The heart of the problem, from my perspective, is that while we tried to contact the customer, she didn't respond (for whatever reason).
I've been mulling over all the suggestions proposed in this thread. Unfortunately, our shopping cart software isn't smart enough to be able to detect a "won't fit in the envelopes" issue. It's able to count how many yards are in an order, and divide by 8 to see how many envelopes are needed, but that's all.
So I'm thinking that what *would* be possible is to put a bit more information on our "international shipping" page. We can't guarantee that the customer would read it, of course (even with a checkbox!) but at least it would all be available.
How about this wording:
"If you order a length of fabric that is more than what will fit into a single envelope, we will e-mail you to ask you if you would prefer that we ship it all in one piece (at an additional charge). If we don't receive a reply within a week, we will cancel that item from your order."
Is this okay, or can anyone suggest an improvement on it?
(If you want to see what we've already included on our "international shipping information" page here's a short link:
http://alturl.com/9nz4c As always, if there's anything that you think has been left out or should be added or isn't clear, I'd like to know about it!)