h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One good way of dealing with someone who's getting in your face is to be nice anything. When they're yelling, swearing, and telling you off, just flash your best smile, say thank you, and have a nice day. Guaranteed to annoy them even more and make them look stupid in front of anyone watching

This is similar to a tactic I used working in an Investment Bank a long time ago. Lots of people used to ring from the New York office and really get irate when I couldn't get the person they wanted to speak to IMMEDIATELY! I used to get a lot of fun out of just becoming more and more polite as they got ruder and ruder until they sudenly realised the mis-match in the conversation. The very best part was when they came over to London for a meeting and then had to meet me face to face - most of them were good enough to come and apologise to me for their rudeness and none of them repeated it after they had actually met me face to face and found out a bit more about how far I would go to actually put them in touch with the person they wanted to speak to i.e. the only time I would not connect them was when the other person was in another country at the time A very good game!