I'm sure a most of us have had to deal with the general public at one time or another during the course of our employment.

In my old job, this was almost always restricted to the telephone, but working in the hotel I've been astonished at how rude people can be over the most minor of things! On the other side of course, I do get to meet a lot of delightful people, but the 5% that are rude can really bring me down.

I've found that almost all of the people who are rude seem to be middle aged - i.e. from about 35ish up until 60. Younger people and old people are in general really nice.

So in this thread I'd like to hear your thoughts, opinions, and experiences of dealing with the general public. Who was the worst, most unreasonable person, and what happened? Do you remain cool or do you answer back?