It’s hard to solve a customer’s problem when there really doesn’t seem to be one.

One record store employee found himself in that position a few days after an especially chaotic Record Store Day.

This particular customer called to complain that an item he wanted hadn’t been in stock when he visited the store.

While that part was true, the employee working at the time explained that none of the company’s locations had received the album he wanted.

So later, when the customer received an email offering to let him order the same item online, he felt the record store employee had misled him.

Read on to see exactly what happened during the call.

Customer was correctly told an item wasn’t in stock, later receives an offer to order it, and so would like to complain.

I’ve been working in retail for over a decade now and recently had one of my all-time strangest interactions with a customer.

I work in a record store, and we’ve just had Record Store Day. If you’re not familiar, it’s a day where labels put out many special releases in limited numbers on Saturday.

Incredibly, incredibly busy, borderline unmanageably so, but it makes the company a crapload of money, so I guess we’ll be doing it forever. The tales I have of how grown adults behave towards staff on this day could be their own thread, but my tale is from a few days later.

It all started when the customer called to explain how terrible the recent service he received was.

The phone rings, and it sounds like an older (though not elderly) gentleman.

He says, “I visited your store on Saturday afternoon and picked up a few Record Store Day titles. When I got to the counter, I asked about another title, but the girl told me that none of your stores ever had it  Later, when I got home, I received a text from your shop telling me that I could order it. Now, that’s not very good, is it?”

It had been a long few days, and I could sense that he was attempting to make a complaint about something that had happened, but I wasn’t sure what, exactly. I asked him if he could tell me again what his issue was.

He recounts the same story, adding that he’s not happy he made a wasted journey to our store.

He tried to let the customer down as gently as possible.

Now, I know the textbook customer service thing is to give a professional, insincere little apology, but I was just too perplexed. I repeated his story, as I understood it, back to him. I’m thinking he’s perhaps confused about the email notification—maybe he thinks it means that the other item was in stock, after all.

I check the system during his soliloquy and confirm that no store ever received the release he wants. I reiterate this to him, as gently as I can, and suggest that if the email he received is inviting him to order the desired release, he should do that.

His response is, “But what are you going to do about my wasted journey?”

Regardless what he said, the guy wasn’t changing his mind.

Again, feeling like I’m in some sort of hostage negotiation, I very gently remind him that he did, in fact, buy 3 other things he seemingly wanted. And that this other release was never here, but he’s welcome to order it on the website if the email he’s received invites him to.

He says, “Well, I don’t think it’s very good service.”

I know I’m getting myself into dangerous territory as I respond, “I think maybe it’s about a difference in temperament, because if I was a customer somewhere and I wanted something, but was told it wasn’t in stock, and then received an email saying I could order it, I’d be quite happy.”

Miraculously, I think I just about get through to him somewhat.

Eventually, he let it go and hung up.

He starts saying things like, “I’m not trying to have a go. I love your store and just wanted to vent my frustration.” The phone call eventually ends after 20 minutes and I seem to have left him happy.

Now, I know he doesn’t know how insanely busy it’s been, how grown men have screamed in the faces of young women wearing lanyards because we sold out of a limited live Pink Floyd album, how the shop looks like a grenade exploded over the Pop section, how there are discarded drink and food wrappers in record racks.

And I know that, to an extent, it’s my job to listen to venting customers. But it really did sap all my energy and patience and, I daresay, compassion for my fellow man. Just for the rest of that day. I’m back now.

Still not sure I understood his grievance, though. I may never know, and I’m okay with that.

Eek! It’s funny how different people interpret the same situation.

Let’s take a look at what the readers over at Reddit think.

According to this reader, the man doesn’t understand business.

That sums it up perfectly.

For this person, the guy just wanted someone to blame.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who quiet quit, then quit for real, following a no-overtime mandate.

Yes, that annoys most retail workers.

Clearly, this guy doesn’t understand how email marketing works.

Just because he received an email saying he could order the item, doesn’t mean the store had it in stock.

Yet rather than think the whole thing through, he wanted to believe that the employee lied to him.

Luckily, the employee managed to talk him through it without completely losing his patience.