Autoworks

Reviews 3

RA

Radwan Tajeddine

I tried to be as fair and objective as I could in this review. I needed to replace the brake pads and rotors for all my 4 wheels, and the 2 front sway bar-links. First, one hint for all the readers (if you are not interested, skip to next paragraph): all mechanics in Ithaca (at least the ones that I got quotes from) charge you for the parts AT LEAST double the market price. I do understand that they want to make some money as retailers, but why more than the double? So if you want to save tons of money, order the parts online and ask a mechanic to replace them for you. For instance, it would have cost me more than $700 to do the repairs mentioned above if they put their own parts (yes they are the same quality), but with this trick I ended up paying around $400. Overpricing the parts is not a problem of Autoworks alone, it is of all the mechanics in Ithaca. However, buying your own parts comes with disadvantages 1- you take full responsibility of your auto parts in terms of compatibility (so make sure you order the right ones for your car), and in terms of warranty, if they fail the mechanic would have nothing to do with it and you would have to deal with the manufacturer directly, which is not the case when you buy them from the mechanic. and 2- not many mechanics are willing to replace the parts if you do not buy them from them. Some raise liability issues, others (like Varna auto service) are rude enough to say that they will not replace the parts unless you buy them directly from them. Which brings me to the review on Autoworks... The good: - After calling at least 6 difference mechanics in Ithaca (to replace the parts that I bought online), they all refused to do the replacement for me, and finally Autoworks agreed. They seem to have done a good job but I cannot really tell because I am writing this review a couple of hours after they finished the job. So I recommend them if you bought the parts yourself. - They have a free shuttle that gives you rides from and to the garage, which is a nice service. The bad: - They to tried to pass a mini rip-off if I had not noticed it. They said from the beginning that their labor rate was $90/hour. After they finished the replacement, they asked a total of $303 for 2.8 hours of labor. 90$/hour for 2.8 hours is $272 (8% taxes included).The bill included $9 of shop supplies, with no further explanation of what kind of supplies, but even with that the total would have been about $282 (taxes included) yet they charged me an extra $21 ($30 accounting for the mysterious shop supplies) for no reason. When they noticed that I was not convinced with the number they gave me and started to investigate and go into the details of the bill they covered their trick by asking me if I was a Cornell employee and gave me a discount that removed the extras, and I ended up paying $254, which brought it back to original prices, without the taxes so I shut up and do not complain. I remained polite and accepted the discount without trying to embarrass them any longer. conclusion: I will continue to go to them for my repairs in the future because they are ones of the very few (if not the only) in Ithaca that accept to replace the parts that you bought on your own, and because I like that they have a free shuttle. However, The little dishonesty trick that they tried to pull on me makes very cautious when dealing with them in the future by making sure I check all the numbers before paying, and I recommend the same for everyone. Hope this help.

MA

Matthew Reichl

I took my car to Autoworks for repairs for last 6 years with generally good results: quick repairs, reasonable costs, good customer service. My most recent interactions with them however have been stressful. TL;DR— Autoworks is either (a) incompetent and and consistently misdiagnosing car problems (b) Knowingly ripping off customers or (c) All of the above. In any case, PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY TAKING YOUR CAR HERE. Let me walk you through this recent episode: (1) Had check engine light and needed an inspection. Autoworks said there was no problem with check engine light but also said I needed a new set of tires and brakes. $800. Seemed legit to me (it had been a while since I had my car in) and I was happy to pay and have a well running, safe car. (2) 2 weeks later I get another check engine light and my car overheats on the way to the shop. Autoworks said they didn’t see any overheating but noticed the “overflow tank” wasn’t sealing. $450. Again, seemed plausible, and since I was graduating and leaving town soon, I went ahead and paid just to be set and have a car that was going to last me till I got to my new job across the country. (3) 2 weeks later the check engine light comes again. Two weeks after that my car was having trouble starting. By some miracle, it started one morning and I drove it back to Autoworks. They now tell me I have a leaky gasket requiring replacement and “chewed up” spark plugs. $1100. I need a working car to get out of Ithaca and this has got to be enough money for these neanderthals to actually fix my car— so I wait 4 days for them to make these repairs and i pay up. IMPORTANT NOTE: they had previously replaced my gasket for the bargain price of $800 less than 6000 miles previous to this repair. I had forgotten about this, and didn’t bring it up, but surely if this were a respectable business, they would have seen that they had already repaired this part less than 6000 miles ago and offered to cover (or at least discount) this repair under some kind of warranty— right? I’m of the opinion that respectable workers stand by their work and avoid scamming a poor grad student by performing the same costly repair twice. Maybe I’m just naive. (4) Two DAYS later my car doesn’t start. I call a tow truck driver and tell him a few things about these repairs. He tells me straight up: “Autoworks rips off its customers and offers bad customer service, don’t take it back to them”. He then took a metal bar and wacked the bottom of the car and got it to start— he, in less than 10 seconds, diagnosed the problem as a faulty fuel pump. Needless to say, I did not return to Autoworks. This is literally the first time I’ve taken the trouble to write a review of a business, but I felt compelled in this case to do the public service of alerting people to this shady, or, at the very least, incompetent repair shop. Do not take your car here!

A

Anonymous User

The service guys are rediculously rude. I just moved to ithaca, and took my car to them for a oil change and a trip check (before a thanksgiving trip) since i have to renew my insurance at the AAA nextdoor. they had my car ready in 1 hr, but throw a half bottle unfinished oil (i brought my own oil) in the passenger side without tightening the cap and the oil was all over! luckily i had all weather rubber...they cleaned it but throw the carpet on the ground near my car and i have to install myself ?!...and told me theyve done the trip check everything was fine! After driving for 20 mins the both CEL and VSC came on...shoot...i never had any light on during the past 5 years driving of this lexus...drove home cooled the car and started again to see whether it would go away...again no luck...looked around engine bay with a flashlight to make sure no losing hose....found the oil was all over the plastic underbelly cover and the cover was not tightened...how could a simple oil change go wrong? drove back the next morning morning...the service guy had a really bad attitube saying it has nothing to do with them....yelling at me and saying because I started this non-sense! wow...even if a customer is wrong, can a shop treat them like this, or are they afraid of facing their own mistakes? they didnt even take off the whole underbelly covers to check the car whether everything is tightenend and read the OBD saying its o2 sensor problem (CEL was on, what else could it be?) , which from my understanding is normally not the sensor itself but some condamination during oil change or any airflow related stuff (or sensor itself) coming lose. now not only i have to pay hundreds to fix this problem but also my thanksgiving trip was ruined... Never go to this shop! If I didnt pay for the trip check, they could get away...but they said everything was ok and then not ok at all...plus I found some other leakage and notified them...they say it was not included in the trip check, which is just eye inspection?! I have to say the mechanics might be ok, though they might not be very prudent (damaging sth else while repairing), however the service guy is ridiculous...

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