So what if they're wrong?

One thing I've never been able to shake is my over-reaction to someone telling me that a product exists that doesn't exist.

For one thing, I feel obligated to make sure. So I try to track down the information, which isn't always easy. By the time I've dealt with customers in-between, you know a half-hour has gone by. Often I can't prove anything until the person who has made the assertion has left.

I call these Unicorn products.  As in, "I don't sell Unicorns in my store, but I do sell them online." (Because if I was selling it in the store, I'd actually have to produce it...)

Thing is, the person making the claim is always rock-certain. No doubts.

Most often, I find they are Unicorn products -- they may exist in the ether, as a pre-order type thing, or sometime just an announcement.  Sometimes not even that.

Sometimes, they simply have the title wrong, or the info wrong.

So I ask them, "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely, I read (played, bought, whatever) with it yesterday."

"You held it in your hands?"

"Yes."

Thing is -- they are annoyed with Me because I doubted them.  So getting the fish-eye from someone I know is wrong can be doubly aggravating. It is hard to prove that something that doesn't exist -- doesn't exist, you know? So it sends me up the wall.

It happens a lot with comics, because publishers often say something is out when it hasn't actually reached the comic stores. But at least with comics, everyone gets the product at the same time. Again, it doesn't happen as often as it used to because people seem to be finally getting the fact that just because something is online doesn't mean it actually exists.

Why?  Why don't I just slough it off? What does it matter if they are wrong? People are wrong about a lot of things -- being sloppy about what they think they saw shouldn't be any surprise. (Even if they do waste a little of my time, it does garner me information -- sometimes about the real release date.)

It used to happen a lot more often. People have finally figured out that some product is Unicorn -- usually after sending off their money to get something, and then finding out they have to wait.

But there is always someone...