Woman shares her comeback to mechanic who sent unsolicited texts after fixing her car

She explained the panic she felt when she received the message 

Chelsea Ritschel
Thursday 24 January 2019 22:39 GMT
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Woman's response to car mechanic goes viral (Stock)
Woman's response to car mechanic goes viral (Stock)

A woman's response to an unsolicited text from a car maintenance shop employee has gone viral after she explained why the man's behaviour was inappropriate and unwelcome.

Screenshots of the exchange were shared to the Instagram account Girl Boss and on Twitter by the woman’s sister, where she wrote: “My sister got creeped on and sexually harassed by a Jiffy Lube guy via text from his personal phone and…”

The conversation begins with the man, who found the customer’s number in her file at Jiffy Lube, writing: “You are gorgeous” before identifying himself as “your favourite oil change guy.”

After confirming he was from the mechanic shop she frequents, the man then said: “I couldn’t help but to let you know,” at which point the woman responds with a lengthy text message explaining why it is a “teachable moment” for the employee.

In addition to calling the “compliment” “completely unnecessary and unsolicited,” the woman informs the man of the inappropriateness of his actions considering he is a service provider and she is a customer.

She then references the fact that she spoke of her husband during her visit to the car maintenance shop - which should have been taken as a clear sign she is not interested.

“So it can be assumed that I am not interested in any compliments/advances from you,” she wrote.

The unidentified woman also expresses the panic she felt over receiving the text from the employee because of the safety and privacy issues it raises.

She wrote: “I have other personal information, like my address, saved there as well. It is a violation of my privacy for you to contact me from your personal phone with information that you got without my permission.

“There are men who stalk, rape, and murder women by getting their information this way. For this reason, I assumed there is a Jiffy Lube company policy that you are to never contact a patron on your personal cell phone for personal reasons.”

The woman concluded her message explaining that she is now in a predicament, as she can either find a new place to service her car and ignore the privacy violation, or she can report the employee to the company’s human resources department.

“Generally I am not in the business of ruining someone’s livelihood over something as simple as this, but it is very important to me that you understand why it was completely inappropriate for you to contact me, or any other woman, without explicit consent,” she wrote, before reminding the employee that he’d forgotten to tell her the tire pressure on her rear tire - and is “not even in my top five favourite oil change guys.”

The woman’s response has since gone viral and received more than 112,000 likes on Twitter.

“This is ridiculous, so creepy. Good for her,” one person wrote.

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Another said: “So poised and articulate, this woman is impressive.”

In addition to praising the woman’s response, the messages have also prompted other women to share their own experiences dealing with inappropriate behaviour from service providers.

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