Poor Communication from PR practitioners?

Lately I’ve heard a lot about bad communication practices coming directly from professionals in the PR world.  More often than not, this bad communication is coming from a PR agency. 

First hand, I haven’t had any negative experiences with an agency but I know many of my fellow classmates have.  I feel frustrated for them, so I can’t image what’s going through their minds. 

I don’t understand why some professionals find it so hard to give a response e-mail to a student.  They were once in our shoes and know the challenges we face as students trying to break into the PR industry and land internships.  So why do they make it harder for us by leading us on about an internship and then suddenly realize after three or four call-back interviews, they don’t want to hire an intern anyway? 

Or why do they make us send more than one follow-up e-mail (or phone call) inquiring if they’ve lost our contact info, since they told us they would get back to us more than a week ago? 

For professionals in the COMMUNICATION business, this doesn’t seem very respectful. 

In my mind, respecting a persons time, regardless of rank, is a number one rule for any situation.  And I don’t think some practitioners see a student’s time as anything worth the effort.  When it’s convenient for them, they will let us know they’re not interested in hiring an intern.  Meanwhile, it’s one week before we’re supposed to begin placement and some students are still hunting for somewhere to intern. 

For all of my classmates who have been lead on and let down; I hope this doesn’t sour your opinion of public relations; I’m sure there are a lot of respectful practitioners out there.