Almost Pulled My Hair Out!!!!!!

[officegirl]

I guess I never thought about it being the other way around. I just get sick of feeling like people brush me off because I am just a blond. And I am not aggressive enough to take action. I guess that's something I need to work on if I want the situation to ever change, huh? I think there is a fine line between a raging bitch and someone who takes action... I just don't know where that fine line is and I definitely do not want to cross it. I like being a nice person

[phillippbo]

I can't tell you why that is officegirl, but I can tell you that many mechanics automatically assume that I know what they're talking about because I have a y-chromosome. In all honesty, I do understand the mechanics of how an internal combustion engine works, and for some of the minor things I know what I'm talking about, but for anything else I'm just lost.

Back when I had my '88 Chevy Celebrity ('ol Luicille, sometimes I miss that car, but only SOMETIMES), every time I had to take it in, no matter where it was, the mechanics would pull me into the garage and point at the bottom of the car asking if I could see the problem. Uhm, err, der... I don't know what it's supposed to look like under there, so chances are I can't tell you what's out of whack. I'm paying you to tell me that. Funny thing, though, ever since I got the 2000 Grand Cherokee, I haven't had the same problem. I guess they figured a guy with an older car in as good a shape as mine was would constantly work on it or something?

[officegirl]

Saturday I drove three hours to the car dealership where I bought my BRAND NEW car because it has since been re-called due to a faulty engine that burns oil too quickly. I took it in back in April to get it looked at (before the recall, mind you) because I ran out of oil after 3000 miles. Well, this jackass tells me it's normal for a new engine to burn oil quickly. Yeah, ok, just because I am a blond female does not mean I don't have a brain. Well now, my engine makes a knocking noise and I set up an appointment a week in advance to get it checked out. When I got there, they told me my appointment had been cancelled because I had not called to confirm. What?? I would think setting the appointment would be confirmation enough. Well, then the guy (same one who tried to feed me the "it's normal" bs of course) makes it seem like he's doing me a favor by "sqeezing" me in his busy schedule. I call about 4 hours later to find out if my car is done and the guy gets on the phone and tells me there isn't anything he can do about the engine, everything looks fine and that my oil only burned a 1/4 of a quart since my last oil change. I tried to explain myself but he would talk over me and try to tell me everything was "normal." I finally got the chance to tell him that the reason my oil wasn't very low was because I filled it up before I left. Then he told me, even though every letter I recieved in the mail from the makers of the car says otherwise, that I wasn't supposed to fill my oil, that I was supposed to just let the engine die if it ran out of oil. I was with my parents at the time because they picked me up after I dropped my car off and my dad got on the phone and ripped this guy a new one and the guy pretended not to know who told me it was normal for the engine to burn oil fast. When I went to pick up my car, he was very nice. I love when my dad gets involved, he doesn't take ANY bs

But, I don't understand why people feel the need to argue with you and talk over you. He didn't know what the problem was and he was never going to find out if he didn't let me talk. He didn't listen to me the first time I tried to tell him there was a problem with my car and it ended up being recalled. Are there any mechanics out there who can tell me why you insist on believing we females don't know what we are talking about when it comes to cars? It's very degrading and irritable and us girls end up getting screwed in the end.