House Negotiating - HELP!

I write this with nothing except frustration running through my mind. We have made 2 offers on houses now and both the sellers have refused to negotiate down from the list price. One seller came down a a tincy tiny little bit and the other refused to get back to us for 3 days to even let us know that they were so offended by our offer. I thought I heard somewhere that that is illegal, but maybe not. Anyway...

Do other people go through this same thing? Is it all part of buying a house? Have any of you even had a seller willing to negotiate or as a potential and hopeful homebuyer should the hubs and I only be offering what the list price is? I'd love to hear what you all think because we are really at a loss.

Please help,
not so cheerful me