Mountain Auto Service & Towing, Inc. in
Lake Arrowhead (CA)

Drove my car over a storm drain and ripped my front bumper off and damaged my suspension. Worst part is I had just replaced my suspension. When I called to complain they gaslit me and tried to make me feel bad and said they did me a favor cause they weren’t going to come to my location or some bullshit. In hindsight I should have filled a claim.

They were late twice got lost and then showed up late when they finally arrived, Fernando barely aknowledged me , I was waiting for a friends car to be towed , once Fernando got out of his truck he proceeded to bad mouth the cars owner saying he didn’t like him and that my friend was weird and got into the most odd situations and proceeded to complain about the owners driveway and was pretty dude to me considering he was overdue twice and to top it off he tried to weasel out of even doing the tow so I had to drive to the owners house so he could deal with him directly or his car would be left I towed . For the money he’s charging to tow a car one mile 150$ I’d be hiring a new driver

Called AAA and got assigned to this vendor. They won't call u back, they keep push the ETA up every hour. Waited more than 6 hours, I had to call a car repair shop local. This vendor should be take away from AAA. Even AAA cant reach them.

Used AAA since our car was leaking a concerning ominous liquid. We had Dan tow us, he was so polite and helpful! He even got the car in a better position to put it on the truck for us. Had great conversation, definitely made our stressful day better. I am extremely pleased with the service.

Stay far away from this shop! This repair shop sent me to their Crestline shop for my last repair, and I wish they never had. They damaged my car while repairing it at the Crestline shop. They said they would fix the damage, but then decided to deny that once they found out the cost of doing so. Besides being dishonest and shady, both of these shops have unskilled mechanics. After four repairs total at both shops, they still could not fix my check engine light issue. I will be taking action against them for the damage done to my car. Please spare yourself what I and many others have gone through and go to another shop.

I have had several towes from this company. Unfortunately the mountain is very hard on vehicles and these guys are always very busy. Each time they were quick and professional. In the times I have called there for information, they were very helpful, even giving me advice navigating my insurance claim. If you are paying out of pocket, the rates can be rather expensive, so I would recommend going through AAA or your insurer.

Long story short, do not use them (for towing or anything)- they are unreliable, and their customer service is garbage and they will argue with you and place the burden and blame on you because of their short staff/and vehicles. There is a very good reason why the overall rating is low for these guys. I called AAA to schedule for a future pickup, 4 days ago. AAA defaulted to these guys and they reassured that my vehicle will be picked up. I called up early the day of the schedule, just to confirm because I have not heard a thing from them and I was curious, and the lady on the other line was rude and unprofessional. She stated that there were no guarantees of any service, even if scheduled ahead of time for days, and I was out of luck! So, you are telling me, that with prior notice for days, they can’t assign a tow truck for this job which may take 45 minutes to complete since they are so limited? Wow. I asked why they even are associated with AAA if they cannot honor the service- the excuse was that they have limited tow trucks. Well- that is not the customer's fault. That is the company's problem, even if it is an emergency or when scheduling for days. So, if that is the case, again, why are they tied to AAA since AAA is an emergency towing service? So if a person is stranded etc- guess what? you are out of luck- sorry. At any case, I tried to explain this to the rude customer service person- I was talked over, she patronized me and made a pun that I am a flatlander (um, no, full time and well aware of the limited resources on the mountain and "mountain time") and she just would not get why their company is the one at fault because they are unable to honor emergency tow or scheduled service. Since they cannot honor emergency towing service that they are listed and advertised for, then take your company off of AAA listing! But that went on deaf ears. I ended up calling Route 66 towing- excellent service- even got a guy to go to my work within 10 minutes, picked up my key to go and get my car. Ironic- but the gentlemen told me that other customers complained about Mountain towing as well- so they are well known for their unprofessionalism. Never going to use Mountain Auto Service towing again.

My windshield was caved in from snow load and too dangerous to drive so I scheduled a tow through AAA a day ahead of time to move it out of the rain to a parking structure to be repaired. Mountain Towing never showed up. I called them and no one answered the phone. I left a message and did not receive a call back. They are the only choice in the Lake Arrowhead area, and they SUCK! We really need another towing service here.

