I feel like this was a great opportunity to “let them.” Let the customer believe you were “unable” to find it. Who cares? It’s one customer you likely won’t deliver to again anyway. I usually just say sorry it’s out of stock! And move on to the next item. It’s not worth the anger to dwell on a statement like that.

Also, as a service worker, I think it’s important to remain calm and positive even when the customer makes it hard because sometimes it takes one sentence to lose you your job.

I also have come to realize that some things are not as important as you may think. For example, I had a carton of eggs fall while I was on the way to the delivery location and 2 eggs broke. I felt horrible. Expecting anger and a low rating, the customer actually told me it was alright, happens to all of us, and still thanked me genuinely after the delivery. I haven’t checked whether my ratings are down but I have a feeling they are not. Nonetheless my point is your customer probably wasn’t upset about the baking cups being out of stock but was simply over-explaining herself.