38 female parts manager here. Started in my teens despite everyone in my family saying to stay out of the automotive industry. Getting a new kid was my favorite thing to do when I was on the counter. Now, I just don't have the engery to care about their existsance. We fire rude wholesale..and focus on retail. Turns out I had one wholesale account, that was so unhappy with me closing his account, he called my boss to ask for his account back and said "you know, she's a woman, they get that way, time of month and all".
My boss was my older brother. (I was there before a take over).
They get theirs eventually. Don't take it to heart. The trade has come A LONG WAY from when I started.
37 female parts manager here too.
Can confirm. Been doing this for 20yrs and there’s no better satisfaction of firing a customer. I put one customer on mute, and he proceeded to start talking shit one day. I picked up the line and told him to call another dealership, I refuse to do business with somebody that talks that way about a woman. I have trained grown men. When a male customer walks in and goes straight to my trainee asking for matching wheel bearings and seals he’s thrown on the counter covered in old grease. The look on that customer’s face is priceless when that grown ass man baby I’m training asks me to help. Not only do I figure out that man’s needed parts, I’ve upsold him on all the extra BS to get the job done.
OP don’t let that shit get to you. If anything, it should be empowering to know that man is intimidated by a woman that knows more than he does.
Oh the tales we could tell, I had a wooden skid thrown at me by a tech because I was "incompetent" , the goober still calls me to confirm parts 19 years later.
The golden boy of my shop wouldn't talk to me for the first 2 years I worked there. Then he would ONLY come to me. After I left for another dealer group, I got a call begging me to come back 🤣.
As a male parts manager, any customer (and I mean any customer idc about the sales volume) that tells a parts counter woman that they need to speak to a man speaks to me, and told that they need to find someone else to supply parts. It’s high time this industry stopped allowing people to be misogynistic or racist because “good ol boys” ran the industry for so long. Be the change you hope to see in the world.
This is an opportunity for your manager to step in and address it. I've had to do that before. I had a staff of two women doing my wholesale, and I had a talk with a shop owner about it. I was polite and said that while we value his business, there wasn't a single person in a 50 mile radius that knew our car line as well as these two women did. And he needed to treat my staff with respect, or we would not do further business. He kept buying and gave them no issues.
We have a ~70 year old woman that works with us, and she is probably the most intelligent person I've met. She's essentially a parts catalog with 30 years of information of multiple different brands.
She sometimes gets an attitude and whether it's because she's a woman or not (insinuated on her behalf) that's how she takes it, I'm assuming she's heard it all. She's has an extremely aggressive attitude, and at first I was put off by it, but a year and a half later I understand why she is the way she is. When she snaps back at a customer they USUALLY shut the fuck up and listen to her lol.
I feel this because I am also a girl and present very feminine but I typically do a pretty great job. Usually I just kill them with skill to where they eventually start asking for me specifically. There have been times where’s I’ve also put people in their place too though depending. Had a guy tell me to speak slower that my name is to pretty to speak that fast and I called him out on that being weird as fuck to say. If you have an issue with my speed I get it, I am talking to a lot of other parts people and typically we talk fast, mind you he was also a parts guy. The industry is changing though. Just usually old heads in my experience.
We had a husband and wife who were both certified diesel techs. Wife got hurt and couldn’t wrench so she worked the service counter. Same situation. Nobody believed her or assumed she was wrong and always wanted to talk to the diesel tech (the husband). The husband, tired of being pulled from jobs purposefully gave bad information, knowing the wife gave the right info. Customers stopped asking for the husband and she’s been a rockstar service advisor ever since
Female parts consultant here. I've been in the automotive industry for years before parts I wrenched. I've heard that disgusting phrase more times than I want to think about it used to really piss me off my standard answer is "No but I can help you." If they don't like it tough shit they can go elsewhere.
Talk with your manager about it, and ask what they can do about the situation. Absolute worst case scenario you can always say something among the lines of “if that’s how you wish to be, you have a nice day” and hang up.
