What do you do when you cannot get a hold of a customer after an order is returned by the shipper/post office?

What about if the customer places an order and you need additional info or something?

If the customer does not call or email you back, how long do you wait until you consider the matter closed? And what do you do to close it? For the order coming back, do you refund? For the order that was placed, but not mailed, do you cancel?

I'm starting to get a few of these and have no idea how long I'm supposed to wait or what to do from here.

I email and/or call the customer three times, five days apart. If I don't have any resolution by then, I simply close the order and leave a comment in the notes section of the order (in case they log in and look).

If the shipment comes back, I refund it in full. My items are very lightweight and the USPS postage I pay is minimal. As rare as this occurs, Id rather avoid getting into a chargeback situation when I didn't refund the shipping.

If the customer provides incorrect information we call and email to ask them to call us. We try every two days for a week, and then we cancel the order. They usually call us back after receiving the cancellation notice.

For orders that are returned as nondeliverable, we first check that we did send to the correct address (sometimes we've messed up on that), then we try to contact the customer as above. If we don't hear back, we refund the order LESS the shipping charges. Our items are heavy and expensive to ship so we clearly state in our policies that shipping will not be refunded.

We have our admin set to send an email on order cancellation, and the reasons for the cancellation are put in the order notes so it shows in their email.

Also, when we're trying to contact a customer we put a note in the order notes section as well.

We do most of this and we've also added an order folder called "Awaiting Customer Response" so that if they happen to check their order status they will see this and maybe get back to us.

I've got a blurb in my terms that I do not charge restocking fees except when a package is returned unopened. I've never enforced it, but left it in just in case the PIA (pain in the arse) factor ever gets high. I don't reimburse shipping, 'tho. I've overlooked some low weight priority mails many times, but my packages range all over the weight/size map.

Just has my first one last week--a Priority Mail order returned unclaimed. Apparently the receiving PO only holds PM for 15 days (& 2 notices to addressee) before returning.

I emailed customer to choose between resending order if he'd call with his cc # so I can resend and recharge shipping or a refund (less shipping) if he no longer wants the products.

Had no response yet, so I'll take your advice, sgrover, and resend email twice more.