Her Next Chapters

42. "I Need to Speak to the Manager": How I Stepped into My Power

• Christina Kohl

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I felt like I was being ripped off, scammed even, at the auto dealership service center. Whaaat? That never happens! 

Normally, my husband handles car-related things in our household, but this time, I took the lead. Knowing there would likely be a confrontation, I was wishing I could opt out this time, but I was fired up and prepared to hold my ground. 

Listen in to hear the story, including: 

  • Mansplaining
  • Standing up for myself when spoken over with a strong "Let Me Finish"
  • Getting the service done at zero cost 
  • All witnessed by my daughter :)


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Christina:

Hi and welcome to Her Next Chapter's podcast. I'm your host, hristina Cole. I'm a mom of three and soon to be an empty nester. I'm also a certified HR pro who restarted my career after being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade. I created this podcast to connect with moms who have an empty nest on the horizon and are wanting to redefine their identity outside of motherhood, which might include a job search. On this show, we'll have raw conversations about our ever-changing roles as moms. We'll hear from women who restarted their careers and share tips for a job search after a career break. So if that's you, you're in the right place. Friend, let's get started. Hi, friends, and welcome to this week's episode of Her Next Chapters.

Christina:

Today I have kind of a fun story to tell, and I mentioned this on an earlier episode, so if you'd listened to it, you know, a week or two ago, you might have had a little teaser about this, and what the story is is kind of how I I don't know this sounds a little overstated, but how I stepped into my power and maybe found some of my confidence and power that I normally would shy away from. So the story it's with our I'm not going to name the which vehicle, but with one of our cars it's an SUV. I'll say that because and the reason I don't want to name the vehicle is because the dealership in the end did right by me, um, because I owned my power and kind of held them to what they needed to do. So I'm not going to name it, but it's our SUV. And the backstory, to set things up, is that last summer the air conditioning went out. It was intermittent, it was cold, then it was hot, then it was cold and hot. It was just inconsistent. And we live in Colorado and in the summers it can get pretty hot and uncomfortable when it's 90 degrees outside and there's no air conditioning. So it's something we really needed to get addressed.

Christina:

So we took it in, got it fixed, paid like $1,600 for this repair. But the problem is when we went to pick it up we saw that someone had ran into our car. The whole passenger side, from the front light all the way through the passenger mirror, was all scraped up. White paint on a dark blue car. Everything was all scraped up. And that happened while it was there. They didn't even tell us about it. They didn't know, at least the people that we were picking the car up from, didn't know that that had happened. We're the ones who figured that out and thankfully they did have video that showed that our vehicle came in undamaged and that we picked it up with all this damage. So, long story short, they kept the vehicle and I think they had it for about it about a good six weeks, because they had to do bodywork the to fix all the damage that had been done.

Christina:

And, of course, when we picked it up in October, it's not so hot out anymore. So does the air conditioning that we paid $1,600 for work, who knows? And so we asked that question like what happens if it's, you know, if the problem is still there, if it's still intermittently cold and not all the time? Oh, don't worry, don't worry, they told us. You've got a two-year warranty on the work that we've done. So if you find out come summer next year that the AC doesn't work, you just bring it back and we'll fix it.

Christina:

And in the meantime, your radiator needs to be replaced, and here's the estimate for it. And it's really, you know, unsafe for you to drive this vehicle without getting the radiator fixed. We encourage you to get that done now. A nd we have a local mechanic who does most of our work for us. He just doesn't do air conditioning work. So we said no thank you, we'll go ahead and take it to our local mechanic. And I apologize for the length of all of this, but it's just setting up what's to come. So we did take the vehicle to our local mechanic and he's like yeah, I don't see anything wrong with your radiator, it looks fine to me. And of course, we didn't see any leak either. So that was part of why we resisted the, I was going to say treatment. It sounds like a medical treatment, but we resisted getting it fixed because we just didn't see that it was a problem. And then, of course, we got that confirmed from our local mechanic that, yeah, your radiator looks fine to me.

Christina:

So fast forward. Totally forgotten about the radiator, forgotten about the AC. We get through the whole winter and of course we're not using air conditioning in Colorado in the wintertime. But come, this must have happened April or May timeframe, like it was starting to warm up and I noticed like, oh shoot, the AC is not coming on when I need it to. And then I noticed it was coming on intermittently, sometimes cold, sometimes blowing hot.

