Might have been what I call a "fuck off" quote. That is, the people who gave you the quote didn't really want to do the job (too small, inconvenient location, or who knows what) and so quoted you an outrageous price figuring you'd either decide not to do it or if you did, you'd end up paying enough to make it worth their while. Happened to me a few years ago when I needed to re-tar my roof. The first guy quoted a figure that was like 4x what the next guy quoted.