An older shop in my town has started requesting down payments for service. When I asked why, the owner told me that they have benn having lots of issues with people picking up their serviced machines and paying for them! So, he is out $ for the parts, $ for the service and is left storing their machines that he legally can't sell without major headaches. So, the deposit is a way of covering himself. I can understand how this could be a problem in this economy. Not everyone is turning in a machine worth thousands of dollars.