Sounds to me like this guy has created a fantastically shitty place to work, and an equally shitty company to do business with. You can't get away with abusive

Sounds to me like this guy has created a fantastically shitty place to work, and an equally shitty company to do business with. You can't get away with abusive behavior towards employees and vendors and expect to keep the good ones around - anyone that's worth the money has far too many options to put up with cheapskate asshats like this. If you treat everyone like shit, don't act surprised when only shitty people continue to work with you. When a client starts dicking around with payments for work already provided and doesn't have a really good reason (yes, occasionally things happen and it's okay to be a little flexible if you're convinced it's on the level), my rate for future work doubles, and if that means that projects go elsewhere, so be it. Fighting over payments is possibly the most unpleasant aspect of providing services to companies, and I'd generally rather pass up the work than get into those fights. Don't follow this guy's example - you're not important enough to afford to be this abusive, and frankly, neither is he.