He still owes me $70.50 from January... of 2005.

Everything you describe was his total MO.  Dispute the fee he agreed to, pretend that he already paid it, say that he didn't receive exactly what he ordered, pretend he never ordered the search ast all, pretend that you told him to reassign the search, etc, etc, etc.   And all of this is AFTER he endlessly haggles on the fee on the front end -  why bother trying to drive down the fee if he has no intention of paying it at all? 

I cannot BELIEVE this guy is still in business after scamming abstractors for THIS LONG.