Unreasonable to cut this guy loose?

We enlisted the services of a mix/mastering engineer to sort our full album for us.

No money has changed hands yet as the agreement is that we’ll pay the full lump sum later in the project. (Thank goodness!...read on...)

We’ve supplied the files for him for 1 track to get going with a draft mix, upon his suggestion. However….this was a month ago. He did confirm receipt, and from there….complete radio silence.

At first we figured to give the guy some time and not rush him, but as the weeks started peeling away, the annoyance started growing.

Over the last week we’ve tried reaching out on three occasions, but all our requests for feedback remain unanswered. Not a single word from this guy on the draft mix of 1 track. Not the full album yet…just one song to see where it lands before the rest get the same treatment.

This afternoon I sent him a friendly, more direct message asking what’s up, as we’re starting to lose faith in his commitment to the project, and also asking if there’s anything we can do to help him move it along or if anything is going on that’s maybe causing the lack of progress/feedback.

I mean, it’s been 3 weeks since we last heard from the dude. We’ve got no idea what’s going on or if he’s even still breathing. I also don’t want to pay the guy as the project moves along, and we’re faced with this ballache we’re currently having of us having to chase him up (without success) to establish where things are in the process. 3 weeks without a single word is a little excessive.

Probably a stupid question (as I know the answer and we’ve been way too patient anyway), but it is unreasonable to give him till mid-week, and if we don’t hear anything after now directly asking WTF is up, to let him know the deal is off?