A ClusterIP is not assigned to any network interface. Nothing owns it, so nothing answers ICMP.
What actually exists is a set of iptables or IPVS rules on every node that rewrite the destination address — but only for the ports the Service declares.
Bash
ping 10.96.0.42 # always fails, means nothing
curl 10.96.0.42:80 # this is the real test
If you need to know whether a Service is wired up, check its endpoints instead:
Bash
kubectl get endpointslices -l kubernetes.io/service-name=payments
An empty list means the selector matches nothing, or the pods are failing readiness. That is the actual answer, and ping was never going to give it to you.
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