When considering the level of communication and contact that modern technology allows, it's somewhat remarkable that anyone messes up plans made in advance. In each of our hands, I'm assuming since you read this site, rests a device that can instantaneously shoot a beam of something to space only for it to return to Earth, delivering a message to someone anywhere else on the planet. Imagine trying to describe what smart phones do for us to someone who was panning for gold in the Yukon. They literally couldn't use the phone the frostbite would be so bad.
Despite this incredible level of interaction we are all now capable of, we all have friends who are rather flaky.