I asked for a raise, but it was no soap.
no soap
idiomIt is (or was) a failure.
Origin
first recorded 18th c.The phrase appears, with no clear meaning, in a 1755 Samuel Foote nonsense prose poem, "The Grand Panjandrum". In the U.S., soap took on the meaning of money (see OED), and so no soap was a denial of money, say in response to a request for some.
We tried to fix the broken engine all afternoon, but it was no soap.
Despite their elaborate efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution, the diplomats ultimately found that it was no soap.