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He’s sees you driving up with an anxious look on your face. He remains expressionless on the outside but guess what?
He’s smiling on the inside.
Why is he smiling? You are a woman with auto repair needs and according to research; that alone is going to influence the mechanic to charge you more money than he would if you were a man.
According to theatlantic.co, a great information site that speaks to News and analysis on politics, business and more, Researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management teamed up with AutoMD to find out why customers receive different price quotes when they call an auto-repair shop.
“When the researchers broke down their results by gender, they found that women are worse off if they indicate they have no idea what a radiator replacement should cost. Women were offered an average price of $406, while their male counterparts received a quote of $383. Why the difference? One of the study’s authors explains:
Repair shops probably do not inherently dislike women or take pleasure in ripping them off. Instead, the data are more consistent with statistical discrimination. Shops believe, rightly or wrongly, that women know less about cars and car repair. In the absence of information to the contrary, they will be offered a higher quote. “But when you show that stereotype is wrong”—because you reveal yourself to be an informed woman or an uninformed man—”you get treated the same way”.
The study continues. “The experiment revealed another gender difference, too. When women request a lower price, they receive a price cut from the repair shop more often than men do—35 percent of the time compared with 25 percent for men. This “pretty sizeable” difference, the authors say, is not explained by higher initial quotes women sometimes receive. Instead, repair shops are surprised perhaps when a woman customer defies the stereotype that women don’t haggle and negotiate. They think she will walk out the door; hence, she gets a discount.”
There is hope.
In her well researched article, kiplinger.com writer Jessica L. Anderson provides women with some great tips on how to reduce your chance of being a victim.
“Nine in ten women believe they are treated differently at auto-repair shops than men are, according to a national study by the Car Care Council, an association that encourages consumer education. Even I, the car writer at Kiplinger’s, have been the target of repair-shop gender politics. Take our advice on taking control — but keep in mind, anyone can get ripped off. These rules aren’t just for ladies.”
Let’s consider Ms. Anderson’s suggestions.
Get a clue. You can diagnose what’s wrong before you hit the shop by using the CarMD tool ($99; www.carmd.com). Just plug the hand-held device into your car (every model after 1996 has a standard connection port) and it reads the car’s computer codes. You can then plug it into your computer for a full report of what problem the codes indicate, the most likely fix, and what labor and parts for the repair cost in your area. The report also lists recalls for your vehicle and summaries of technical service bulletins (recall notices are also available at www.nhtsa.gov). You can also use the car-care guide at www.carcare.org to learn about typical repairs and questions to ask the mechanic.
Show them you know. Familiarize yourself with the owner’s manual — you’ll avoid unnecessary maintenance if you know what needs to be done at every service interval. When choosing a repair shop, make sure the technicians are ASE certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence.
Use all your senses to describe a problem, says auto expert Lauren Fix, author of Lauren Fix’s Guide to Loving Your Car (St. Martin’s Griffin, $17.99).
Don’t overpay for repairs. If you’re getting the car repaired by an independent shop, call the service department at your dealership after you get the diagnosis to see whether it’s covered by the warranty, a recall or a technical service bulletin; having the car fixed at an independent shop won’t void the warranty, but you may have to pay for the repair.
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Get a second opinion. If you’re unsure about what you’re being told, go somewhere else. Don’t repeat what the other shop said; just provide the same information about the problem and see what the mechanic finds and what the shop will charge to fix it. Before a repair, ask to see the part, where it goes and why it needs to be replaced, and then ask to see the old part after the repair is made. If you feel pressured to make a repair, walk away.
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RepairPal.com can help you find out whether your mechanic is quoting a fair price. Enter your car’s make, model and year, plus your zip code. You’ll see a price range for dozens of fixes at dealerships and shops in your area.”
Thank you Ms. Anderson.
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Further help is provided jamesrussellpublishing.biz/autoscam.html. You can visit the website for the full article but here are some of his suggestions.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
1. “Always look for the hourly labor rate chart on the wall. Protect yourself and get out of the shop if none exists.
2. Always get a “written” job estimate breaking down the parts, supplies and labor. This way they must come close to the actual estimate; read the fine print on the estimate about this. A scam artist avoids giving his customers a written estimate, so beware of this. If you don’t get a written estimate for the repair get out of that repair shop for you will be cheated and robbed.
3. The written estimate is a legal contractual agreement. The repair shop must abide by it. The shop that gives no written estimate is bound to nothing but to inflate his bill and rob you unmercifully. It’s his way of saying, “Thank you, stupid.”
4. Do not be a trusting soul anymore. Sure, the service writer may be cute, kind and polite but his boss isn’t and he sets the rules you have no idea is designed to scam each and every customer.
5. Watch television and listen to the radio. The shops that “advertise” are the very ones you need to avoid. Why? They are ripping off so many people they are losing word of mouth recommendations and referrals and they must advertise to “drum up more victims”. Cynical? It sure is, but true. But that does not mean to let your guard down just because a shop does not advertise. But a red flag warning to all who do advertise. And that goes for every sort of business you can imagine! The only acceptable advertising is corporate ads. There’s a huge difference.
Example: Ford advertises their new vehicles and tells you to go to their dealer to drive and buy one. That’s okay. A bad advertiser, who is likely an accomplished con artist, is a dealer using his own money to generate his own ad to get you to come buy his product. Or an ad like this, “Come to Uncle Joe’s Auto Repair, we fix all Ford’s, gas or diesel engines our specialty.” And the bold ads to beware, “Dyno Diesel, we are the best, nobody beats our service.”
My advice? Run like hell. Do not trust any dealer who advertises. Why? There are dozens to hundreds of repair shops in your city all doing just fine without advertising, but these “advertisers” spend big bucks to entice you to come dangle in their web to be eaten alive. They advertise because they need the money for they are constantly losing customers from their incompetent, awful service and inappropriate billing practices.
6. Even if the advertiser has no complaints on the Better Business Bureau web site it only means nobody bothers to complain to the BBB as often the advertiser is a member of the BBB and nothing will be done to discipline that repair shop anyway for the BBB has no discipline power to enforce any laws. So disregard any plaque or fancy certificates on the wall that brags of the shop’s belonging to the BBB or any other organization like the “Chamber of Commerce” another useless organization that will not protect the consumer. The more trophies on the wall like this that you see is a clear sign to get out of that business before you pay dearly for the education you will soon learn.
7. Never explain to anyone at the shop how much you need your car or truck to get to work, etc. Your desperation is a signal tapping the spider’s web to inflate your bill. A desperate person is temporarily blinded to what is going on around himself and makes it easy to inflate the bill. The person is so happy to have the vehicle fixed they run out of the shop happy as a clam, but saddened at the expense it cost, yet not realizing he has been scammed hard.
8. If your vehicle is running good now is the time to shop around for a good repair shop. Don’t wait until you are desperate. Look for exceptional cleanliness, labor rates clearly posted in waiting area, ask if they give written estimates on each job.”
Mr. Russell makes some excellent suggestions.
So if you apply the above suggestions from Ms. Anderson and Mr. Russell, as a female you will have a far better chance of getting your much needed auto repairs at the same rate as men.
Now for the good news.
If you have applied the above suggestions and the auto mechanic is cute and continues to smile at you when you walk out, don’t despair. It’s probably not sarcasm.
Maybe he would simply like to ask you out on a date.
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Sources: theatlantic.com, usnews.com/news, business.time.com, blogs.wsj.com, latimes.com, kiplinger.com/article/cars – Jessica Anderson, jamesrussellpublishing.biz/autoscam.html, thank you Wikimedia Commons for photos.
