That is utter BS, the company I retired from did 5-20+ alignment checks every day, some needed it, some did not, we always (unless out of ink) showed the customer the results…
Here is a Hunter Alignment machine print out below…
So how do you know how much or what to adjust if not 1st checking to see what is out of spec… That is the dumbest thing I have heard in a while… So do you replace a ball joint just to see if it needed it or not??? Come on Chris, you know better…
The before measurement at the top is the check, the below measurement is the correction or alignment… If the top one is all green , no need for an alignment, or if the customer declines to set the alignment then no alignment is preformed hence alignment check…
BTW The sheet below was after having an alignment done 5,000 miles before hand…
You can align a vehicle and hit a hard pothole or something and knock it right back out of adjustment… I put 4- 80,000 mile tires on my wifes car with an alignment, she hit a pothole in the road and knocked it back out, absolutely killed both front tires in 5,000 miles, had to replace 2 tires and do it again…
BTW, I would stop using those shops as they do not know or understand how alignments work…