In the past week I received four swap offers from the same guy. He is French but currently lives in the Middle East. It seems he is having trouble finding Americans who want to visit the Arab country where he works as an ex-patriot engineer.
Normally I send a very neutral "no thanks" when a swap offer is less than enticing.
Occassionally I get more specific, as when offered a home in the American state of Colorado just after its citizens had over-whelmingly voted in a hate-filled law that affects my loved ones.
In the case of the guest worker in the Arab country I let him know specifically why I was not interested. Perhaps my impressions of the theocracy in which he lives are incorrect.
His response? Another swap offer the following week, then another correcting the original dates, then another asking which dates his swap partners might prefer.
All these messages were sent directly from the home exchange club site. That means he was not responding to my personal email to him, but just blitzing the same exchangers with the same offer.
It is one thing not to read the exchange listing and offer your 1-bedroom apartment to a family of six. It is worse, however, to not even read your potential swap partners' replies to your offer.
This exchanger moved from my "offfers" email file to my "bad offers" section due to his junk mail approach.
There are alternatives to sending the same offer to the same disinterested swap families. Let's explore them next time.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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