AstroPhsx

Exactly. LunchpailJ is making the claim that this is just "upselling" and I'm pointing out that my experience and what others are posting is not upselling. Funny that someone would try to say a positive quality of a shop is that they are hustlers. I guess they don't care about others in this community as long as they personally don't feel (or know) that they were "hustled".

Vitt

Not only that but also badmouthing a reputable shop's parts. Billman has an impeccable reputation in s2ki. I trust his advice and parts more than I would many shops out there. In fact, I have his TCT on my car, and he gives you a lifetime warranty on his TCT.

aw11

Isnt the header they sell a replica of the Hytech header?

05TurboS2k

Didn't hear about this....... bummer. I bought his TCT fix and it's worked a couple years but, it's slowly returning. Bummer to hear this involving Alex. I had heard questionable things about him from time to time but this is kind of a crybaby community in some respects so it's a given and sometimes you wonder how much to write-off. That said, he always followed up with me and was straight forward and helpful to me . That includes helping me at no cost even when I had left the state as we discussed theories and causes for various issues in my car that he had encountered. You can judge a man's character by how he treats someone who has nothing to offer him. Now given, a mutual friend said well, you're too big of a name to piss off in the s2k world because enough folks either know you or know someone you know, I guess that happens when you post enough times on here but otherwise I'm a nobody.. As for ANYTHING regarding billman, that guys word is the BIBLE in my opinion. Not sure what issues he's related to in this but he has my vote in pretty much anything car related or honesty. End of discussion. I'd like to hope that things will get straightened out between Ballad and the members here who've had bad experiences. Do keep in mind, most EVERY shop will have some bad experiences right?

-Greg

05TurboS2k

I'm partial to Rockstar, being that Justin has been a rock solid friend for years and has NEVER done me wrong and always gone above and beyond to right anything he's screwed up that I've been involved in. Hell, the guys so f#$Rcking nice, I tried to buy some stuff off him a little while back and he was refusing to take my money even, just pushing it to me for free!!! Sheeesh, people like that don't come around too often in this world.

AstroPhsx

I think you're right. I appreciate a few negative reviews on a company because no one is going to have a 100% clean track record unless they have amazing service recovery skills. Any decent shop would take negative feedback as a learning opportunity. How much more money will you make by creating a lifetime customer versus scamming someone one time? I think it also speaks volumes when any time there is a negative review the owner of the company tries to play the victim, tries to belittle the customer, or lies in response. Interestingly it looks like there has been a campaign to get the negative reviews buried on Yelp, which unfortunately means this is more likely to keep happening.

I'd encourage anyone who's had a negative experience with Ballade Sports to file a complaint with the State of California who currently has multiple active investigations into their shop by the Bureau of Automotive Repair: https://www.bar.ca.gov/Consumer/Comp...orm/index.html

I'd also document your feedback on Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ballade-sports-garden-grove

Chris_Lum

Rockstar has their own set of less than stellar reviews... But i have to say the classiest thing I've seen Justin do is create a thread announcing they were leaving S2ki...but before they leave, talk about how this site has gone down hill

jaor.s2k

I would NEVER go to Ballade.

Before I moved to SoCal I have already seen a lot of mixed reviews, but ever since moving to SoCal I have heard ONLY negative experiences with their services and most of their products first hand.

Service wise, I've heard they are notorious for not torquing anything to spec, they just use an impact and tighten the shit out of everything, this includes valve adjustments. Speaking of valve adjustments, I have been told they don't even let the engine cool down...so that's awesome.

Product wise, they don't stand by them at all and they are sub-par quality. My friend has their OEM style carbon hardtop with OEM glass and seals and it leaks..a lot and Ballade won't do anything about it, which sucks because their replica isn't much cheaper than a mint OEM top. Another friend has their headers, which leaks, they say it's normal...And the funniest story about their products I have heard was from another shop, Chewerks, which is one of the few shops I trust with my car. He had a customer come in and wanted to install Ballade's FK8 brembo retrofit BBK and he finds out that they milled down too much material on the calipers and used JB-Weld to fill it.

Twistednipple

I dont like to complain but since this subject is brought up, I went in the shop, because I knew what I needed a TCT, they try to upsell me more then what there website said, I told them on your website it shows this amount at the time and Alex said, no, this is the price, so I told him he might want to update his website because some people might get angry he prices are different then they get here and he got very upset, I mean, I was talking politely to him and I still paid for the TCT, he wanted me to drop my car off and they can replace it, whatever the cost of the part was at the time plus, labor alone was $250.00 just for the labor and I told him it's okay I know how to install it. Took me 12 minutes to install this. I also wanted to buy a js racing exhaust and they kept asking me why do u want that, bla bla bla, so found out they didnt have it in stock and wanted me to buy whatever exhaust they had in stock.

Never did I ever return to them again.
They lost my business, I went to gotunning and spent couple thousand dollars, Tommy had good communication, gave me deals and felt good with the purchases I made.

Mugen_is_best

Lots of good info in here. I have had similar experiences with all the aforementioned shops, which is why I only go to Chewerks and Evasive