Help wanted ad, it's not that hard

[Squeaksmyalias]

I do some volunteer work for the flying club I'm in. I run their facebook page and take care of advertising along with some other stuff. We leave our page open for people to put help wanted ads up, or neat articles plus notes and all that. I try to make it as professional as possible so I make sure to let anyone know if they want to put an ad up to run it past me first so the required info is in there. Last week I saw someone had put up a pilots wanted up, I know the lady from the chapter, she is best described as a busy body mom, she sticks her nose into any projects and tries to drag people kicking and screaming into another group she is involved with, she is persistent since she is still trying to get me to join her group so she doesn't have to pay me for my work.

Anyway, her Ad states (name changed) "Pilots wanted call Dan at #########". I'm not surprised she didn't run the ad past me, so I respond on the wall asking "Could you please give us more info? When is help needed and what it might require?" She responds back with "If you are interested you should call to get the information." I ask once more for more info "Is Dan from an organization? Individual looking for a flight? More info please." Her response is "It may be, however, I am not quite sure, that's why it would be best to ask him yourself or whomever is inquiring. He just asked me to put a Pilots wanted ad. Naturally I figured I'd drop this request here. Seemed fitting. lol When Dan asks me to do something I don't usually ask why I just do. smile. Beautiful flying weather we are having eh?" I finally state we need more information as to what he would like from us, when it would be, some information, so if I or anyone else knows someone who might be interested we can pass it along to the proper person. I'm being polite as possible but becoming very annoyed at her not understanding what is needed. I hate that I let it go this long on the facebook wall but I had hoped she would finally give what was needed.

Today her final response was "Next time I probably won't leave this message here I will simply email the pilots separately. It's a simple ad. More details requires a call. that's it. Squeaks, you don't know who to pass this info to????? A pilot, who, if interested, will call to acquire the details...." So now I'm mad, I deleted her request all together, and I'm waiting to calm down before emailing to let her know what is required if she intends on leaving a want ad and why I deleted her post. First because what she left looks like it could be a scam. Second when asking for a pilot's help there is info needed. There are qualifications, do they have enough flight time, do they need their own plane, if not do they need to rent, will they need time off, when is this for? Somethings pilots will know right away they can't do, things that if they went to try to do could cause them to loose their license. Simple things she could have written, Example: "Pilot with plane wanted for August 4th to give children flights, you will be reimbursed. Call Dan at ####" This is stuff she should know, while not a pilot herself she deals with them pretty regularly, plus her son is going to be one soon, not to mention myself and several other members discussed then told the group what should be in a help wanted ad. Not that hard!

Maybe I am wrong, I was too harsh. I know it was a mistake to leave it out on the wall for that long for everyone to see. Like I said I'm waiting till later to email her. I really needed to get this out of my system and have a good rant about it. Sorry if it doesn't make sense.

[Seraph]

Yeesh, has she no respect for other's time? I'd flat out ignore something like that (if I had a similar experience, that is). Its most likely not worth my time to even call up, since there's no details at all. I'd hate to sit there for ten minutes asking about the details that should've already been posted, when that time could be SO well spent doing other things.

[Cai1987]

Gah, I hate ads like that. I see them all the time on Craigslist when I'm job-hunting. "Writer needed for web articles, $0.001 per word, email@domain.com". Um, okay, but I'm sure you have qualifications of SOME kind, and it's a waste of everyone's time for me to email you only to find out that you're looking for someone who is a fluent Italian speaker or something.

I'm sure "Dan" doesn't want to inundated with calls by pilots who don't fit his needs.

[PepperElf]

either that or this "dan" is running a scam where he's really trying to sell something, especially if he refuses to let anyone give details other than "call him for info"

[Nayeli_Sabia]

I tend to avoid ads like that, because they seem like scams/spam.

[firecat88]

I don't think you were being harsh at all, Squeaks. You told her what you needed from her, she refused to listen, you're better off not doing business with her. It's not your fault that she seems to think that anyone worth their anything is going to be willing to just call up some random dude to get information that he may well be pulling outta his ass.

[MidoriDelSol]

You were nicer then I would have been. I would have just deleted it and ignored any messages she sends about it.

[bainsidhe]

I think your response was perfectly professional and polite. The fact she responded in such a "I'm a snot LOL" way makes her look bad, not you. If she complains about the deletion, then you simply tell her point blank that only detailed adverts will be accepted. Anything less is considered spam and your site does not condone spam.

