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.
