Ditto what McGrath said. I am normally polite but it is getting so difficult to deal with most place now because of the hoops they make you jump through in order to speak to someone. Today I have been on the phone and gone through God knows how many voice robots - this includes my insurance company, an airline company, and several departments in the company where I work. After punching in the obligatory "identification number" on one call and being put on hold listening to canned music and "why don't you visit our website instead of calling" admonitions (if I could resolve what I needed from the website I would have done so)I did hear the annoyance in my voice when someone finally picked up and immediately said "May I have your identification number". I said "I just punched it in!". She said sorry but I don't have the pop up screen" and I reminded myself that she wasn't responsible for all the rest of the dreary crap and frustration. She was polite and I was polite and she did resolve my question, but I think McGrath hit the nail on the head when he stated that this business of having automated robots and very few live people to answer the phones is backfiring on everybody. Often by the time I do reach someone I'm really annoyed.

As for telemarketers, I try to remind myself that they're just people trying to do a job but it has gotten out of hand, even with the "do not call" legislation. I simply hang up when they call, but I resent the intrusion and telemarketers should realize that that is exactly what it is, an intrusion. It should be no surprise that people get rude.