I just had an extremely unpleasant experience just now with Ravi K. I have never written a Yelp review before but feel compelled to today. Ravi has terrible bedside manner for someone who is supposed to be interfacing with customers regularly, not to mention customers who are dealing with car issues. What I expect is a courteous and empathetic demeanor. Instead, right off the bat, he seemed annoyed that I had come in with a coupon from the Palo Alto Daily Post while not having an appointment. Sure, the coupon says "by appointment," but it's not like they had cars lined up for smog nor was the shop otherwise busy. I was polite and asked him if he could possibly fit me in. He clicked away at his computer for minutes before giving me an idea of when he could smog my car. For all of that unnecessary attitude, he ended up fitting me in *immediately*, responding in a monotone voice (with no affect) that he would call me in 30-45 minutes when the car was ready. I received a call in 30 minutes, and Ravi informed me that the car had failed due to high Hydrocarbon emissions. I asked him politely what he thought could be the cause. He refused to answer saying, again saying in a monotone, unhelpful tone that he needed to perform a diagnostic. This was odd to me -- certain types of failures will have certain types of root causes. Yet he didn't seem to want to be helpful in any way. Not friendly, not cooperative, not encouraging that he could solve my problems. Instead, he had a tone and attitude conveying that I was asking too many questions, despite the questions being entirely reasonable. I asked if it could be the catalytic convertor or O2 sensors -- he said no. Okay, there you go...you have some idea what it can't be, right? Why not answer the original question by narrowing the scope of components that could be bad?! I then went back to get my car. After paying the cashier for the test, I noticed that re-tests are only free if diagnostics and repairs are done at their facility. This is unlike other Smog Check outfits in the area. I asked Ravi if they are usually able to diagnose the problem in the $140 diagnostic fee they charge. Again, he stonewalled me by saying "I don't know; we have to check and see." After pushing a bit more, he finally did explain further "usually we find the problem within 1 hour, and up to 3 hours are covered in the $140 fee." Why not say this to begin with?! I then asked roughly how much do repairs cost, to get an average sense of what I'd be in for. Again, no ballpark figure. As I told Ravi, he's supposed to be an expert. He should be able to give rough figures, assess probabilities and make reasonable monetary estimates. That's what people expect of me in my job, so why not his? Otherwise, how can I have faith that they will be able to fix my car at a reasonable cost? When I countered by asking if it would be between $300 and $500, he said "sure, you can keep that as a rough estimate." Well, why not mention that from the start?! It was like pulling teeth interacting with Ravi. In the end, I had no faith that he would be able to diagnose and fix my car at a reasonable price, and I started to lose trust in the shop as a whole. As I certainly don't want to have any more of these unpleasant interactions with him, I will consider the ~$40 test fee to have been flushed down the toilet. I plan to solve my issue elsewhere. Stay away from this place as long as Ravi has this attitude toward customers. Incidentally, when I showed up, another customer seemed to be unhappily walking away from this establishment. Finally, I strongly advise management to give Ravi customer service training.