Complaint Review: Scott Hunter Photography - Lebanon Tennessee

This report is intended to warn any potential customers to be very, very careful when having dealings with Scott Hunter.  For the past several months, he has been selling parts for cars and now a car as an extension of his other business, under the name hunterphototn.

This guy elevates the phrae "snake oil salesman" to a whole new dimension.  I wasted three weeks of my time and money out of my pocket after reaching an agreement with him on buying a car, only to find out that he was stalling on closing the deal while he searched for a better offer.  He spun a web of lies that became so complicated that in the final e-mail exchanges with him he ended up not being able to work his way out of it, and even had the gall to try to turn it back on my by claiming that I was the one who was wrong because he could not work within my timeline.  I've enclosed a description of the specifics of the transaction below, as posted on a car forum called pelicanparts.com (where the car was listed).  I found out late in the process that he already had a claim of ripping someone off on a previous sale, as shown here (scroll down to the bottom); http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-used-parts-sale-wanted/508480-1983-cabrio-parts-plus-fuchs.html#post4987936

Scott can come across as very sincere over the phone and in e-mail exchanges, but his lying is absolutely pathological.  If you do business with him, don't accept his word for anything - get everything in writing, dot the i's and cross the t's, and don't pay him until you are sure that you have everything he promised.  If he stalls on delivering something or another commitment, walk away quickly before you waste three weeks chasing a deal with him.

Below are the details of my experience dealing with Scott:

This post is intended to warn potential buyers to carefully check out this car before considering it.  I let myself get sucked into almost three weeks of frustration because, despite the warning bells going off in my head, the car appeared to be a really good deal for the price.  I first found this car on E-Bay a few weeks back and placed a bid on it.  That evening I received an ominous sounding e-mail from E-Bay stating that the listing had been removed because of potential risks to buyers.  I Sent an e-mail to the seller to follow up, more out of curiousity than anything.  E-Bay auction listed the VIN number as all zeros.  Seller claimed that E-Bay wouldn't accept the VIN number he entered.  In a phone conversation with seller I asked some basic questions about the car.  Then I paid to get a carfax on it and found a salvage title from 1989, which became a clean title two or three registrations later after the car crossed state lines.  Seller was fully aware of this, but did not offer it in our discussions prior to me finding it on carfax.  Still not listening to warning bells, I accepted seller's explanation that he was told by a previous owner that the car was not significantly damaged in the incident leading to the salvage title 20 years ago, and that the car was really clean.  I thought that if the original salvage title involved something like auto theft of an accident that did not involve any significant frame damage, it might still be a good deal.  After several e-mails, phone calls and picture exchanges over several days, on Friday, March 20th I made a verbal offer on the car which the seller accepted, pending an inspection at the local Porsche dealer, about 20 miles from his house. I am 1,100 miles away, and the plan was for the dealer to inspect the car, then if it panned out I (or my son) would fly down to Louisville, drive 2 1/2 hours to where the car is, pay cash and then drive it back to the relative's house in Louisville to arrange shipping by car carrier to my place.  Seller was fine with everything and when I asked how much he wanted for a deposit, he said he didn't need anything - my word was ok (another warning bell).  Then, after agreeing to the inspection at the dealer, he tried to casually steer me to have the car inspected instead by a local buddy of his who "used to work for a Porsche dealership" and was the one who inspected the car when the seller bought it last year.  I declined and asked again for arrangements to be made, on my dime, for the local Porsche dealer to inspect it.  I explained that the only way my wife was going to green light this was if it was inspected first.  The seller did not continue to press the issue, and agreed enthusiastically to drop off the car "sometime next week".  The real warning bell for me later should have been his repeated offer to have he and his wife drive the car to my relative's house (2 1/2 hour drive one way) so we could inspect it and make a decision, while he was stalling on taking it to the dealer 20 miles away for inspection. He said he had an out of state trip on Monday, but would get it taken care of early in the week when he returned.  I called the dealer to let them know and to give them information for payment of the inspection. By Wednesday nothing had happened so I sent another e-mail to seller.  He said that he had been detained on his business trip but would definately be back on Friday and would take care of it "the first day he returned", and that he had already called and spoken to my contact at the dealer to arrange it.  I called the dealer once more to notify them and make the arrangements.  On Monday the following week, still not hearing from the seller or the dealer, I contacted the seller, and he said that he would be in town all week and would take care of it on Wednesday.   I confirmed by e-mail first thing Wednesday morning that he was going to take it in that day, and he immediately e-mailed me back and said that everything looked good for that day.  Called the dealer immediately to notify them, and they indicated they had not heard from the seller at all.  More warning bells. Late Wednesday afternoon I sent an e-mail to the seller saying I had not heard anything from the dealer so I assumed he was there right now having it inspected.  Response back just after 4 pm was that he had a photo session with a client and that he planned "to zoom down to the dealer after that" to take care of it.  I sent an e-mail back saying that it was a two hour inspection, the dealer closed at 5, and it was 20 miles away.  I also reaffirmed with the seller that I wanted to get this taken care of quickly so that I did not have to buy expensive airline tickets last minute, and that I had a narrow window for getting this deal done as I had an overseas trip the following week and a heavy travel schedule after that. I did not hear back from him.  
I feel really foolish saying this now after so many clear warning bells on this, but the final straw was when I revisited the listing for the car on Pelican and saw that it was updated on March 23 by the seller with a statement, "still available".  This was four days after we reached our verbal agreement and right in the middle of my trying to get the seller to follow through on his promise to drop the car off at the dealer for an inspection.  Called the seller one more time late that evening as I was driving home from work and asked him to call me the next morning.  Neither my e-mail or phone call from that day were ever returned.  That's when it finally got through to me - he's stringing along buyers (there was one before me from Florida who backed out unexpectedly at the last minute" according to the seller) in the hopes that someone will buy the car without having it inspected by a dealership.
From the pictures, the car looks clean, and the asking price sounds too good to be true.  The seller does a good job of talking up the car, and initially appears to be sincere and trustworthy.  I should have listened to the early warning bells and walked away from this one two weeks ago.  I'm not saying that the car is not a good deal for the price, but a seller who would not honor a verbal agreement while stalling repeatedly on keeping his word to have a dealer inspection done should give any potential buyer reason for pause when considering buying this car from this seller.  I'll chalk this one up to experience in my first search for a 911, and the old saying, "if it looks too good to be true, it probably is".

After posting this, I received two responses within 24 hours from other forum members thanking me because they had approached him about the car.

Final chapter of this is the e-mail I received from him within an hour after notifying him that I was going to post the negative review:

 

Sorry you feel that way. Car had timing belt issue I am taking to mech on Monday. For it to be fixed.  Just because I Dont jump on your time 

frame you feel the right to be ugly.  Sad    I have three other 

parties and they are more than willing to purchase.   One just flew 

back home today after looking at it and falling in love with it.  

Really can't believe some people.

 

Scott

615-390-2476

His parting shot was to first try to put the blame on me because he "didn't jump on my timeline" (this after two weeks and four promises to take the car into the dealer).  Finally, with this e-mail he reinforces the whole problem.  By admitting that he has three other parties, one who just flew out today, he acknowledges that he had been working to sell the car to another buyer to try to leverage the highest price possible, while holding onto my offer in his back pocket and lying repeatedly about taking the car into the dealer. 

In over 25 years of business, I have had dealings with very few people who were this adept at deceit and lying.

Get it in writing, and don't pay for it until you have it in hand and know that it is exactly what he promised.