Buy tubes from Audio Research or not

I'm only interested in re-tubing my amp. I'm not looking at tube rolling.

I'm not under warranty. I just need to know if it is worth spending 300.00 more to buy the tubes from ARC. A tech I spoke to today said he will not guarantee tubes bought on the free market. He only will give a warranty on ARC installed tubes.

Vt-100mkIII

I don't know any onsite people that can do the job. The 2 techs I talked to were both authorized ARC and they will only work with ARC tubes. I can't afford to pay 978.00 for tubes plus 150.00 labor. I'd be happy to buy the tubes and have someone put them in but I don't know anyone. If you know someone that can do it I'll be happy to pay them as long as they know what they are doing.

I found a tech today that can retube my unit at a cost of 650.00 which include labor. That is 400.00 less than the ARC techs. What would you do?

The tubes are 6550 that have been matched and run for 24 hours. ARC matches the tubes and runs then for 48 hours. My guy buys the tubes right from the importer. He doesn't go threw a middleman. My guy can also get the tubes right from ARC but I'm going to have to pay 400.00 more. He says it's not worth spending 400.00 more and that if I did the sound would be the same. It sounds like the logical thing to do is let him get the tubes and Install them and save the 400.00.
Do you see anything wrong with this scenario?

He's getting the tubes from the actual Importer. They are going to match the tubes for him. Then he will install and bias them. He has retubed ARC gear in the past so I believe he knows what he is doing.

I would really like to do my own maintenance but I'm afraid I'll screw something up and it will cost me more money in the long run.