William T Pritchard Automotive

In May of 2014, Pritchard Automotive replaced a rusted out catalytic converter on my 2000 Toyota Corolla. Unfortunately, they did not take the time to look under the hood at the emissions sticker and see that it was a California emissions vehicle. Since January 1, 2014, New York state has required that only CARB (California Air Resources Board) compliant converters be installed on CA emissions vehicles. Obviously a licensed auto repair shop should have been aware of this at the time the law went into effect, but I did not discover the problem until doing my own research online very recently. When I spoke with Matt Pritchard, the service manager yesterday, his first response was to deny that my car was a CA-emissions vehicle. Ultimately, he acknowledged that it was, but wanted an additional $200 + labor to replace the originally installed (and illegal) converter with a new, CARB-compliant one. I told him that I would not pay for labor since the wrong part was installed in the first place, and he eventually agreed to replace the converter for $80, which he said was the difference in cost between the two converters (this sounds reasonable until one considers that Pritchard's billed me $591 + labor to install the previous converter, which currently retails on Amazon.com for $185). I then asked if, provided I drove the car down to the shop that afternoon, the work could be completed the next day. He assured me that it would be. So I left the car downtown at Pritchard's overnight. I expected a call from them today saying that the work had been completed, but never received one. So around 3 o' clock, I called the shop. No one answered the phone. By this time, a very heavy snow was falling and I was concerned that if I did not bring the car home this afternoon, it could be stuck on Pritchard's lot for several days. So I walked to their shop, only to find that not only was nobody working there (this was at roughly 4 pm on a Tuesday), but their parking lot had clearly not been plowed for several hours. Surprisingly, the converter did appear to have been replaced, presumably much earlier in the day when the lot was still drivable, but for some reason no one at Pritchard's called to tell me that it was ready. Determined at this point to get the car home before the local roads were all closed because of the snow, I borrowed a snow shovel from a nice guy across the street and spent about an hour shoveling out a path for my car so I could drive it out of Pritchard's lot. The road home was treacherous by that point, but I made it back safely only to find that my own street was by then impassable. So my car is currently sitting in a parking lot, rather than in my own driveway. All this inconvenience, and the roughly four hours I spent today retrieving my vehicle, could have been prevented if someone at Pritchard's had simply called or emailed to say my car was ready. Or better yet, told me on the phone yesterday afternoon that they would be closing early today if it snowed a lot (the snow was forecast after all). I could relate many other miserable experiences with this shop, beginning with the original exhaust work in 2014 that literally fell apart (because of a faulty clamp, presumably) on the drive home, but let's just leave it at this: Pritchard's regularly charges 2-3 x retail for expensive parts, on top of their $90 per hour labor charge, and frequently botches the installation. I only kept using them because they're located near several major bus routes and they used to keep appointments. Apparently even that is no longer the case.

The service was great. They quickly assessed the damage and gave me an estimate. The got the work done in only a few days. The job they did looks perfect, and the even made a follow up call to make sure I was satisfied.

They are extremely professional and their service are great. I will continue using them for other car fixes, etc.

The salesman was knowledgeable and did not try to push us towards any vehicle we did not like or that we though we could not afford.

Service price was NYS mandated as well. Appointment was set for 8AM. The vehicle and my spouse arrived prior to the appointment. My spouse waited for the vehicle. They did not take our vehicle until 9:30AM. Work was completed at 945AM.

This was one of those emergency situations. The wipers on the van just broke and there was no one who could do the job right away. It was like a Friday night and we needed it done on Saturday. They were great. They did the job first thing in the morning and we were back on the road by 11:00 am.

Went great. Made an appointment, they were ready when I pulled in, and they did the work immediately while I waited

Very well

My daughter is a college student at one of the colleges in Ithaca and when her truck broke down days before her fall break, she called me (her mother) hysterical, upset because she was not going to be able to get home to NJ. Never having needed major auto service in Ithaca, I signed up for Angie's List and searched and decided on this shop, mostly due to the other reviews, and because it is a local, family business. Once my daughter's truck was towed to the shop, they looked it over and called me in NJ, to advise of the problem. Once given the go-ahead to do the necessary work, I was contacted at the end of the day and advised that the truck was fixed, and that they had also replaced my daughter's brake light bulbs, as they had been out-- free of charge, as a courtesy, My daughter was unable to pick up the truck before they closed that night, so she went first thing in the morning. She told me that Mr. Pritchard was nice to her, and she felt comfortable with the shop. Several days later, Mr. Pritchard phoned me to see how my daughter was making out with the truck- I was very happy with this- my own mechanic doesn't check on his work! Everything is fine with the truck, and I told Mr. Pritchard that should we need repair service again while my daughter is away at school, we will certainly be bringing the truck back to him. I highly recommend this service shop!

It went very well. I dropped car off and the price was just what they quoted and it was quick.

The overall job with them went really well. They perform an excellent job at a fair price. They do their best to keep their cost as well as they can. I would use them again in the future.

It is a family-owned business and they have been in business for years. The owner's father started the business and his son also works there. They actually saved me a lot of money. I know the service fellow there and, instead of going out and buying a new part that would have cost $1600 itself, he found a used one that they were satisfied was in good condition, and saved me about $1400 on that. They are very friendly and trustworthy and they are concerned about their customers. They are very knowledgeable. The owner always calls me after I have had service to enquire if I was satisfied. The owner is very thorough. They are very professional. The service that I have received there has been excellent. They have been very fair and will not try to run your bill up.