Hydros are DOT required things.
If the customer didn't want to pay the markup that a LDS adds on to a hydro, he can take it to any fire extinguisher or compressed-gas shop that can do them himself (there is a list available online; shops who can do the test are all certified by the government, and I've got it around here somewhere.)
A hydroed tank is done and the tank and valve returned to the customer (usually loose.) No visual is done by the hydro place, since there is no such thing outside of the scuba business.
The VIP is purely a dive shop thing and is uncorrelated with the hydro.
What you're describing is not odd at all, unless the guy took it to a dive shop for the hydro, in which case the "usual practice" is to do the VIP when the tank comes back.
Sounds like the VIP simply wasn't done and/or the customer went directly to a hydro test facility with the tank rather than going through a dive shop.