Hey Tim,
I feel your pain man. Believe me.... $2.5k is a lot of money. I can't remember if I documented my back and forth email experience with Bob but it was very similar to yours. I purchased this pack on eBay as an alleged "DEAL". His premium packs with sound were advertised on his site at $2500. His eBay listing was listed as his "premium pack" discounted $500. So at $2k, I jumped on it! Soon after, he reached out to me and offered me the "sound package" for $500 to ensure I had the pack I always dreamed of. Confused, I mentioned that his pack was listed as his "premium pack" which includes lights and sound (built in speaker). After several back and forth emails, he removed his premium pack listing on his site and said the one I purchased WAS NOT the premium pack. Not wanting to deal with this anymore, I upgraded to the sound package and sent an additional $500. (God that hurts to say that out loud). As soon as I switched on the pack, the cyclotron lights wouldn't cycle and the pack wouldn't charge. Despite the fact that the parts looked second rate and the matty wand malfunctioned in more ways than I can describe, Bob was late to respond to my email complaints, didn't offer to ship it back at his expense to fix something I just paid $2.5k for, and didn't want to refund my money. Ultimately, he gave me $100 off but i was still left with his POS proton pack. Oh, and for the record, the pack I received was not the pack shown in the Pawn Stars episode.
As much as I realized I had made a mistake, it wasn't until I found GBFans that I realized how much money I could have saved myself by building my own pack. Lucky for me, Joe Luna offered to refurbish my pack. Joe did an amazing job and through him and the community, I met a lot of great people. I'm extremely happy with how it turned out and proud of how it looks and operates today. On top of the refurb, building my own proton gun (No Matty Wand! Woohoo!!!!,) adding an e-cig smoke gimmick, upgrading to the GB TVG Light Kit, and adding a custom modified GB2 Sound Stream allows me to feel like this pack is unique to me. If it wasn't for GBFans, Joe, and the rest of the community, this pack would still be an eye sore (and wallet sore) sitting in my apartment. All guys like us can do is warn others of guys like Bob and hopefully prevent someone from making the same mistake. But again.... I feel your pain.
Thanks for sharing your story. If you haven't already, talk to Joe. He'll make your pack look like a million bucks.