Thanks for all the replies, of course I have a biased look at it. I went back and checked and based on when I called my wife, it would have been almost exactly 15 minutes, possibly 14 to split hairs.

"Now, you might say "I understand that United wasn't contractually obliged to put me on that airplane, but they nevertheless should have done what it took to get me on that plane, because I'm a high-value customer and will make future purchasing decisions based on this treatment."

That is probably the best description I can come up with. Fair or not, one incident like that is enough to make me reconsider which airline to buy since certainly other carriers have better domestic first than united. That being said, United is the only reasonable carrier for me to stick with based on where I live and where I fly to, so I guess Ill just bend over.

Thats exactly what Ive always thought, and thats what I assumed they would do. The total unresponsiveness and quite frankly downright rudeness of the gate agent made it that much more frustrating.