To me, letting people know there is a problem does a lot to make me sympathetic. Miss Manners (there I go quoting her again) described two "plane-delayed-at-the-gate" situations, one where the passengers were kept informed about what was going on, how far back in line to depart the plane was, etc went much more smoothly where nothing at all was said.
I tried to order carry-out from a place that had gotten very good reviews of its wings. First call no answer, second call "HelloPleaseHold" and nothing for two minutes, third call just straight to hold with nothing said, fourth called transferred to the carry-out person again two minutes on hold. I finally got through, placed my order, they said it'd be ready in 15 minutes; I said I was about a half-hour away and could they delay it, and they said "We can't really do that, can you call back in 15 minutes?' After all that, the wings weren't any better than Outback's (which are superb, by the way).