The problem is based on frustration.  I agree that it was unprofessional, but I'm taking a lot of flak from my own subcontractors because so many clients are doing all the straightforward orders themselves on line.  We're left with....well, they said it first!  shit.  I don't mind occasionally doing what amounts to a 40 year search for a 1 owner fee as long as it's balanced out with some easy 1 owners.  YOUR client may be sending you orders in certain counties that are nothing but the dregs.  You probably don't even realize it because you're farming them out.

Again, I'm not trying to justify their attitude -- just trying to explain where they might be coming from.  They may actually be to the point where they don't mind blowing up the bridge.  

As Robert said earlier this year (or could have been late last year), 2011 is the shake-down year.  Anyone who's going under will do it now.  I've had two subs who've been in the business for years walk away with more threatening to do the same.  The glory years of more work than we can handle are gone...maybe forever.  (Japan NEVER recovered from their massive recession 20 years ago and their housing prices have still not recovered to where they were before their stock market crashed.)  We may just have to realize that everything we do will take more effort on our part.

But face it:  we make a damn good living.  We need to keep that in mind.