I researched someone opening my pool for a few weeks before taking the plunge myself. The reason behind it was cost: 150/hr. 2 hour minimum in almost all cases, plus the cost of the chemicals you will need to buy yourself.
Some extra detail from my experience:
My pool is extra special, over 2 years without being opened. It was Dark Green, and Brownish in color and I filled about 5 standard garbage bins with leaves from the deep end. It was also missing all of the drain plugs for my pump, filter, and heater. That was 7 plugs at 5 bucks each. I still cannot see the bottom of my pool, but it's now a light green color and I can see down a couple of feet.
I also bought the tf-100 test kit. (BTW I was making no progress until I bought this and started doing it the right way.)
To date, even with the errant throwing away money by tossing in chemicals, I still have only spent about 275 dollars and that includes about 85 bucks after taxes for a cover pump, and the 70 for the test kit, as well as another 15 for a decent brush, and 30 for a leaf grabber. I am confident I am almost to my lovely clear pool, and I have spent less than the pool company would have charged just to hook up my equipment, let alone add all the extra just on the chemicals.
Combine that with all the knowledge from this site, helping to educate myself, it will cost me very little next year. Going into this I knew nothing about pools, water chemistry, the pump, the filter, etc. With this site, and its membership, you too can save yourself a lot of extra dollars, and gain the know-how to take care of it yourself.
Just my 2 cents though, best decision I ever made was taking a week out of my life to read as much information as I could from these forums, followed closely by buying the tf-100 of course