This is why you should always be polite to all your customers. You never know who the really important ones are.

"You want OP to just sit there and be insulted and yelled at on the phone by someone they don't even know?" Yes. It is his job. He willingly took it. Nobody forced him to do that at a gunpoint. The dude is sitting on the phone. Which means he's a secretary, technical support, or someone else hired specifically to deal with clients. If he's unable to deal with his job, he should find another one. Slip-up like that can easily get him fired or result in a bad work record, which, depending on your country, may reduce your chances of finding decent job in the future.

He merely answered a call. For all we know, he could be someone in a retail outlet or a restaurant, who shouldn't have to deal with anyone being bitchy. Don't see why the customer had a right to act like that, anyway. What happened to people being reasonable?

84, "Don't see why the customer had a right to act like that, anyway." It is called "Freedom of Expression". "What happened to people being reasonable?" People aren't robots and can't be reasonable all the time. Sometimes things pile up and you get angry, and different people have varying degree of control of their emotions. Besides, different people have different ideas of "reasonable". Moral of the story - if you can't deal with angry customers, don't pick up the phone. Let's somebody more experienced handle the situation.

OP doesn't deserve to be abused like that. But that's no excuse for their lack of professionalism. I'd fire OP depending on the severity of the digression. Even if this was the smallest of clients, it makes no difference. My employees are required to act professional and show proper decorum. OP deserves what comes from their behavior.

130, yep, that's correct. *IN theory* client *shouldn't* behave like an ass, but shit happens sometimes and in this situation whoever deals with the client should know how to handle angry people that paid you money. If you handle that situation well, client will be (in theory) satisfied and will use your service again, or maybe tell good things to his/her friends. If you handle situation badly, you might lose the client, get bad publicity and, in extreme cases, a lawsuit.