A couple of days ago I took my car in to get the airbags replaced due to the Takata airbag recall. I went to a large dealership in Melbourne but will not name which one just yet.
The airbag replacement was free. When I drove away from the dealership I noticed that my automatic headlights are always on when they should be off if there's light outside. When I informed the service consultant of this a day later, he told me that sensor would have not been touched and that it will be a $270 fee just to diagnose the problem.
I have dash camera footage of them working in the week leading up to the recall, and that they don't work afterwards. Additionally, when I first arrived at the dealership they scanned my FOB and found no faults with the car, and I'm almost certain that sensor faults like that are logged in the FOB.
I've emailed them basically saying "I have dash camera footage of it working up to the moment it was serviced by you - please advise when I can take it back in and have that sensor plugged back in" but slightly more polite, but haven't heard back from them.
Has anyone ever had this type of experience when dealing with the Takata airbag recall? What are my options here? I don't want to name and shame just yet, but I find it to be a horrible practice that straight away they denied any culpability when it's obvious that a wire was forgot to be plugged back in or that they broke the sensor in the process.
Edit: They agreed to look at the car, found the problem and wanted $270 to further diagnose it (not fix).
The place which ruined a part of my car when I went for an airbag recall is BMW Southbank in Melbourne.
Ring and ask to speak to the service manager directly and not to a service advisor. Always remain calm and polite but firm. Spraying off will get you a negative result. Failing that, ask to speak to the centre manager and plead your case to them. Throw in the old "well, I was looking to trade up soon, but if this is how I'm going to be treated…" politely and see how that goes.
Failing that, ring the vehicle manufacturer head office and ask to speak to someone in their PR department. Explain that you have footage of the lights working pre-recall and not working post recall. They may be able to ring the dealer on your behalf and deal with them.
The other things is, some air bag recalls require dash out, some do not. I don’t know what your car involved, so it is possible that what they did had nothing to do with your sensor. On my Toyota recently, the airbag recall took 30 mins. There is no way they could get a dash out, replace the airbag and refit the dash in that time.