How to describe situation when two people can't meet?

How to describe situation when two people can't meet cause they're never at the same place at the same time.

Example: John and Michael are friends. They both do the shopping at the local shop every day, but they have never met. John is saying: how come we do the shopping on the same shop, but we can't ... what?

I guess there must be some phrasal verb that fits.

I think above example wasn't the best one cause it suggests a coincidence. Let's try another.

John and Michael are friends... obviously. They want to stay in touch, but every time one calls another, one of them is busy or not available. They cannot find a proper time to talk.

One more example.

John and Michael are... working in the same company. They need to discuss something really important so they want to have a meeting. John called Michael to arrange one, but Micheal was during another meeting. Few hours later Michael run into John and asked about the meeting but John was about to leave the workplace. They just cant find the time when they're both free.

Thank you for all the answers. I think the best are "to connect with somebody" and "to meet up with somebody".

In my language there's a saying "we will catch eachother later" (literally). It means we don't need to schedule a meeting, but we will try to catch the short moment we're both free later.

I think "to catch up with someone" might be it.

Solution 1:

If two people cannot schedule something at a mutually agreeable time, one could say that they cannot coordinate or cannot coordinate schedules. This represents a deliberate attempt to meet, so it wouldn't apply particularly well to two friends who never happen to meet by chance at a shop they both frequent, however. The term is a bit formal, more commonly used in a business setting when scheduling meetings - pehraps a more informal option would be to say that two people's schedules don't line up.

When this happens by chance over the phone, it is called phone tag. One person calls the other, but they don't pick up. That person then either sees the missed call or hears a message on their voicemail, and calls the first person back. The first person doesn't pick up, and must call the second person back, and so on, and so on. This is aptly described as a game of tag, with the person who missed the call being "It", and having the responsibility to attempt to re-initiate contact.