On the project start date, which was 3 months after he gave the bid (not four days early) he didn't show up or call to let us know about any delays. He did cash his deposit check, so we were expecting him to show up.
After tracking him down when he didn't show. we then received countless miscommunications and vague texts from the owner about who was supposed to do what. He argued endlessly that we were in charge of buying the materials, which was completely fine and expected, but he had promised to send us an estimate for the materials before our project start date, so we could purchase them. The estimate never appeared, which we were waiting on.
The owner then informed us that we were "behind a couple of other jobs" and "would be happy to walk away from this job". He kept acting like he was doing us a huge favor instead of having a professional customer service attitude. We felt like he was trying to intimidate us by walking away, but in fact I was grateful we didn't end up using him as he seemed to be unreliable.
We tracked him down to say that, with no hard feelings, we needed to go with another vendor. He then gave us the runaround in trying to get our check back, and didn't send it when he said he would, then he actually docked us part of the check - which wasn't professional -- especially since he did no work and wasn't responsible for buying any materials!
During the back and forth asking when we could get the check, or could we pick it up, he threatened to call the authorities -- for us asking questions (!) The reason we had to keep asking was because he didn't respond promptly or stonewalled when he was asked if we could pick up our deposit check.
If you want a professional who will communicate properly from start to finish, you may want to go with another vendor. The owner does not seem to be organized in his projects and not worth the hassle. The owner seems to have a very bad temper and tries to blame everyone else but himself when things go wrong. Do not recommend.