There is definitely one thing I see that no one at all has addressed.
"They are open over weekends and should check daily" "Stopped responding after Thursday"
"Send pics over weekend" Etc.
Just little snippets for reference.
A plausible theory:
One person answers the emails, as is standard for most companies. It tends to prevent confusion. This person mostly handles shipping, though maybe helps on Friday with pre-weekend preparation(anyone that has ever been to a retail store should understand that). So Monday-Thursday this person touches base with all emails, etc. and makes notes for the other employees on what to do over the weekend.
I could imagine the note for this particular customer being something along the lines of "Please take a few pics of these animals and send them to (customer's email) so he can choose. I will read the response when I come back in Monday morning so we can prepare it to ship."
Employee takes his time to get the pics and proceeds to email them but notices the conversation (however one-sided it may be). Notices keywords like
cancel and
refund so decides to not send the pictures(as would I) and responds to note:
"This guy is crazy. We did not ship on Thursday so he wanted to cancel the order after sending a few emails. Then he sent more. And then a few more."
Email answerer guy comes in Monday and sees what was written on the note and now he has a very red palm print on his forehead.
Of course, we haven't heard from the OP to know what the email answerer guy said today, but I suppose that is something we can only ponder about.
Kudos to you, Mr. Email-Answerer-Guy. You have truly given all of us a topic to enjoy whilst at the same time put us all back on the watch for less that desirable customers.
Just how I feel this could have VERY EASILY happened. Not bad communication. Bad timing.