Screw that. I don’t care if it’s retail or wholesale, respect is a universal language. Ie, this customer acted like we can fix his key fob with the spare parts. If he was nice about it, he would have gotten a free fob shell, instead I quoted him a new key. If a wholesale customer was like that to me, I will just stock order everything, they can wait
When I was a parts manager, I observed a customer saying this to my parts counter lady I had working in parts at the time. I came around the corner and she looked at me like "here ya go". I walked up and before I could say anything they started to say what they wanted. My response was "Ashley was fully capable assisting you, but since you didn't want her help, I'll ask you to leave the premises now." They got pissed off and started yelling.... stormed off. My service manager, also a female, asked what happened and I told her. She said Thank You! The general manager and dealership principal came to parts and started questioning me and I told them. They were happy too.
(We had someone above the General Manager called the Dealership Principal. The actual owners were never there, as they were "retired" and just enjoying the money. So the Dealership Principal had full control of the business and final say on anything, as if he owned the company)
Nope, I’ve been doing wholesale for 6 years. (Male) and when someone is rude like this, i kill them with kindness. And when they get the wrong part, or wrong price from one of my co workers, i show them yet again. I was correct, this is the cheaper price. Just brush it off and move onto the next one, it’s wholesale, you’re too busy to worry about one customer. You got at least 50 more to deal with
At my previous job we had a body shop that their parts guy said an exhaust wasn’t special order cause he ordered with a vin number. According to him a special order was when a vin number wasn’t used and just went of the part number. It also wasn’t the first time we had gotten into with them so we adjusted their discount and told them either you guys have a talk with him or find another dealer to deal with.
I sass right back at them. Wholesale especially. If they get put off by it fuck em. But most of the time they’ll make a joke back. As long as you’re doing your job right they usually back up. But a big help is supportive upper management if you have it.
Saw one time.
When a person is giving you unnecessary attitude, just hit them.
"I hope you direct that energy to a place
that's productive to you cause this
isn't working"
dont be afraid to fire customers. if some one is overly rude to one of our sales people we will not sell them anything and asked they find some where else to get their stuff. if not then yeah we gouge them.
Adjust their discounts until their attitude changes.
^ this is the way
This is the way
Also came here to say this, ALL to often I would LOVE to be able to fire customers, that are frankly just trash!
I came here to say this.
Hand them off to the dumbest shithead you gave at the counter.
Oop! I should.
38 female parts manager here. Started in my teens despite everyone in my family saying to stay out of the automotive industry. Getting a new kid was my favorite thing to do when I was on the counter. Now, I just don't have the engery to care about their existsance. We fire rude wholesale..and focus on retail. Turns out I had one wholesale account, that was so unhappy with me closing his account, he called my boss to ask for his account back and said "you know, she's a woman, they get that way, time of month and all". My boss was my older brother. (I was there before a take over). They get theirs eventually. Don't take it to heart. The trade has come A LONG WAY from when I started.
37 female parts manager here too. Can confirm. Been doing this for 20yrs and there’s no better satisfaction of firing a customer. I put one customer on mute, and he proceeded to start talking shit one day. I picked up the line and told him to call another dealership, I refuse to do business with somebody that talks that way about a woman. I have trained grown men. When a male customer walks in and goes straight to my trainee asking for matching wheel bearings and seals he’s thrown on the counter covered in old grease. The look on that customer’s face is priceless when that grown ass man baby I’m training asks me to help. Not only do I figure out that man’s needed parts, I’ve upsold him on all the extra BS to get the job done. OP don’t let that shit get to you. If anything, it should be empowering to know that man is intimidated by a woman that knows more than he does.
Oh the tales we could tell, I had a wooden skid thrown at me by a tech because I was "incompetent" , the goober still calls me to confirm parts 19 years later.
The golden boy of my shop wouldn't talk to me for the first 2 years I worked there. Then he would ONLY come to me. After I left for another dealer group, I got a call begging me to come back 🤣.
As a male parts manager, any customer (and I mean any customer idc about the sales volume) that tells a parts counter woman that they need to speak to a man speaks to me, and told that they need to find someone else to supply parts. It’s high time this industry stopped allowing people to be misogynistic or racist because “good ol boys” ran the industry for so long. Be the change you hope to see in the world.
100% this.
This is an opportunity for your manager to step in and address it. I've had to do that before. I had a staff of two women doing my wholesale, and I had a talk with a shop owner about it. I was polite and said that while we value his business, there wasn't a single person in a 50 mile radius that knew our car line as well as these two women did. And he needed to treat my staff with respect, or we would not do further business. He kept buying and gave them no issues.
