Question on Maintenance Liability

Did they give you the old one? I can’t see how changing the filter could mess up your AC unless they knocked something lose.

 

See if you can talk to the Service Manager, explain the story. Maybe they'll can waive the assesment fee, since you were just in for a service. It IS an odd coincidence btw, and $140 does seem steep.

 

Regardless of what they did or didn't do, you need to find the best rated auto AC specialist in your region and get a diagnosis. Once you know what went wrong, then you can decide if person replacing cabin air filter could be at fault.

Because it takes 60 seconds to replace the cabin filter and all that you open is the passenger front door and the glove box it's unlikely that they got under the hood. But some dealership are as crooked as a river and they could of easily disabled something to scam 'ya if that's how they operate. If the AC tech you take it too finds signs of tampering by the dealership you need to take lots of photos and spend some money on a paralegal writing up a declaration from the AC tech that's admissible in court, then you'll need to find a friend who's a Lawyer who won't charge you too much to send a certified letter to the dealership with an amount you want them to pay to keep the matter out of court.

If you don't have, or can't afford an attorney, you can file a complaint with Better Business Bureau and notify your state atotrney general's office, but that more of a long shot because this isn't a refund issue so much as a liability issue.

But the biggest issue to keep in mind in the future is dishonest mechanics prefer to scam whoever is least knowledgeable about their vehicle. So much like @sam spade 2 if you bring your car in for a service for a cabin air filter replace ment, a job that takes barely 60 seconds, they'll assume that you're a super easy target and sucker you into spending thousands of dollars in un-needed repairs. That's why it's always best to do a You Tube search for simple tasks and do it yourself... In this case the search term would be "Change Gen3 Cabin Air Filter"