I must have stupid stamped on my forehead….

As a woman we often have to deal with the reality that we live in a very chauvinistic society. I work, pretty darn hard if I may say so. Therefore I bought a car, one that I thought I liked VERY much but from the time of purchase until now I have encountered numerous challenges dealing with this vehicle simply because…..I’m a woman.

When I decided it was time to buy a new car common sense did kick in. As independent as I’d like to be – I don’t know everything (shocking, I know) so I asked a male friend to accompany me to the dealership. I fell in love with a particular vehicle, my friend said mechanically it was fine, then I sat down to speak with the finance manager. I listened as this person, another woman, began to pick me apart, seemingly for kicks. She gave me an entire speech on how she couldn’t get me anything lower than a double digit interest rate, not because of my credit, but because supposedly my income-to-debt ratio was too high. I politely explained to her that I had attended two private colleges and hadn’t had any trouble obtaining a mortgage with that same amount of debt.  

What came next was completely unexpected. She launched into a whole tirade about people purchasing vehicles that they should not have, about how a mortgage is easier to obtain because you cannot hide a home (you do the math on that one), etc., etc., etc. It was then that I decided she would not profit off of this sale, I gathered my belongings and left.  

I did purchase the car but did not finance thru the dealership. Assuming this was a one- time incident I decided to continue my relationship with this establishment and maintain the vehicle thru their service department under the misconception that my customer loyalty would earn me great service. I had no idea what lay ahead.   

Since purchasing the car, I have been charged several different prices for brakes, been sold bad tires and the best was when I took my car in to have the “shifter bezel” (the piece placed around the gear shift that indicates what gear you’re in) replaced because one day while driving it just popped out of my console.  When I questioned the client service manager as to why something like this would happen on such a high end vehicle, his response? “You must be shifting gears too hard.”  Needless to say my attitude kicked into overdrive and I very curtly replied to him “In case you haven’t noticed – I drive an automatic, not a stick shift.” 

Now in what is my “last stand” with these jerks the gloves have officially come off. Unfortunately someone decided to run into my PARKED car one day while I was out running errands.  So I took the car to my body shop and the foolishness immediately started. The owner refused to give me a quote for the damage. His stance was, “I’ll take the car if the insurance adjustor comes to the shop and does the estimate here.” Whatever, so I take my car BACK to my dealership and got the quote I needed. The body shop manager put on the performance of a lifetime, acted like he was my advocate, informed me that he would go to bat for me if the insurance company didn’t give me enough money.   

So…after getting the check from the insurance company for the damages done to the car I dropped the vehicle off at the dealer to have the repairs done. As the body shop manager drew up my paper work he asked to see the estimate to verify that the cost of a new door was covered, I complied, it was definitely MY mistake. He handed me a scope of work that stated the car was having the damage to the left side of the car repaired and had me sign. At this time I asked him to also replace a light that was out which was indicated on the dash when the car is turned on. 

This is where it gets fun….next day I get a phone call from the insurance company stating that they are cutting me a check for additional funds to cover the extra parts needed to complete the scope of work. Now – let me point out here that the insurance company had already paid me about $700 more than the quote given to me so I was curious as to WHY the dealership needed more money and didn’t come and ask me.  Lo and behold they had taken it upon themselves to do EXTRA work to the vehicle that I didn’t ask for (remember – I have a copy of the scope of work that was supposed to be done).  I tell them anything beyond repairing the damages from the accident was not authorized and they were NOT to do any additional “repairs”.  The manager mumbled something about giving me a call back. I tried reaching him again that day and received no response.

Next day this jerk calls me and tells me that a lot of work had already been done and he still is going to charge me a bit extra than we agreed But the car was ready for pick up. I arrive to pick up my car after work and of course he’s gone. I ask to speak with someone and was led into a service manager’s office. He reviewed all of the paperwork and said he didn’t understand what had happened either because I clearly had a document stating the scope of work but unfortunately I had to speak with the body shop manager, he wasn’t of any authority to change the price and that he couldn’t release my car to me unless I paid the requested amount.

So I paid to have my car released to me because at this point it was a Friday evening, I didn’t want to be without my car all weekend AND I no longer trusted them with my vehicle.  After leaving the dealership I went to dinner with a friend and by the time we were leaving it had started to get dark.  When I turned on the car that’s when I noticed…..the light I had requested that the dealership to change was still out.  Now fuming I decided to inspect the entire car and found that my damaged mirror had been put back on the car. The only “repair” they had done to the mirror was washing off the other car’s paint.   

The following Monday morning I FedEx’ed letters to both their corporate offices and directly to the dealership requesting that this situation be rectified. I want a portion of my money to be refunded. I mean really? You charge me extra for work I didn’t ask for but didn’t bother to complete the scope of work that I DID ask you for. How does that work?  It’s been about 2 weeks and I haven’t gotten a response from the dealership at all.  Therefore it’s time to kick this fight into gear. 

What frustrates me the most about this situation is what I feel is blatant sexism. Had I been a man walking into this dealership I would have immediately gotten the respect that I deserve. I wouldn’t have to deal with any passive-aggressive banter about not knowing what I was getting into when purchasing a luxury car, selling me sub-par parts and offering half-ass explanations to my questions.

I don’t have a man paying my car note OR coughing up the cash for maintenance expenses so I should be treated with the same level of respect that they receive for these services.  And since I can’t get my way…..we’re heading to court. This WOMAN is coming for ya…….