Minor Rant Here...

Large Caliber weapons HAHAHAHA yeah I've been doing Local Marketing for 4 years (I'm 21 now) and it always surprises me when a 40yo+ business owner skips out on a meeting after making sure I'M going to be there. Ahhhhh well on the plus side when this happens they usually always sign because they feel bad, or at least thats what I've noticed.

There are some people that are irresponsible for their actions regardless of age.
Is that someone you really want to do business with anyway?
I wouldn't. They wasted my time, so my service is no longer available to them. There are thousands of businesses that can use my services, I am not going to sit around and wait for one. Next

Train your customers from the very beginning to play by your rules.

Quentin

In any type of "people" business I've been in, it has always happened at one time or another. The more directive and professional you appear, the more benefit they think they can get out of the meeting before you meet them, the better your odds they'll show up. Yet, it will still happen.

I too am quick to flush out those idiots and excuse makers. Find somebody else that's serious. I listen to the excuse ONCE, sometimes it's a plausible thing, aka **** happens, but many times you get a feel that it won't be worth your time.

I was born in a different era (early 50's), and I would never do that to anyone, unless I was sick or some real emergency!

The key is to be as pleasant as possible, call them back, and ask them when would they like to re-schedule.

If they start hemming and hawing, and say they will get back to you.....then you have a "time waster". Move on..........

It's good that you're so young. You'll get a thicker skin, quicker than most!

As sad as it is... this little technique is often used by business owners that don't have the balls to just say no...

As an outside sales rep for a real estate company, I got used to being stood up by people that didn't want to tell me no to my face... It happens.

The standards that some businesses operate under in today's world astounds me.... I'm only 18 years old and I would at least have enough common courtesy (not even that but respect) for someone to inform them I can't make it.

I mean especially when I had to change my entire schedule for the entire day (over 5 meetings, and I had to skip one of my classes).

Honestly though, I wouldn't have cared had he at least called me up and let me know.

Mildly surprised that you operate by "old fashioned" rules at your age. Very happy to hear it, mind you. Just surprised, given the discourteous direction society has gone in over the last 20+ years.

Being stood-up is rude. Unfortunately, US society now thinks it's OK to act that way, because "everybody does it". (That's false, but it's a common lame mental rationale.)

I make no excuses for this guy's behavior (if it was really a good reason, he'd have contacted you by now). The one thing I might ask is, how have you interacted with him? How were you dressed? How "professional" did you appear?

Depending on his own age and social/business bracket, he make not take you seriously, thinking you're "just a kid who's gonna waste [my] time, so why bother?"

Review your own actions and if you can't find any reason for him to think of you less than professionally (and thus act that way), then it's not about you, it's about him. In a bad way.

Crap happens. As one of my high school teachers would smilingly mangle from Latin: non-illegitimum non-carborundum, aka "don't let the *******s get you down."