Argh! I just wasted a week with someone who answered my CL ad for some of our project birds. At first it sounded really exciting, she was putting together her breeding flocks and that's always a lot of fun to help someone with, but then it started taking 2 days to get any response and when it came, it didn't answer any question I put to her, had no information as to her setup, and she wouldn't commit to a farm visit. After a week of these delays, I finally sent her an email explaining that this wasn't how I do business and I find these repeated delays very disrespectful to my time an energies. End of communication and Flake Filed her, so if she emails again (and they nearly always do), I can minimize any contact or time put in.
I sometimes wish we had a database of these idiots so we'd all be forewarned - so and so arrives hours late, sucks up hours of your time but won't commit to buying birds, brings kids who chases your birds and upsets your rooster, wears street shoes to your farm despite being told to wear appropriate shoes, waffles when its time to pay for their birds, tries to make deals that are outrageous, skips out (I had one do this Sunday) without paying, ignores proper care of the chicks then wants you to replace them for free, etc.
We all do this somewhat informally, of course, and I will warn some local folks about the above gal to give them fair warning. Most of them are less patient than I am, so I doubt they'll put up with that for long.
How do you all deal with these time sink flakes?
