I never got to the point of doing field service or being baptized, which is one clue that I knew something was wrong deep down even though much of what they were telling me seemed "logical." Also, I always had this gut-deep feeling that something just wasn't right. Other than this, three incidents made me seriously start believing that the Witnesses weren't what I was looking for:
1) At an assembly, I and the woman with whom I studied were having a conversation with a prominent sister in the congregation. This sister's husband was an elder, and they owned a seafood restaurant. The sister was discussing a recent fire at another local restaurant. The damage caused by that fire made the other restaurant close down for a time, so this sister's restaurant was getting more business because of it. She was talking about how people had been calling to book for the holidays and how she had been negotiating prices with these people. In the conversation, she was pretty much bragging about how she had lied to these people about the usual price her restaurant charged for large parties. She made them assume that she charged the same higher price as the other fire-damaged restaurant. When she saw our puzzled look (because my mentor and I just didn't catch on to what she was implying at first), she quickly changed the subject.
2) The same sister mentioned above would advertise in the local newspaper for holiday dinners (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.) at her restaurant. I always thought this was very hypocritical: She & her husband are preaching that it's wrong to celebrate the holidays, yet they encouraged that very thing by promoting it in their restaurant.
3) This next incident was the coup de grace for my realization of how robotic the society really is: My sister, who lives in another state, had started studying with the Witnesses (at my encouragement, unfortunately). We both attended the Memorial service (in different states, of course). As we were discussing it over the phone later that night, our conversation turned to the speaker and what he said when the wine was passed around. We realized that both of our speakers had spoken the exact same "casual banter." They were reading from a freakin' script! While I knew they did that for formal discourses, I would never have thought that even casual comments were scripted. All I could picture was a Watchtower written directive to elders that stated something like, "While the wine is being passed around, offer some of these comments about wine in general: . . . ." I was just so disgusted that I couldn't take the Witnesses seriously after that.