A bimini I presume?
That blows...a blown completion date is bad enough, but the lack of communication is grounds for dismissal. Did you pay them already?
My friend paid guy cash up front to fix the side of his boat that got rubbed down to the roving on a jetty after a mooring failed. The guy, who had a decent reputation, vanished taking his money with him. In a down economy it is really risky to pay up front. Sometimes it can be unavoidable. I just gave a roofer 10K the day he started the job, but he had 6k of materials in my driveway. Even though I grew to trust him a lot, we still didn't give him the other half until he was 100% done, even though he had to make a couple of trips to pick up the check. Done is done.