**Bad VW part vendor WARNING list**

SuburbanTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Location
Midwest
TDI
Beetle TDI, and two Jetta TDI
In honor of "Prothe" also known as "Proethe" who seems to have single handedly destroyed more TDI's than anyone else -
See the current threads
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=314980
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=199567
and http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=310437
And plenty elsewhere ... http://newbeetle.org/forums/feedback-forum/47214-warned-www-volkswaparts-com.html,
or here http://www.myturbodiesel.com/forum/f5/rothenbacher-enterprises-turbo-3720/
More are linked here, just lower on this tread: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=3433761&postcount=18
And who creates fronts seemingly on the fly to escape his bad reputation:
www.airoilandfuelfilters.com
www.bmw-cabrio-heckscheibe.com
www.bmw-convertible-window.com
www.cabrio-bmw-heckscheibe.de
www.central-locking-system.com
www.chevy-power-locks.com
www.clear-vinyl.com
www.convertible-window.com
www.convertiblewindscreen.co.uk
www.dieselvw.com
www.dieselvw-canada.com
www.emiata.com
www.ford-power-locks.com
www.ford-trucks-power-windows.com
www.hansautoparts.com
www.hansautoparts.co.uk
www.HansAutoTeile.com
www.hanscarparts.com
www.hansautoparts-charlotte.com
www.hansersatzteile.com
www.hansdieselparts.com
www.hanswagen.com
www.honda-power-locks.com
www.inductionrange.net
www.injection-pump.com
www.krautwagenparts.com
www.krautwagen.co.uk
www.lunette-peugeot-cabriolet.com
www.mazda-miata-window.com
www.Mercedes-Diesel-Parts.com
www.mtdiinjectorpump.com
www.parking-sensor.net
www.passat-parts.com
www.power-trunk.com
www.rothenbacher.us
www.rothengine.com
www.sauerkrautparts.com
www.stuttgart-parts.com
www.tdi-parts.com
www.tdi-engines.net
www.turbosandparts.com
www.toyota-power-locks.com
www.volksdiesel.com
www.volkswaparts.com
www.volkswaparts.co.uk
www.vwdieseltools.com
www.vwersatzteile.com
www.vwteileaususa.com
www.wagenparts.com
www.waterdistillation.net
www.westgermancarparts.com
www.westportparts.com
www.wobparts.com
www.wolfsburgparts.com
And which is owned by:

Pete Rothenbacher
Rothenbacher Engineering
5005 Smith Farm Rd.
Matthews, NC 28104
This is just southeast of Charlotte, NC about a mile off of Interstate 485 & US74 (Independence Blvd)
Phone Number: 1.704.684.1237 FAX: (267) 350-8978.
Also uses phone number (704) 684-1235, and can expect he owns a number of related numbers in that tree (704) 684-12XX. (I'd even bet that 684-1234 rings his desk directly)
http://maps.google.com/maps?um=1&ie...ocal_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQnwIwAA
Facebook for company http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rothenbacher-Enterprises/115638871830781
Owners Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002435566739&sk=wall
EBay account USA http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/prothe/?_trksid=p4340.l2559
EBay account UK http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/prothe/?_trksid=p4340.l2559
http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=87399
I've created this thread in order to list the "Bad" ones.
 
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jasonTDI

TDI GURU Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Location
Oregon, WI
TDI
20' RAM 3500 CCLB dually HO/Aisan. 2019 Cherokee 2.0T
There's a small law firm in Salt Lake City, UT by the name Howard, Phillips & Andersen that might like this thread...

or the direct email to them Jason P. Eves, jason@hpalaw.com might be interested in all the illegally used web names. (801)366-7709.
 

SuburbanTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Location
Midwest
TDI
Beetle TDI, and two Jetta TDI
I'd agree for the vast majority of mentions of him here onsite - but having it linked one time in this one place as an aggregation increases the chance that Google will direct traffic here for any search done on him.
 
Joined
Apr 27, 2003
Location
Stafford Virginia 22556
TDI
96 glx variant tdi
Holy Mackeral..... I've said before, and will say it again. That man laughs at us every day as he walks to the bank to make his daily deposit.

The only thing I might suggest is to break up those urls so they aren't actual links. No sense giving the devil his due.
 

PeterV

TDIClub Enthusiast, HO5G Doyen & Zen Master
Joined
Aug 17, 2000
Location
So, NH.
TDI
2000 Jetta 5 sp.
It is so much easier to buy from the forum supporting TDIclub vendors.
 

deep_sea

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2011
Location
Bastrop, TX
TDI
'06 Jetta TDI 5spd, 1997 F350 Power Stroke, '13 Jetta TDI 6mt
Fingers crossed, but I bought my pistons, rod bearings, and lifters from him before I ran across any of the bad publicity for this dealer. I have nearly 5k miles on my rebuild so far, and all is running fine. Hopefully I got lucky.
 

TDIJetta99

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 17, 2005
Location
Port Jervis, New York, USA
TDI
03... Faster than yours =]
I've gotten intercoolers from him before and they seem fine.. I needed one for a 1.8T Passat last week and everyone, I mean EVERYONE was up over $250... He had one for $80... Figured it was worth a shot.. Worked fine.. I will not get internal engine parts from him, or anything that will take the engine out with it when it fails, but some stuff it really doesn't matter, especially with that huge of a price difference..
 

SuburbanTDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Location
Midwest
TDI
Beetle TDI, and two Jetta TDI
All the BBB looks for is whether he takes back defective merchandise and honors returns, etc.

He does take back defective merchandise, if you can extract say, your broken piston or nutted timing belt pieces and mail it back, he will cheerfully send you another from his store. And after many, many hours of new labor and a cartload of additional new parts (entirely at your expense and risk, parts are not warranted as being safe for use in your motor) - you are free to put that replacement part right back in.

For say, an injector pump, the warranty is 6 months. For all items, including those with a longer warranty, FINE PRINT: "Failure to return the original box with the parts and an order confirmation included will void..." So keep all the paper and boxes, you WILL need them.

If you do not use a part and return it within 45 days in the original packaging, he will also cheerfully refund your money - minus 15%.

The BBB cares not a whit what crap he sells, how often he changes "location", or the damage caused by his wares or high bars to return and excess charges. Those things have nothing to do with his rating.
 
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jpsum

Vendor
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Location
CT
TDI
2010
BBB really don't mean much. As a BBB accredited business owner myself, all they want from me is the annual fee for the membership - which is a few hundred dollars per year. As long as the business respond to all complaints made to BBB and show some kind of effort into solving the complaint, BBB won't put the complaints against the business.

I remember when we first signed up for BBB, we immediately got an A- rating.
 
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kooyajerms

grocery getter
Joined
May 5, 2004
Location
Pomona, Southern California
TDI
97 B4V (mine), 11 x5 35d (hers) 04 V10 (that one you want), 2014 Q7 (mom's) 74 Shasta 1400

vwishndaetr

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
Location
WNC
TDI
98 Jetta
Interesting. Though I am a pretty strict follower of "you get what you pay for" so I doubt I would buy anything excessively cheap, I am glad I ran into this. I've been on it for a few minutes following a link from VWVortex, and what he has to offer is inhumane.

Engineering? Jeeeeze.
 

bluesmoker

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Location
Maple Ridge, B.C.
TDI
2004 pd 5 speed tip
check out his warranty:


If a part that RE sells is claimed to be defective or incompatible, RE does not cover installation or removal expenses of that part. If a part that RE sells is alleged to have caused damages to other parts in a customer's car, RE is not responsible for those damages.

translation, if the tb kit lets go and your valves and pistons make love in the block he will GLADLY replace the tb kit

sounds fair does it not:eek:

lol

westportparts.com/volkswaparts/TermsOfSale.htm
 
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thebigarniedog

Master of the Obvious
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Location
Fail Command (Central Ohio)
TDI
1998 Jetta tdi
read the cost of a real turbo vis a vi a prothe turbo, lol

http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=14291.0
That thread was doomed from the start. The issue was immediately twisted to being one of vendor envy on the part of the OP in that thread (ie Prothe's ability to sell at a significantly lower price point then the OP who was/is a vendor). It went downhill from there.

Sadly, there are a significant number of people out there that believe everything in life is a conspiracy, a coverup, a sporting event with sides and personally subscribe to the "it could never happen to me mentality" --- all of which are/were on display in that thread.

Prothe sells on price. There is simply no arguing that point. The point that is arguable is the quality of certain select parts offered and the risk of use of those parts on one's vehicle. There seems to be enough horror stories on enthusiast websites from unwitting buyers to the effect that if you buy a turbo, an injection pump, a timing belt kit, or a replacement head or internal engine part from Prothe that you are at an increased risk of experiencing a catastrophic failure to your engine.

Now compare that with the lack of horror stories on enthusiast websites from other vendors or from dealer sourced parts --- and then ask why. I think that is a fair question that an individual buyer must make on their own when choosing whether to buy from Prothe. To our conspiracy friends who want to pipe in about comparing total sales of Prothe to any one vendor --- put all those vendors together with dealer sourced parts. The reported catastrophic failures is therefore worthy of a warning on such Prothe parts IMO.
 

k_harley

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Location
Lowell, MA
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI, 2005 Audi S4, 1997 Audi A4 Race car, 2004 Passat TDI 6MT 4motion
I take every possible opportinity to steer my customers away from his products. I probably saved him at least 50 pissed off customers. Ha, he should thank me!!!
 

Franko6

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
May 7, 2005
Location
Sw Missouri
TDI
Jetta, 99, Silver`
I just looked at some of his Taiwanese pistons. The weights are over 4 gr off. To me, that's too much and in a sampling of only 4 pistons. I don't know the brand of rings. For that I get VERY particular.

I would consider buying from him, "Aiding and abetting."
 

nitrocharger

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 20, 2011
Location
NC
TDI
14 Q7
Unless he is registered with the Board of Engineering and Surveying in the state of NC it is unlawful for him to use the word "engineering" in his business name
 

Timmahhhh

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 1, 2011
Location
Glendora California
TDI
2005 Jetta Wagon 5 Speed
Rothenbacher is a scum-bag. He burnt me on some parts to the tune of about $40. I filed the BBB complaint, but don't expect it to go anywhere. I have toyed with the idea of suing him as I am an attorney, but I don't see how I could ever make it worth while, so I will just vent here a little bit. Avoid this guy like the plague. It should have been a giveaway when every email I sent got answered by someone from a different website name. Oh well. F. this douche.
 

bhtooefr

TDIClub Enthusiast, ToofTek Inventor
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Location
Newark, OH
TDI
None
I'm almost wondering if we should set up a fund to pay for the legal expenses necessary to get this guy out of business...
 
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