Originally Posted by engifineer

No shop should upsell services. If you have a good repair shop AND an online parts business and need to up sell, it is a huge indicator that you are not making money because few people want to come to you Having grown up with a shop in the family I cringe when I hear these stories. It was great for my father, who stayed covered up because he did NOT do these types of things and most others did, but still crappy to see it going on.

When taking a car, or anything in for repair, it is NOT the job of the customer to "do their research". They are paying a "Qualified" professional for guidance and services and should not have to protect themselves from getting screwed and sold things they do not need. Most folks going to a shop do so because they are not experts on working on their cars, so they trust the shop is going to lead them in the right direction.

And sorry, that much for a TCT install is worse robbery than many dealership stories. That alone is a huge warning flag. It is literally a 30 minute job.

I have never dealt with them other than looking at their site (Which admittedly does remind me of too many "tuner" sites out there ... but who knows). I am just basing my comments off the stories and inputs here and if those are true, it is a sad review of this business.

Originally Posted by AstroPhsx

What's the consensus with this shop? They use to get a lot of rave reviews on s2ki, but they've now been banned and several people are saying it's not due to them ending their sponsor membership with the site. They've also not had a California Automotive Repair License since late 2018. Their recent Yelp reviews indicate that they are being fairly aggressive selling services and replacement parts that aren't needed. There have also been some pretty unprofessional responses by the shop to negative reviews on Yelp and Google.

I recently brought my car here and had an extremely negative experience and wished the information about their ban on s2ki and negative reviews on this site weren't so buried. I'd like to detail my negative experience, but it is concerning that there are rumors they utilize lawyers to try and remove negative criticism.

**Update**
After getting second opinion on the work suggested by Alex, shop owner of Ballade, I decided to cancel my appointment for service on my transmission. They pleaded for me to still come in to get some work done. When I declined that's when they became nasty (read their Yelp responses to negative reviews to see what I mean by nasty). The shop refused to return my $1,500 deposit and my keys (no work preformed, no parts provided). I filed a complaint with the State of California and found out they were illegally running a repair shop without an active license.

While I've been told by an active S2Ki moderator that Ballade has been banned from the website, a former moderator has stated the ban was only a label given to those who end their sponsorships with the site. Ballade has since obtained their license to repair, but have multiple investigations open by the State of California looking into claims and non-ethical business tactics which may put that license at risk.

If you've had a negative experience with this shop the State of California would like to know. File a complaint with the State of California who can make an impact on behalf of the consumer: https://www.dca.ca.gov/webapps/bar/complaints.php