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Sounds like they made an "educated" guess based on experience. Hopefully they talked to you before doing this and left the ball in your court. When I have to do this I explain to the customer why I would suggest said repairs and that this may not be the correct part to replace but there is NO WAY to know.

The optical system has four wires. with key on and connector disconnected, you should have the following:
Red wire---battery voltage
Black wire---Ground
White wire---5 volts
Green wire---5 volts
If this checks out, reconnect the connector and crank the engine. The white and green wires should each toggle between 0 and 5 volts. In just a few minutes, you have isolated the problem.
No way to know?
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We blame the shop yet there is NO WAY to tell where his problem lies. If the problem is consistant then it is a ton easier to diagnose. But the problem is when the truck magically starts, now what? Hmm, let the truck go and have a pissed off customer when it breaks down again or explain to the customer the situation and let him make the decision.

He brought it in with a no start condition. How consistant is that?
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In this situation I would now just begin to charge you for parts, no diagnosis time or labor. But if the shop TOLD you this was for sure the problem then they are in fact semi-responsible.

So in other words, he pays for parts until you guess right?
Conner

Over the hill but still climbing.
88 Montero 2.6L auto, manual hubs, cooling fan conversion gps,recurved distributor,LSD Diff.