El Pino Tires

Don't believe the bad reviews, they are just angry republicans who don't get their way. They are a great place.

I’m warning you all to NOT USE El Pino Tires located at 5015 N Lois Ave, Tampa, Fl. 33614. I almost got killed after having new tires put on my car 10 day later and $ 200 down the drain!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took my car to El Pino on 3/10/14 to get new tires and alignment, dropped car off in the AM so my husband shows up to pick up the car with the work we requested 15min till closing time only to find out that they had not completed the work.

We never heard a word from anyone all day about the status of my car, to find out that they put on new tires but stated they couldn’t do alignment because we needed new front wheel hub assembly, so my husband asks how much it will cost to get the hub assembly done and they only gave him a verbal quote of between $400-$500 depending on parts and labor.

My husband asked when it needed to be done and was told pretty soon as it affects the wheels but then told him he could come back and get it done and just to listen to see if we start hearing any noises to bring the car back in. So us being non-mechanic people we took their word for it and said we would be back to get the work done along with the alignment.

It wasn’t until I was driving home on 3/20/14 10 days later that I heard a really strange sounding noise like a grinding and sticking sound coming from the front of the car also I noticed the car wasn’t driving very well.

When I got home I pulled up to my house and decided to look under the front end to see if I could see anything and what I found completely blew me away!! ALL of the tread on the 2 front tires was COMPLETELY GONE and about have of the tire was actually down all the way to the metal sticking out of the tires!!!! Honestly I have never seen anything like it and neither did my mechanic nor Kaufman Tires when we took the car to them for repairs. They said those were the worst tires they had ever seen.

When I went back to take to the manager Roberto aka Rob he denied responsibility and said if we declined the work than it was our fault. I explained that he had told my husband it wasn’t that urgent and to come back and get the work done, he stated he never would have said that and they don’t do business that way, he said we got what we asked for tires mounted on the car and they wouldn’t be around for 34 yrs if they did business that way.

Well I’m here to tell you that this is the way they do business all they wanted to do was take our money, if they were such experts then they should know that 1) If a wheel hub assembly is bad it’s dangerous and it will wear out your tires 2) Without a proper alignment it’s dangerous and it will wear out your tires 3) Without first fixing both the hub assembly and alignment it’s pointless to get new tires

Anyone with a reputable establishment would have called us before we showed up to pick up the car and told us of the issues and that until we got the issues fixed the car was dangerous to drive and should NOT have sold us new tires knowing quite well that that it was a waste of money as the tires wouldn’t last.

El Pino Tires didn’t care about the safety of me and my family nor of anyone else I was driving on the road with, the tires were so bad both the mechanic and Kaufman’s tire said they were surprised they hadn’t blown out already and that I was very lucky as I drive across the bridge to St. Pete and back every day and could have gotten myself killed.

to do anything.

So please spread the word and boycott El Pino Tires because the only way they will change their ways is when it affects their pocketbook.

I'm sorry the previous person had a bad experience on the phone. I absolutely LOVE El Pino Tires and recommend them to anyone who asks for help with finding an auto mechanic or looking to buy tires. Their guys are friendly and honest and have never over charged us. We've taken our car in to get something fixed and if it doesn't need fixed or there's nothing wrong, they'll tell us. Their prices are the best I've seen and we will NEVER choose another mechanic or tire place while we're in Tampa.

DO NOT Call this guy. I called him asking him about getting my brake lines, of which I was interrupted to be told that he WILL NOT touch my car. I sounded surprised and asked him why and his reason was that "he will not be liable for it." Ok......if you're a tire place and you do more then tire repairs.....explain to me how you're not "liable" for all of the other s**t you do to the cars that come in and out of there. Something obviously happened in the past with another customer (which is not any fault of my own). Then the guy hung up on me after telling me that. Horrible customer service