East Bay Tow

I have to say, my insurance company called them to rescue me on a rainy evening right after the Giants game ended. I got stuck with an overheated clutch on the ramp eastbound on the Bay Bridge. Long story short, Jay was extremely patient with me, explained to me why and how insurance companies work and needless to say, everything that happened now finally makes sense. He came to my rescue 15 minutes late due to my insurance company’s roadside assistance problem– they gave him Caltran’s office in Oakland, not the Bay Bridge as my address. He was very patient with me giving him instructions and navigating through San Francisco. Honestly, he was the sweetest guy you could ask for to give you a ride home at 8pm on a Saturday night.

rude, unreliable, horrible experience. dispatch said someone will call me back in 20 min. which never came.

Nobody LIKES Town trucks — — -UNTIL YOU NEED ONE
And, It always cost money. …, in our case it happens when our service vehicles are down.
I found this company Over and Over very reliable and competent in towing our mid and heavy duty trucks and vans to the mechanic Right Away.
Very reliable! Highly Recommended!

1 star, 0 Stars. Towing my son’s car illegally, using extortion and threatening to sell the car. No notice, no letter, no warning (mind you, the car was parked legally and has a parking permit that enables my son to park near his home). So we get to round up the ridiculous amount of money, go to the bank, transfer to our son. He has to find a way to get to the car, pay that ridiculous fine to get his old car back. This is a financial hardship on all of us for an incident that should not have happened.

I wish I could give them 0 stars.
I had a horrible experience with this place. I did not directly choose to work with this company, my scooter was stolen but was found a day later by Albany police that used this place for towing service.
When I went to pick up my scooter, I was faced with a HUGE bill which included the towing cost that was four times more than a local company that I had used before for a distance less than a half a mile. The workers were extremely rude and unhelpful. After I paid my bill, the worker brought my scooter outside the gate and left it on the sidewalk (subject to parking violation). Their main concern is to charge/​RUB you.
Avoid this place, they are the real/​official thieves. They only try to suck you as much as they can.

This is one of those things I hate about Unilocal — people with an axe to grind. East Bay Tow has your car? That would be your fault, not theirs.
I’ve had to call these fine folks a couple of time because of a bad starter on my food truck. They totally rescued us in SF on a Friday afternoon during rush hour, when no one else would. They diagnosed the problem, showed us a short-​term work around and sent us on our way. And even though I was more than willing to give them my money to have them tow us to our weekend events, they suggested we may not need a tow and to play it by ear. Who does that? Honest people who care about their reputation and repeat business, that’s who.
Seriously top notch.

I work for a food truck that has been getting towed a lot lately. East Bay Tow are more than saviors, they are honest people.
I genuinely enjoy my conversations with the dispatcher and with one of the drivers named Carlos. They are incredibly sympathetic and sincere. Carlos was even troubleshooting and gave us advice that the mechanic later confirmed. Wow. I would never expect that out of a towing company. Now we call East Bay every time and are never disappointed.

My original review got flagged and taken down. Like that makes it any less pertinent and true. I know that you usually can’t choose who you get towed by. However, if you are a company that is going to contract to use this company as your towing enterprise, I would highly suggest not to use their services. They are a lawsuit waiting to happen. Their tow truck driver is one of the biggest men that I have ever seen and likes to use this to what I’m sure he thinks is his advantage by bullying people around. It has been my unfortunate experience to see him on the brink of violence, close to shoving someone less than half his size around. I (at 7 months pregnant) had to get in between the two and would not have been surprised if he struck at me. Instead he resorted to throwing water, chest butting, and getting right up in your face and yelling, because we couldn’t hear him from two feet away. He was that unstable over a situation that arose because he couldn’t drive out of an overly crowded parking lot and would have had to wait an extra five minutes.
Full disclosure, this happened in 2010.

This review is über late!
My girl and I were stuck in Tilden Park, several weeks ago… and this towing company was AWESOME! Great rates-​and awesome service!

I am the owner of a local truck-​based business, and these guys have gotten me out of many a scrape.
Jay and his team could not be more professional or accommodating. They are communicative on the back end, quick to pick up, and judgement-​free. Better yet, on more than one occasion Jay has been able to find a shop to repair our vehicle and keep us on the road when I had lost all hope of getting the truck back same day.
Can’t recommend these guys enough, especially when you’re in a pinch.
(To the Unilocalers here who had their cars towed — please don’t forget that East Bay Tow has a contract with the city, and they are just doing their jobs. If you have a complaint about your car being towed, the city parking authority is the place to lodge that complaint. Personal attacks on the towing company are inappropriate and damaging.)

