I once hired a company to do some structural repairs. The company usually did contract work for the government. Some weeks went by. I was billed a progress payment of $5000, but the company hadn't actually accomplished anything - just reviews, several site visits, meetings, evaluations, memos, emails and constant reassignments of who was working on it.

I fired them and refused to pay their bill (they hadn't even produced a plan for how they were going to proceed). Hired another outfit, who did the entire job front to back for $5000, and got it done in a couple weeks.