I did not pay for it until it was finished.
To me, this is one of the keys to managing a person without adequate business skills. If they already have the money, what is left for motivation? A down payment for a new instrument order is reasonable, but it seems to me that the final payment should not be until the instrument is done and shipped. This just seems like a normal business practice. If the builder cannot "afford" to proceed on building the lute, or repairing a lute, without money for materials, then this speaks very poorly of his management of his business.
The communication of expectations on the other hand was not done cleanly. The luthier is a master builder but not necessarily a fantastic PR person.
And of course, one of the problems here is that the poorer the business skills and organization, the more the communication skills are needed to cover it. Better to run a good business with weak communication than to run a bad business, even with good communication.
I have no complaints except that I expect production line timing from a craftsman - the expectations do not match and I get to reset my expectations. ... This is one of the joys of owning a work of art (and there are really many when you consider the living instrument in yours hands created from blocks of wood).
The idea that an artist or craftsman is allowed to be poor at the business end of what he/she does is bunk. For a major anniversary, my husband and I commissioned an internationally known fiber artist to make us a work of art. He knew his process, he controlled his materials and their production and stocking, and he knew his production schedule. From our first contact with him he could tell us when it would likely be done. And he was dead on. Down payment at order, balance on delivery. Solid business. Because of what he was doing, he wasn't rich from his business, but he was making it ok. I think that a broad array of skills, including sound business skills and decent communication skills, is what it actually takes to succeed as an artist or craftsman today. To allow them to do less and get away with it and keep their reputation as a good luthier is just wrong in my mind.
My 2 cents. Suzanne To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
