the real story is for California, the big auto repair box shops and the dealerships got together to force AZ and kragens from performing the procedure because "they aren't trained technicians and will offer wrong advice."
This is still pending in CA.
AZ got smart and in CA only, will not perform the procedure, BUT will loan the scan tool to the customer for free and the customer will go and scan the codes themselves. Dunno if kragen's does this or not, I know AZ does.
What's even more funny.. the consumer can BUY a code scanner and do with it what they want.
AZ is simply empowering the consumer and I see nothing wrong with that. By the customer having the code, they can take away the 1hr "diagnostic" time to simply read the code and nothing more. I've heard of shops complaining about it, the "easy money" now needs to be earned.
Who's to say that a shop and a trained technician gives the right advice?
Aamco also does the free code scanning as well.
I know there's usually something more to the code itself, but it does give the consumer a peace of mind knowing what the code is, they may not know what it means, but they know what it is and can research it if they so choose.