Male customer refuses to let female mechanic work on his car, he ends up leaving 2 hours later with car issues: ‘I don’t want her working on my car'

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Apr 1, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Why do men automatically assume that a woman can't build a closet, can't fix a sink, can't work in car repairs?

Do they imagine her small fingers can't do the job? Dudes act like they know how to use their hands, but stories from women all over beg to differ. In fact, whenever I get a woman taxi driver, a woman mechanic, or a woman working anything that is normally a 'man's job', I sigh in relief. They're often more polite, more considerate, and won't hit on you.

This customer entered a car mechanic shop only to discover a female mechanic was to work on his car that had issues. He immediately said, 'Who is that chick? Is she going to be working on my car? I don't want her working on my car', to which the advisor said, 'No problem'.

It was, in fact, a big problem, one that led to the customer leaving two hours later, car unfixed. Check out what happened below, and then for more, here is a female computational biologist who was also undermined — by her male coworkers.

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  • 01
    "I don't want her working on my car."
    via Canva
  • 02
    You don't want a woman working on your car? That's fine, but you're going to be waiting a looong time. LOC Many years ago, I worked at a car dealership. The attached service garage was small and I was the only licensed mechanic.
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 03
    I would occasionally have issues with male customers— they would second guess my diagnoses, watch me while I worked on their cars from the bay door, double check my work in the parking lot, etc. I didn't deal with customers directly and would often get my apprentice to pull cars in and out of the shop for me. This morning in particular, we were busy. The lot jockey and apprentice were occupied helping wash cars for delivery and driving to a customer's house.
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 04
    The service advisor left a work order and keys at the parts counter, and I went out the front through service to get the car. It was in for a service campaign, which was an update done with a scan tool. It takes about 10 minutes. The customer was planning on waiting and was sitting in service. When he saw me with his keys in my hand, he immediately stood up, alarmed. I was hustling so I walked right by him and out the door. I missed the following conversation, according to the service advisor (a
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 05
    Advisor: "The other tech is out at the moment, so it's going to be quite a wait until someone else can look at your car." C: "That's fine. I'll wait for a guy. I don't want that chick touching my car." A, politely: "Understood." The advisor comes to let me know, and I pull the car out and put the work order and keys back on the counter, nonplussed. Half an hour passes. The apprentice is still away, and I am happily working on something else, bringing other cars in and out.
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 06
    The customer is now watching each and every person who comes through the door. The high school co-op student comes in to get something signed. The customer's keys are still sitting on the desk. It's been about an hour now. C: "Hey― why hasn't my car gone in yet? Can't you get this guy to do it?" A: "No, sorry. He's just a co-op student so he is not allowed to drive the cars due to liability and insurance concerns." C: "Just get someone else to bring the car in and he can do the work. This was su
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 07
    A: "Sorry, sir. He's just a high school student doing his co- op; he's not approved to perform warranty work. Only licensed techs and apprentices can do the recall.” The car jockey returns. The advisor hands the car jockey a different set of keys, and he brings yet another car into the shop for me. The customer is becoming incensed. C: "I've been sitting here for over an hour and I've watched 5 cars go in before mine. My appointment was for 8am, this is getting ridiculous,” blah blah blah. At th
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 08
    The service advisor starts listing off the names of the men who work in the dealership, then saying why they can't perform the recall. "Well there's Herman, but he's just the car jockey. He doesn't know how to work on cars. Then there's Jeet, but he's about 17. I wouldn't want him doing the recall, personally. I guess we could ask Mike— but Mike is the parts guy he doesn't know how to use the scan tool. The detailers are men, but they know NOTHING about cars..." The customer is fuming at this po
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 09
    The manager comes out of his office, and guides the customer into the garage. He's pretty old school... lights up a cigarette standing at the end of my bay, and points at me. "That's my best technician. Those guys take orders from her. You can either wait for her to finish what she's working on, and then you can ask if she's still willing to do your work, or you can take your car somewhere else." The guy was pretty shook up at this point and he took his car and left, two hours after he'd first a
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 10
