The Cal-look Lounge

im sorry this is my first post in the lounge, i will show you cal look and VWs are big in Northern Ireland 8)



if this is in the wrong forum, let me know

I want to let anybody consideiring buying a performance engine, of the Bussiness practices of Ben at TDC VW

I bought a 2275 Longblock from Ben at www.tdcvwparts.com

from the start it was very bad workmanship, and not built correctly

then i discover that actually he had sold me, what was described as an all new engine, was in fact one he had sold, was damaged , returned for refund, then dishonestly and intentionaly sold on to me






it started when i received the engine the heads were not bolted on correctly

this immediately started alarm bells rnging as to the overall build quality

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0249.jpg)


i checked the other side and the rocker stud nut wasnt fully on

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0248.jpg)

to top it the shims under the rokers were of different thicknesses on either side of the engine

I Sortted that out, with Ben the vendor, blaming the builder,

i eventually spent two weeks installing the engine,
it took so long as i made sure carbs were set, gauges were intalled, fuel regulator installed, new fuel lines, bought new exhaust because the one i had was crp etc, i was doing it right!


i started the engine, sweet!

for less than 5 minutes before it seized

i complained to the vendor

there was heated communication, he utimately offered a full refund, what a top guy i thought
then he withrew his offer
then he refused to honor the warranty citing , "no warranty  for longblocks bigger than 1914"
fortuneately i was able to send him the warrant information he sent me stating it applied to all longblocks

he said he would replace damaged parts so i began to pull it apart

i discovered the longblock was not assembled correctly at all, it had seized on no.1 main

the pistons hit the case at BDC

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0040.jpg)

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0041.jpg)


he ultimately offered to make it right, but never made god his problem

during his silence  i posted it on thesamba feedback forums, as thats where he advertises

i got contcted by another forum user

turns out he used to own "my brandnew engine"


so worse than selling me a badly assembled engine that was doomed from the start and not fit for purpose, he sold me one he knew was damaged aand tryed to pass it off to me

I emailed and told him i knew
he denied it
I emailed him the photos
he blamed his builder again
I gave him one more chance to refund me
Ive never heard from him again

so heres some pictures
firstly during my teardown
note the engine case number and the way 2275 was written by the oil cooler mount
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0031.jpg)

and note the paint marks, and dipstick

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/IMG_0032.jpg)


now heres the pictures from the guy in North Carolina

(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/DSC01939.jpg)
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g205/colinD_01/TDCengine/SN850978.jpg)

theres loads of emails demonstrating that Ben knew of the engine
the damage repairs etc
and he sold it to me telling many lies

im in the UK, so will find it very difficult to sort this out
I want to let all know of his bussiness practices

I have no doubt there are some satisfied customers of his, but he ripped me off big time, intenionaly and knowledgeably

full story with details pictures and emails showing his Lies here
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=188935&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40

I feel your pain, dude. I had a similar experience last year with a guy that built an engine for my mustang. The main problem I had was .030 over pistons in .040 over cylinders and a few other issues. I took him to court but he filed for bankruptcy and ended srewing me out of about $7000.00.  Have you considered talking to a lawyer?

Sorry to hear you problems this sort of thing really pisses me off ,

I posted about them some months ago looking for feed back as I was looking at one of their engines and thank God I was warned off them big time.

I'm told that its possible that they are connected to another famous rip off artist from California that took alot of $$$$ from the cal look / vw community last year.

Did you pay by credit card? I hope youre able to get some moneyback

Good luck

I got F:&*^d big time by Steve Houston,(Serrano's),  but got my money back thanks to the copys of e-mails i send to the creditcard company.

Good Luck man.

sorry to hear!
but don't the TDC ads on thesamba mention they have a UK office too?

the phone number isn't a london code, must just be a generic re-direct to his US number

would you believe steve houston emailed me , laughing at my situation :o, theres strong rumours of a link between them, and stories of how Ben at TDC bought his stock, the day before he went bust ::)

as ben pointes out, its not london based but an attemot to get uk buyers an easier access to buying his crap

He was laughing at you?

Houston's a douche.  He's been emailing out a lot of "haha, I screwed you and got away with it" type of emails lately to several different people.  And Ben at TDC did indeed purchase his inventory after Serrano's went bust.

I met that guy the night before the Bug-In this past April! He was saying what a shmuck Serrano's was... go figure ::)

Hey Jester,

Sorry to hear your sad story about your hard earned cash go lose...  I live in Belgium and 2 years ago we wanted to order some parts in the states for engines with a few friends.  This TDC guy had the best prices, but I wanted to work with somebody I know, like Alex from ISP West and I convinced my friends to do so also.  They will be glad they agreed with me to work with ISP only of they read this.

As a banker, I can tell you strange things are happening due to the financial crisis of the century.  My advice is to be very prudent on who to work with in these times.  Stick to peaple who you know or a friend knows.

I hope you get your engine fixed with not to many costs...

Regards,

Philip

Yeh he was, at his misfortune.

Iv followed this on VZi and the Samba and im finally glad its got on here, ppl need to know what a WANKER this guy has been to "Jester" (Dont know your real name) messing him around something stupid.

Hope you still get your dream engine in the end dude.

I know most of you guys dont read Norwegian, but this guy has had the same thing happened to him by TDC. He didnt even get a broken engine, he got nothing....

I get so pissed off, someone needs a good beating

http://www.vwnorge.no/index.php/topic,7491.0.html

i'm always up for a good beatdown, point him out