Take on the display item

What is more frustrating than shopping all day and finding an item you saw on display not available in inventory. Now I realize the difficulty of stock management so I can't expect everything to be in stock at all times especially at the back end of a rainy weekend.
The problem I have is when customer service is not ready to go above and beyond to find you a suitable replacement. Recently while shopping we find an item we like but when going to the bin it was out of stock. I ask the lady on duty if they had one in the back and I got the look if death and was told 'we don't have a back'
Anyway I ask if I can get the display model and she tells me no because it was there to show people what they had.
Excuse me but you obviously do NOT have this item otherwise i would have bought it. First of all this just reeks of bait and switch and even it is not you are only causing your sales associates a headache by having to constantly answer the same question. If you sell the display item you can have your customer focus on the items you actually have an ability to sell