As the starter of this thread, I must say that I am a little surprised that it has taken this long for it to get interesting.
Bradley, Karma to you for showing the other side of the coin. I have no problem with an applicant asking questions and expecting honest answers. Most of the people I talk with have tons of questions. I note that all of those you mentioned were actually things that they should have been telling you without being asked. If you are hiring for a full-time "permanent" job, you are not only offering a job, you are asking a person to move to your town, accept your corporate culture, hang his future (at least a big part of it) on your company's decisions, and (this is the big one) forsaking all others - keep himself only unto you until death (or downsizing) do you part. Tis is why you "offer" the job to the best candidate instead of clamping him into a set of irons and conscripting him to a life of labor at your control panel.
Yeah, Exelon is hiring. So is Dominion, Ameren, Constellation, Entergy, Sempra, Mirant, FPLE, FENOC.........
Respect and civility are the starting point. An applicant deserves to be treated with consideration for the fact that he has invested his time, put himself on display, subjected himself to scrutiny, and came to you.
Having said that, the "squeeze" on personnel, or whatever, does not justify an applicant behaving like an ass. In the end, we are all people, and a little consideration for the other guy speaks loudly about what kind of employer/employee you are going to be.
Exelon denied an applicant the consideration of offering him lunch, note also that they made their current employees work through their lunch to catch up with the interviews that they (Oh NO! Not EXELON!!!) overscheduled. That alone should have been a red flag warning what kind of employer they would be. They won't miss this applicant, but people born blind don't miss the sunsets either.
On the other end of the rope, an applicant denied me the courtesy of telling me his name and politely asking me to consider him for the job. He won't miss all those paychecks that I won't be sending him. There are plenty of others out there - maybe not as good, but he'll never be burdened with knowing that.
Those people who politely inquired about the job were politely answered and some of them were hired.
The argument here is not about who gets to be arrogant, dismissive, inconsiderate and rude. Nobody deserves that "privilege" no matter if you are the only qualified applicant or if you are offering the last job on Earth. If you are going to be rude to applicants, you are going to be totally unbearable to them once they are employees. Applicants who are too lazy or uneducated or stupid or uninterested to answer an ad with capitalization, punctuation, complete sentences, POLITENESS, and at least an introduction will not be stellar workers either. No matter if you are hiring or applying, if the first encounter is rude, pass right there.
The moral of the story - show a little courtesy regardless of whether you are holding all the cards. Someday, the situation mey be reversed.