Have your scheduler suggest to the customer that her husband should be at the sales pitch appointment. Then go the extra mile and keep pushing the point.


Me (on phone): I want to have someone come and do an estimate for a bathroom refitting.

Scheduler (after getting the pertinent information): We'd like to schedule a time when both you and your husband will be home.

Me: That's not necessary.

Scheduler: We really do encourage it. You'll need to get his opinion on what you're having done...

Me (Laughing, interrupting): It's my bathroom.

Scheduler: ...But it's good to have him there while we go over pricing and financing...

Me (interrupting again, not laughing): It's my bathroom.

Scheduler: ...well, he might have some questions that you don't think of, it's good to have him on hand...

Me (interrupting again): No, trust me, it's not.

Scheduler: ...well, OK, but we really do recommend couples are there together...


I swear, I felt like they were going to refuse to schedule an appointment with me if he wasn't there. What, if I were a single woman, would they have said I have to have my daddy there? I mean I can see it can waste a salesperson's time to present to one person only to have them say later "My spouse needs to see the presentation," but I think I clarified things early on. I really didn't feel like getting into "I'm paying for it, my husband has the home repair skills of a rabbit, and this project is entirely my decision and responsibility." Why do I have to justify all this to a phone rep?!

I get this all the time too. And with us, it's seriously not an option because we are both going in several different directions at the same time.

To give the schedulers credit, they've called and talked to Dan and said that he "couldn't" set up an appt that would exclude me. I think what they are really worried about is that they'll schedule the appt, talk to one spouse, and have them say "well, I really need to discuss this with my wife/husband" and then lose the sale once they've had time to think about it.

Not always the case, however.

I'm sure that's their worry, but if I've said it's not an issue, have some respect for me and assume it's not an issue already.

Agree completely. It's like the guy who was selling me a car and wouldn't let me do it without bringing in my husband.

It's MY car. It's MY bank account. It's MY decision. And guess what, if you won't respect that, I'll go elsewhere.

My coworker just told me about the independent shoe store where she used to shop. She has size 11 AAA feet. (Yes. Really.) 20 years ago she noticed this store had store credit cards and so she asked for an application. It asked for her name, her husband's name, her husband's employer info, her husband's income info, her husband's SSN... nothing from her other than her name. And this was only 20 years ago!!!! (Store's not in business any more BTW)

This is seriously why I won't buy a Honda. I don't want to deal with the local service place after how they treated me when I was a young adult.

Beside the fact that I paid for a repair that made my car worse, and I went in to have it fixed a zillion times before I finally just got rid of the car to stop dealing with the problems...

It was eventually leaking a ton of oil. I was taught by friends and family how to check the dipstick, how to add oil, etc. I was doing fine with it, as evidenced by the 1-2 quarts of oil I was putting in per day. They claimed the oil leaking out was oil I was spilling... but that wouldn't explain how checking the dipstick (regardless of who was checking it) was showing there was little or no oil in the car, and that the car was seizing when I was driving it.

I went to a full-service station right before taking the car to the dealer for the zillionth time. The kid (who was even younger than I) was distracted, and filled my oil, sticking my dipstick part way in and slamming the hood down. When Honda opened the hood, they saw the bent dipstick, and decided I needed a lesson on how to check the oil level.

I was livid, and the guy literally grabbed my hand and dragged me outside to show me how to do it.

I bought a new Volkswagen that week and never looked back.

Pissing off females and treating them as if they are incompetent is a very stupid move when you are in any kind of service industry. Especially since we like to share our anger, and because we never forget this stuff

I hope they don't give you any crap when they come, MJ. If they do, I have a strong feeling you'll be someone else's customer

Yeah, when I got off the phone I said to myself "That's one." One strike means you're definitely not the only company I'm going to talk to; two strikes mean unless you have an amazing price or features the other guy just doesn't have, I'm probably not going with you. Three strikes means you can't *give* me your product. A plumber lost my business for good that way.

Question:

Did you tell the rep, or possibly someone higher up, that you were disturbed by this behavior, and why?

It's great to say that you won't give someone your business for treating you like an appendage to the nearest male in your life, but it doesn't do us any good if they don't KNOW that's why they're losing your business.

I'm waiting until I get the estimate next week. I'll let them know either way.

mjfrombuffalo Wrote:Scheduler: ...well, he might have some questions that you don't think of, it's good to have him on hand...

Hubby's response when I got to this part of the story was "Yeah, I'd have had a question. I'd ask 'Why did I have to be here?'"

:laugh:

That's a quote my husband could have made!