i hit a pothole and got a good sized bubble on my left front. I had the dealership put the spare wheel on and put the wheel with the bubble back in the trunk. (they did not balance, remove the tire, etc, just swapped wheels).

Got charged $57? said something about having to callibrate the TPMS.

Weird since I had them rotated 4 months ago for $15.

Am I missing something here?

car does all this itself and the user intervention required is minimal.
Same event ended up costing me >$200 for a new tire and balancing and the tire had 700 miles on it. I feel for you!

well, i have to add the cost of new tires to this, but it just seems excessive to be charge about $60 for swapping a wheel out.

don't need any calibration according to my service advisor.

I have 3 sets of wheels for car, each set has the TPMS sensors. No calibration was performed. It just took about 10-15 minutes of driving to be recognized. Talk to the service manager b/c that sounds terrible. If they want to charge you labor that sounds appropriate. But even then it's over priced labor since you indicate rotation only cost $15. Ask them what exact procedure they used for calibration and see them squirm. It's stuff like this from Audi dealerships that make me look into other brands. The new S500 looks more inviting with all the gadgets. Even the Lexus LS600h has promise.

what ever happened to just asking you to tip the guy who did that minor service?

the spare tire is always monitored for air pressure (look at your MMI screen and you'll see the spare is monitored) so it's plain jane dumb to use the excuse of trying to calibrate the TPMS.

Ordered the tire from Tire Rack, went to one of their recommended installers and paid only $20 for mounting and balancing and tire disposal fee.

I think your dealer is a little greedy...