So towards the end of last Fall I purchased a set of H Plus laced to Phils off of Craigslist for a pretty sweet deal. Initially when I asked the kid where he got the wheels he said Chari(NYC shop) but after I'd given him the money and continued chatting him up, he revealed that while he got the parts at Chari he had actually built the wheels himself.

I only rode the bike a handful of times over the winter, using my beater to get around most of the time. Over the last two months I've started riding the bike with the wheels again and about a week ago I noticed a weird sound coming from my back wheel. I checked it out and it seemed a few spokes were loose. After taking it to a shop they informed that the rim was bent and my best option was to keep riding it until something major happened, but I was gonna have to replace the rim and spokes one way or the other. They also said a few of the nipples were stripped.

Is it bad advice to keep riding on a bent rim?
Will this mess up my hubs?
Was the bent rim most likely caused by a faulty build?

I'm concerned about replacing the rim with another H Plus if they problem has to do with rim quality. In my opinion mismatched H Plus look kinda wonky so I would probably just sell the front and get another brand altogether, but then I'm worried about selling someone a faulty front rim if it's similar to the back.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

Get a new bike shop.
The wheel was a crappy build.
Should still be salvageable.
Hubs will be fine.

Enjoy