curious, which dealer is this? do you know if they were directed by the manufacturer to do this, or they just did this on their own?
I don't know the actual specifics, just that my boss came in to work one day raging about it. I suspect the dealer was just looking for excuses to not do the fix.
But just a cursory read around the web seems to imply that this is happening more and more and to be honest I think it would be unwise to assume that manufacturers wont make it an official policy at some point.
We have an infestation of middle aged men who drive mid to high end Audis (always painted black) with a set of gold clubs permanently stored in the boot.
Sometimes, "book time" to fix a particular defect is lower than the actual time, and manufacturers pay out on book time.
However you spin it, the dealer-manufacturer relationship ends up working in favor of the manufacturer, as they control the inventory and the bottom line of the dealer's balance sheet.
the whole system is a mess. yeesh.