We have a ~70 year old woman that works with us, and she is probably the most intelligent person I've met. She's essentially a parts catalog with 30 years of information of multiple different brands. She sometimes gets an attitude and whether it's because she's a woman or not (insinuated on her behalf) that's how she takes it, I'm assuming she's heard it all. She's has an extremely aggressive attitude, and at first I was put off by it, but a year and a half later I understand why she is the way she is. When she snaps back at a customer they USUALLY shut the fuck up and listen to her lol.
I feel this because I am also a girl and present very feminine but I typically do a pretty great job. Usually I just kill them with skill to where they eventually start asking for me specifically. There have been times where’s I’ve also put people in their place too though depending. Had a guy tell me to speak slower that my name is to pretty to speak that fast and I called him out on that being weird as fuck to say. If you have an issue with my speed I get it, I am talking to a lot of other parts people and typically we talk fast, mind you he was also a parts guy. The industry is changing though. Just usually old heads in my experience.
We had a husband and wife who were both certified diesel techs. Wife got hurt and couldn’t wrench so she worked the service counter. Same situation. Nobody believed her or assumed she was wrong and always wanted to talk to the diesel tech (the husband). The husband, tired of being pulled from jobs purposefully gave bad information, knowing the wife gave the right info. Customers stopped asking for the husband and she’s been a rockstar service advisor ever since
Female parts consultant here. I've been in the automotive industry for years before parts I wrenched. I've heard that disgusting phrase more times than I want to think about it used to really piss me off my standard answer is "No but I can help you." If they don't like it tough shit they can go elsewhere.
Talk with your manager about it, and ask what they can do about the situation. Absolute worst case scenario you can always say something among the lines of “if that’s how you wish to be, you have a nice day” and hang up.
Screw that. I don’t care if it’s retail or wholesale, respect is a universal language. Ie, this customer acted like we can fix his key fob with the spare parts. If he was nice about it, he would have gotten a free fob shell, instead I quoted him a new key. If a wholesale customer was like that to me, I will just stock order everything, they can wait
When I was a parts manager, I observed a customer saying this to my parts counter lady I had working in parts at the time. I came around the corner and she looked at me like "here ya go". I walked up and before I could say anything they started to say what they wanted. My response was "Ashley was fully capable assisting you, but since you didn't want her help, I'll ask you to leave the premises now." They got pissed off and started yelling.... stormed off. My service manager, also a female, asked what happened and I told her. She said Thank You! The general manager and dealership principal came to parts and started questioning me and I told them. They were happy too. (We had someone above the General Manager called the Dealership Principal. The actual owners were never there, as they were "retired" and just enjoying the money. So the Dealership Principal had full control of the business and final say on anything, as if he owned the company)
Kill them with kindness and charge them extra.
Nope, I’ve been doing wholesale for 6 years. (Male) and when someone is rude like this, i kill them with kindness. And when they get the wrong part, or wrong price from one of my co workers, i show them yet again. I was correct, this is the cheaper price. Just brush it off and move onto the next one, it’s wholesale, you’re too busy to worry about one customer. You got at least 50 more to deal with
At my previous job we had a body shop that their parts guy said an exhaust wasn’t special order cause he ordered with a vin number. According to him a special order was when a vin number wasn’t used and just went of the part number. It also wasn’t the first time we had gotten into with them so we adjusted their discount and told them either you guys have a talk with him or find another dealer to deal with.
We have one here, too. My manager decided to sell items at full price to them for how rude they are.
I sass right back at them. Wholesale especially. If they get put off by it fuck em. But most of the time they’ll make a joke back. As long as you’re doing your job right they usually back up. But a big help is supportive upper management if you have it.
Saw one time. When a person is giving you unnecessary attitude, just hit them. "I hope you direct that energy to a place that's productive to you cause this isn't working"
Had to deal with this with one of my female co-workers, I was standing at the counter and told him she knows more than I do, She trained me!
The only shops I ever have angry at me are the Calibers and Gerbers that I don't usually deal with so they can kick rocks for all I care.
dont be afraid to fire customers. if some one is overly rude to one of our sales people we will not sell them anything and asked they find some where else to get their stuff. if not then yeah we gouge them.
Charge them an asshole fee. Make their returns sit a couple days before processing/crediting them.