AAA sent them to me for my truck to be towed to a shop 5 min down the road. Their driver soaked a towel in gasoline and stuck it in my engine , tried to drive the truck instead of towing it like i had requested and eneded up setting my truck on fire. He had the nerve to have an attitude with me for repording him to his no good company and to AAA. Talking about he has a wife and 3 kids and now he wont have a job. Mountain towing refused to answer my e-mails and I ended up having to use my own insurance which ended up totaling the truck. They are the most horrible place i have ever dealt with. AAA should be ashamed to be in contract with them.

Mountain Auto were sent out as response to a call to AAA when our daughters car wouldn't start. Car had engine light on and was showing a low voltage for the battery. There was barely any communication from the guy who came out and after he jumped started the car the guy disconnected the cables, returned to his truck, waved and left without saying anything. We thought he was just moving the truck out of the way of another vehicle but no he was gone. He didn't test the battery to see if it was holding charge or needed replacement. He didn't mention anything about letting the car run to let the battery charge up. Fortunately we were there to let our daughter know what to do next. Very unprofessional and no where near the quality of service we had from a previous call to AAA regarding a battery problem.

My partner got into an accident right before midnight and while I was completely panicked, Dom was very helpful and kind. We got my car out of the ditch and off to the tow yard with no issues. Thank you for helping to manage a nightmare. Roxanne in the office was kind and helpful when we were getting our belongings out of the car and releasing it to the insurance adjuster. She had plenty of advice I wouldn't have thought of. I would definitely recommend and use them again.

ABOVE AND BEYOND TO HELP US... we were stuck on the side of the road on the mountain with a chain wrapped around our tire. We couldn’t get road side assistance thru triple a as all companies had no one available to help. Not only did this company offer to send a driver when they had one available but they called to tell us they were going to send their mechanic in their own vehicle to help us so we were safe. How amazing is that!!!!! USE THIS COMPANY! They are professional and amazing! 💛

Avoid this business at all cost. Completely unprofessional and will look for any reason to avoid responsibility if anything bad happens. A truck became stuck on my property. Unfortunately, the truck owners called Mountain Auto Service and Towing. Juan showed up and really struggled with how to get the truck out. At one point, he was pulling it backwards with the front wheels turned all the way to the right, which caused the truck's front end to drop over the side of the hill. No amount of suggesting he might want to straighten the front wheels would help. It was trial and error for 45 minutes before Juan was able to pull the truck out. Juan eventually did straighten the front wheels out but only after a lot of hill erosion took place. He really resisted any suggestions, at one point telling me he really didn't care about my property. With all the trials and mistakes, Juan at one point ran his cable up against my front gate and bent it. My gate now no longer functions like it use to, but the company said that damage was not their problem. I was only able to talk to the woman that answers the phone as no one will call me back on this. And the woman said I should not have been offering any suggestions as I am not a tow truck operator. Fair enough, but I do know which way a truck moves if it is pulled backwards with the front wheels turned. This company is completely unprofessional. They also broke the side step off the truck they were trying to pull up the hill. Mistakes happen but being unresponsive is unprofessional. Find a better towing company.

I never leave reviews but I thought my experience warranted telling the community. I recently had to get my car towed off the mountain twice and I called up AAA to which they said a tow would be coming to me in an hour. I was unaware AAA uses third party tow services. Two hours later from when the tow was scheduled to arrive as told to me by AAA, the tow hadn’t arrived and I wasn’t receiving any updates and was about to call AAA to check the status but I got a call from Mountain Towing service. The lady on the phone told me there was no way she could get a tow to me today due to limited services up on the mountain and I would have to call back tomorrow morning to get a tow. I was a little appalled, because if it was an emergency situation where I was stranded on the road alone and needed immediate assistance what would I have done? I have AAA plus membership and i pay to have towing services, and my car was not functional to drive and needed it taken to the dealership. Had I not been home with the car and somewhere on a mountain road alone I don’t know what i would’ve done. I called AAA again and luckily they were able to get a tow from another tow service down the hill to come up and get the car and tow it off the hill. All within the hour. I feel like there is a communication issue between AAA and the mountain towing service. From now on if I need to get a tow up on the mountain I will request not to have mountain towing service as that tow because the same situation has happened to me twice with mountain towing service. AAA members be aware and make sure to double check with them they will be able to get a tow to you.

