"Broken"

I had a customer come into the store today who had a filter that wasn't working.
And to help them out they brought in the filter itself for us to look at.

Which originally I thought it was the typical conversation of a customer needing the filter cartridge that goes inside the filter as that's what I mostly deal with in the filter department.

But nope.
The customer had already bought the cartridges. But they couldn't get the filter itself to work any more. "There's no bubbles coming out of it." Were their words.
So to double check I was like "The water isn't flowing from it?" and got their confirmation that yes it wasn't working like it was supposed to.

However we had a slight problem.
As the filter the customer had in their hands is one that I don't sell separately.
You can only find that particular filter in the tank kits that we sell. So if the customer wanted to get the exact same filter to place in their tank....they would have to buy a whole new tank in order to get the filter.

But! All was not lost as we started carrying this nice little mini filter that works for the smaller tanks and works as a replacement for that particular filter as it uses the exact same cartridges as the filters that come in the tank kits.

-I would know I have the same filter in my own tank after one of mine kicked the bucket. 

So I told the customer about this filter and handed it to them....

and they were like... "Okay, but why do I need to buy this one when I brought you mine?" 

I suppose....the customer thought that we could...fix their filter??? 
But like that's not something we do. Mostly because a) we don't have the parts here in the store to fix it and b) most people wouldn't know how to fix it and yah.....
It's not like we can just wiggle our fingers and say "poof! It's fixed!" If you come in telling me that the filter isn't working I automatically assume it's dead and you just want a new one.

So I was like "Because yours is broken and I don't sell this filter separately from tank kits so this other filter is the best fit to replace it."

And the customer legitly was like "But my filter isn't broken! It's just not working!" 

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You....you do realize that "it's not working" is like the definition of something being 'broken' right? 

But to double check I again was like "It's not moving any water right? There's no water movement or bubbles?"
The customer confirmed that was true.
so I was like "Then it's broken." 

Because it is.
I can't fix it.

I don't think the customer was satisfied with that answer nor with the possibility of having to pay more money for a new filter ($10).....

But like...there's only so much I can do....

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi