Do women really get quoted higher prices?

[Joe Marconi]

An article in National Oil & Lube News tells about a recent study conducted by the Kellogg School for Management at the Northwestern University. The study found that women, who don’t appear knowledgeable about repair costs, may end up paying more money. The study was conducted in collaboration with AutoMD.com

 

They had men and women call for prices for a radiator replacement on a Camry. They concluded that women, although informed on the “market price” of a radiator prior, were quoted higher prices than men.

 

Is it me? There are more holes in this story and survey than a hunk of imported Swiss cheese!

What is the reason for this survey? How was it conducted? What shops were called?

 

Please, enough already with bashing repair shops. Do they really think that there are enough shops out there that are going to give prices over the phone? And, those that did, how can they give an accurate estimate?

 

Did all the men and women stick to the same script? And what the heck is “Market Price.” What are well selling, Striped Bass off the docs at Montauk Point?

 

I never conducted a survey, but know a lot of shop owners, and I can’t see shops around the country quoting women higher prices than men! Are there are few bad apples? Probably. But there are bad apples everywhere.

 

Let’s have a survey on how many shop owners and techs stayed late on a Friday night to make sure a soccer mom had her minivan ready and safe for Saturday’s game!

 

Here’s a link to the article. It’s short. Please read it and tell me how you feel.

http://www.noln.net/article/august-2013/study-women-quoted-higher-prices-auto-repairs-more-successful-negotiating

[HarrytheCarGeek]

Joe,

 

I don't gender discriminate when quoting prices. We love to fix cars and help people, we like to treat our customer well, as we would like to be treated. I agree, articles like that are a bunch of bunk that's the core of yellow journalism.

[Jeff]

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[phynny]

*Cough* BS Survey *Cough*

 

I agree with Jeff. Heck, I had all my techs work until 11pm last night finishing up a couple vehicles for customers.

[Joe Marconi]

Don't make much sense to me. I use mitchell so I don't matter who is on the phone, they all get the same quote. I will on occasion do a phone quote if it is cut and dry...brakes....rad r&r...etc.

As far as staying late I work many nights till 10-11 either trying to get a car out or doing paper work. A few weeks ago I was here doing paper work and answered the phone, around 8:30. Young lady on the phone was broke down on I-95 and needed her car towed in. I told her that I would wait here till it got here to see if I could get them back on the road. 9:30 she calls and says they are loading the car on the tow truck. 10:15 car gets here. I check it out real quick, needs a water pump. Order the pump for 8 am delivery and shuttle her and her boyfriend to the hotel. Finished the next morning around 9:30, picked them up at the hotel and they got back on the road. had I not been here they probably would have missed their vacation flight...were going to Puerto Rico to visit family.

Yea, ya never read these stories in the news!!

 

Here is prime example of who we are as shop owners. This is how we go the extra mile. Jeff, thank you for the post. I know that this happens everyday around the country. Shop Owners should be proud of what we do and how we keep the motoring public moving!

[Alonso's Auto Repair]

We have a lot of women customers in our shop. Most of our Yelp reviews are written by women and many of them mention that they do not feel taken advantage of. This is because we take the time to explain everything to every customer and do not hesitate to take them out to the garage to show them exactly what we are talking about! We also use Mitchell for our estimates so everyone gets the same price no matter who they are

[mspecperformance]

To be honest I am personally a lot more afraid of pushing the buttons of women. I find that once they feel like you are insincere or trying to take advantage of them they go beast mode LOL. Its a lot easier to deal with men because we are more cut and dry. The other side is I get a lot of women that overly show off their knowledge of cars or go out of their way to make it known, "Hey I'm not stupid buddy don't take advantage of me!" The flip side is these types it is very hard to build trust with and a lot of them seem to get outside counsel (father, friend, brother,boyfriend etc) on if we are ripping them off or not. So I guess I am trying to say I think I am more careful with my words and estimates with women!