Did you ask to hire him...or did you just ask for free advice? Guys like him should NOT be expected to give free advice, especially to random people he doesn't know. Like SH2 said, he makes his living off of this, so it is not fair to his other clients to answer questions for you for free, but charge others. Would you go into any doctors office and expect him to treat you for free? No...so you should not expect John to do so either. I would have done the same...sent a pre-written introduction explaining the services I offer, along with pricing. I know how hard it can get to answer random e-mails asking for drug & diet advice, especially when I can't even get my job obligations completed. Just tonight I got about 6-7 PM's asking for drug and/or diet advice, but I just don't have the time to asnwer them. If I were to give them free advice, I would have to either neglect my paying clients or put off other paying job responsibilities....and that is something I cannot do.