You never know what kind of reaction you’re going to get from someone, even when you’re simply trying to be polite.

This young woman found that out while shopping for back to school clothes when she approached an employee at Victoria’s Secret with a question about bralettes.

After waiting her turn, she addressed the employee as “ma’am” and expected a normal conversation to follow.

Instead, the employee immediately took issue with the term and pointed out that she was only 22 years old.

The unexpected response left the customer feeling awkward and wondering whether she had somehow crossed a line.

Read on to see what happened.

AITAH for calling a customer service lady “ma’am?”

I (F18) just had a wild experience in Victoria’s Secret.

I was going back to school shopping, and I wanted to find some comfortable bralettes.

I see that there’s a young woman helping an older woman with something so I wait until she’s done and then I said, “Ma’am, do you guys have any bralettes here?”

She did her best to sound polite.

I was close to her and my tone of voice was polite. Yet, she turned to me and says to me in a snarky tone, “Did you really just call me ma’am? I’m only 22…”

Obviously, I was really taken a back by this, so I just said “Oh, I just say it to be polite,” and she didn’t say anything after this, and then answered my question, but it made me feel really bad.

When I worked in customer service, I was called this and I just assume ma’am was a neutral gesture that you say to a woman you don’t know, like sir for men to be respectful. I don’t live in the south so maybe she thought it was too formal, but it really made me seem like I was in the wrong and a bad person for saying this.

AITA?

Wow! The employee was pretty rude for calling her out like that.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a barista whose keen eye uncovered a customer scheme for free coffee.

Let’s see if the people over at Reddit agree.

This person always uses ma’am and sir.

Here’s a good point.

Yes, they do.

That phrase works well for everyone.

There was nothing wrong with the way this customer approached the employee.

Calling someone “ma’am” is a pretty normal and respectful thing to do when you’re speaking to a stranger.

And even if the employee wasn’t a fan of the term, she could have simply answered the question and moved on.

Instead, she made the customer feel bad for trying to be polite, which never should have happened in the first place.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer complaint that led to them losing their VIP status.