Having your car towed is never a pleasant experience. I was near tears when I called and the nice person who answered the phone calmed me down. It is awfully confusing what needed to be done and in my state I could barely process the information. He explained to me clearly what needed to be done. After obtaining a release form, I finally got my car back. They offered me water when I arrived and overall were very pleasant. They seemed very understanding of my situation and they took care of it quickly and easily.

What an awesome towing company! When my car broke down, I didn’t hesitate to call them knowing they would take care of my car. Unlike City Tow which damages your car when they tow it. My tow truck driver was professional, down to earth and made it easy to feel reassured that they would take care of me and my car. I’m not sure why they’re getting all the bad reviews. I highly recommend East Bay Tow. They fixed my car and did not charge me an arm and a leg. Jay the owner guy is super nice.

I wish I can give this place 0 stars if Unilocal allowed me to.
I have had absolutely the WORST experience with this institution. Their workers are UNNECESSARILY RUDE, INCOMPETENT, AND UNHELPFUL. Their office operates with just one person, and the call center is located separately from the actual location so that if you just go to the location, you will not be able to retrieve your vehicle until you make a call, which gets forwarded to someone remotely who comes to open the gate.
I had been in contact with the manager, but when I actually went to retrieve the car, the call center guy was separate and didn’t know my situation at all. When I asked to speak to someone else, he was rude, telling me that he lives in Santa Ana, there’s noone else that will talk to me, and that he wouldn’t send anyone to open the gate for me no matter what paperwork I brought. When I asked who the voices were I heard, he unnecessarily taunted me saying he’s watching a TV movie, explaining the plot, the characters… UNNECESSARY. AND FCKING RUDE.
THIS PLACE HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE. I’VE NEVER COME ACROSS SUCH AN INSTITUTION THAT OPERATES WITH SUCH LOW LEVEL OF COMPETENCY. AVOID THIS PLACE WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT. WORST SERVICE EVER. THEY WILL ONLY TRY TO SUCK YOU DRY. A CAR I COULD HAVE HAD WITHIN 24 HOURS WAS HELD HERE FOR 72 HRS. THIS PLACE WAS ABSOLUTELY THE WORST EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD DEALING WITH ANY KIND OF AUTO SERVICE, INCLUDING THE DMV. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

All the 5-​stars here are obviously shill accounts. That’s obvious right? This company probably has to struggle to keep from having a 1-​star rating.
So, a tow from them costs $ 240.
They charge $ 80 a day.
If your vehicle is brought in at 11:30pm, they charge $ 80 for that day. If you check out your vehicle the next day at 8:30, they charge $ 80 for that day.
With a cool head and calm mind, I say now that i don’t think anyone in their right mind wouldn’t call $ 400 for a tow and an overnight stay some kind of horrible price gouge.
They get away with this because they have a pact with the Albany police department. Their income comes from cops, and, I don’t say this lightly, I truly believe they offer some kickbacks to those officers that bring them business.
There you go.
Do not use.

Wow I had probably the most awfully memorable experience of my life here! Car was towed for parking related reasons, my fault :-(, but the guy on the phone made the experience much much worse. Did I get a lemon employee or was the dude just having a bad night or actually high-​on-​drugs?
1.) Celly had bad receiption for a minute and I had to ask him to repeat things. He accused me of faking and making up things with my phone, and of laughing at him when I sincerely wasn’t. Accused me of lying twice, and finally yelled «go f**king use a pay phone» and hung up on me twice. Wow! 2.) There was an $ 80 fee for late night pickups which he failed to tell me about. It would actually have been cheaper if I had picked it up in the morning. Of course I didn’t find out until I arrived.
3.) They were late meeting us outside their complex — so my friend and I thought they weren’t coming and worried. When I finally saw a car pull up 30 steps away, I ran over and waved, not sure if it was them. He then prompted to shoot bullying orders around like some sort of a Prison Inmate and him as a quasi Prison-​Guard. Actually yelling aggressively «Step back, Dont move». «Dont talk!» when I tried to make genuine conversation. «Only she is allowed inside, you are not,» shutting my friend out. «Do I make myself clear?» No «excuse me, Maam, please do this…» or any expected common courtesy of any kind. It was pretty dark and scary going into a place with fences and barbs at night time with very limited lighting. Keep in mind I am a congenial, genuinely friendly, law abiding lady and not threatening in any way or form.
At least the paperwork was efficient. I keep expecting he was going to throw a temper or threaten me with more charges! On the way out, again he yells repeatedly «I will open the gate, I will open the gate!!» No «excuse me maam,» etc, etc. Look, I get it if you are had a bad day or mad about something — but please dont take it out on the innocent customer! Maybe you use to work in Prison, or was even in Prison? But please remember you are not a cop, and this is a customer service situation!
I will remember this place, as I never had an experience so singularly ridiculous, and will never use their towing service — can you imagine how I would be treated as a customer in my time of need?

