One of the patterns you notice working in a customer-facing role is how some human behaviour is designed to slowly chisel away at you. This is an example of a rather insignificant interaction which just becomes too much when done en mass by members of the public, that don't know each other and haven't conspired together against you, but often feels like a group attack.

Ice Machines aren't designed to work during heatwaves when people most demand drinks which require them. We had an ice machine down for days awaiting repair. Word has got around that we had no ice and some people were asking about it daily hoping to get their favourite frappe or an iced drink. This is normal.

Others see it as an excuse for meaningless interaction with the guy or girl behind the counter. A customer approach asking if the ice machine was working. My response... "Yes, we have ice. An engineer fixed our ice machine earlier. Can I interest you in a frappe, iced coffee or refresha?". Customer waited during this entire spiel which could have been simply a one-worded response... "YES".

This customer has been a few days previously so I felt she deserved a better response than a one worded answer.

Silence was golden, the next step of the preplanned dialogue commenced "Oh, you have no ice... ". A confused expression on my face with a shorter response of "we do". Customer responded with "Oh" before walking off rather quickly.

Customer clearly didn't even want the ice-based drink.