I think that the original poster was not commenting on quality work which is getting confused with matters like returning phone calls and giving an honest assessment of the completion dates. I will not elaborate on the obvious. But in one case I did pay ransome with another gunsmith. I did not feel playing hard ball would get me anywhere and possession is 9/10 th's of the law. So when I did get though to the guy , we agreed on when it would get done, far longer than originally promised, but at the end of the conversation I told him if he stuck to the schedule I would pay him an amount MORE than the original quote and told him how much. He had a good rep and all he had to do was return calls and explain why he could not keep to the original schedule. That disclosure goes a long way. The work was done on the agree second date and I paid him the extra ( ransome) . Will not use him again. Something for him and something for me.
