Sorry For Not Being Encyclopedias  

(I work as a cashier at a retail chain. I am ringing up a customer who’s buying a water flosser.)

Me: “How has your day been?”

Customer: “Oh, it was fine until I got here.”

Me: “Oh, no! What happened?”

Customer: “I asked your manager about replacement picks for this, and she didn’t know! Isn’t that sick?”

Me: *disagreeing but not wanting to argue* “Um… Yeah, unfortunately, even our managers don’t know everything about all our products.”

Customer: “She should’ve asked someone who would know! She told me to try [Different Store]! Can you believe that?”

Me: *not knowing what to say anymore* “…”

(What I wanted to say was, “What else was she supposed to do?”, but I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to make him angrier or start an argument. I talked to the manager in question later, and she was so upset about her interaction with this customer that I ended up wishing I HAD said it. She tried everything she could to help him. She looked on the shelves for replacement picks, but it was clear we didn’t have any; she offered to help him read the instructions to see if they could shed any light, but he wasn’t interested. Since there was nothing else she could do to help him, she recommended that he try a different retail chain, or the online store where he had already seen the picks before. He berated her for not being more helpful. Since we didn’t sell the replacement picks he wanted, neither of us is sure what else he expected her to do aside from suggesting another store. Perhaps he expected her to know exactly which stores sold them? We don’t even know about every product that WE sell.)