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@Oliver Schick
Classic bike shop moment this morning. I was waiting to be served as the sales assistant was helping an inexperienced cyclist choose a helmet. Just as she'd chosen one, he inspected it closely and found a crack in the plastic. "Oh, I can't sell you this one, as it's already cracked. A previous customer trying it on probably dropped it."
Now, you understand, I'm of course not saying that he was right that this was what caused the crack (it could well have been careless handling when it was still in a box), but I've witnessed very similar situations before.
Cue confusion on the part of the customer: "What do you mean, a customer dropped it? Does that mean that it can crack if ..." Her emerging concern about the helmet being flimsier than she had imagined was routinely and confidently derailed by expert sales patter, and I should imagine that she eventually would have left the shop with a new helmet (I left before that sale was completed).
(This wasn't in London, by the way.)