Whenever I needed someone to respond promptly to my business emails I would clearly mark them urgent, your attention please, in whopping bold capital letters in the subject line and anywhere else applicable. If I then heard nothing from them, would cancel their order and confirm cancellation with one last email requesting they contact me again should they wish to re-order. Job done, no drama and move on - they really have no cause for complaint as you have been a good communicator, been polite and you have left the door open for further transactions.

Yes, customers are gold and should be treated with respect, great service and quality products. By the same token you are running a business, you cannot be wasting time/product/resources trying to second guess someone who couldn't be bothered communicating with you. It is not a matter of being hard or unkind you need your business to survive.

It seems that if she ordered 12 yards and gave you a method of payment, I wouldn't expect you to cancel the order. You could fulfill the order as placed. You were just trying to save her a little money but if she didn't bother responding, I would have just sent it in one piece and charged her the higher price. Why should you lose the sale because she didn't reply to your email?

After quickly reading all the posts, my conclusion, under these circumstances, was what you just suggested to just have canceled the order. Bottom line you want to please all your customers and they are the ends to your means. On the other hand, you also have to run a profitable business in the most efficient way. At times those two objectives don't like to play nice together.

After one ignored email I'd be inclined to let them know their order will be canceled due to incomplete shipping instructions. (I wouldn't have cut the fabric before shipping just on account you don't know what she needed it for.)

Another poster commented something may have happened to the customer preventing them in some way from contacting you. Not be hard hearted but unexpected things come up with all of us but that's our responsibility not for someone we're doing business with to be our psychic babysitter. That would be up to you if they let you know there was some unforseen emergency that came up and got in the way as to what you may or may not do.

Sorry it became what it did but this helps you should you have to face this again sometime in the future.

This sounds like a fair way to do it, except for the gift part on the customs slip. As a goodwill effort, I would email her a discount coupon(10-15%) for a future order with an expiration date. The ball will be in her court, if she wishes to place another order.

After reading all this -

There are a couple of questions I have (maybe answered and I missed it) -

Had the customer agreed to and paid the original shipping charge for the uncut 12 yards?

If yes, perhaps she had ignored the e-mails because she thought the answer "was obvious" that she wanted it shipped in one piece because the cost was already paid?

don't be too hard on yourself you did your best to contact her, and you did you best to save her money, if she can't reply that is her mistake not yours,
the only reason I can think of for her not replying is maybe she was on holiday or maybe unable to get her emails,
but you still did what you thought was best for her.

I also think you handled it correctly. I work in a medical office and patients do not return our calls either. Then when they miss something they want to blame it on us. If people would just be responsible things would go so much smoother. But some people just want to blame things on someone else. So I would not worry about it.

The first thing I do when I want to order international is check the shipping, why wouldn't she have done that! It states quite plainly on your websight the costs, amount of fabrics per envelope ect!

You have done the best you could under the circumstances, I wouldn't worry about it at all, she should be more responsible.

Favorite Fabrics, maybe I too will open myself up for problems with my opinion but this situation is a perfect example for why many businesses "WILL NOT" ship overseas. Regardless for the reason for the buyer not replying to your emails it was her responsibility to answer.

You did everything within your control to try and help this customer.....they dropped the ball. Custom charges are the norm and while people get upset with them it's the law over there and they have to live with that when they purchase from the US. You have no control over that and should not be expected to cheat and write gift for the customer. That is just plain wrong. Also postage is not cheap sending there either unless it's a military P.O. box. People living overseas know this and outweigh the cost of the fabric or whatever else they may purchase to make the decision to buy or not to buy. It's not any business's fault the cost of items there and when they choose to buy from the US it is their choice and they know the cost of postage and customs for the items. If they don't then they need to be proactive and find out the facts.

You went way beyond the normal in trying to provide the best service you could for this customer. It is the buyer's responsibility whether it is a US or overseas customer to read the website and make themselves aware of your policies and shipping procedures. After reading many posts of unhappy people regarding their purchases it usually comes down to them not reading and informing themselves of the way the seller does business. That is their fault not yours.

So in my opinion you did the best you could and I wouldn't worry about their unhappiness as it is their fault not yours. You can't make everyone happy and for me it would not be a loss to lose this customer. You have many happy ones and will gain many more. Again, this is one of the main reasons people in the US will just not do business with overseas customers mainly because there are too many variables (things outside your control) that make things go wrong.

So please don't worry or think you could have done something better for this person. You did everything you possibly could and still got grief for all your efforts. It just isn't worth it to put yourself through that. People tend to believe it's always the sellers fault when in fact it is their fault for not being responsible purchasers.

She should have responded to your email.She had that option ,so you did the correct thing.