I've posted about my run-ins with this shiester in the past and they've all been long-winded and it makes peoples eyes glass over. So I'm going to make this as short as I can.
Dealing with Hobby Farm / Hotshot was the single worst prop buying experience I've ever had on every conceivable level. I will never do business with him again and, if I can help it, I'll never speak to or about him again.
In December I approached Hotshot to do a light weight, foam video game style proton pack.
We worked out a delivery date of mid to late Feb. He was hosting build parties at his home two weekends in Feb. One in the middle of the month and one at the end. I was told it would be ready by, "If not the first weekend then definitely the second." I told him repeatedly and in great detail it was very important to have it by a Con in mid March. Someone literally died so I could attend this show. This deadline was part of the original deal. I was going to use it in my marriage proposal.
Those dates came and went and no pack was delivered.
During this time he was managing a large run of an unrelated product on theRPF instead of working on my pack.
We arranged pickup for the Monday before the big Con.
Monday - couldn't deliver because it wasn't ready.
By now communication had turned odd. He had always been pleasant enough but it became apparent it was bullshit. His nice guy facade was cracking and he was making bizarre and offputting comments.
Tuesday - couldn't deliver because he claimed he had to travel 4 hours out of his way to get red gels for the cyclotron lenses. Seriously.
Wednesday - he said the ion arms collapsed and he couldn't deliver. He said he was being rushed and tried to blame us for his mistake. He had months to do this work and it was weeks past his original deadline but somehow we were rushing him.
Thursday - he told us they would be delivered. 100% with no chance there would be a problem. He agreed to meet us at a certain place (3 hour round trip for each of us) very early in the morning.
He didn't show up. He didn't answer calls or texts, didn't answer facebook messages, pm's on theRPF or posts on theRPF.
He claimed he was too busy working on the pack the night before and overslept. He didn't make any attempt to talk to us until over 3 hours after our scheduled pick up time.
I told him I knew he was a liar and that he was nowhere near finishing the pack. I told him he'd made too many transparent excuses and lied too often and the time for diplomacy was over.
I filed a paypal claim against him. I felt he was not to be trusted and had given up on getting my pack and feared my money would never be returned.
He called me a bully and threw a tantrum and said he'd never work with me again. He responded to my paypal claim with a series of outright fabrications and paypal ruled in his favor.
A few weeks later he met a friend of mine (who had the same experience as me but ordered 2 packs totaling over a thousand dollars) and finally delivered the product.
After everything, I did end up with an ugly, junky pack that had more problems than it's worth. See this thread for details about that:
http://www.gbfans.com/community/viewtop ... =2&t=39244 The stress this transactions caused in the lead up to this Con (and proposal) and the emotional highs and lows of being promised a product then denied it... it was just all too much to deal with. Then there was the constant stream of lies and excuses I had to endure, and having him try to spin it like it was my fault was just stomach turning and pathetic. It was a headache when I believed I had been defrauded for over $800. When he lied and twisted the facts with paypal to deny my refund it cemented his character, or lack thereof.
He's full of platitudes and he's good at playing the victim. Nothing is ever his fault, his excuses are always laughably bad and he places no value in his word or the promises he's made. He cannot be trusted, his products are very low quality and he gives this hobby a bad name.