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Finding a gunsmith who is competent, timely in their work and easy to communicate with has turned out to be difficult for me. There are good gunsmiths where I live, but none of them are SxS specialists. I had a set of LC Smith barrels blued locally, for a lot more money then initially quoted, and it was done poorly. I lived with them for several years, but was unhappy. A friend put me in touch with a gunsmith out east with a national, and deserved, reputation for quality work. I talked with him and he said he would inspect my barrels and reblue them at a fair price and get them back in two months. Three months later I called him and he explained why he had not touched my barrels yet. This guy is an "artist", so I waited. With polite monthly phone calls to check on things he finally inspected them after 5 months and said they would be finished in 2 weeks. His voice mail was then always full and he never returned an email. Two months later he actually answered the phone and explained about all the work ahead of my barrels. I never was able to communicate with him after that. After 10 months I talked to my friend, who spends many thousands of dollars a year in this guys shop, to please intervene. His phone call was, of course, returned. My barrels had not yet been blued, but they were done in the next batch and I got them back a month later. No apology or explanation for the extra time. My 2 month job took 11 months and I don't know if I would have ever gotten them back without my friend. Needless to say this fellow is not getting any more work from me. He apparently does not care about pleasing clients. His work is often raved about, and he is quite talented. I no longer care about how great a gunsmith is if he is unable to come even close to a promised delivery time. I have found a small group of craftspeople who can do excellent work in a timely manner and are a pleasure to communicate with. I just had a scalloped box lock restocked in 5 weeks, and it is superb. It was also not mind boggling expensive. Also just had someone else work on my AE Fox that needed some mechanical work and a full reblue of all parts, including filing and polishing. Took 6 weeks and looks wonderful. I'll be bringing him more work. I'm a professional and if I treated my clients the way many gunsmiths treat their clients I would go out of business. The excuse that they are artists and craftsmen and should be excused for this behavior just does not cut it with me.
Good luck,
Jeff

Reminds me of an old joke about Pierre the Frenchman, who wished to be known as "artiste" . . . but was always called something else due to a certain sexual deviation which should not be mentioned in polite company.

This is why I started learning gun work years ago. I waited way too long and paid too much for a lousy checkering job. Started with stock work and moved on to rust blueing and making springs. I still need some more tools but am glad that I can do most work for myself. In my line of work, I am expected to do it immediately, and do it correctly, every time and RIGHT NOW! So I have little patience with artists.

I will ask how long it will take. I used a gunsmith in Portsmouth , NH. A good guy and would use him again. I knew from what I learned that I had to ask for the time. Minor repair but some metal work and he gave me the time. I said I needed it for a Vintager event . Weeks went by beyond the time agreed. I called and told him I want to drive up and get the gun and pay him for work done. A couple days before I drive up he called and said it was done. I also use a Smith on Cape Cod who gives you a realistic time and sticks to it. Two years is no acceptable to me at all especially at my age. Finally, as a retired lawyer , I had dark thoughts of what would happen if the first guy above died , got sick, etc. How would I get my gun back? Who would I contact? That would be a big hassle. Art is to convey feelings, craftsmen are suppose to get the job done in a reasonable time . Creating an aura around them and their artistic temperament is what I try to find out at the beginning.

I had a gunsmith with 2 of my guns for 4 years nothing done to them. I knocked on his door and asked for them back. Sent them elsewhere and they were done within 6 months.

Lots of people complain about their guns being "held hostage" but what about the flip side of the situation?
How many pick their gun up promptly when it's finished?
How many guys try to beat up their gunsmith on the price because they "already have too much into it" or they "don't want to put that much into it" and expect the gunsmith to feel their pain. How many times has someone asked their gunsmith "How much can you do for XXX dollars?"
Personally, what someone has into the gun or what the gun is worth has zero bearing upon the value of my time.
Asking me to partially subsidize your investment is the fastest way to be shown the door. Any good gunmaker knows the value of his time and charges accordingly, good luck to anyone who shops gunsmithing by price, you'll need it.
If a gunmaker is truly good at his craft, he will have a backlog, no doubt. Accept it or go elsewhere but keep in mind that the "gunsmith" who as no backlog might not be the best choice to work on your prized shotgun.
Also keep in mind that your gun isn't the only gun on the rack.
Gunmaking is an arcane craft which is practiced well by a damned small number of craftsmen in this country. Anybody who has a QUALITY gun in need of repair and is actually capable of discerning quality work probably already knows this.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am slow and "expensive".
On reason is that I do NOT do collaborative work.
Everything is done in-house, by me personally, because that is the only way to control the quality of the finished product.
Another is that I go to some great lengths to make certain that when a gun leaves the shop, it's right, because I never want to see it again for the same problem.

Here are excerpts from MM's Shotgun Technicana. The chapters entitled "of Time and the Workbench 1&2" should be required reading.

I never ask a gunsmith how long it will take to do a job. I've got plenty other shotguns I can use. If I can't stand the thought of it being gone several months, I don't send it to start with.

SRH

+1. I got tired of the gunsmith games and started doing things myself. Turns out, I found a new hobby I love. I'm a pefectionist and completely understand now why things take so long to do exactly right.

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.

The quality of the work has a direct impact upon the amount of time it takes to complete it.

As far as paying an actual ransom to get your gun back (which is exactly what you describe), that is simply completely dishonorable and the gunsmith should have never even entertained the offer.