Christina:

Normally my husband, John, would take care of all of this. But since I'm the one with a flexible schedule, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a career coach and my schedule has a lot more flexibility in it than his does and I'm like you know what? I don't need to tell John about this, I just need to call the dealership and make an appointment. So I did and I don't know about you listeners but a lot of things in our household are kind of I don't want to say gender, but they kind of are. I manage more things in the house and John manages more things out of the house, like the yard and the cars, and I manage the laundry and we both do cooking, but I do like, more of the cooking. So those are kind of some traditional lines that just we've kind of fallen into over the years. We've been married 27 years now and anyway the cars are usually John's thing, but this past year I've made the purchase of two of our cars, one for our son who turned 18, and a car for John and I.

Christina:

Last year I actually did all that negotiation on my own, so maybe I went into this air conditioning fix with like you know what I can do cars. I don't have to rely on John to do cars, and he's really busy with his work, so I'm going to take care of this. So I scheduled the appointment, took it in and when they let me know later that day, oh, the cost is going to be $1,700. And I'm like what? No, this is guaranteed work. We had it done last, you know last summer. They wanted to know if I had a warranty on the vehicle. And I'm like well, no, your work is warranted from last year. And what really threw me, what really like got me fired up, was, so there is a technician or a person, a customer service rep, who is texting me back and forth and I'm telling him no, this work is covered.

Christina:

And then this, the guy that helped us last fall. He chimes in "Mrs Cole, let me see if I can explain this to you in a way that you will understand. And as I read that, I was so mad I didn't even read the next line. I threw down the phone, said some expletive words that my daughter was in the room with me. My daughter is she's 21 at the time, but she doesn't usually hear her mom cuss. But I was just so mad that this here's this man telling me how, let me explain so that you can understand in a way that you could understand it. And this was, oh, it just fired me up. I Because number one, I'm not stupid, but that was the way that the message read. And he's trying to explain to me how all the different components of air conditioning and that what we had done last fall is not the same thing to be done now. And the cost is $1,700. And I tell him the work is not authorized, do not begin.

Christina:

And I decided you know what, I'm not going to have them do the work because something is fishy here. We had the radiator issue. That wasn't an issue. We've been driving this vehicle all winter long, no problems with the radiator. But yet they were adamant we had to get it fixed. Or we would damage our vehicle and put ourselves at risk. And that was a lie. It was an untruth. And we paid $1,600 to fix the AC. Well, if the AC is still broken and having the same exact problem that we took it in for and already paid for what's going on here? So I'm like you know what, forget it, I will take it somewhere else.

Christina:

So I went in to pick up my vehicle and I brought all my paperwork with me that showed the things about the radiator, showed what we paid for last year, and I also brought my second set of keys with me and my daughter with me, because I need someone to drive me there. And I asked my daughter do you want to come in or do you want to wait in your car until I'm ready to go? And she's like oh heck, no, I'm coming in, I want to see this. I'm like, all right then. And I'm so nervous because I'm going to be probably confronting these people and if they don't give me my car, I'm just going to leave that set of keys behind and go get my car and drive away and deal with whatever they think I owe them later. But I wasn't going to let them hold my car hostage. I already had that plan. I scoped it out when we pulled up. I'm like, oh, there it is, I see it If there's conflict and I just need to leave, I'll drive my vehicle.

Christina:

So, sure enough, we go in and wait and then finally get to the person who's helping me and they put out the paperwork and say, yep, that'll be $199. I'm like, no, it will not. And actually what I said was something more like no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I need to speak to your manager. And he's like, well, that's what we charge for the diagnostics. I'm like, no, this was under warranty. There should not have been a charge for you guys to fix what you didn't fix the first time. So he disappears, talks to the manager for a good five it seemed like 10, 15 minutes, it was probably five. He tells the manager everything that's going on, and my daughter, Abby, and I are ushered into the manager's office and we sit down.

Christina:

Manager comes in, stays standing and it didn't dawn on me until later that he was still standing while I was sitting and starts to tell me about how air conditioners work. And I said, well, hang on a second, Before you tell me the ins and outs of how air conditioners work, let me tell you a story. And so I proceeded to tell him how we came in the year before to get our air conditioner fixed and then we were told then that if there was any problems in the summer, to come back and that it would be fixed and that it was under warranty. And then I told him about the crash, about how, when we picked up our vehicle, someone had ran into it while I was in their care, and he's like, oh yeah, yeah, I remember that situation very clearly and we talked about that component of the crash and I took a breath and I was ready to tell him the next thing.

