Italia

Just curious as to which insurance company it is? There are some companies that are making it damn near impossible for any shop to do a quality repair and turn a profit, to the tune of nearly HALF price. With that being said, it is up to the shop to be like no, I can't take this job, make money, AND have it come out excellent.

volcomboy390

Never been to their body shop but iv had similar experience with Alex and Ballade. Had them put one of their clutch Kits in and it last probably about 5k miles till it blew apart. Took it back to them and he wouldn't do anything to help me. He told me he was sick and didn't want to deal with this and the best he could do is a used baffled oil pan. How the hell that helps me idk. I took it and left.... I went to Autowave to get a new clutch and oil pan installed. Looks like the clutch and flywheel they used were China crap, and the oil pan did not fit, I ended up just throwing it away. I was also told Autowave did Ballade's tuning back in the day.... now Autowave refuses to tune or work with them!
I think we all know why........

i would go go to Juan's Auto Shop/ Maco before going back to this shop

stripes777

From my experience, shops, if they are part of the board, would respond to such topics. Being that Ballade specializes in S2ks, I'm a bit surprised they haven't chimed in yet. I've only had my S for less than a year, but have always read good things about their shop on this forum.

zakiu

we "worked it out" in that I agreed to accept the spoiler if I got a new rear quarter and he were willing to discount a bumper repair on my GTR. needless to say, that was also a scam as the discount he offered was only $50 on 22 hours of labor, assuming I sourced my own replacement bumper (lol) - based on this repair and based on the quality of his work, I would not let him touch the GTR even if he asked - i think that he and I are in agreement that i will never be going to his shop for services ever again. attached are some flaws in the vehicle after the work was completed. including but not limited to cracked bondo in the "new oem rear quarter" he promised, unfinished paintwork along the rain rail, poor fit on the bumper due to the clips being attached to a previously repaired "new oem rear quarter" aka the connection point for the clips is bent so the bumper will not fit. It is worth noting that the trunk does not match the rear quarter due to the paint underneath being different colors. bumper does not match either as well, but that is more typical.

vtecaddict

^^^^ That is awful

zakiu

You are literally reading a bad thing about their shop on this forum while simultaneously saying you have always read good things about their shop on this forum. Sounds like you just have a selective memory. See photos posted. I don't know about you, but I don't think he's going to bother posting in this thread to defend himself against undeniable evidence of insurance fraud. Use common sense on this one. His best option is to stay silent and let me bitch about him and my experience.

kukudm

Agree with OP on this one. The quality of the work seems to be pretty substandard. If I had to send my car to a body shop, I would expect better fit and finish. Heck I probably wouldn't even compromise on that "OEM" spoiler, I would've requested them to fill up the spoiler holes and paint the freaking trunk.

Mugen_is_best

^this. Ballade stands nothing to gain by commenting.

stripes777

Not sure if youre comment was implying that i was taking Ballade's side. I'm actually on your side on this one since the pictures are the proof and i've never even dealt with ballade before. To clarify, my original post was more of my own curiousity of why a shop would not defend itself on a forum it participates in. Like your post and the one after, i guess there is nothing to be gained from it.

zakiu

Yes I am just pointing out the logic fallacy that leads others (and sometimes myself) to go to a shop mentioned here instead of doing my own independent research. Groupthink on forums tends to listen to more "reputable" members. So if I registered on s2ki a year ago I wouldn't be taken seriously until I posted photos, as everyone would rally to the site sponsor. The simplest answer is that it is to their advantage to stay silent.