This will be me first actual content-important thread on the site, so hello!
This question will primarily concern lack of communication and making decisions based on that as it relates to my current PAX Room Share situation. It will (hopefully) all make sense as soon as I tell the story.
This is the first year I posted a room share open space offer in the forums and was excited to receive offers. Say, a week or two goes by, and lo I see in my inbox an email in very few words asking if the room is still available. Being the first offer, I was excited to tell this person yes and that they are the first. I leave it very open ended and don't really ask for a reply and the matter goes away until the very beginning of December. I receive a second email from a different person another week or two later basically asking the same thing and I give that second person more or less the same reply. In order to keep the number of new offers down I basically closed the offer and announced the situation.
Here's where it gets tricky. The second offer responded almost immediately and we had a nice chat back and forth over email, confirming for me everything I needed to know and making sure they understood the situation. Needless to say I was happy about this and wondered what became of the other person since I had not received a reply from them at any point. I don't necessarily blame them given my wording of the first email but having gotten a second offer, I thought it appropriate to let the first person know what I got a second offer and asked about any changes between their initial email and now.
That email I sent to the first offer asking for any updates/changes had not gotten a response for two weeks. It was at this point that I started to worry. Were my emails landing in their spam box? Did they read them and neglect to respond? Maybe some personal events are occurring that made their lives difficult and unable to respond. I normally wouldn't do this but in my worry I had access to their name through their first and only email and saw that their twitter account has been set to private. I was more interested in knowing if they've been online at all since the time I sent my emails or not.
The second email to the first person (I realize this may start to get confusing) has not been responded to and I took it upon myself to send a third email. I apologized about being too obtrusive, but directly asked (nicely) if they can respond to that email and let me know anything about whether or not they're coming and they want to be part of the offer. I also used my college email as a potential solution to the possible spam filter/box problem that may have intercepted all my emails. Quickly after sending this one, I sent another to the second offer and to my relief they immediately responded as they did last time and let them know. As the situation stands the second person has a hotel room and can cancel theirs to join ours (at a cheaper rate I imagine) if the spot opens up. They were so much fun and nice, I would be happy to do so but I have this weird situation hanging over my head.
The reason this has gotten me so worried is that I don't know what the first person knows and I don't want to make plans with this second person and have the first intend to join the whole times and arrive without a room. This you could say is the worst case scenario. Since the room is flexible, I could always downsize it back to the double room and go without a third as a safe default but I would rather go without paying more money for someone else's inability to contact me. Besides, I would rather not punish this third person with a higher bill either.
After this probably long-winded explanation, I bequeath to you good people of the Penny Arcade forums. I thought no community more apt to address this issue about PAX than the very community that spawned it. What would you do? Should I go ahead assuming they're a no-show? How much should I wait before making a final decision? Is this person even worth all this hassle?
Posts
IMO of course.
You cannot get in contact with someone. Money is on the line. The first responder has presumably not given you any. Get cash. Have fun.