You are seeing this with an employee mindset. As a freelancer, you are a one man business. Thus, you get treated as such. Businesses don't usually have the common courtesy you described. Let me ask you a question? Have you ever stopped ignoring a sales person? Even after they gave you their time in order to try and close the sale? Did you say "Hmm, I should be courteous and let them know how much I appreciate it"? No, you did not. Because you know that's part of their job. Getting rejected. Getting ignored. Part of being a freelancer is being rejected, and being ignored. No one owes you anything. This is business. Rather than making a fool out of yourself publicly (and reducing any potential client you might have had here), why don't you decide to polish up your sales skills? Maybe improve your marketing?
I've never ignored a sales person that I initiated contact with, which I believe is the topic of this discussion. If it gets to the point that you're not interested, you tell them as such. It's corteous, and if you want to look at it in the self-serving point of view, you stop the repeat phone calls and emails because you just fell off the face of the earth after asking for information.
