I would just not send the quote and send a professional message to the potential buyer about why you are unable to fulfill their request.
If I am not mistaken, once an item in the quote is sold, the quote goes away? Plus I think the quote is like a reserved cart and may also go away on its own over time? Anyone else want to clarify?
The quote request is there for either 60 or 90 days. I've had requests like this as well, and the request just sat there until the time period elapsed. Would love to be able to reject the ones that are unreasonable. Or for the quote either expire sooner or the have it show up as re-quote required For times when the shipping increases go into effect).
I'd too would like an option to either place a time limit on a quote (something reasonable like 7 or 14 days or whatever), for exactly the reason you give - shipping costs increase on occasion and having a quote sat there for weeks which could potentially progress to an order is not good, especially if the shipping cost has increased substantially like some of the US rates have done recently.
As mentioned by @budgetkids sending a professional message is the best option. I can see that you have now updated the countries that the quote method applies to to prevent this situation from re-occurring.
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If I am not mistaken, once an item in the quote is sold, the quote goes away?
Plus I think the quote is like a reserved cart and may also go away on its own over time?
Anyone else want to clarify?