About four years ago, I was in the market to purchase a new car…I had done all my research, narrowed down the choice, educated myself about the pricing and leverage for negotiations and launched on the car-buying trip.

There were no surprises when I pulled onto the lot…I received plenty of attention, smiling salespeople greetings, and finally settled on one guy that appeared to be “in rotation”. He was very thoughtful and started giving me the script I’m certain he had recited numerous times, but before he could get too far into it, I politely stopped him, told him what I wanted and he responded quickly by arranging a test-drive.

All seemed to be going well until time to talk price…I told him what I was going to put down, what the payments should be and ultimately the absolute price I would settle for. He was consistently reluctant and said he really couldn’t meet my request…I finally said, “hey, I don’t have to buy this car…conversation is over”. He then offered for me to speak with another salesperson, I agreed, and the conversation was very similar…I too told him I would be leaving and if they could meet my terms, give me a call. Sure enough they did.

I went in the next day and it was agreed they were going to work with me…then came the question that caused me to “react” rather sternly…”Do you need to call your husband?”. I abruptly responded and said, “no, I do not need to call my husband, this is my deal and I don’t appreciate you assuming it was otherwise”. When I filled out their post survey, I also reflected this as a dis-satisfier for customer service.

As progressive as our society has become, I can tell you as a female executive in a still-prevalent male-dominated field, I have to put a little extra effort in daily to break the barriers that I’m certain my male counterparts do not even have to consider. Oh well, I’m tough, a big girl, and can take care of myself…in fact, I have colleagues who say…”you know, Wanda seems really nice, but don’t piss her off!” Hehe.