Hi guys. I don't know whether this is the right section for this question but I'm sure it'll be moved to the appropriate place if it is.
I need some advice on the following situation:
I sold an item to a customer in the States on the 9th December. The customer made a mistake and only paid UK postage. I emailed the customer that I would need the difference before I sent the item. It was a very polite email as all my correspondence with customers are. I didn't hear anything for a couple of days so I sent another email. After another couple of days it was becoming increasingly likely that the item would not reach the customer by Xmas should they pay the postage. I let them know again by email but again no response. From then until now I have sent another three or four emails all with no response.
I am sending the emails to the address registered on my site and as none of them have bounced back, I assume they have reached their destination. You could say that I should have just posted the item as a gesture of good will, but if I started doing that to everyone that didn't input the correct postage, I'd go broke! Anyway, if I had done this I would have lost nearly 50% of the profit I was going to make on the item.
Right, the reason I'm writing this is because a month has passed from the initial order with absolutely no correspondence from the customer. Do I: (a) keep trying to contact the customer periodically, (b) send the money back (paid by paypal) or (c) do nothing now at this stage as I have exhausted every avenue of trying to contact them?
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

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Designer Sunglasses

If there is any chance whatsoever of Paypal issuing a chargeback,
then I would refund money, expecially if customer has not received
goods because you have not posted them. JMO

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Ready made zencarts/Zencart Templates Available

b) Refund them.

Sounds like you have tried everything you can to get in touch so refund and email them again. Send a letter via Airmail as well if you wanted to go the whole hog and maybe pop a voucher inside encouraging them to come back?

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Cheers,

Phil

Open Mind Commerce - Simple but powerful eCommerce Stores

I would refund.I am surprised they haven't been in touch though if they still haven't received anything yet?

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Childrens Fancy Dress Costumes and Party Dresses
Childrens Costumes and Dancewear

Ditto what everyone else has said, refund him.

On this matter
Have you checked out MSGTAG ? It tells you when your email has been read. It inserts an invisible image in your outgoing emails that logs a hit as soon as the recipient opens the mail. It works perfectly for 90% of recipients, some won't register a hit due to them reading the mail while offline or firewall settings. I've found it to be an essential piece of S/W and wouldn't be without it now. It was especially handy when I traded on eBay as I was able to catch a few people out who claimed they hadn't received my mails

Don't mess about with the free or cheap versions, get the MSGTAG Status version, you won't regret it.

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Lawrence

Some spam filters may block it though. I had to edit my settings to allow Lawrence's emails through... but yes, it's a useful tool if you feel somebody is giving you the runaround.

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Original Art by Tarryn Winfield