Is it customary to pay the service fee if when they come out they tell you they can't fix it?

We need our pool liner in our IGP retracted in one section and they poured hot water and tried to pull it but thought it would rip. The conclusion was that we need a new liner which we knew already but thought we had another year or two before replacing it. I was shocked and called the company and they told me it would be assumed to pay the service even if they didn't do it. Now, I had called another company and they told me they wouldn't charge me if it couldn't be fixed. I thought this was so odd.