Tonight we got towed by Shawn and it was the best customer service experience we have ever had. Shawn was punctual, professional, very personable and so kind. He took care of our classic car with such concern and care and was very efficient. We can't thank Shawn enough for the wonderful experience we had.

James was dispatched in response to my AAA call and he was seriously awesome. My vehicle was stuck in soft ground and first he tried to guide me via FaceTime to save us both the hassle of actually driving out to me AND dinging my AAA plan, which I seriously appreciated. He ended up having to come out and use the winch to get me freed, and he had the absolute best attitude and was super helpful. Ryan came out as back up too, and both guys were professional and amazing. Highly recommend!

THE ABSOLUTE WORST!!! My daughter left her Prius at my place while she was traveling and it ended up needing a jump. We contacted AAA on a Monday afternoon and they said the company would be out within an hour. 2 hours later we get a call from Mountain Towing say they could not make it and to try back in the AM. The next morning the technician came out to jump the car and could not get it started with the jumper pack he had so ended up using his car battery. I was half-paying attention as i was on a call but my lady said she smelled smoke. The car ended up stating so I thought nothing of her comment and told her to drive the car around for awhile to make sure it held the charge. 15 minutes later she calls me from Blue Jay saying the car could not go up a hill as it was having some strange electrical issues. I was confused on how this could even be possible given it was running but thought..."it's a Prius so who knows." We then had to have the car towed to Toyota of San Bernardino at a cost of 170.00. I assumed this was an issue with the car so begrudgingly paid. After the car was inspected we received a call from the service manager saying the car had been "Cross-Jumped" which is basically attaching the jumper cables backwards. Given we had no cables and only had it jumped by Mountain Towing I contacted AAA to seek a resolution. I had to pay another 435.00 for the car to be repaired and then opened a damage claim with AAA. During the process i was told i needed to contact Mountain Towing and inform them of the situation (which i thought was rather odd since AAA hired them). The manager of Mountain Towing could not been more or a jerk and basically said "we don't care about your issue and you need to take it up with AAA." I passed this info along to AAA and would later find out that not only is this company refusing to take ANY responsibility (it's literally impossible this problem was not caused by them) for the damage, the technician lied about jumping the car with his own car battery!

Driver refused to take my AAA business without me first giving my consent to inflict damage on the car. The first thing the driver said was, "I'm going to cause damage loading this, is that OK?" So rude, especially after 4 hour response time. AAA arranged to a different company to take CARE of my vehicle. Lets fix your monopoly attitude. Customer service is important....and in a small town, you need to think neighborly.

This is an honest review of an experience with this company. Due to an accident where the vehicle was completely wrecked in July 2018, this is the company that AAA sent to remove the vehicle. We arranged to have the vehicle towed back home the following week. It was towed back on a flatbed truck since it was completely wrecked. It was towed back late at night, so the damage to the home was not discovered until the following morning. The next morning, we discovered that the hitch of the truck was actually protruding through the bedroom wall. We took pictures of the damage and contacted the company. They assured us that the owner would take a look at them and get back to us in a timely manner. They never followed up with us concerning the matter. Then when we followed up with them, they refused to take any responsibility for the damage to the house. They claimed that their management has since changed and that they no longer employed the tow truck driver from that night. This is definitely not good business practice and, with all of these consistently bad reviews, they should not be endorsed by AAA. If you are ever in need of service from AAA in this mountain area, I recommend refusing any service provided from Mountain Auto Service & Towing.

NOT RECOMMENDED.....Horrible service, bad attitude, unreliable, not to mention unethical . My daughter's vehicle broke down, we contacted AAA, they send us this people , They could not have sent us a worse company . The driver wanted to charge $300.00 just to go to the Rim of the World, that only 3 miles from were they were. I found Hayes Towing, they charged us $ 85.00 only. Please be careful about hiring Mountain Road Service .

