I managed to get my lazy butt out and take the trim piece off the headliner the other day. I discovered that it is actually two pieces. There is an outside one that you see and that has the slots in it for the buckles. And there is an inside one that acts like the "bread" on a headliner sandwich. They are held together by several tabs that snap into slots. The inside piece has the part that retains the buckle molded into it. On my car the inside piece had become unsnapped from the outside piece and therefore the buckle retainer was no longer able to do its job. It was just a matter of a few carefully placed whacks with the palm of my hand to snap them back together and now my buckle stays in/up.
There are several ridges on the bottom piece that form a ramp to press the buckle up into the tab on the top piece. The snaps act as a spring to allow the pieces to flex apart as the buckle slides in and then capture it when the tab falls in the hole in the buckle.
When I was studying it, it seemed like it would be pretty easy to accidentally use the leverage of the buckle to unsnap the parts when you were putting it in the slot.
If the two parts are snapped together correctly you can see the buckle retention stuff in the slot pretty easily in the top of the opening. If they have come unsnapped then the top of the opening will be pretty empty.
I was so happy at my discovery and the simple fix that I forgot to take pictures when I had it out.
Sorry.
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