Woman calls her father and gets 66% discount on the R$ 38,400 budget of her Land Rover

An account published on TikTok reignited the discussion about unequal treatment of women in workshops and dealerships. Ashlee, a Texas resident who signs the @findingashlee profile, claims to have received a budget of US$ 7,500 (about R$ 38,400) to change a part of her 2013 Range Rover.

Suspicious of the amount, she asked her father to call the same dealership and ask how much exactly the same service would cost — this time talking to another attendant. The price reported to him was US$ 2,500, approximately R$ 12,800, a difference of 66%. When she took the disagreement to the counter, the establishment ended up accepting the lower amount, says the driver.

The case, according to her, occurred about two years ago at a Land Rover dealership in Austin, Texas. The utility vehicle then had close to 160 thousand km on the clock and was taken to the workshop because of a small oil leak. The initial budget referred to the replacement of a pump.

Ashlee makes a point of saying that she is not a layman: she says that her father owned dealerships for 52 years and that she herself rebuilt the engine of her first car, a 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, at the age of 12. It is what makes more bitter, in her account, the phrase she would have heard from the general manager when she went to complain in person: “Honey, why don’t you call your dad? He can explain to you how cars work.”

She then filed a complaint with Jaguar Land Rover North America, the manufacturer’s arm in the United States. As compensation, he received a credit of US$ 1,000 (about R$ 5,100) to spend at the dealership itself and opted for a set of four new tires. Shortly after, the Range Rover began to shake in the steering, and one of the wheels lost pressure recurrently.

New tire, old rubber

In an inspection carried out at the Discount Tire chain, technicians pointed out two tires as unsafe: one had a bubble on the side, and another had the tread detaching to the point of exposing the internal metal belts. The DOT code check also indicated a tire manufactured four years before the sale.

The utility has not publicly commented on the allegations, and none of the allegations have been independently verified. The publication, even so, attracted similar reports from other consumers, who described different charges for the same service depending on who sought the service counter.