Escobar Bros Custom Tailors

Up until about a year ago, this place was wonderful! Fast, efficient, beautiful and clean work, and the staff was friendly and easy to work with. I went here for all my alterations.
Then, about a year ago everything changed. The last two times I went in there, neither of the two people working there spoke English. It was pretty clear when I was trying to communicate what I wanted done, that they didn’t understand me or weren’t listening to me. For instance, I like a very long pant leg. No matter what I said or how I demonstrated I wanted a long pant leg, the gentleman helping me kept pinning the hem too short. Sure enough, when I went to pick them up, they were too short.
Sadly, I will not be returning here.

I could write for a while about this one so I’ve decided to limit to a few bullet points:
– dropped off two pairs of pants and sport coat for alterations on June 29^th
– was given a pick-​up date of July 14^th
– went to the store July 20^th and nothing was complete
– asked for a phone call when thing were done
– called 5 – 6 times over the next three weeks; no one ever knew the status of my garments but would promise to call me
– stopped by two more times and asked for a phone call
– never received ONE phone call to update me or apologize
– finally my clothes were «done» on August 12^th (30 days late)
– half the work had not been completed; pants still had cuffs and were too short
– went back two days later; cuffs removed but pants still too short
I wound up having to have the jacket sleeves shortened by another tailor and both pairs of pants lengthened by another tailor. 45 days for 15 day job and every single garment had a problem. My wife laughed when I put the clothes on.
I wouldn’t have written this review except after not calling me once for 45 days, the owner just called me to say that I owe him $ 145 (the 50% due upon completion). Quite frankly, he should have been calling to offer to refund the first $ 145.

I’m not much of a Unilocaler but I have to get this out of my system. I took a ton of clothing to Escobar, having lost a buncha weight and hoping to be able to alter my clothes. Every step of the way was awful. The woman who first took my items and presumably pinned them did nothing but complain about the owners. Items were not completed when I went to retrieve and each time (there were no fewer than 8 trips!!!), despite my begging them to just call me if they weren’t ready, they failed to call and would look bewildered with maybe one or two of the items to give me. Literally 1 of each 2 had to be redone. The lady that pinned was fired (I guess bad pinning) and the owner, although apologetic, didn’t follow through well, didn’t communicate and the whole process took FOREVER. Then, the straw that is causing this Unilocal,I realized (with paperwork in hand) I’d been overcharged $ 40. (I spent about $ 500 total.) When I asked for it, he told me that he’d have to check his accounting and maybe he’d issue me a credit! I said, «okay, then will you call me tomorrow?» It’s now been 3 weeks… no call. Forget the $ 40 (which he shoulda been thrilled to give me to make me feel okay about his business integrity and as an apology for my pain and to ensure my return). The good news is, this last straw made me angry enough to write this and hopefully it will be an investment in sparing someone else the experience I had.

Actually the stitching on one pair of pants all fell apart a few months later. When I inspected closer, it looked like it was quickly done — huge stitches very far apart. Had it redone someplace else.

Escobar Bros helped me fix my coat and tailored two skirts when the incompetent rude jerk at Rainbow Cleaners in Chinatown couldn’t! She was cheap BUT incredibly inept and did I mention rude. Escobar knew what he was doing and I have a fixed zipper on a wool coat and two nicely tailored skirts to prove it.
I took my coat to Chinatown to fix the zipper. She said in Chinese and VERY poor English (take that all you people complaining about his poor English) — that I would have to go buy the zipper then bring it back AND THEN was going to charge me $ 30. Needless to say I walked away. Don’t advertise yourself as tailors if you can’t fix a zipper. WOW!
Escobar charged $ 35, but supplied the zipper and fixed the coat. WHY WOULD I EVER GO TO CHINATOWN again! Since he fixed my zipper without argument (excellent customer service), I had him alter my two skirts (AGAIN excellent customer service). BEAUTIFUL! I wouldn’t trust the imcompetence in Chinatown ever again… unless you need a button sewn on. Which you could do yourself for free.

Brought my Ann Taylor jacket to this store for some tailoring. Faaana helped me with measurement and tirelessly fixed a problem. She was gracious and helpful throughout the entire process. I was very impressed with her attention to detail, friendliness, and overall positive demeanor. Her genuine thoughtfulness and intelligence (e.g. she proposed different solutions and one of them worked!) will be reasons why I will continuously return to this store.

Great experience here at the 2 Embarcadero location… brought in 3 pairs of pants and a jacket that were all but ruined by another «alternations» shop on Fillmore (see my 1 star rating of the not so «Perfect Cleaners»). I took the shoddy tailoring to Escobar for some help… the woman upfront was polite and understanding of what I wanted fixed — a nice clean hem on all pants and a redo of a torn seem on a jacket pocket. I was worried that the prior alternations had ruined the pants and jacket, but she promised they could be fixed and… 3 days later Escoar delivered! I was pleasantly surprised that she was able to remove all prior machine stitching and redo it all by hand — beautful and clean work! Thank you Escobar Bros for saving my clothes — you’ve earned a new loyal customer.