Christina:

When he started telling me all the different things that go into making an air conditioner work, he was definitely mansplaining and I stood up because at this point I realized he's standing and I'm sitting. So I stood up and I said let me finish, I wasn't done. And then I proceeded to tell him about the radiator and all the things around that. Once he heard the radiator story and I had the paperwork to show him because I brought it with me, I was prepared. He totally about-face an . He did explain all the different ways that an air conditioner could work, you know, letting me know that it's not just one thing, there's, like you know, 15 different components. He offered to do the work at their expense. So no charge for the labor, no charge for any parts, and do the work for what they identified here this spring, and do all of that work at no cost.

Christina:

And if that didn't fix the air conditioning problem, it meant there was some other problem and then I would be on my own to get that fixed. That was his goodwill gesture, and so at first I was like, well, let me check with my husband. And I'm like, I don't need to check with my husband, yes, go ahead and fix my vehicle. And so we did. And the thing is I was so nervous about all of that. Everybody who works there is a man right, the entire shop, the customer service reps, the manager, everybody who works there is a man. And it's me and Abby and me saying my truth, like this is what's going on and I'm not going to let you take advantage of me.

Christina:

So we left my car there and, as we're driving away, I texted my husband and I'm not sure if this is well and again, I don't cuss, I'm not, I'm not one who cusses, but I texted him something to the effect of your wife is a badass. And then the next text was "ask me about the car dealership and what happened. And even though I was scared, I was nervous because nobody likes confrontation, or at least I don't. I was nervous to do that and walking into it knowing that there'd probably be a confrontation. But I did it and held my ground and stood up to someone who was standing over me and interrupting me and mansplaining me. And my daughter is in the chair next to me just watching this whole thing. She got to witness her mom advocating very strongly in a difficult situation and getting $1,700 worth of work done at no cost. And the good news is it's now the end of July and our air conditioning works beautifully. So it did solve the problem.

Christina:

And and yeah, I'm really proud of that because Christina from a few years ago just would have handed the baton over to John and said just take care of it, I don't want to deal with these people Just take care of it. And again, that's just been the male-female patterns, if you will, that we've fallen into, that he handles the cars, I handle the laundry, for example, for example. But I'm like, no, I can do this, I don't have to have an XY gene to do this. So it's been really kind of a neat growth thing for me in my 50s, growing and feeling more empowered. And I'll tell you, I think my husband I know he was really proud of me for managing and handling all of that and it turned out perfectly the best that it could have. So that's my story, about standing in my power in a male-dominated world and winning and being an example and role model for my daughter. Anyway, that's my story.

Christina:

I hope that it's, I don't know, insightful or maybe just helps you get to know me a little better. And if you do know me, I'm pretty mild-mannered. It takes a lot to get me riled up and you know, get me riled up and fired up like that. So that was kind of a big deal. So I hope it offers you encouragement that you can do it too. You are powerful and you have the ability to do things that are uncomfortable, out of your comfort zone and stretch a little bit. Go, do that hard thing and I promise once you've done it, you're going to feel great.

Christina:

Oh, one last thing. If the hard thing that you're going to be doing is restarting your career after being on a career break maybe you've been a stay-at-home mom for a long time, or maybe you're taking care of your parents, or you've had a health challenge or for whatever reason that you've been out of the workplace for a while and your hard thing is going back to work and you would like support and help in that endeavor. You don't have to do it alone, friends. That is my specialty and what I help my clients with. I help women returning to work. I help them get clarity on what it is they want to do, what their superpowers are, their transferable skills. I help them with their career gap, job search. So all those tactical things of your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, your networking, activating your network and, of course, interviewing and offer negotiations All of that is packaged into my coaching for the Career Comeback Coaching Program and you don't have to do it alone. I would be honored to help you on that journey.

Christina:

If you are interested in this, I do have some openings left in August for one-on-one coaching. Reach out to me at Christina at hernextchapterscom. You can also direct send me a direct message on LinkedIn, and both of those locations are in the show notes, so just jump onto those Either. Either place is a great, is a good place to reach me and let's chat and see if I can help you do the hard thing and stand in your power and do something that your kids, especially your daughters, that your kids will be proud of and that you'll be proud of. All right, Well, that's everything for this week. Have a great week, friends. I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now. Thank you so much for listening today. I hope this episode hit home for you and, if you haven't already, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn and say hello so I can personally thank you for listening. Until next time. Remember, your story is uniquely your own, and your next chapters are ready to begin.