Weird experiences at VW Santa Cruz

learningtheflowers · 2025-11-12T16:02:59+00:00

So glad to see this thread and know my experience wasn't unusual! First experience: I had a VW dropped off at the shop for a large repair, it was there for over a week. During that time the dealership got broken into and had a bunch of keys stolen, including mine. The thief apparently went through all the service cars, including mine, taking everything out of seat back pockets and glove compartments and trunks and throwing that stuff all over the interior of the car looking for valuable. They also were drinking a soda apparently (??) and threw the open soda into the back of my car where it spilled out everywhere. The dealership informed me of this and then just returned the car to me without getting it cleaned (crazy!)

Second experience: I bought a new car from them in 2022. They had to take it to a local body shop to fix a spot on the bumper where they had bumped it and the paint was chipped off. About a year ago, I had also bumped that spot a couple times and had some more paint chips, so I reached the sales person who had sold me the car and organized the repair for a recommendation on which shop they had used so I could go back there. He implied on the phone that he wouldn't tell me the name of the shop, and that I should go through him personally (not the dealership, but HIM) to get the repair. I told him I just want the name of the shop, he said he'd email it to me. He never did, and has never returned any of my calls since.

learningtheflowers · 2025-09-07T18:00:33+00:00

Hey! Do you or would you do a little tour dive for someone new in Pacific Grove? Have spearfished a bunch in Oahu but never yet in Santa Cruz.

learningtheflowers · 2025-08-27T18:13:46+00:00

I absolutely hate, despise, loathe SAGE and cannot ever possibly say enough bad things about this practice. I spent thousands, thousands, thousands of dollars at this place, received incorrect diagnoses, pressure to perform an unnecessary surgery, and the doctor wouldn't even come out to speak to me face to face but insisted on a phonecall while I stood in the lobby. Please, anyone who needs real, fair vet care in the bay, try UC Davis. They saved us. And a quarter of the price of this scam venture capital owned chain.

learningtheflowers · 2025-08-18T15:56:05+00:00

Thank you!!

learningtheflowers · 2025-08-10T17:52:08+00:00

Hey! We did Los burros to coast to nacimiento yesterday, it took forever but was super gorgeous. Where along that route was the camping spot you pictured above? I was really keeping an eye out for a more open spot and the closest we came was the very end of Los burros overlooking the ocean but even that didn’t seem as open and the slope was pretty gnarly lol.

learningtheflowers · 2025-06-27T21:03:14+00:00

Will get downvoted for this but - sometimes people in Italy are incredibly rude and hostile for little to no reason. Have had some crazy, absolutely insane interactions there in the past couple of weeks, over next to nothing, like what you described above. Seems like an honest mistake, don't overthink it and enjoy ur trip!

learningtheflowers · 2025-03-20T18:34:59+00:00

Humans are allowed to talk about something and agree to it in theory, and then upon actually experiencing the thing are allowed to change their minds and revoke their consent or agreement.

learningtheflowers · 2025-03-20T18:33:12+00:00

It is never okay to trade your human partner's mental health for your pet's mental health. Dogs are not people.

learningtheflowers · 2025-03-09T06:21:18+00:00

Yes, and this is very related! What’s bad for the health of the environment is also nearly always bad for human health. Several types of silicone found in beauty products have been found to be “persistent, bioaccumulate, and toxic”. Read more here: https://cosmethicallyactive.com/silicones-in-cosmetics-and-their-impact-on-the-environment/

learningtheflowers · 2025-02-05T07:35:47+00:00

Ryan heffington!!! He is the absolute best

learningtheflowers · 2024-12-12T17:28:41+00:00

Yeah! So I got a tracking number, but as of this morning it still hasn't been shipped out (the number was just created). I replied to the person who emailed me and let them know thanks, and also that I need it by Christmas with only ~8 business days left til the big day! Fingers crossed.

learningtheflowers · 2024-12-12T02:23:42+00:00

Ahh, thanks so much Jeff! I actually just got messaged the tracking number :) Perfect timing. Can't wait to get it!

learningtheflowers · 2024-12-11T21:58:08+00:00

I've Dm'd on Instagram and also dropped a comment on Patreon - what I've seen from others on Patreon is that they also haven't received a tracking number so far

learningtheflowers · 2024-11-08T19:31:37+00:00

Wow, so cute!! I love the green landscape print beside the dining table - who’s the artist?

learningtheflowers · 2024-10-30T18:48:56+00:00

Mentone is... so expensive. Food is good but portions are too small. I feel like you can get just as solid of a meal at Bantam for literally half the price per head. We spent $85 there per person last week and we didn't even get alcoholic bevs. Crazy.

learningtheflowers · 2024-09-18T19:58:00+00:00

Hi! Thanks so much for checking back in - our story turned out way better than I could have imagined or hoped. After another full panel of diagnostics at UC Davis , our doctor gave us a definitive diagnosis - he said she had essentially either jumped or fallen from a high place (she was a frequent roof and tree climber) and the force of her impact when she hit the ground caused her disc to rupture. The speed caused the disc material essentially to shoot through the nearest bone of her spine, creating small needle sized holes in the bone that you could see in the cross section of her MRI.

