How to turn down an offer?

Those that have been keeping up-to-date with me know I've already turned down two offers during my leave of absence from the blog. This is an(other) old post I wrote.  Though this one was written before my hiatus, I didn't get the chance to post it then. I'm still curious about your thoughts, blogosphere, since I'd like to compare how I actually handled it versus how you all would've.  I'll edit the post later for how I handled it.

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There's an oral offer on the table (or in the air....or whatever an oral offer is). I thought I could handle the negative things about the city and department, but after the visit I don't think I can. I really don't see my research flourishing there.  This school has gone out of their way to recruit me, and they have been trying extra hard to take advantage of my industrial contacts and medical device experience.

I want an academic position very bad, but not there.  If I'm honest, they might feel I'm spurning them because I think I'm better than them.  A little part of me might actually be thinking that, but part of my desire to enter academia is to do my own crazy research, and this university won't allow that to happen (at least, I think that).  I think I'm just going to tell them that I feel I'm a great fit, but they don't have all the facilities I think I need to do my research, and the ramp-up would be too long, blah blah.  I don't know.  Grrrrr....I'm so angry at myself for leading them on this far...

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How I handled it:

I was very honest. I said that they don't have the facilities I need, and I didn't realize how much I did not match with the town until I actually visited. I was obviously very thankful, and threw in some stuff about future potential collaborations. The search chair said I could negotiate for some of the equipment I wanted and I was brutally honest saying that I don't think they could. But even if they could, the city just wasn't for me. I offered them luck on filling the position and even offered to reimburse the department for the travels. But they let me go and haven't heard from them since other than noticing they have a new faculty member on their website.