I recently bought a suit at Banana Republic in the Embarcadero Center, and the salesman recommended I take the suit upstairs to Escobar Bros. Custom Tailors for altering. For the convenience of it, I followed his recommendation and headed upstairs. The price at Escobar Bros. for taking in the jacket sleeves and shortening the pants cuffs was $ 50. I thought that was a little much, but given the recommendation, I was OK paying more for a good tailor.
A week later, I returned to pick up the suit, and after trying it on, it was clear that one pants leg was shorter than the other and – even worse – one jacket sleeve was shorter than the other. Annoyed and worried that my new, expensive suit might be ruined, I left it with the tailor to fix. Two days later, I returned again and, though they fixed the length of both sleeve and pants cuff, it was obvious that the suit had been worked on. I could still see the chalk line from where the original cut was made, and the stitching in the jacket sleeve was causing the sleeve to bunch up. I was able to have the tailor fix the suit (again) on the spot, and as I motioned to pay, he charged me the full $ 50. I don’t normally expect a discount, but this was one botched job. I paid the amount, knowing that an honest Unilocal review would provide better justice than any discount.
The moral of the story: Do not use this tailor.

Um. So I went here to get my measurements for a bride’s maids dress. I called the bridal shop back home and gave them my measurements that Escobar brothers gave me. Next thing I know the bride calls me and asks me if I gained about 100 lbs. Escobar’s measurements equaled about a size 18 and in normal clothes I am a size 2!
So today, I gave them a try again. I called and asked if i could have them repair a zipper on my backpack. The person on the phone asked if this was a pick up or drop off… I said «well, I guess drop off.» Then I asked when I could expect to have my backpack zipper fixed by and his reply was «Shirt or pants…» after some back and forth he told me he spoke very little English and suggested I go to another shop… oh well I guess I will try to find another tailor!

I attempted to have a trench coat altered at Escobar Brothers at their Stockton Street location. I was planning to use the trench coat as a demonstration of their work in anticipation of future custom shirts and suits. I arrived at the store at approximately 11:00 AM on Saturday, January 06, 2007. The store was closed, despite the claim on the window that they were open at 9:00 AM on Saturdays. I called the Stockton phone number, received no answer, and then called the Embarcadero number. A man answered the phone; this was our conversation:
Him: Escobar Brothers tailors.
Me: Hi. Is your Stockton Street location open today?
Him: I don’t know.
Me: You… you don’t know?
Him: No, I don’t know.
Me: This is the same company, right? This is Escobar Tailors?
Him: [inaudible; cars passing my location]
Me: Could you repeat that?
Him: Yes, this is Escobar Tailors. This is the Embarcadero 2 location.
Me: But it’s the same company, Escobar Tailors, that owns this shop, right?
Him: Yes.
Me: So is your Stockton Street store open today?
Him: I don’t know.
Me: Well, I’m telling you it’s not open. Is it *supposed* to be open?
Him: Hold a minute, please. [silence] Yes, it’s supposed to be open today. Sorry, the Stockton Street location is not open today.
Me: Well, is there a reason it isn’t open today?
Him: I don’t know.
Me: Okay. I was looking to build a relationship with a tailor for several custom suits and shirts. But if this is the level of service I can expect from Escobar Tailors, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
Him: Mmm-​hmm.
Me: Have a good day. [End]
I stand by my statement. Whatever the level of their tailoring, if they lack the basics of customer service, theirs is the last place I’ll bring my alterations.

This place does OK work if you’re just looking to get pants hemmed. But since they don’t speak good English, anything slightly more complex is a challenge if you don’t speak Spanish. I took a few pairs of pants there and they did fine. I also took a pair of jeans, and they didn’t keep the original hem and reattach it, but just cut the jeans to size and resewed the hem, so I now have a pair of fancy jeans that look like what I wore in highschool, which bums me out.
They are also expensive — about 2−3x more than another tailor I used in nearby Chinatown.
On the plus side they are open on Saturday

Can I give them a 0 star rating? I got in a yelling match with the owner once over a botched original hem job on my designer jeans. First of all when I went to pick up my jeans on the day I advised they would be ready, they WERENT ready, big surprise, so I go back to pick them up the next day… and the original hem is GONZO. Nowhere to be found. The owner is not there, only two non-​English speaking employees sitting there blinking at me. I get in a yelling match with the owner over the phone who refuses to let me leave without paying. Terrible customer service, I’ll never go back. Can somebody please just open an alterations shop that specializes in original hems on jeans… please?!

In hindsight, I probably should have attempted to sew the patches on my new uniform myself. It would have cost less and maybe would have looked better. First, I should say that I never actually spoke directly with the tailor… he was glued to his cell phone all three times I went in to the store, and we communicated in a few gestures and head-​nods while he kept yapping on personal calls. I dropped off a uniform shirt to get two patches sewn on the shoulders. Not only did it take them five days… but it wasn’t ready when I showed up, and they had to do a rush job to get it to me before end of day. The result? Badly-​aligned patches that are now sewn on at an angle. There has got to be a better option out there.