NB FL: Air conditioning, but no switch in the cockpit???

Moinsen, probably a stupid question, but ….. My recently acquired NB FL Bj. 2002 is in the workshop for the 90,000 inspection. This just called me and told me that the climate was completely empty and whether they should refill it. Then I said: “The car has no climate!” The laughter in the workshop was clearly heard, because of course the car would have a climate, they were just in front of it. I pointed out that it would have been sold to me a) without climate. nd b) there would be no switch in the cockpit for the climate. Anyway, they could fill the “climate” from me. I was tensed. 1 hour later a call from the workshop would be very strange, because the car would actually not have a switch for the climate (what) although the complete “hardware” would be installed incl. cable channels. However, since they could not test the climate without a switch, they now let everything off again (of course without calculating it). Question: What reason can there be that the vehicle has a climate including all the attachments, but does not have a corresponding switch in the vehicle. Could it be a later installed that is switched somewhere else? Or in general, does someone know a similar case? Thank you very much!