Is it too much to ask to talk to our salesperson?

Is this bizarre behavior or this now the norm to expect from prospects?

Case 1: We had a web-lead request for a quote on 12 of smaller product, which would total over 100K, but all he left was his email address at a university. This was certainly an attention-grabbing request, but we wanted to find out what he was up to and whether the model he picked out was the best choice--exactly what a salesperson should do. So we had the local sales rep try to contact him to find out, which he did by email. The reply he got back said only this: "I'm not sure that I trust a company that won't list prices on their web
site and also won't give prices over e-mail."

Case 2: We forwarded a web-lead to a sales rep to investigate before quoting one of our mid-range products, once again, to confirm the proper equipment for the application. After finally getting in touch with the prospect, his answer was "just quote the equipment as I described at your website." Despite our reps repeated questions to find out about the application, all he learned is that they would be selecting a vendor the next morning.

Are these prospects afraid of a starting a relationship? Do they think they are smart enough to not need a salesperson? Are they overwhelmed with vendors? Our desire is to help make sure the customer has selected the right equipment, and has it configured to suit their requirements--that's why we don't have prices on our website. Maybe its just the old-fashioned fear of salespeople aggravated by the internet.

I've talked about the sales use of email before:
Is email sabotaging your sales efforts?
Using email to follow-up with prospects
Making the most of email