I can't trust my dealerships, transmission fluid?

My local dealerships are scaring me, transmission fluid?

My wife and I recently purchased an 07 Prius with 97,000 miles on it, and after looking at Toyota's recommended service/maintenance schedule and the cars past records I noticed that the transaxle/transmission fluid hasn't been changed.

So, I called the Asheville dealership (who has serviced the car throughout), and asked the guy why the transmission fluid hasn't been changed yet when Toyota recommends that it be done at 60k miles. At first he said "that is odd and that he thought that it should of been done every 30k miles". While he's double checking the cars records, he says, "Yep, it should of been done at 60k miles, but it wasn't". So, I asked him again "why it was never done, shouldn't that service be provided under warranty". Then he proceeds to put me on hold for several minutes supposedly to answer a couple other phone calls, which I think is completely wrong and rude. Finally, he answers and tells me "that the warranty doesn't cover that service, it ends at 60k miles and that the previous owner must not have wanted to do it then". He then tells me "that if I do it now that I would be jeopardizing damaging the transmission and slippage may occur". Since that sounded ridiculous to me, I ask "why" and he says "because the existing debris inside and at the bottom of the transmission is were it should be". Well, I'm sure it is, but I want my transmission to work for another 100k miles or more. So, I challenge his knowledge and then he tells me "that in fact that those transmissions don't need servicing because they have what is considered to be life time fluid in them". Again, shocked because I've been reading about all the Prius owners on here draining and refilling theirs, I decide to say "that is ridiculous", and he offers the phone to another guy who tells me "that in order to change the fluid I would need a monitor temp. scanning tool because before you add new fluid the transmission case needs to be a certain exact temperature or something". So I reply, but what about the life time fluid, I thought that it didn't need to be changed ever". He replies, "It can be done, but in his mind it would be a big waste of time and money. So, I ask him, why does the Toyota service/maintenance schedule say that it is supposed to be done at 60k? He told me that the Toyota manuals are very generic and that sometimes they don't cover everything. OK, whatever.

So, back to the Prius Chat forum I go (thank you all) to do some more research on the subject of changing the transaxle/transmission fluid. The last thing I want to do is get screwed or screw up our new 07' Prius. It appears that some of you have found out that it should really be done every 30k miles. It also appears that it's not too difficult of a job if you have a little mechanic knowledge. Personally, I love learning about and servicing my own vehicles, and our new Prius is very exciting!!

So, I send my wife over to our local dealership (who have already proven to be horrible) to pick up four quarts of WS Toyota ATF and a drain plug. She calls me and tells me that they are saying that, "I can't do it myself and that the job requires a certifed Toyota mechanic and that it needs to be flushed". What? So, I ask my wife to let me talk with the guy and he tells me that his service tech says so and that I need special tools because it needs to be flushed and it requires 15 quarts of fluid!! What? So again, just like the other dealership I tell him "that sounds ridiculous, all I want to do is drain and refill it and that it supposedly requires just 3.8 quarts"! Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'm right? I wouldn't think a Mack truck would need that much fluid. I told the guy that, and he didn't have an explanation. So after taking a deep breathe, I asked for four quarts of WS Toyota ATF and a drain plug please. When I got back on the phone with my wife I told her that the drain plug shouldn't cost more than two bucks (I read on a thread that it really should be more like a dollar). When my wife got home she said that she didn't get anything because the guy said they didn't have the drain plug in stock and that it would take a week to get there, and that it was going to cost over four dollars!! She also told me that the guy was young and that he appeared to be embarrassed and her vibe was that he didn't know what he was talking about either. However, three other guys were near the whole conversation and never said anything.

So now I don't know what or who to believe. One of the first life lessons that we learn is that you shouldn't trust strangers. I also know that you shouldn't believe everything you hear. What's with these dealerships? How can they be so unknowledgeable, careless and contradicting? I'm in total shock that they would hire someone and allow them to answer questions for people when they aren't educated enough to do so. I don't know what to do other than go elsewhere and hope to find better services. It's especially sucks because we're at the mercer of the dealerships. I want to have a good relationship with them, but when you get a bunch of BS, no way.

Sorry to vent out on my dealership experiences. I'm not saying that all dealerships are bad, I'm sure it's just a few bad apples in a bunch of good ones. All I want is the correct information and help. I'm hoping that some of you can renew my faith in dealerships and the transmission fluid in our Prius. Please reassure me that it's OK for me to drain and refill my own transaxle/transmission fluid, and that I have nothing to worry about doing it for the first time at 97k miles? Also, I am curious to know what other's have paid for the fluid and the drain plug?

Thanks so much for all your time and help!