So, this may be a matter of opinion, and I totally understand that, but I want to share with you an example, as it's a good example of the difference between being persistent and showing interest, and turning into what an annoying pest.
Let me begin.
I posted one of our young guinea pigs up for adoption, fully aware that her color (the silver agouti) is a bit unusual and not often seen in rescue. Almost immediately, someone contacted me, interested, that night. I sent her the adoption form and told her I would need a deposit to hold and so on. She has emailed back in appropriate time frames and everything, and at this point, she has sent me an adoption form (which I now need to look at) and sent me the email that I should send the invoice to. This is reasonable.
On the other hand... I was at the expo the following day, and the phone rang. First time, no message left. Two minutes later, rings again, same number, they leave a message. I'm at the expo, and I can't hear the phone all that well (not even at the expo, just normally), so I figure I will listen to it later. So then the person texts me. She explains in the text that she has emailed twice, and called. I go to look and see how long ago the emails were, as I'm thinking, ok maybe I missed them from a few days ago or something. She had sent both emails within the last 30 minutes.
Anyway. In the texts, I tell her, there's someone else ahead of her interested in the guinea pig. She tells me she would start driving here now if she thought that would help (it wouldn't... we're only first come first served if I don't already have someone in the process of adopting) and she tells me she's very upset that she's going to miss the guinea pig, she's just sick about it. I tell her, I will let her know what happens with the first person interested, and I will get back to her. She continues texting me, and eventually asks how long they have (I said somewhere they have a deadline). Now, stupid me, I told her, but I should have told her it's none of her business, but I told her, they had until the end of the next day, or a bit more within reason if they are making an effort. She has called two more times today and texted multiple times, asking, "did they follow through???" Honestly, I am ignoring it all at this point. No feeding the troll. HAVE SOME PATIENCE, PEOPLE. This is annoying.
I think, a lot of this may stem from the fact that we can get everything NOW. You want food? They can deliver it. You want a furnace filter? Order it on Amazon Prime and it can show up within 2 days. That's fine, but... and this may come as a surprise to some people... I have a lot of animals up for adoption, which means that whoever I'm talking to is NOT the only person I'm talking to, and, as I am one person, that means someone has to have a modicum of goddamn patience and WAIT.
People like the one that won't leave me alone about the guinea pig... should the first home fall through, her pestering me to death makes it so that I would not even want to message her. Maybe you find that mean of me, but that's just how I feel. Irritating me to death isn't endearing for you.
Now, this is a bit of an extreme (albeit true) example, but here's more what I feel is what I would consider persistent. Maybe you sent an email, or a facebook message, or whatnot, and you don't hear back... within a day or two, not an hour (important to note.. also, still have other customers, no matter how you contact me)... then by all means, give me a call or send a text. But contacting me on every method possible within 30 minutes just cause I haven't responded? Little much, sorry...
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