25+1 things vanishing in America: polite customers

For our recent series Vanishing in America, I wrote a post bemoaning the disappearance of customer service in the U.S. retail industry. Many readers rightly took me to task for appearing to place all the blame on waiters, clerks and call center reps. They pointed out that it takes two to tango, and when otherwise nice people are forced to deal with rude, inconsiderate and pushy customers all day long, their attitude is bound to suffer.

Do any of these situations ring a bell?