Climatronic windscreen demist fault

[HugoFar]

Our MY08 Cali has just come back from a service at the local VW Service Centre where they confirmed that the front windscreen Climatronic demist vent does not open when the large Demist button is pushed. The fan would blow at what appears to be full speed,but a vent that should open and direct the air up onto the windscreen failed to open.
They have not come across this before, so have no experience repairing it.
They did list the process they went through;
-Investigated windscreen defroster not operating.
-Fuel static fault for defroster actuator.
-Basic settings would not complete.
-Actuator will need replacing.
They mentioned that their official VW Tech guidance required them to remove the dash board to do this replacement/repair. Estimated chargeable time being one day!!
This would be a huge expense. Way out of proportion to the problem.
So my question is,has any one done a similar repair/replacement of this part(actuator) and achieved it without removing the whole dash board? Can it be accessed through the middle of the dash if radio? is removed? I've googled this and not found any good answers.
Thanks. Hugo.

 

[Wongo]

I would try an independent Aircon specialist fir some advice, alternatvely as it seems its an access issue to a faulty part then any bodyshop will be experienced in dash removals, but it is a lenghty, labourious task. Anyone got a workshop manual with a picture of the schematic?