Wired For Sound

I hired the owner, a one man operation, to put security cameras in my shop because I had went to grade school with him and thought he would treat me right. I paid him quite a bit of a down payment which was my fault for paying so much in the beginning. It was also my fault for not getting more paperwork from him for the job that he promised me he would do. After over six months of me calling him to come finish the job that he only did half of, I realized he was not coming back. I was warned by an acquaintance that saw him doing work in my shop in the beginning of the job that they had work done for them by him and he did not finish their job. I should have listened to the person's warning. I found out later he told a relative of mine that I kept changing things and that is why he didn't finish the job, which is totally false.
This is just a warning to people looking to get work done from anyone in the future; please get everything in writing ( so you have enough evidence for legal recourse), do not pay a large down payment before work is done, be extra weary of a one-person operation for certain businesses, and just because you know someone from the past, doesn't mean they are going to treat you right.