True Story

Sent to you by Rio via Google Reader: True Story via Eschaton by
noreply.com (John) on 7/8/10
My fiance and I are in the process of trading in one delightful urban
hellhole for another, and this past weekend all the driving earned me a
cracked windshield on my pickup truck. A couple days ago I called a
local dealer (yeah I know, dealer) in my former city, where the truck
was but I wasn't, and got an estimate for replacing the windshield at
$250-$300. Fair enough; they hire a glass contractor to do it for $150
and charge me for the privilege of their customer service.

So imagine my surprise when my fiance dropped it off and called me to
say that they gave her an estimate of $450-$500. Same car. Same
windshield. 24 hours apart. Now, I'm not quick to assume bad faith or
nefarious motive, but I'm pretty damn sure some pig in the service
department thinks it's ok to try to rip off women.

When I called this morning to speak with the manager the woman who
handled my call seemed genuinely appalled that this was going on where
she worked. I'm sure it made her feel good to know what at least one of
her coworkers thinks of women. Speaking to the manager only furthered
my suspicions. The repair had already been done, and the bill had come
to about $425 total, but there was little attempt on his end to justify
the price. As soon as I said I wanted to see the invoice from the glass
contractor he told me he would see what he could do, and five minutes
later he called me back to say he had "fixed the problem with my bill,"
with a state inspection thrown in to sweeten the deal.

It's an indication of my blindness to my privilege that this episode
shocked me. It seemed like an antiquated cliche, but I guess it's
really not rare at all. The fact that the manager seemed more sheepish
about being caught than surprised at the behavior of his employees is
enough to make me realize how common the practice must be. And the
really crazy/depressing thing is that in a global context getting
ripped off by mechanics is pretty far down on the list of pressing
issues women face.


Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to Eschaton using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites