Originally Posted by bearisgray
After reading all this - and having commented before - I would have been very upset at the fabric having been cut without my authorization - especially if I had been told that it was all in one piece - I think I would have rather had the order cancelled - WITH AN EXPLANATION - than to get it in two pieces.
And you know, that's what we WILL do in the future... I've just added that bit of info to our website (in two places). And hope that the customer reads her e-mail before asking us why her order didn't ship!
Originally Posted by meme40
...I wouldn't do business internationally anymore because of shipping cost and the hassle you just went through. You wouldn't be losing that much money by just not shipping internationally anymore. It sounds like it's just not worth it. Don't stress about it, it's just a learning curve on shipping internationally and now you know what it's like :) It will all be ok! ~HUGZ~
Actually, I would guess that international business is about 10% of our sales and it's definitely worth the hassle. We enjoy the contact with folks all around the world, and the broken-English e-mails we get always make us smile (with delight and whimsy). There's a big map of the world on our wall and we just love to put another push-pin into it when we ship to a place we've never shipped before. We've had pictures of the beautiful scenery in Iceland e-mailed to us and words of support and concern on 9/11, the day of our tragedy.
Yes, way more joy than headaches. Wouldn't trade it away! It opens our eyes and opens our hearts and opens a window to parts of the world that we'll never get to visit.
(How else would we ever come to learn that sheep in New Zealand have *really* curly horns, or that "chook" means chicken in Australia? Or that there's a whole society of penguin fanciers in Japan?)
:)