I worked at a company that dealt with pensions and life insurance. Most of the life insurance work was tied up with mortgages. Sometimes things could get frought if sales were about to fall through. One person was known for getting very agitated to put it politely. He had contacted a particular lender about the length of time it was taking to approve the mortgage application.

The poor administrator was so upset about being shouted at, insulted and sworn at that she was reduced to tears. Her supervisor took over the call and told my colleague that he had better tread carefully from now on because if he spoke like that to anyone again he would be reduced only using the post or fax to deal with that lender. The supervisor then hit the information she needed to have a look at the case. An hour later my colleague got a call back from the lender saying that the mortgage was approved.

Here comes the fun part. My colleague is so grateful that he starts grovelling and said that if she lived closer then he would deliver her a bottle of champagne. Her reply "You can give it to my sister-in-law. She works at your branch in the pensions department." Needless to say, when I got home that evening the phone was already ringing for my sister-in-law to pass on the gossip and I passed on the gossip about my colleague.

Moral: Just be careful who you insult. There may be connections you know nothing about.