A woman says that a car salesman at a BMW dealership made chauvinistic remarks to her as she tried to purchase a car, so she decided to let someone else earn commission on the sale.
The customer posted about the incident to TikTok under the handle @nevertooearlyforwine, and the post received over 226,000 views.
In the short clip, the customer sits in her car with a text overlay that explains the situation.
“Walked in to the dealership and the male car salesman made 3 chauvinistic comments during my first visit,” the woman recounts. However, she adds that she had a plan to teach this man a lesson.
“So… I contacted a female salesperson at the same dealership and gave her the business instead,” said the customer as the video cuts to her in the dealership lot with a female employee, who looks happy to be making a sale.
“You work on commission right? Big mistake. Huge,” read the caption, referencing a famous line of dialogue from the movie Pretty Woman.
This experience isn’t an anomaly
Women are routinely ignored, or spoken down to when trying to conduct business in the retail car market. In fact, research conducted for a 1991 study published in the Harvard Law Review found that “retail car dealerships systematically offered substantially better prices on identical cars to white men than they did to blacks and women.”
However, as demonstrated by TikToker @nevertooearlyforwine, who took her business to a female salesperson, today’s customers have come up with various ways to combat discrimination at the dealership
Viewers resonate with her experience
A number of users in the comments section shared similar instances of disrespect that they endured from male sales associates. They also recounted how they then took their business elsewhere.
“I did the exact same thing when I bought my car! The salesman kept talking directly to my fiancé instead of me. I left and called a saleswoman and bought from her the same day,” wrote one user.
@nevertooearlyforwine You work on commision right? Big mistake. Huge. #womenownedbusiness #womensupportingwomen #bmw #momsoftiktok #dreamcar ♬ original sound – Lilly Bremer💋
“Same,” replied @nevertooearlyforwine, adding, “And would you believe today in finance I got another dude assuming my husband did the negotiating?! Literally everything was in my name and I made the down payment from MY business account.”
“THISSS. I went to buy a 5.0 Mustang GT and the guy said to me “you’ll trade it in when you’re gonna have kids”. Like excuse you?” recounted another.
“I did the same thing! After like ten minutes of him talking to my husband I was like ‘is there a woman here I can talk to?’” shared yet another female car customer.
The Daily Dot reached out to @nevertooearlyforwine via TikTok direct message for further information.
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