In this paper we revisit the definition of user impatience in ubiquitous networks, by proposing a new characterization that does not reduce impatience to a simple timeout, like most previous works do. Instead, we characterize impatience by decoupling the cause of it, i.e., the probability that a given user becomes impatient, and the consequence, i.e., the reduction of the size of its transfer by a premature departure. From this new characterization, we develop two generic models based on M/G/1/PS queues that differ in the way impatient users decide to abort their transmission. We show by comparison with NS3 simulations, that these models have a high accuracy, and use them to investigate the influence of impatience on the performance of the network and on the quality of experience of users. One of our main findings is that impatience does not significantly degrade the global satisfaction of users with regards to a system without impatience, and greatly extends the range of utilization of the wireless network where customers have an acceptable satisfaction.