In the case of a vehicle that comes in with something not working, that is correct. But in the case of coming in with a fully functional system, they can't do anything that would cause the vehicle to leave with the system not fully functional. At least based on how I'm reading the legislation, if your TPMS is working when you come in and work is done that would cause any need to reprogram the sensors they would need to reprogram them before you take the car back. How would a tire shop know whether a TPMS is working or not considering how long it takes for the light to light up, I don't know.
But I can bring up an example to add to the mess. When I got my winter wheels/tires put on in November (with new sensors), the tire shop said that they couldn't program the new sensors and that the dealer would need to. So technically my car arrived with working TPMS and left with new wheels and sensors not yet programmed, but the TPMS light wasn't on yet. The light didn't pop on until almost a week later. Maybe they were taking a risk.. or maybe they considered it covered because they informed me of the fact that the sensors were not yet active and I agreed to have the dealer do it. It's a small town so who knows.. but I have to imagine they are aware of the new legislation in effect now.
That tire shop normally can program tpms on any vehicle I've brought to them so I don't know why they couldn't do it on my '13 outback. The manager said it's a problem they've had with a variety of Subaru models. Maybe something changed and they would need to buy new equipment to do it.
