Just playing devils advocate because I was not there so... But maybe if it was a later departure there were NO other routings that could get you there that night, so they couldn't put you on another flight. The customer service agents can't give refunds, and there is sure no way you would ever have a refund credited back to you by the next morning . You will get your full refund , and I think this may have been a case of heads colliding... You have already stated there were hundreds of people in front of you and after an hour you got to speak to someone, so imagine what frame of mind they are in after being yelled at by hundreds of people, now you are also tired and irritable and well it isn't hard to see how things can deteriorate