Headlights problems of the 1997 Nissan Sentra

My neighbor told me my brake lights had been out for awhile -- when the headlights were on and I hit the brake pedal, the brake light/rear tail light would go out completely, leaving only the center light bar on the trunk on to serve as a brake light. I'd been driving with my lights on during the day, thinking it would be safer since I have a toddler in the car with me. The dealership fixed the problem ($285) and told me, although they didn't write it on the invoice, that it looked like "somebody" had wired the brake lights wrong in a section between the trunk side and the frame and they were getting hot. I have never had any other work done on the lights and said so, but got no response. I had taken the car to autozone the day before, to see if the bulbs were the problem. The manager there came out to look at the bulbs and showed me where the driver-side brake light socket had started to melt. So it was a fire hazard as well.