would the tech 2 not pick up the blown fuse
No. I wouldn't say the Tech 2 would be as much use as a multimeter in this instance. If a fuse keeps blowing the reason needs to be identified first, and only once that's fixed should any further diagnosis be carried out, if necessary.
As I said, I believe the reason for the battery light on, is that the supply to the dash has failed, and this is confirmed by the fact that the fuse has blown.
The garage were wrong to charge you for a Tech 2 session, IMHO, because that was never going to help them find a short circuit.
Kevin
the wife mentioned your thoughts Kevin to the garage and they said its procedure to check for a short with tech 2 . The wife shouldn't have said anything really until i found out more about tech 2 and its uses , but that's blonde's for you
I'm not fully conversant with the Tech 2's capabilities. TheBoy / Mark'sDTM could shed more light, but I'd say a code reader would be about as much use as a choccy teapot for finding shorts. :-/
Well, glad it was sorted out in the end.
Kevin