These people don't need a gun to rip you off. The dispatcher never mentioned they would only accept cash, in fact he stated that it would be free towing for under six miles, when the driver showed up, he stated it would be $365.00 cash only. What??? are you kidding me? but I have AAA. It doesn't matter he stated, your towing doesn't qualify for AAA with out an explanation.... I called AAA while he was there but as soon as I called them, he just took off and left me stranded. Look at all the reviews..... hope you go out of business soon because your taking advantage of people. " Crook"

Please please do not go to these people! They were so nasty to me that after I picked up my car and it didn't sound quite right. The clutch job that they did on it the gears were hard to go into place and within one week my engine blew because they had to drop the engine to get to the clutch and they broke my engine.! Of course they'll take no responsibility for any of it! I was stuck on the mountain alone with my one-year-old, my husband and the rest of my family moved across country and I asked them to please let me know when they could get the car done because I had to call someone from down the hill to pay them to come to help me get the car they told me first the car would be done on Tuesday then it was going to be done the following Monday and then when I went to pick it up it still wasn't done until Tuesday. But that's not the worst of it after I pick the car up the lady hung up on me when I was crying and said she was sick of dealing with me. After everything they did to me took my $1,600 broke my car and then she was nasty to me! Told me I was a liar until she got confirmation that her driver did in fact tell us to park the car where my friend parked it and they towed her car and impounded it in their lot and wouldn't even contact us in order for her to get her car back! . And within a week my engine blew!. , I intend on finding out how I can see these people but in the meantime please spend the money to take your car down the mountain do anything but do not give these people any business you will be sorry!

Mountain towing had set the bar very high in my book. They knew i was in a bind and did everything they possibly could just to make sure I was able to get my car. Mike and Ray were the only two names I remember off the bat but everyone there is super friendly. Would definitely recommend this fine establishment. People who can show empathy are those to be trusted. Thanks to everyone who helped me get my car back!

You could not choose a worse company to deal with. They picked up my Focus on behalf of Ford Roadside Assistance and damaged the front end of my vehicle. They showed up with a vehicle already on the flatbed so they used the rear tow forks that extend out beyond the rear of the towtruck. In doing so, the driver damaged the front valance and a piece that attaches to the radiator. When I submitted a claim with FRA, the owner Mike lied to them and stated they used the flatbed for my car and they didn't damage it. I have three witnesses that saw them arrive with a Ford SUV already on the flatbed and that they used the tow forks. Needless to say it ended up costing me $1200 to fix. You can go to RimRants and other FB pages and you will find they have a terrible reputation and have damaged numerous peoples vehicles. Use at your own risk. And if you must, then take pictures and video showing the date of your vehicle when they come to pick it up. But it would be best to steer FAR away from them. I've attached two pics, the first shows the damage (you can't see the damage to the piece attached to the radiator underneath), the second shows what its supposed to look like after I spent $1200 fixing it.

The employees here are very friendly and helpful. My battery died, so I called AAA, they came to my rescue. I wanted to know if my battery was a gonner or if I needed a new alternator, the tow truck driver had me follow him to the shop. They then checked my alternator, battery and fluids, at no charge. The conclusion was that I needed a new battery. They sell Interstate batteries there, so I got one for a prorated price and off I went to work. I recommend this place to anyone.

They showed up quickly, were very friendly and helpful, and got me on my way in a matter of minutes. I got a flat tire on my way to work and was stuck in a turnout on Hwy 18 near the high school. Mountain Auto Services & Towing was the company dispatched by Triple A to come help me. The driver Josh was wonderful! Very friendly and made quick work of changing my tire. Gave me some recommendations and I was on my way. Thanks Josh and Mountain Auto!

My experience with Mountain Auto was excellent! The service was great and they were very friendly. I trusted them not to jack up the price of my repairs. I had been trying to get my Jeep to pass smog for a year and they did it and at a reasonable price. They took care of everything for me. I have never had such good service anywhere!! Mike, Roxanne and Casey all rock! I'm baking cookies when my oven gets fixed and it's not 99 degrees out! They are fair and honest people. True mountain folk!