I drive a car with run flat tires and I had a blowout on the I-​80. Unfortunately I do not have a spare tire in my car so I called East Bay Tow because they were close by. The tow truck driver Carlos arrived in ten minutes! He was very polite and towed my car to the tire shop quickly and without damaging my car. The price was reasonable as well.

I am actually glad my car broke down so I could meet these awesome people.
I called and talked to Teresa who was courteous and offered me a good deal. This was a huge breath of fresh air after having AAA come out and say it was too big to tow and spending all morning talking to tow truck companies who couldn’t deal with my Step Van because it was too big or ones who would charge me an arm and a leg. She said they could be there in 45 minutes! I was thrilled.
Jay and John arrived and treated me like family. Jay went above and beyond the call of duty. He checked out my vehicle, crawling underneath and told me about a few minor repairs that were needed. He taught me about government regulations for driving a duel rear wheel truck that I didn’t know about, preventing possible future problems. He even told me where to go to get a healthcard required to drive my vehicle through states I would be driving through on my upcoming trip.
Jay is very very talkative and I was wishing I could listen faster because he was spewing out very helping information. I started taking notes.
I rode over in their very comfortable back seat (fancy tow truck). Jay opened the door for me and handed me my seat belt. Before we departed I heard Teresa over those device saying to make sure the passenger is wearing the seatbelt. Jay gave me a bottle of water. :)
John had no problem handling that tow truck with my huge 1967 Chevy Step Van (box truck) on the back. John has been driving tow trucks for over 20 years.
We got to the the auto repair shop, Jay talked to the owner of the shop about what he had done and seen when checking out my vehicle, and as icing on the cake offered me a ride home! They waited while I finished the paperwork.
Their shop was on the way and we stopped in dropped off Jay and I ran in to meet Teresa and then John switched trucks and gave me a ride home.
John is pretty quiet, polite and when he dropped me off at my house he even remembered the name of the girl who used to live in my apartment whose car he had towed once.
Being in a jam with a broken down vehicle my life was made better by people who care. thank you guys so much. My experience was so good I want to cry.

East Bay Tow is great. Carlos, their driver, appeared quickly after I called. He was conscientious about protecting my car and the cars around us. He was polite and professional too. The cost was very reasonable.

Okay, no one ever wants to get towed, but I have to say when I went with my daughter this afternoon to retrieve her car, the staff was helpful, pleasant and professional and even cut us some slack that they didn’t have to cut us.
To the very nice lady at the front desk – thank you! My daughter, like most 21-​year-​olds, loses every important piece of paper that gets put into her hands. You seemed to get that and didn’t make us jump through hoops because we didn’t have the yellow copy of the release sheet. You didn’t have to do that, and we appreciate it.

Under no circumstances should anyone I ever care about ever have to find themselves here. That I did was a combination of my own stupidity/​poverty and the intensely malicious nature of the Berkeley Meter Pods.
That said, poor Carlos was on duty last night, and I can only imagine what kind of abuse he has to take on a regular basis, from people who are thoroughly pissed off that their car’s been towed, disgusted and frightened by the amount of money it has turned out to cost them, and more than ready to take it all out on the nearest person who seems responsible (aka anyone but themselves).
I have a theory that people treat you like you treat them, for the most part, and I was determined to remember that Carlos was not actually the person who made my car get towed. He, in turn, rose to the occasion like the most gracious of shining knights. He handled me with calm gentleness and patience, and brought my little classic baby out on a forklift with the greatest of care. East Bay Tow? Probably no great shakes, but they have a gentleman working on Friday nights. Thank you, Carlos, for making a very painful experience as easy as possible. How did you know it was my first time?