I agree mate. I spent 18years in the transport industry dealing face to face with customers and learnt a real lot. One, never make the customer do the work for any warranty return. Two, be helpful and polite, even when the customer maybe in a bad mood or are as dumb as dog chit. When I left the industry, well, still doing it on few weekends, all the customers wanted to know if I was going to open up my own shop so they would buy from me. I made plenty of good friends over the years. I the pay wasn't so bad I probably would have stayed.
But yeah, there is no way they should fob you off like that. One of the main reasons I stay clear of ARB, their "don't giveashit" attitude. Hmm, maybe me and TD should run an ARB store. We'd clean up...Literally, all the stock would be on our own vehicles.