Prius C Key and Ecu whipped by locksmith

Hi everyone, I’m looking for advice on a pretty serious issue with my 2012 Toyota Prius c.

I lost all my keys and had to call a local locksmith. He wasn’t able to program a new key, could get lights to turn on dash and everything, so he called another locksmith to help. After trying, the second guy told me that the first locksmith had somehow deleted all the key information and caused an ECU-related issue. He couldn’t get the lights on dash to light back up

I ended up having the car towed to a Toyota dealership, and they’ve now had it for two weeks. The head mechanic (who mentioned he’s Toyota-trained ) says it’s about a 9-hour job just to replace/reprogram the immobilizer/key computer and the smart key computer assembly. On top of that, they still need another 2 hours of diagnostics as well as 12 volt battery has gone bad .

They’re estimating around $3,700 for the repair — and even then, they say there’s no guarantee it will fully resolve the issue.

Has anyone here experienced something like this? Is it really possible for a locksmith to wipe out the key/ECU data like that? And does this quote sound reasonable, or should I be considering other options (like a second opinion, different shop, or even replacing modules myself)? I’ve called other Toyota dealerships who have the parts for half the price / other dealerships 3 hours away said 3 hours for ecu .

Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!

 

Anyone have any advice