My bank’s Web site has been going through tons of changes and I find that quite often I can’t log on. Earlier this month it really inconvenienced me because I needed to pay my credit card bill and I couldn’t get through to do it. The day the bill was due I logged on and hit the pay bill tab, okayed the 12.00 immediate funds transfer fee and thought nothing more of it. Today I went on and noticed the payment had never taken place. I called their Customer Satisfaction Representative (HA!) and tried to see what I could do. The woman was completely rude to me. I thought she would tell me that she could process the payment right there on the spot, charge me the 12.00 immediate funds transfer fee and wipe the 35.00 late fee and at least note that some error had occurred that prevented my payment. Instead the woman told me I had to produce a numerical code that showed the online bill pay transaction to prove that I am not lying. At first I was very calm but this woman’s voice and the way she talked to me, as if I was lying, just really angered me. Plus, I didn’t have my morning coffee yet which might account for why I became so unhinged. I said, “I’ve been a customer since 1999, I have never had a late payment, how dare you accuse me of lying to you, I have called to try to resolve this issue and you are treating me like a piece of shit!”
The woman then said that she would be forced to disconnect me because of my unprofessional word choice. I told her that I would be the one disconnecting the call and I would appreciate her marking in her notes that this customer is very disappointed. I hung up.

Now I feel terrible. I try to always be courteous but this woman really upset me. My one fear is that this will come back to bite me karmically. I make a lot of cold calls and I would hate to see people acting to me as I acted to that woman. Of course, that woman was really rude and I am always very polite. Darn her to heck!