I was actually pinned. I haven’t heard that expression in years. My boyfriend at the time gave me his college pin and that meant we were one step closer to being engaged. I was so proud of that pin. I wore it every day until I realized I liked the pin better than I liked the guy.

You don’t hear about girls getting pinned anymore, but you sure hear about Pinterest. It’s kind of the same concept. You like something on the Internet, you find a picture of it, and then you pin it to your digital bulletin board for all the world to see.

The same thing happens–or happened– in real life. A man finds a woman he wants to claim for his own, he pins her so everyone knows she is his.

The basic idea is to show off all of your favorite things. Fashion retailers have been very active on this social scrapbooking/networking platform. They are, however, finding some unexpected challenges. H&M recently found itself in hot water with customers who became excited about pinned items that were no longer available.

Users have pinned and commented on H&M’s products over 145,000 times. Just one of H&M’s dresses has been shared on Pinterest nearly 1,200 times in the past 30 days. Recently, however, a message was returned to everyone: “Sorry, this item is no longer available.” Same thing happened to a pair of H&M shoes that had generated more than 2,700 views.

Customers are growing impatient. They don’t want to be toyed with. If you show them an item, you better have it ready to go. Just like the man who pinned a woman. “I pinned you. You better be available when I call.”

Needless to say, I got dumped.