99 Ranger Oil Pan Gasket...

99 Ranger with 56,000 miles and the oil pan gasket goes bad. Seems like low miles for such a thing to go wrong. Noticed oil leaking from truck after having the oil changed at the dealer. Took it back up there and they found the problem. 600 bucks to fix. Seems ironic it started leaking after they were done with it. Friend of mine said they might have tightened up the bolts on the thing causing it to split. No way to tell I guess. Anyways, my friend also says that the thing could be changed without pulling the trany. Is that possible? Everyone else says the trany must be pulled to do the replace the gasket.