    That manager in particular ALWAYS stuck up for me and took my side. The service advisor has this very dead-pan sense of humour. She knew full well it would easily be an hour before the apprentice would return from his errand, and that no one else could do the recall. This was not the first sexist we had encountered. Thanks for reading!
    via u/unlimitedpatience
  • 11
    w_nightshade · 3 yr. ago HE can't fix his car, how the hell can he determine who can? Don't pay an expert and try and second guess them. 7.1k Reply Share heavybabyridesagain · 3 yr. ago He couldn't see beyond the massive knob hanging off his forehead 2.7k Reply Share
    via u/w_nightshade, heavybabyridesagain
  • 12
    MechanaGoddess • 3 yr. ago Fellow mechanic here. I can list three times just off the top of my head when my bosses didn't stick up for me. That place sounds like a dream. After 12 years, a managers license, and more then a dozen different shops under my belt I'm just fed up with this profession. 703 Reply Share
    via u/MechanaGoddess
  • 13
    Proteandk - 3 yr. ago As a mechanic it should be relatively easy to jump over into marine engineering. Get to work on big-engines and the only people on the ship who might have a problem with your gender will be too afraid to get dropped off at the next port for "attitude problems". 268 Reply Share
    via u/Proteandk
  • 14
    [deleted] 3 yr. ago In all of my 65 years on this earth I have never understood this kind of stupidity. This whole c. p idea that any job is gender related has held the world back for centuries. I don't care who works on something as long as they fix it. Their gender, race, religion, color are all unimportant for getting the job done. I am sooooo tired 1.4k Reply Share
    via u/deleted
  • 15
    CarQuean 3 yr. ago edited 3 yr. ago Same here. Even my dad doesn't want me touching his car. Il still tell him my opinion on xyz problem but he prefers to pay 80$/h to have the same diagnosis given by a sl shack garage that double seals on oil changes, forgot to put oil BACK IN THE CAR and didn't tighten the nuts on his wheels once the car was on the ground. He still doesn't like my advice. He can go f himself. 4.1k д Reply Share
    via u/CarQuean
  • 16
    Fairwhetherfriend 3 yr. ago edited 3 yr. ago Ugh. Guys like that are the worst. I used to work in a video game store and would get this kind of attitude from dudes CONSTANTLY. I can sorta get it, 'cause it's not like retails peons are hired for their intimate knowledge of the product, but like... that means the male employees may not know anything either, and it's funny that they always just assumed the guys were gamers, while they would quite literally accuse me of lying when I explicitly said
    via u/Fairwhetherfriend
  • 17
    Multiple times, we had literal lines of men waiting to talk to my male coworker while I stood around twiddling my thumbs. But thankfully my coworkers also thought this was a hilarious and stupid thing for these customers to do, so these dudes would wait like 10 minutes for my coworker to finish helping another customer, and then this would happen: Customer: "Hey, so I've been playing a lot of <game> lately, and I'm wondering if you have any recommendations for other games that are kinda similar?
    via u/Fairwhetherfriend
  • 18
    Coworker: "Oh, I actually haven't played that, but Fairwhether has played it through twice and is our resident expert on that genre. You should ask her." Gosh, their expressions were amazing. Also there was the time I was in a computer shop standing in front of the graphics cards and an employee came over to ask me if I was lost. Not if I needed help, not if I had any questions, if I was fu ng lost. Yeah, sweetie, I'm one of the people building the hardware for the second largest (at the time) s
    via u/Fairwhetherfriend
  • 19
    planet, but you're right, my bs mean I couldn't possibly be looking at graphics cards on purpose, so I must be f 783 ng lost. Geez. Reply Share StealthyBasterd · 3 yr. ago "So you like Zelda, huh? Name all Kakariko villagers in 10 seconds. Go" 218 Reply Share
    via u/StealthyBasterd
  • 20
    habitatforhannah • 3 yr. ago Did you know Queen Elizabeth II is a trained mechanic. Like most monarchs, she's served time in the army. In her day, combat positions were not offered to women so she became a field mechanic. Apparently quite a few people have been shocked at her ability to fix an engine. 230 Reply Share
    via u/habitatforhannah
  • 21
    [deleted] 3 yr. ago I'm a car guy, and one of my favorite car shows is “All Girls Garage”. I will never understand why some guys are so stupid about ci > like this. I'm a Medevac pilot. In my company, we have pilots, nurses, medics, mechanics, and communications specialists of both sexes throughout the company. All have to meet the same standards for their jobs. Being an auto mechanic is no different. FFS, if she can do the job, let her. Sorry you had to deal with that a hat. 993 Reply Share
    via u/deleted
  • 22
    daaaayyyy_dranker 3 yr. ago I work in tech support and men do the same to me 836 Reply Share thenord 321 3 yr. ago I'm an IT tech and I've straight up cl a client (off recording) for wasting my weekend because the on-call tech was qualified, competent and had a womb. ed out
    via u/daaaayyyy_dranker, u/thenord321
  • 23
    I straight up told him his but just made her job easier and mine harder since I had to do more work. I think it actually hit a nerve with him, but who knows if he'll change. 493 Reply Share Scott19M 3 yr. ago Isn't it interesting that "making another guy's job harder" is the thing here that hits a nerve 367 Reply Share
    via u/Scott19M

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