Ann L

I agree with you. I would not have sent it without their reply to my emails.

np3

I hope you don't feel too beat up by all of these posts. I think this is one of those times when waiting for her reply would have been best. Lesson learned.

IrishNY

I would have sent the email but given them a deadline after which I would send it in one piece at the higher rate. I figure that once it's cut, the customer can't put it back together. So unless they tell me to cut it to save money, I send it whole and charge them.

But you were trying to save them $$ and that's pretty nice. Don't beat yourself up over this.

sarahbelle

This was a lose-lose situation for you. Regardless of your decision, she would not have been happy with it.

Personally, I would not have not been upset that you had saved me $$$.

Only suggestion that I can think of is to ask for a phone # in the checkout process. Many places ask for this. If you had had it you could have called. I know that an international call could have been a little expensive, but ultimately you would have had a happy customer and not held the order open for weeks.

mamaw

I would not have cut the fabric, and waited as long as it took for a response from the buyer.
It was a tough call, and am sorry you had to be put in that position. Gives everyone something to think about when selling. Know that you did what you thought was best at the time.

wvdek

I would have stated in the e-mail we would hold shipment until further notice and not done anything until hearing from the customer. If that means holding the fabric for one week more, then by all means I would have made the exception to the rule.

luvTooQuilt

I second this.. How do you know that she had computer access to reply/respond to you, she could of even been on holiday..

Mailmanldy

I too would have been upset if I ordered a lot of yardage, and it was cut without my consent. If you cut it at 6 yds each, and what I needed was 7 yds and 5 yds, then one piece would have been unusable.

I beleive you should make a section on your webpage, that international customers need to read and agree to by check box before they can finish the checkout process, that states, how much you can get in your flat rate envelopes, and if they order more than what fits in there, the shipping will be different than your shopping carts charges, and you won't ship until they have responded to emails about the additional charges for shipping. Once you know how much they are ordering, and how much it would weigh and cost in additional postage, email them, and give them 72 hours to respond. If they don't respond then cancel the order. If this is all spelled out on your webpage, and they have to read and agree before placing the order, then they can't argue with you if the order is cancelled because they didn't respond.

I agree that things come up and people may not have internet access, but that isn't the businesses fault, it is the customers fault. You can't hold a business responsible for someones internet access. I beleive it would be better to cancel the order, and let the customer know why, and if they really wanted the fabric, they can order it again, knowing that they are going to have to approve additional postage charges before the order will be filled and shipped.

As long as you state these things on your website for international shipping, then the customer becomes responsible for making sure they reply to any email informing them of additional charges. While this may not help with the customer that this happened to, you can take steps to make sure it won't happen with future customers.

Favorite Fabrics

We had already held the fabric for ten days before we shipped it. Could we have held it longer? Sure... but... to be practical, a shop really can't hold it indefinitely. I can't imagine that if I ordered merchandise from, say, target.com, that they'd hold it very long if there was a question about the order and I was unreachable to provide an answer.

When I responded to the customer today, I did let her know the text and dates of the e-mails we sent her. We keep records of all correspondence right in our customers' sales orders, so that no matter which one of us (in the shop) answers a customer's phone call or e-mail, we know any and all information that has flowed back and forth.

Now I'm wondering if you (the forum readers) think it would have been better had we just canceled the order entirely, having not heard from the customer. (Yes, she could have been ill or on vacation or had a broken computer but ... we're not psychic and just can't know these things.)

Thoughts?

SaraSewing

Make it right with her. Offer her a replacement. Offer her a big discount on her next order. Do what it takes. It's easier to please one customer than to have her tell everyone she knows to NOT order from you.