Why do car garages treat women so badly

[Boldernow]

Ok massive generalisation, but I’m currently waiting for my car to be checked and it’s yet again been such a frustrating and belittling experience. When my husband booked it they were super friendly to him, said it would take no time at all etc, I’ve arrived and dropped the car 2 hours ago, they wouldn’t give me a timeframe of when it would be done, spoke to me like I was an idiot, I just called them and they still haven’t looked at the car. It’s Halfords, this has happened to me at multiple locations so it’s not just one bad one. One time at another location I had an MOT booked, turned up and they said our MOT machine is broken so we can’t do it. By this time everywhere was booked up for MOTs for the next two weeks so I couldn’t get my car done before it ran out. I said to them, your machine has been broken for a week and you didn’t call your customers to let them know so they could book elsewhere? They didn’t even say the word sorry once. I just couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t have let me know earlier or even just that morning before I drove all the way there? Another time at a Farmers Autocare they massively overcharged me for work after an MOT - I was young and it was my first MOT so I think they took their chances, I realised in hindsight how I’d been taken for a massive fool, I had no money at the time so it was a massive blow, and to top it off they all hid in the office and sent out their apprentice to charge me the bill. I felt so humiliated and silly for not knowing better but didn’t feel like I could question it.

I would say I have only ever had 1 good experience at a car garage - Shout out to KJL Motors near Sawston, they were so kind, literally walked me under the car to show me exactly what was wrong with it before I agreed to the work, it was like a whole new world of being treated like a proper person as a customer, so I’ve never forgotten that standard of service that is possible.

Anyway, is it just me? Anyone else get this kind of treatment?

And if you’ve been somewhere in South Buckinghamshire that treated you well please let me know your recommendations!!

Why?

What's "crazy" about it?

My DH knows less about cars than I do, so that’s a wild assumption from you. I’m a freelance service provider and don’t just make up costs for people who don’t have in depth knowledge about the field, I charge everyone the same rates, and would expect any service provider to do the same if the world were an ideal honest place.

As I said in my OP, it was my first MOT and I was very young. Being overcharged was not on me, it was on them. I did not have a DH and he wouldn’t have been more help with knowing what it should have cost even if he’d been around then. I think you need to reassess your angle on this one.

You’re missing the point. The thing that isn’t possible is the loss of all brake fluid. I could literally cut one of your brake lines and it wouldn’t drain the system. Also, as the fluid level started to drop you’d have had a red warning light - did you not stop as soon as that illuminated?

Oh your back. Correctille dysfunction alert. Do you do this IRL to women or do you do it to blokes as well?

There was no warning light. There was sudden total brake failure. Car didn't stop, poor handbrake had to take the brunt. It's fixed now anyway.

Look dude I don't know what else to tell you.

I'll never forget the garage that tried to tell me that I needed to pay to replace the windscreen in the car I'd bought three weeks previously when it rained (for the first time since I'd bought it) and flooded it. Not only that, but they didn't replace all the fittings correctly when I went to pick it up.

My children were absolutely beside themselves when I stormed back into the dealers, thinking they were going to see me go postal on the staff, then were totally disappointed when the lovely woman behind the desk clocked my face, heard the story, and was totally on my side. She was shocked to hear the tale.

They picked the wrong woman to blindside.

I got an apology and flowers from them in the end.