If she's particularly snarky, tell her that she only gets one more warning before she's banned from posting.

[MoonCat]

Well, now you're in my territory. Where to start, where to start....

As you said, there's not enough info. I would go so far as to say there is no info. Is this an actual paying job, or is this "Dan" looking for someone to donate his time? If so, that's not a job, that's a volunteer situation. Either way, are they flying their own plane or someone else's? What kind of plane? Where are they flying to, how often, are they flying passengers or cargo, part time/full time, are there benefits, etc., etc. At my job I would not accept an ad like this because I'm pretty sure the customer would try to blame the paper when they don't get the response they wanted.

And craigslist...pfft. You get what you pay for. And that's what I hear from customers who've tried it and end up coming back to the paper for their advertising.

[2gigch1]

I applaud your decision to let it cool off before doing anything more with it. I can't tell you how many times I have written a tough email then said "I'll look at it again in two days." Many times the email is moot, or I might have better wording, but the time off is good.

And the times I have broken my own rules I have made some bad errors in judgement I can admit...

[BeenThereDoneThat]

She knew going in she wasn't supposed to post the ad without your prior approval. She's wrong...end of story.

[Squeaksmyalias]

I'm glad it's not just me being a jerk, it's the first time I've been in charge of something like this so I am never sure. The President of the club basically said do what you feel right with anything you do there and doesn't get involved with it since he, like a lot of others in the club aren't computer-y inclined. The woman who posted the ad actually got a lesson on how to use Facebook from me, I am starting to regret that, before she had no idea how to post on the wall.

Anyway after thinking about it I decided I'm not going to email her, I explained to her multiple times after she posted as to what I wanted, she has seen several want ads that I posted on the wall ontop of being told at the beginning. Not to mention the way she argues with me it's obvious she doesn't understand that her post was not acceptable, I think it's just going to start a bigger argument. My plan on if she continues to push the issue is say we will discuss it at the next meeting, and the Chapter President will be there for it. I'm under the impression that he will back me up since he put me in charge of it and the rules I have, plus I'm thinking he and others in the club will say that they would never answer an ad like that, and hopefully get her to understand why. Part of her problem with me is an age difference, while I'm older then her son by a good 10 years, I look close to his age she acts like I'm a kid and I should listen to her and anything she says is gold, of course the anything she says is gold part is her attitude with everything.

A friend pointed out to me that I could have called the guy looking for help, and asked what it was about and put up a proper want ad and it would have taken less time then arguing with her. I'm thinking that it's not my job to make that call, this is a volunteer job when I have a moment to work on things I do, yes I keep on top of things but it's still volunteer. Besides even if it was my job and someone handed me an ad unless it was in my job description to do the research and call to find out the rest of the details I wouldn't have to do that. I really don't think that I should call someone this woman knows and basically say " Who the heck are you and why do you want pilots?" I also think that if I did that she would just assume I would do that all the time, and I am so not her secretary.

[HawaiianShirts]

The impression that I get, based on her words and the tone I think she would have used with them, is that she is not thinking about the other side of the ad.

She knows she needs to post an ad for pilots. She does so. She knows at least some of the relevant information, but she does not realize that no one else knows it. Like when a computer expert who has never done tech support before tries to explain how to do a BIOS flash to someone who can barely operate Word.

It has simply not entered her thought processes that Dan might want a pilot to make a short presentation about flying to a Kindergarten class, take him on a quick trip to the other side of the state, smuggle drugs to a foreign country, give him advice about purchasing his own plane, or reenact last year's duck migration. For some people, this kind of thinking is impossible without outside help. "Yes, YOU know that Dan needs to fly to Newark on Wednesday, but nothing in this 'ad' specifies that."

Probably not deliberately rude, but definitely clueless. I can't say I would have reacted much differently, though my responses to her would have been much more long-winded.

[Cai1987]

She knows at least some of the relevant information, but she does not realize that no one else knows it. Like when a computer expert who has never done tech support before tries to explain how to do a BIOS flash to someone who can barely operate Word.

Yeah, I run into this a lot when I'm doing resumes for people. It's astonishing how many people don't seem to understand that even though they know things, I don't know them. The concept of transferring the information from the inside of their heads to the inside of mine using words instead of telepathy is apparently totally foreign.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Anyway, her Ad states (name changed) "Pilots wanted call Dan at #########".

Why didn't Dan post his own ad? Is he not a member of the flying club? Perhaps Dan should summit his ad directly to you, not though the other woman.