Man, my only shipping experience is mailing a birthday card and even I messed that up. But yeah, a straight price and a driver who actually calls sounds worth the extra $40, phone tag with three strangers would drive me nuts.

That $4,000 hit plus paying the supply house twice is brutal, and I feel for you because subs vanishing with deposits seems to happen way too often. We got burned in a similar way on a job in Round Rock, guy took $2,500 for an HVAC rough-in and just stopped answering his phone after one week. What saved us later was calling the last three jobs he listed and asking the homeowners point blank if he finished on time and if they would hire him again. Turns out two of them had the same story we did, and nobody had ever actually checked. Now we ask for proof of insurance and a supply house account in his own name before any money moves. Sorry you had to eat that cost, it is a hard lesson and you are not alone in it.