Man Up, Already!

What happened to the occupation or vocation of customer service?
I've worked in the service industries before--waitress, sales, fitness. I understand that people can be aggravating, rude, obnoxious, and down right stupid. BUT, if you enter into this field, you know you're getting paid to deal with this. It doesn't mean that it won't get to you, but you just can't let it show. Or worse, is the representative who just couldn't be bothered to do their job. As though your inquiry or need for assistance is an inconvenience to them.
This brings to mind a story that my mom told me today. My dad needs to travel abroad for business and it is very last minute. My book hopped online to book him a ticket. She used a site, which will remain nameless but offers tickets cheaply (piece that together...), and she reserved the flights. Because one of the airlines hasn't skipped into this millennium, they prefer paper tickets. Well long story short, my mom's been waiting for the tickets to arrive and when they didn't, she called to inquire. Apparently, because this company did not have time (a week) to generate and mail paper tickets, they just cancelled the reservation. With no warning!!!
After being shuffled around and being told that she was notified by email, my mom asked for a copy of the email to be resent to her. Well of course, that was just impossible (could it be b/c the email never existed?!) and that she and my dad are just SOL. To boot, the guy was RUDE!
Hmmm....my parents are willing to pay money to the company he works for, for a service they provide and somehow wanting what they paid for constituted an inconvenience to this man. Go figure.
Or how about when I received an overdue notice in the mail a couple months ago for an account that has been closed for over a year. When I called, I was told that unless I was willing to make a payment there was nothing that could be done. I tried to tell the woman (before she hung up on me) that I would be willing to make a payment if I could just receive a copy of the invoice to prove that I did in fact owe the balance. She effing hung up on me!!! After she told me to not yell at her. I wasn't yelling (yet), I just didn't feel like being bamboozled for almost a Benjamin. I started yelling when she lied to me about not having a supervisor available.
Needless to say, I called back. I spoke to a much nicer woman who instantly put me through to a supervisor. This supervisor took my complaint seriously and told me they would be happy to send out an invoice detailing the charge. Wonderful!!!
Well a month goes by and it dawns on me, no invoice! I call back and get another nice woman who saw the note that one was supposed to be sent. She agrees to resend it. It's now been almost two weeks and still no invoice! Hell, I guess they don't want the money that badly b/c I haven't received another past due notice either.
But this just makes me wonder why would you take a job in a call bank if you don't want to deal with people? This reminds me of people who complain about not being able to find work. But it's really b/c they're too picky. They just want a good job, not any job. Last I checked, almost every MickyD's is hiring.
And why do we even bother to call it customer service?
Dictionary.com defines service as "an act of helpful activity; help; aid". If that's the case why did this entire career field miss the memo on what they're supposed to do. I would say rename it to customer assistance if the idea of serving rubs these folks the wrong way. But again, assistance would make one think that they are going to receive some help.
I would rather they be honest when answering the phone, "Thanks for calling customer annoyance. I might be inclined to help you, but realize that I may not. How might I frustrate you?" At least then I wouldn't get my hopes up of resolving my issue of the day.
If it truly takes less muscles to smile than frown, wouldn't it also just be easier to be nice than to come up with ways to annoy others.
If you don't like people, then get a job somewhere else---like forensics or the morgue!