I won't make a specific comment as I don't know the specifics, and I prefer to hear both sides before drawing conclusions - unless a judgement has been made in the small claims court or similar.
That said, in an unrelated field that operates in a very similar way, I hear far too many stories about people paying huge amounts (as in many thousands of pounds) for work to be done or things to be made to order.
Sadly, as the work takes along time and there are waiting lists, it's easy for a sole artisan to end up holding a lot of money for customers. They end up spending it and funding each job with the advance payments made by other customers. Eventually things go bad, and the customers who have been more patient and forbearing end up loosing lots of money.
My advice is simple. If you are getting something made to order pay a deposit that is fair to the maker (they do have to invest in materials and time before the job is complete) but not more than you can afford to lose; if it's a really big job - agree stage payments that you will make when you see evidence that agreed milestones have been met. If the seller won't take your order on this basis, walk away. Also, do a bit of googlepokeren and maybe look them up on companies house (if applicable) or even buy a credit report if you have any whiff that they might be financially unstable.
This might sound a bit extreme, but I have spoken to people who have lost five-figure sums out of their life savings and suffered tremendously from the stress and worry of being continually palmed off with excuses.
Ideally, there really ought to be a protection scheme through something like the Guild of Master Craftsmen where you could pay into a secure third-party scheme that would release payments against milestones AND insure you against poor outcomes - it would cost money, but I think it would be worth it.