February 2022 by Christine C.
I had a very unpleasant experience with the owner/manager of this shop, Pedro and his worker Mario. This is what happened. I have an older car with 250K miles that needed tires. I was reluctant to spend top dollar for tires, not knowing how much longer the car will last so I shopped around for the best tire price in Santa Cruz. Pedro at West Bay Tires gave me the most competitive quote. I made an appointment to come in the following day to have 4 new tires put on my car. When I showed up, around 9:30 in the morning, Mario greeted me. Pedro was no where in sight, which I only realized later, after the trouble started. When I asked Mario how long it would take to put 4 tires on the car he told me 30 minutes, which was a very pleasant surprise. Pedro had told me the day before it would take 40 minutes and I am used to waiting longer for the same job at other companies in town. In any case, I decided to walk my dog around the neighborhood to kill the time. As I was leaving, a woman pulled up but I didn't take much notice, assuming she was another customer. As it turns out, she was not. When I returned, 30 minutes later my car was still on the rack with the 4 tires removed. The woman was still there and Mario told me he needed more time--to come back in another 30 minutes. I wasn't happy about it but I just told him OK, please do a good job and went off for yet another walk in the neighborhood. As I was returning about 35 minutes later, the woman in the car saw me and drove off very quickly. My car was still on the rack with no tires on it. Mario looked stressed. He told me to come back in another 30 minutes. At that point, I became annoyed and told him I wish I had known that in the first place as I would have done something else with my time. He became very agitated, telling me, "This is a 2 hour job and I'm here all by myself!" Since I was the only customer there didn't seem to be a reason for his stress but at that point he picked up the phone and apparently called his boss. I heard him telling his boss I was screaming at him, which was untrue. A minute later my cell phone rang and it was his boss, Pedro. He began yelling at me, saying, "You cannot scream at my employees! I will not put up with that, it's very rude. You can never come back to this shop again!" I was shocked, really. When he paused for breath I tried to tell him I never scream at anyone, then asked him, "where are you?" He responded, "I come in when I feel like it." Apparently he has another shop in Watsonville. *Note: I'm fairly certain that if he had been there none of this would have happened. When the job was finally done, about an hour, 45 minutes later (which is probably standard time to put on 4 new tires), I asked Mario why he lied to his boss-- telling him I had screamed at him. He looked embarrassed, then said something like, "that woman who was here said you were rude to me because I'm Mexican." He played the race card on me, which was the final straw. Note: I'm white and have tutored for the local literacy program as a volunteer and have spent many years in Mexico--I have a real appreciation for the culture. His comment disgusted me. If you're shopping for the best price on tires in SCz and don't mind being treated with rudeness and hostility then Pedro is your guy. For me, I was reminded of that old adage, "you get what you pay for." Next time I'll go to a more reputable company, even if I have to pay a little more. That being said, he probably won't be in business at that location much longer. I live close by and people in my neighborhood don't appreciate being treated this way.
