I have never heard of this before. You might need to go get a second opinion. The suction and discharge lines are only about $90 a piece. They're charging you for everything (vacuum, charge and refrigerant) all over again. Strange, very strange indeed.
I just ordered a new condenser myself when I had this issue. I installed it myself. It's really simple. So far so good, 2 weeks going strong in this Houston heat with no issues. I have a pick of the old one. It was so thin it was impossible for me to repair. I fixed 1 leak and another popped up, so I replaced it and kept it in case of a recall?. The new condenser was only $110 on rockauto.