I don't get it. This must happen much more often than anyone would expect. In high school, I borrowed a friend's camera for a semester. My intention was to return it at the end of the year when I no longer needed to use it for photography. She moves away, I call, text, email, myspace message, and do everything I can to find out her new address. She never replied. I now own a fantastic manual SLR.
Church summer softball team. The dude asks for $60 for dues. I didn't bring cash, so I write the guy a check. One month goes by, nothing cashed. Two, three months. I follow up: "Hey, just want to make sure you didn't lose my check. I'd hate for the church to not get paid for me playing on their team." He says "I got it, I'll take it to the bank at the end of the week." One week passes. Nothing, I call, text email and follow up for the next year. I finally said screw it, put a stop payment on the check, and closed the account (wife and I were combining checking anyways).
What is it about people not wanting their money/things? Especially contractors like OP has mentioned? Seriously, I just want to give you money in exchange for a service, why is it so hard to get a call back or even an acknowledgement one way or another?!
Rant over.