Have you ever had a car place be rude to you? Check this out. I would not remember now where this was, but I was driving along in San Diego and my alternator died. I was forced to stop for repairs. So I stopped in this service station to have an alternator put on. I started to explain to the people there what the problem was. Every time that I opened my mouth however, I was mocked by the people there. I remember their sneering at me what I said “line voltage was low” which it surely was because the turn signals were slow and the lights were dim and all that. For all their rudeness they did complete the repairs and I went on my way, angry at how I was treated but otherwise happy to have my car back.
I am so sorry that happened to you. I have had some extremely rude car repair people. I thought it was because I was a woman, and they assumed I didn't know a damn thing about cars. Or maybe because I wasn't "blonde" --- those guys were jerks. At the time I had no choice, but I made a vow never to give my hard earned money to anyone like that again! There are TOO many options these days. Please go or Yelp and any other review site and give them a horrible review for doing that to you!! Other customers should be aware, AND they shouldn't get away with treating people like that.
I don't experience rude service I guess because Im a girl and pretty attractive but they do try and rip me off almost every time! Luckily I know more about cars than most of those guys there so I don't get screwed over. I eventually started to purchase my own replacement parts and started fixing my car at home. I have all the tools necesarry and the skill so I don't need some grease monkey charging me $500 for a radiator when I can purchase a brand new one at a parts store for 1/5 of the price and put it in myself in under an hour.
Well unfortunately it was just some service station in San Diego that did this. Like I said, they fixed the car just fine. It was just the arrogant, condescending attitude I got from them that was the issue. Car repair places tend to be about as high on my list as whale bones on the ocean bottom. Many of them just seem to have that attitude.
Let me tell you about car repair shops in my country: they are almost all rip-offs. I usually avoid them and repair my car inhouse, but if you have a new car you don't have a choice, or you will lose the warranty. When you take your car to them, if it's a longer work or a component change, they always say that they are full and it will take 1-2 days. So you leave your car there. They will usually take good, new parts from your car and put old ones on yours, so they resell the new ones or use for themselves. Just a curiosity: if you go at the Renault (just an example) auto shop, you will see that almost all employees have Renault cars , not because they have a discount, just because they can upgrade old components on their cars with the ones from the customers cars. The forums are full of people reporting unusual parts after service visits. Even my dad had a case like this: he took his car to the official shop for the distribution system change, and after 2 days he noticed something unusual: the tyres on the rear were very, very badly used, there were barely any marks left on them. The car had the same tyres on all four wheels since he bought it new, there is no way those two tyres were so worn (unless my dad is some kind of secret drift racer or something), especially when those two wheels don't even steer. But there is little you can do: you basically have no evidence that those are not your original components, and the workers also become aggressive. So, when I need something, I go to a shop that has time for me, and I always stay near my car.
I have not had many run ins with car repairs because my dad is a mechanic. He lives about 3 hours away from me but if there is a problem that I can't handle he will take the trip out to get me back on the road. There were a couple times that I have used another mechanic for. Dad is not licensed to do state inspection so I have to get it inspected by a mechanic, but I knew the mechanic before I started going there. Car dealerships on the other hand have given me problems because I am a female. I totally freaked out on them when they tried to rip my mom off claiming her trade in car was worth less because it supposedly had problems. Her car did not have problems - they popped the radiator cap off while it was hot causing a leak, they shoved the floor mat up on the gas pedal to say that the gas pedal was sticking. I freaked and very loudly in front of all the customers there explained why this stuff happened and what THEY did to cause it. People walked out the door and they were trying to get me to leave quietly. If it was me they did it to, I probably wouldn't have got so loud. But they did this to my Mom and that was a big no!! We had to go buy antifreeze just to get home. A dealership fixed my Jeep when I had it because it was a warranty part and I told them what was wrong with it and that it was the oxygen sensor. I also told them I was only getting it fixed there because of warranty. The guy would not hear 2 words of what I said (probably because I am female) and insisted that it was something else and that it would take a while to fix. He told me to get a ride home and they would call. As soon as I got home they called and said it was ready, now that I had no ride to get it (I was willing to wait at the shop for it but they insisted I was wrong.) So I asked him over the phone what was wrong with it and they told me in a quiet voice - the oxygen sensor.
Lots of unsavory characters get hired at and run or own, auto-repair shops across America. And some of them double as chop shops at certain times of day. Mostly after 11 pm. It's best to mess with the family chain owned places or the major ones like Midas or something.
Simetimes you will run into rude and crude people and you must consider the source, try to laugh it off and go on. I have cpme across people who are nice and they steal from you in essence. One place that I took my car to for repairs, were nice as could be, but they charged me for repairs and did nothing. In fact my car was never to run right again. I'll take the rude ones, who do the work, rather than the nice ones who are thieves anytime.
Yep! I avoid rude service by doing a lot of work myself. For one, I usually don't get rude service at repair shops. Instead I get men treating me like I'm stupid. They don't explain what's wrong or what needs to be done to fix it. So I get treated like a dumb blonde! I can do some car repair myself but my tool collection is still growing. For now I have a good mechanic who knows that I can do some of the work myself. He actually passes on jobs to me when he knows I can fix it!! but I still have to deal with some jerks when I need repairs on the road.
All of the places I've ever taken my car for important repairs have been local small businesses, and they've always been very helpful and not once were they rude. It all depends on where you go, I think the automotive industry gets a bad rap for having condescending employees, you get jackasses everywhere.
