the procrastinator that I am, I was busy mid December getting my car inspected (and with a 10 year old car, even one in as great a shape as mine, every inspection is still usually a minor pain at the least) and VIP wouldn't pass it with the muffler setup I have on. Now this setup was PROFESSIONALLY installed by Meineke, and I had already gone through an inspection with it the previous year, getting a compliment on the quality job from the inspecting mechanic... at a VIP! At any rate, my dad insisted on making sure my car was good to go for the Winter and whatnot, and he urged me to bring it to the dealership to have the necessary work done (he was paying, so I wasn't going to argue.) At any rate, $900 later and I was ready to go.
Two-thirds of that was due to replacing a couple seals, and a necessary tune-up (I was a good bit past my 120,000 mark) and I wasn't going to leave it to VIP to handle it. Why wasn't I going to trust VIP to it? Well, they had INSISTED that my brakes were "fine," despite the fact that A. My ABS light had been on for over half a year, and B. I knew that wasn't kosher
Three mechanics there told me it was "not a problem" in effect treating me like I didn't know what I was talking about. Well guess what? The Honda dealership had no problems locating the shot ABS sensor in the passenger side rear wheel. Not a cheap repair, but important nonetheless. And sure enough, problem fixed. This isn't a shot at the autoparts stores of the world -- I've saved tons of money getting stuff done through these places before... when it was an obvious, less specialized problem.
Bottom line -- 90% of the private mechanics out there aren't worth the certifications they carry (in the end they're really doing not so much what's best for you, as much as what's best for their business) but they'll at least treat you like a friend. Dealerships will do the job right, but you had better expect to pay for it, and they aren't always that great at the personal touch. Autoparts places will do the job cheaper, and since the mechanics are usually working for the company, they don't really have their own interests in mind, and they're pretty well versed in automotive maintenance -- providing it's not too much of a specialized job.
I think in the end, it's all a matter of educating yourself on your vehicle, deducing the problem as best you can (perhaps getting a couple different opinions) and then deciding where to have the work done.