From all that was said, I can't really say if there IS a right or wrong in this case.
Was a date set? Was a price set? Other than speaking for an hour (I'm guessing ICQ?), was there any official quote/proposal sent and accepted via email/fax?
If you were friends, or have worked together in the past, I'd say it would be "reasonable to assume" that he would get started on the project, but from the demeanor in your posts back-and-forth, I don't think that is the case. Even if it were the case, and you were friends and/or past business associates, I would still only feel a sense of security with something more tangible than an ICQ log, or a phone call (since it wasn't specified how you two spoke).
Without anything concrete, agreed upon for X amount of dollars at Y time, I would say at best a "favor" was discussed. From the information available in the thread, nothing legally/contractually-binding was discussed, so my expectations would be low to see a finished project.
Example:
When I ran a computer store, we would accrue a fair amount of electronic waste (CRTs, motherboards with blown caps, dead HDDs, etc etc), and it would just pile up in our storage area. The store manager before me didn't really have a regular way to handle it, so I had to find a solution.
I found a place that would palletize it for us, and take it away, free-of-charge. Sure they made a profit on it by recycling or reselling, but I was only interested in getting rid of it. Even with this service, being free and all, I still had to fill out a pretty lengthy form, fax it to them, and have it faxed back to me (with their representative's signature and company information). On the sheet, there was a time/date and a procedure outlined, for how the waste would be picked up.
Do I *feel* that he flaked? Do I *feel* that you are being unreasonable? Maybe... maybe not... but feelings are not applicable in the business world. Why? 'Cause stuff like this is BOUND to happen. If the expectation is professional work, then that should be indicative of how it is being sought after as well. Not taking sides here, just giving my objective, Switzerland-esque take on the matter.
