Bad day at work.

I had a shocking day with demanding customers, one of whom is the father of a staff member.

I seriously don't understand why customers are annoyed sometimes. I work in an inbound call centre. They called us, not the other way around, but they act like we're inconveniencing them with every second that goes by, as if they're forced to be there.

I had someone respond to a message they got from us. They had an outstanding fee of $14, basically because there were a few days that weren't paid for. It was confusing enough, but the customer started over-analysing and debating me about it. Not abusively, but stubbornly. I tried so many ways to explain it to him, and even my support staff were wondering why he wasn't understanding that he had to pay $14.

I had JUST proposed a solution to his problem that he created for himself, and he started getting abusive and asked me to take the payment and get it over with. That was my intention the whole time, but he made it way more complicated than it needed to be.

I had a customer complain about a process he had to go through. It's literally thirty seconds, it's barely a process. But he said "I'll just go to a company that doesn't need to do that". He was on a train at the time.

Making a complete fool of himself in public. Can you imagine being on a train and seeing someone argue with a customer service representative because cheques can't be e-mailed out? You'd be concerned for your safety.

How do you cope with abusive customers after work finishes?