"Just shut up and listen..." A Napa auto parts store employee's advice

Talk to just about any woman and she will probably have the impression that she is more likely to be treated differently by an automechanic than her male counterpart. In recent surveys almost half of the women polled felt that they were more likely to be charged more and receive pooer service than a man would have when visiting an auto mechanic.  In fact in a recent article one woman stated that her solution around this problem is to always take a male with her when she has to take her car in to be serviced.


 This article goes on further to reference a woman who ended up opening her own garage to help combat this perception. She is represented to have said that when a woman goes into a mechanics she has the general thought that she is about to get ripped off and so the mechanic reacts to that and that women should be "neutral" when they approach a mechanic.

I personally have never had an experience with a mechanic per se that made me think that if I had been male and/or had a male with me I would have been treated differently. However, after yesterday I am not sure if I can say the same about a Napa auto part store employee, although perhaps this guy just treats all of his customers poorly whether they are female or not. 

Early yesterday morning my sister's car's  tie rod broke (the inner tie rod litterally just slipped right out of the outter tie rod as it was stripped--thankfully she was only in her apartment complex's parking lot when it happened!) and so after work yesterday evening my father, my daughter, and I went over to see about repairing it (actually at the time thinking it would be able to be just re-threaded). 

Upon realizing the entire thing would need to be replaced I called the nearest Napa Autocare store and spoke with an employee who we will call Don (pretty much because that's his name) and asked if they had the outter tie rod in stock and for a price quote. He informed me they did have it and that it would be $54.15. Then I repeated this for the inner tie rod, which he again stated he had in stock and that it would be around $36 for the inner. I stated that I would be right down to get them and that I also needed the ball joint separator tool.

Now from the time that I left my sister's apartment and went the 4 blocks my dad had decided that he needed to get a couple of other tools because it would be cheaper to just buy them than to drive back home to his house to get his tools, so I was focused on remembering to get a wrench that was either 36 mm or slightly smaller than 1/16 as well as the previous items, a needle-nose pliers, and a tire iron because my sister's car didn't have one and my tire iron for my car didn't fit my sister's lug nuts (figures, huh?).

Upon getting to the store an employee who we will call Dave (again, because that was his name and who am I to rename him) was at the counter. I informed Dave that I had just called and asked for an inner and outter tie rod for the driver's side to be put aside and that I also needed a wrench that was the above-listed size and a...and here my mind went blank...all I could manage to remember was that I knew I needed the "thingie" to get a tire off.  Certainly not my most shining moment when it comes to going to an autoparts store, but what can I say. Dave handled all of that in stride and even laughed and joked with me a bit about remembering the whole list of items I needed.

Dave started to look to find the items I needed and went about looking in a book for part IDs. Meanwhile my sister went and picked up a ball joint separator (pickle fork styled) and brought it to the counter. At this point Don, who was standing on the other end of the counter, stated "this is why at-homer, do-it-yourself-types shouldn't do these kinds of repairs that the can't handle. That's not what you need. There's a difference between a ball joint and a tie rod separator." So I turned to him and told him that I'd appreciate it if he stopped being so deragatory and degrading. To which he replied that he was "just trying to educate me." I then told him that he would get a much better response if he wasn't being so rude and degrading. He then told me that if I'd "just shut up and listen I would learn something". (!!!)

At this point I was done and I can honestly say that if it had not been for Dave's customer service and pleasant attitude I would have instantly left the store and driven 4 towns over if I had needed to to get the parts required to fix the car!

As I said above, I am not sure if I was treated this way because I was female or if this guy simply treats all customers of Napa in this fashion. Although, I do find it hard to believe that he does given the fact that he still holds his job and based on the way he interacted with other male customers while I was in the store.

So, ladies, it's not just mechanics you have to worry about treating you unfairly based on your sex--apparently you also have to worry about auto parts sales staff as well!