It put me on alert when I asked for some very specific details on their web form and get a response from Christine by email with a generic brochure and a statement that suggested that the only way to answer any questions was to make a trip to their facilities and meet with them in person.
Then I got a call from Richard, who opened the conversation with me by telling me for five minutes how he was the owner and ran the only ""real"" flight school in the entire northeastern United States, in particular because he used to be a pilot for American Airlines (stress ""used to"" and wonder why that might be, and then realize that he was going out of his way to all but intimate that none of those other schools' instructors are actually even pilots...just him...and then you'll be catching the attitude that he was throwing). This was all before he even asked what I was interested in or how I found them, or even if it was a good time to talk (since it was the middle of the business day when he called). His opening salvo also included statements about how confusing my information request was (hello, it was your website form, Richard!) and then he started on a rant he never managed to finish even 10 minutes later, which had to do with how I can't pick a doctor over the phone so how can I pick a flight school over the phone...even though I was just trying to gather the information about them to know that they were worth visiting - something made clear to him in between short pauses for breath in his never-ending speech. This was after he argued with me for two minutes about how long it takes to get to Fairfield NJ for a person in Manhattan taking public transportation (I got rid of the car years ago since it was such a waste and a pain, but that doesn't mean I enjoy spending an hour and a half of train and bus rides and transfers each way just to meet a guy to find out I don't like him or that he doesn't offer what I'm looking for). I tried to play along with his analogy, noting that I neither would hire a doctor over the phone nor would I expect a diagnosis from one over the phone, but that before I spent half a day or more trudging back and forth to New Jersey I'd be damn sure I was not going to a dermatologist if I needed a cardiologist. He didn't get it - I think he read the analogy somewhere and repeats it like a parrot, but doesn't know quite what it means.
He alternately told me that a) they can pretty much set up any ""program"" I was looking for, and yet b) that he couldn't tell me over the phone that he could do a simple private pilot's license and instrument rating course at the same time on parallel tracks (something most schools offer - and even recommend - in my experience). Maybe the world parallel threw him off, having three syllables and all. Of course, back to the broken record, I had to spend a day coming out to his facility for him to tell me that apparently top secret answer in person.
When it got to the point that he was literally yelling at me, back to the ""choosing a doctor over the phone"" theme, I sent him on his way with a curt choice conversation-ender of my own before hanging up, and I am completely convinced that he felt better by alienating me as a customer than he could ever have felt if he had welcomed me, answered my questions, and signed me up.
Trust me, Richard is not only smarter than you, but if he thinks you might get any uppity notions to the contrary, you're in for a talking to until you're straight on that. Not quite what I expect out of a guy that I so mistakenly thought would see me as a potential customer, when I wanted to come in and spend $25,000 with him on just the first two of the four certifications I'd like to get over the next two years. Don't make the same mistake I did - I promise you if it doesn't come out up front, you'll have this same experience at some point in dealing with these idiots (the nicest word I can come up with to describe them).
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