is the economy really that bad?

[robbase]

I have recently been trying to gather information and set up an appointment for my mom to see a financial planner. Because of my work and being out of state from my mom, email works better than a phone call for me. I have been emailing several places (from NAPFA website) over the last 2 weeks.

My opening sentence is "I am interested in setting up an appointment for my mom and paying for it". To date. I have received NO responses (some emails are 5 business days old already). Even in a good economy I would expect better customer service than that; in a bad one I would think quicker response (a day or so)....

so is the economy really as bad as they say (or is my experience anecdotal?) Do I have unrealistic expectations? What say you?

[thyme4change]

I'm trying to hire a contractor and they are booked up! I was talking to one and he said all the crappy ones have gone out of business, so the ones that are left are super busy. He was having trouble judging if there were more jobs, or just less people to do them.

Maybe you are experiencing the same thing?

[haapai]

You might get a different response at a different time of year. It's tax season. Even if the folks that you are contacting don't do tax prep, they are still swamped with tax-season-triggered interest in personal finance.