To pay or not to pay?
 

If you had asked a designer to do a layout, gallery template or whatever and no matter what they do you it still looks like crap, do you pay for it, count it as a loss, never use them again and move on or do you refuse it?

i'd try to talk to him and show that i wanted something different

If the design is in line with their portfolio work, that's what you should have expected. Pay, move on. Don't use them again.

If the design is significantly worse than their portfolio work, explain that because of their portfolio work you were expecting higher quality result. Tell them that you're unhappy and don't want to pay for something that you cannot use.

Usually communication with designer should tell you what to do. It's a matter of whether the $ is worth the headache.

Been there.

If I am not happy, and think it looks like complete shit (rarely happens anymore since I use higher caliber designers and programmers now) I give them the chance to fix the shit, or start over.

I may still pay them something, but if it was that unusable, I would at least give them a 2nd chance to fix it. I remember years ago having an experience like that where you were just stunned when they delivered a design and you had to take a moment of pause.

Stunned is an understatement at this point. A moment may not be enough, I'm think a few hours maybe..lol