In a prior life I prosecuted consumer fraud cases in private practice. No small claims court (attorneys not allowed), but larger claims, including class actions. I haven't read all the posts, but from the ones I have read, this is a case that I would not take. An individual might have a claim for $500. Most state courts allow for the recovery of filing fees, etc., and even attorney fees to the successful party. So let's say plaintiff incurs $500 in fees and the attorney has put in 20 hours at $100 per hour (depositions, discovery, pretrial motions). Courts often say that the attorney has overworked the case, as in this situation, it's kind of an open and shut case. Prove that the plaintiff paid, prove that the plaintiff got nothing. Simple. So the court says $1,000 is a reasonable recovery for attorney fees. So now the plaintiff recovers an award of $500 (cost of mouthpiece) $500 in court costs, and $1,000 for attorney fees. And the plaintiff is responsible to the attorney another $1,000 (what the court awards and what the attorney bills are two different things). The plaintiff ends up with nothing for his time.
But wait, there's more. An award doesn't get the plaintiff any money. An award against a deadbeat only gets you the ability to try to collect on the award. Garnish his bank account. Guess what? He doesn't have one. Wages? Nope. Hire an attorney to foreclose on his home? My experience is that a plaintiff who says "I don't care how much it costs, it's a matter of principal" will soon learn that it's a matter of costs and begin to complain to the attorney for not being talked out of the entire adventure.
You could go to the local attorney general, but they will only have complaints in their state. And don't expect any action. I used to visit the AG's office with a production request to view files on a particular business. On one occasion, they brought the complaints out in three banker's boxes on a hand truck. Probably 500 complaints over the years. The Assistant AG explained that the claims were small, not uniform, and the business had many satisfied customers who would suffer if the business was shut down (it was a membership type of business). So the AG generally has bigger fish to fry than woodwind mouthpiece business.
You could round up others from other jurisdictions for a class action, but court's like to see about 30 claimants with identical claims. The fact that some clients are happy, some jobs are arguably just really late, and some claims are from out-of-state or even out of the country is going to be a hard sell. And of course, once you get your class award of $15,000, you need to collect it somehow because you will owe your attorney more than that.
By all means, file a complaint with the AG and the BBB and anybody else you can think of. But the idea of wearing the white hat only sounds good until you find out how expensive a white hat can be. If you happen to be in the same jurisdiction as the deadbeat, you could go to small claims and get a judgement. You could then pursue collection (which will likely require an attorney). Better yet might be to post pictures of the judgment all over the internet. And be sure to register the judgment against the defendant's real property (if any). That way, all you have to do is outlive him or her (and maybe the heirs) and the judgment will be paid off when the property sells in order to clear title.
Mark