845 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, CA 94040
So I managed to make it a half-mile to Mountain View Auto Repair. Upon arrival I waved to the mechanic and he came to my window. That was a mistake on my part. He first noticed the crack on my windshield (which I plan to replace in December). THen he peeked inside my window as I was describing to him my issues, and he saw lots of "stuff" . Yes, I have lots of stuff in my car.
It's not a fancy Tesla. It's not perfect, but it's actually in pretty good condition and I have been doing a lot of upkeep on it (recently replaced shocks, struts, sway bar links; last year replaced the rack & pinion; also mass air flow sensor; starter; front hub bearings; and the list goes on). But this Asian guy had already made a negative judgment about me. (despite already over the phone he said he could do a diagnosis and that it would cost $120 . I said no problem).
I may not look wealthy but I have enough to cover ALL my bills and any emergency repairs, etc ). At the end of re-explaining my issues (I pulled the ECU fuse last week to reset the CEL to get it ready for smog and this actually caused some new problems. I thought it was going through the re-learning process but it was taking too long; and now stalling; even though it was running perfect before I pulled the fuse).
Anyways, it was become increasingly clear that he was NOT really listening. I finally said "Is this something you can do?" He responded with condescension and arrogance "Yes, it is but not with this car" . What ? "Not with this car" . This is not a foreign-only shop. He's worked on it before. I have money to pay. IT was clearly PLAIN OLD-FASHIONED PREJUDICE combined with Asian supremacy (this is an Asian-American shop). He wasn't even hiding it. He was plainly telling me he wouldn't help me, just because of some sort of negative judgment he had made in his mind about me.
The only problem is that it is ILLEGAL to refuse to do business with a person based on skin color among other things. "The Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that no business (public or private) serving the public can discriminate based on a customer's national origin, sex, religion, color or race."
IT's infuriating when we get treated negatively by people of so-called "minority" race after all we have done to try to welcome ethnic people. And did I already say, Illegal ? I will report this to the appropriate state and/or federal agency. Shame on you
