I found this thread interesting as I had this same issue on my built 408 (which attracted me to this thread). And... I actually worked with Dave on correcting it. But I don't want to add anything from that angle (plenty have already), I want to add perspective from a business owners view.
While a lot of people are employees of great companies there is still a strong contingent of people that (like Dave) run their own gig (like me). It has its challenges Vs being an employee. Lots of challenges. Let me expand on that.
My place has been open since 1977. We have a lot of repeat customers, and plenty new customers each year (replacing those who move, or pass away etc.) I can imagine it is very much like Daves place... In all of those years - the last say 5 or 6 years have been different. How so? Well, here is an example or two.
I employ good people, but the "retail abuse" the staff endures these days is significant. In general customers have a chip on their shoulders it seems. It's like an us against them mentality recently. Why? I don't have that answer.
These customers want the appointment today - but we cant accommodate? How dare we! Then, we need to work with the problem more than one day? How is that so!? We call this phenomenon the "McDonalds Generation" as so many are conditioned to a drive-thru for everything.
Then the Internet. Now everyone can be an expert right? And they can all find what they need at a discount. Why is our price different they say, because after-all they found it on TEMU for less...
Oh & how about the ones that call for tech help, but then buy from some phone-bank that could not offer tech help to save their lives? You need help from experts, but if you can save four dollars you buy from some warehouse for the savings. When places like ours are gone, who will the tech-help come from? Can't we see the value in that?
I also run a very clean store, but these days customers have no regard for their actions to preserve that. It is almost like they work against the place. You can walk right up a sidewalk to come in, but they walk through the landscape & grass instead. So we put in a floor mat for their feet, but they skip the mat & carry in the debris almost purposefully. Also we have a perfect bathroom, but they go in & tear the place up. Towels, floors, soaps, filth. No regard in any way. A garbage can for the hand towels? Why use that? Additionally we offer a coffee machine, but if there aren't any sugar packets the employees are sure to hear about it. And we better stop what we are doing to fix that right now or there can be hell to pay with a Google review.
Now I have to employ a new person to keep up on all that. At a significant cost. 10+ years ago that was not the case. Sure there were occasional inconsiderate people then, but it seems like mass entitlement now has become the norm.
Anyhow, with that said my point is that things like that have become so standard that having a defense mechanism against them is pretty common. I can pretty much guarantee that more than half of whatever has to be handled in every day business are situations that will not result in positive revenue. That can have an effect on day to day operations. In fact.. Years ago I installed an electronic phone system that intercepts each phone call. We found that out of 100 calls a day we would see 60 of the 100 that were robo-calls, or sales calls - not related to simply doing daily business. An enormous time waste. A waste that we had to deal with each day ~ over & above the recent entitlement.
What does it all mean? As sad as it is, it may be that the people before you who have contributed to the deterioration of a nation conditioned the response that you received. I am not offering excuses for how it was handled, but instead a clearer vision of what we all are up against in society.