wow... Rob, that`s a bummer... glad you got things sorted out now. I was planning on having "him" do my trans too a few years ago.... glad I didnt soooo.... when do you come over and lay some rubber in my street....
He painted the housing with dirt on it, with the pan off, so everything inside nicely painted too, installed a worn band, did not install a filter-extension, for picking up the fluid out of the deep pan, used a worn rotor and a crappy stator, a forward bushing was all grooved, another bushing installed in the wrong direction, left some parts out of the valve-body etc.
Well, as mentioned, life has been tough on the guy, so no need to take revenge.
The Belgian guy told me that it would have been easier for him and cheaper for me to rebuild from scratch, than fixing this tranny... Luckily he felt bad for us: my son has been working with him last year, so we have a good personal relationship. We paid for what he thought was fair. It set me back, but he was not the one that messed up. And of course, when our car is ready for it's inititial start up we will haul it over there, and he will do all final checks, and will fix our mess-ups. In this way, he made sure we will give him our business.
When my business is the way it has been so far this year, I think we will be ready for start up around january-february 2012.
But of course I will lay some good Volkswagen rubber in your street!