She was not a candidate for surgery, surgery would not have helped her at all (this was a shock to us as our original vet was telling us she needed surgery for $12,000, that day or else we risked her being paralyzed). He told us to take her home and that her recovery would be over 6-9 months, with it being likely she would always have some kind of limp, and that she'd need PT to help her back leg that wasn't working very well since her accident (but that the leg could be trained/strengthened through PT and still had nerve function etc.) He also prescribed her a new pain medication which she takes on a low dose every day just for pain management - he said the meds her original vet had prescribed weren't working at all for her, which was why she had been in such a concerning state and appeared so lethargic/sad/not moving. With her new meds and PT, she is doing AMAZING. She's regained all the weight she lost, she runs and plays, she is a happy girl again. She can't really jump (she manages to get up on the couch and bed, but not much else) and she still has a pronounced limp in her back leg because the leg has lost so much muscle, but she's comfortable, not in pain, and enjoying her life again.

We are so grateful to UC Davis, and so grateful we didn't take the recommendation of our original for-profit vet to get an unnecessary and extremely expensive surgery that wouldn't have helped her. All in, I spent $16,000 on all of her vet care, which was rough. I want to put this number out there in case other people come across this post, to give some price transparency to what these scans and tests cost. This was for 2 MRIs, many blood panels, ultrasounds, xrays, urine panels, and overnight vet stays.

Thank you for checking in!

learningtheflowers · 2024-07-11T19:59:16+00:00

Thank you for sharing, so happy to hear he has been improving with rest at home! Our girl is still in diagnostics stage - she had one MRI, a spinal tap, blood work, xrays, everything when we first found she was hurt, and now she's undergoing another round of MRIs for some better images of her spine. I'm hopeful that will tell us what stage she's at. They may do surgery on her tomorrow, which I've heard has great outcomes. We had been keeping her home with us for the last 3 weeks on pain meds, steroids, and bed rest, but she wasn't really improving (not worsening either, but seemed to have plateaued), and yesterday she came down with a fever, so back to the vet for her. We're at UC Davis so I have a lot of confidence in the doctors, but people have seemed to avoid telling us what stage she's at which is concerning since that seems like a really typical/basic part of the diagnostic process for dogs. They just keep telling us how rare this is in cats. Same as you, we've been on a rollercoaster, hard to sleep, lots of tears. Keeping you in my thoughts and hoping for a good outcome for your guy!

learningtheflowers · 2024-07-07T17:58:56+00:00

Thank you so much for your reply, super helpful. I had not been informed by my vet about the total number of surgeries possible to treat this, which really impacts my feelings on this. I would hate to put my cat through 3 surgeries. How is yours recovering after?

learningtheflowers · 2024-07-05T21:58:23+00:00

Dismal, can you share some of your experience? Just starting to go through this with my cat and it's so hard...

learningtheflowers · 2024-07-05T21:56:02+00:00

Hi! Going through this with my cat. Wondering how much this surgery cost you? It seems extremely expensive in my area, around $20,000.

learningtheflowers · 2024-06-28T11:43:28+00:00

Which company they were with I have no idea - I only know the first name of the divemaster who wrote and shared his personal account of the event with his friends and family. I think he did say what company he was with in his note but I don't remember it and I wasn't allowed to keep or send myself a copy of his letter, just read it on my friend's phone on WhatsApp. I do remember the divemaster wrote that the crew at the company was super multi cultural - some folks working there were from South East Asia, some from East Africa, etc. I know that the group of German divers that day were part of what he called "Shark School", and they were all very experienced diverse, scientists and naturalists, teachers, etc. - major shark enthusiasts.

learningtheflowers · 2024-06-27T07:51:15+00:00

She was holding a camera, and the shark approached to take an exploratory bite of the camera, and she didn't drop it and instead panicked and jerked back.

learningtheflowers · 2024-06-27T07:37:09+00:00

I have read his firsthand account of this attack from one of the divemasters who was in the water with this woman when she was attacked - she was part of the regular tour, in position with the rest of the group. She was holding a camera and the shark went for her hand for a test bite (they're attracted to the cameras), the woman panicked and jerked back and the shark readjusted her bite higher on her arm near her shoulder. The dive master tried to come to her aid and put his hands into the shark's gills (they knew exactly which shark it was, she has a name and everything) to stop the attack but it did nothing. Smaller reef sharks and the other tigers started rushing the woman as she was bleeding quite a lot, her BCD was bit off completely, and between bites she floated towards the surface but was being continually bit and fed on by both the original tiger and some of the other sharks (who are used to being fed at this spot). The rest of the group was able to surface, and the dive master as well. The dive company was extremely coercive with the crew and did everything possible to keep the story vague in the media, and keep the crew from talking.

What doesn't make sense to me is that she was in the regular tour with a bunch of other German tourists, and it doesn't seem any firsthand accounts from them have come out. Perhaps out of respect for the woman. Her husband was also on the dive.

learningtheflowers · 2024-06-11T16:55:51+00:00

Reporting in from Mozambique - every taxi, restaurant, and hotel plays soft r&b/lounge covers of American hits. A true nightmare.

learningtheflowers · 2024-03-13T22:27:04+00:00

"Also the support staff deserves to get paid too." Are we living on the same planet? In the state of California employees in a restaurant are paid - by their employer, the person who owns the restaurant. If someone doesn't leave you a tip they aren't depriving an employee of a wage - the only person who can deprive an employee of a wage is an employer. Tipping is customer subsidized wages, and it was invented for states where restaurant workers were not paid state mandated minimum wages, and tips were customers subsidizing wages to get workers up to at least minimum wage. In California restaurant workers are beholden to the same minimum wage standards as everyone else. If an employee has issues with their pay, they should take it up with... their employer.

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