The problem:
There is a scammer posing as Pete’s Auto Parts, claiming to have parts people need and asking them to pay for them up front, then disappearing. This is a common strategy for auto parts scammers and auto parts scams these days, unfortunately. They impersonate the business using an adjacent email petesautoparts143@gmail.com and they are getting people to send them money. They have no affiliation with Pete’s Auto Parts whatsoever, and we have no way of knowing who they are or stopping them. The police tell us the best thing to do is have anyone caught by an auto parts scam report it to their local police department. And to alert people to the issue so people know to contact us directly and not get caught up in an auto parts scammer situation.
A Little Bit About Us:
My name is Amber Kendrick; in 2016 I bought Pete’s Auto Parts and since then my team and I have grown the company. Pete’s Auto Parts was started in the 50’s by my grandpa, Pete. We are a small business, 31 employees including me, at the time I write this blog. We are on 8 acres on the border of Jenison and Hudsonville; about half of our sales are delivered around West Michigan, and the other half are shipped to other markets like Chicago and Dallas. At Pete’s Auto Parts, we supply quality parts that we test and then harvest from insurance company total loss vehicles. We work hard to do a good job and help people repair their vehicles with much lower costs than going new and better quality than going aftermarket.
What has Happened:
We have been contacted by multiple people saying they purchased a part from Pete’s Auto Parts and wondering where the part is, yet we have no records of any contact with these people. This is an auto parts scam. We record all of our phone calls, and all of our texts are available through a shared company program. We have no records of having the parts or even vehicles people are supposedly getting from us. The issue is that there is an auto parts scammer impersonating us, promising people parts and then once they have the money, disappearing. When people google us and contact us directly, they learn they have been scammed by an experienced auto parts scammer who knew just what to say to get them to send them money. You would be surprised how many people end up sending money to an auto parts scam. Unfortunately this is not just a problem for Pete’s Auto Parts, it’s happening all over the country, they switch from business to business, using their auto parts scam to get money they did not earn and will not return. We are sickened that they are getting away with this, that in 2026 an auto parts scam even works! The auto parts scammers are getting trickier and are posting real vehicles making them look like a legitimate business when they are not, they are simply an auto parts scam.
Trust, but Verify.
Pete’s Auto Parts is a trustworthy business, and we will never ask you to pay in such a way that you have no way to get your money back. We do send credit card links to pay, but if you did not receive the goods you ordered, you could do a credit card chargeback. We also accept PayPal and Venmo as a business with purchase protection, and the same is true for those methods, you have a way to get your funds back if we do not deliver on our promises. That is not the case with methods like CashApp, WhatsApp, Zelle, BitCoin, if you pay someone with these methods there is no way to get your money back if that person does not deliver on what they said they would do. We implore you, if you are being asked to pay for an auto part, before you do that reach out to us directly at our published telephone line (talk or text!) or request an email and verify it came from a name at petesauto.net – we will NEVER use a gmail or yahoo or another provider we will ALWAYS send you messages from our main number and our normal petesauto.net emails!
What can we do?
If someone reaches out to you claiming to be from Pete’s Auto Parts, do not give them any information or pay for anything before you contact us directly!
If you have been scammed, by someone claiming to be from Pete’s Auto Parts or otherwise, get any contact info you can from them to report to your local police department. If you are in Ottawa County like Pete’s Auto Parts, head to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s website to file an incident report and choose “Fraud.” You can even reference our permanent case number 2026-05270700. If you are located somewhere else, you will want to contact your local police department to file an incident report.
Make sure you are following our REAL facebook page https://www.facebook.com/PetesAutoParts/ and if you’d be so kind as to report the fake page, you can click the three dots and choose Report Page, then Something About this Page, then Fake Page, then choose it is pretending to be a business. If you type in Pete’s Auto Parts, we come right up and you can report to facebook they are impersonating us. So far, facebook has not been willing to take the page down because the criminal activity is not posted on the page, it’s just fake vehicle listings from an auto parts scam.
Thank you for reading and for helping, stay safe out there!
You can reach out to Pete’s Auto Parts by calling or texting 616-669-6592 or you can search our site here on our used auto parts search page.
