What I said is most certainly not true, those numbers were complete guesses for the sake of conversation. Idk if he has 5 orders to complete or 5000. Just want to clarify that...
My only point was that if I were a company like him, and I have X amount of products to put together and get out the door, and 10 times that amount in emails (most likely in languages I dont speak) asking where their product us - yes my first choice would be do hire some additional help, either in the actual production area or at least in a customer service role, but that may not be possible for everybody for whatever reason. Or maybe he is trying to hire somebody and just not having any luck. Who knows. Failing in hiring additional help, faced with that same problem, I would probably chose to work on the orders (that keep growing) before I fall even further behind.
I agree. I said earlier the best bet would be to update everybody through a website post or something with whats going on. A blanket email to all registered customers could work just as well. I just don't think that bombarding somebody with emails in a situation like this is the most productive.