From u/l_om_ Tales From Retail:

Around Christmas time in the jewellery chain store I work in, stock is generally all over the place and the system might say we have three of a particular item in stock but we actually don’t! It’s usually an unreliable source meaning unless the stock count is like ten or above we generally tell customers it’s out of stock everywhere. For obvious reasons(!)

So it’s Christmas sales and our gold bracelets have gone to 50% off, it’s towards the end of the sale and this lady comes in and I have the unfortunate luck of serving her. She asks me do we have a particular gold bracelet in her size (a size 19) Immediately in my head I know that we don’t because I’ve had multiple customers look for it, so I tell her and she pauses for a second

Lady: You have one left in stock.

Me: Sorry?

Lady: other store told me you have one 19 left in stock.

Me: Oh I’m sorry the system can be wrong sometimes, we don’t actually have that size left it’s just a discrepancy on our system.

Lady: Check.

Me: Okay I’ll have a little look but I am almost certain we don’t. other store didn’t tell you that the system could be wrong??

So I go searching knowing well we don’t have it, just because I feel bad she’s come all this way to our store!! I then explain to her kindly that we don’t and how it could be wrong on our till etc and apologise and offer to take details incase we get it back in.

Lady: You have it in stock, you won’t give me it. other store told me you have one, I want to buy it now.

So the lady was already angry before she came in and now she’s getting worse and raising her voice etc.

Lady: You have size 19 just look for it.

Me: What do you think I’m after been doing the last few minutes??

Immediately she wants the manager and I go get her, my manager says the same as I do and the lady still not satisfied starts giving out about how horrible I am and how I shouldn’t be working in customer service!

Thankfully my manager completely stood by me and didn’t apologise, she just stated that I was actually a great member of the sales team.

In the end she tried to say we should pay her bus fare back to where she travelled in from and we just ignored her :)

Tl;dr - Lady thinks we are lying to her about not having bracelet size in stock when our system technically says it does, however she shouldn’t even have that information in the first place..

--u/l_om_