If someone came around to my house to build me one of these and I had bought all the necessary parts, I'd think that it would deserve at least a six pack of *good* beer and that's if he is local and a friend.
I do not understand why anyone would begrudge someone a little recompense for their work, and you know, even if they had it down pat, that still takes nothing away from the value of the effort put into it. $135 seemed a very reasonable price for a machine that can boot effectively straight into an Amiga so that someone can play all the old games, I don't believe it was advertised as a power machine was it? So as long as it manages, I see no problem especially if the install of XP is optimized for low-overhead, Windows itself being one of the major drags of performance for any app.
I do however agree, that if the machine is specced 1ghz, it should reflect that in advertising or evidence shown that it is what it is otherwise.
But still, this looks/looked far from a rip-off and, no offence to the detractors, I don't see y'all offering the same kit/service for any less. But now that the coast is clear for you, I'm sure you will all jump at the chance to provide the much better service that c64man was failing to deliver. I wait with bated breath.
