**Bad VW part vendor WARNING list**

[SuburbanTDI]

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.

 

[jasonTDI]

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.

 

[rackaracka]

This should be a sticky

 

[turbocharged798]

This should be a sticky

X2

It would also be a good idea to edit out the links and just leave them as text. This way Google won't bring his sites up more.

 

[SuburbanTDI]

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.

 

[ninedee_golf_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]

It is so much easier to buy from the forum supporting TDIclub vendors.

 

[bhtooefr]

Alternately, use [noparse] tags around each URL.

 

[deep_sea]

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.

 

[GoFaster]

Alternately, use [noparse] tags around each URL.

Good idea. Done.

 

[TDIJetta99]

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..

 

[Ausgezeichnet TDi]

So can someone tell me how this joker got accreditation from the BBB, and has a freakin A- rating?!?

HERE's the complaint history, not enough if you ask me...

 

[turbocharged798]

At least it dropped. It used to be a A+.

 

[SuburbanTDI]

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.

 

[jpsum]

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.

 

[Ausgezeichnet TDi]

I figured as much, thanks for the explanation!

 

[turbocharged798]

Prothe is a member here:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=87399

Maybe OP can add this link to the first post.

 

[kooyajerms]

I got tired after an hour and a half, but I thought it was necessary. I'll add more to the list if you put a date and describe the link like I did. How's that for spoon feeding?


Unacceptable parts from Prothe. The majority of these cases, there was no retribution.

10/07 The wrong kit is sent (confirmed to client it was right) tensioner let go = dead head
12/07 a turbo that takes way too much work to "plug and play"
1/08 Another difficult "plug and play" turbo
3/08 Thread with Prothe responding to customer disattisfaction
3/08 A badly constructed timing belt kit
3/09 A bad 1z turbo that failed on start up
11/09 Dead on arrival injection pump
12/09 A bad injection pump that won't start right or idle correctly
1/10 Prothe speaks
4/10 A Prothe rebuilt injection pump
5/10 A rebuilt injection pump that grenaded
5/10 A "plug and play" turbo that never fit right
7/10 Prothe brokers a junk engine to a customer
9/10 A bad prothe Maf
10/10 A Prothe injection pump that never runs right, sad
11/10 Prothe head with a good TB kit don't mix
1/11 Same type of head damage at 3800 miles
1/11 Head gets lunched as the timing belt kit fails 2269 miles down the road
3/11 Timing belt kit that lasted 549 miles
4/11 A timing belt that ripped apart and Prothe not taking responsibility
6/11 A bad injection pump
7/23 A bad injection pump from injection-pump dot com

I kinda wish this pop-up thread showed up to all new members/lurkers

 

[vwishndaetr]

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]

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

lol

westportparts.com/volkswaparts/TermsOfSale.htm

 

[bluesmoker]

a vendor takes on prothe

read the cost of a real turbo vis a vi a prothe turbo, lol

http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=14291.0

 

[TDIJetta99]

Most places that sell parts of any kind have warranties like that... NAPA, Autozone, etc are all like that..

 

[thebigarniedog]

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]

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]

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."

 

[Vince Waldon]

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

100x... he'd not exist if people weren't always looking for a steal of a deal.

 

[nitrocharger]

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

 

[AARodriguez Corp.]

It looks like TDIclub vendor:

"The Bug Dash"

May not be a good person to do business with


http://newbeetle.org/forums/parts-a...w-beetle-plastic-dash-cover-8.html#post547970

http://newbeetle.org/forums/parts-a...w-beetle-plastic-dash-cover-8.html#post547970

 

[Timmahhhh]

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]

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...