That sucks man. Glad to hear you left that place quickly. I'd be certain to warn my family and friends about that place.
FWIW, I noted a similar problem with one of my license plate lights not working and the other light dimly lit. But just as you stated, I just unscrewed and removed the light housing for access to both bulbs. I replaced both bulbs with LED bulbs from Khoalty (super bright ), but waited on the housing because I wasn't going to pay Tischer $14 to ship me two light housings that cost $14. Tischer now offers $7.95 priority mail shipping on orders under $75 for "smaller" parts.