** don't know, I'd love to see teh message that was sent to CL ** Shouldn't matter what was sent. Civility is something that is essential in business regardless of what's said to you. In the UK, tech/customer support is allowed to hang up on an abusive customer, and in a store they are entitled to ask the customer to leave if they won't calm down. But, they have to do it politely - then call security. No matter how many four letter words are used, or how insulting something is you don't snap back. That privilege is only for "ordinary folks" not representatives of a company. :) Diplomats are not technical because diplomats are invariably politicians who could give a damn about technical stuff, all they want is money lining their pockets. Most technical people are too busy to be diplomats and rarely work help desks. Help desks are often populated by people who are either savvy with the software or capable of reading an automated help sheet - depending on company set-up. Nine times out of ten a "techie" answer will include RTFM... That's why techies don't play help-desk. :)