I’ve been in the position when I missed on a quote, unintentionally. The real cost was significantly more than what I had told the prospective buyer. And it changed the comparison with a competitor’s price (obviously). An uncomfortable experience, but we learn and go on – in that case with the help of senior management.
I haven’t been giving the seller the benefit of the doubt that it was truly an unintentional mistake (for reasons 
). But if I did …
Caveat that in any business, reputation is everything. It is not enough to get a buyer what they wanted. The buyer needs to take away a positive impression. Especially in the current age of mass information. A buyer’s opinion is important to the longevity of the business.
Hypothetically - Let’s say a hypothetical seller made an unintentional mistake on a quote – of course, it happens. The mistake-quote fit the price limits of what the buyer wanted and committed. But the real cost is significantly higher.
Here are some possible straightforward solutions the seller could try that might save the sale with no surprises for the buyer to find out only after the transaction is concluded. (Surprises later can cause reputational damage, unless they are intentional free benefits.)
Alternatives …
1- Straight up, explain to the buyer that a mistake was made and the total cost will be much higher than agreed. Does the buyer want to proceed at the higher total amount? If no, the buyer is let out of the contract and the search goes on for another horse. Maybe give the buyer a slight discount on the next horse, out of the seller’s end, to help make up for the buyer’s trouble and disappointment.
- Handled with tact and honesty, there is a chance of keeping the buyer on board, with the same or revised buget. After a discussion of the buyer’s real horse-price limit, given the realistic shipping cost of any horse she buys. The same horse-price limit if working with this seller or any other seller (so hopefully no reason to switch to another seller rep if the buyer is understanding about the mistake).
- If she wants more horse than is affordable at her initial price limit, then she’ll need to reconsider her total budget.
- Handled tactfully and forthrightly, the buyer may be ready to continue with the same or a higher budget.
2- Or we can try this – Can the price of the horse be discounted to make the total price + shipping amount match, or move closer to, what the buyer agreed to? (Possibly the seller still makes money, just not as much.)
- The mistake can be explained along with the question if it is acceptable to the buyer to pay at the top of her budget, but more for shipping and less for the horse (the same horse).
- Although it may seem intuitive that the buyer will agree, nonetheless the buyer has the right to the information, in case for any reason she doesn’t agree.
- The goal is: No surprises later. Assume the buyer will find out or figure it out, one way or another. (Especially in the small gossipy horse world.) We can never assume how someone else will react, because everyone has their own internal landscape.
3- But wait - This is a consignment horse and maybe the consignor sets the price, not the seller representing the horse. In that case, the seller can contact the consignor and tell them that a buyer has been found, but is only willing to pay $x amount, not the consignor’s original asking price. Will the consignor agree in order to have the horse sold, now?
- Otherwise the consignor may be paying holding costs for an indefinite amount of time. If the horse is recently listed for sale the consignor probably won’t be agreed (but they might). But if the horse has been waiting for a while to find a buyer, the consignor might be just as happy to have the horse sold at a discount.
- Depending on the holding costs, even if the horse has only been on the market a short-ish time, the consignor may be better off to accept the lower price, now.
4- If this sale can’t go through because the horse price + shipping cost just can’t be smashed down into the buyer’s acceptable budget, the seller has two opportunities to work toward: Ask the buyer if they know anyone else who would like to step in to buy this horse, shipping to LAX or even another location in the U.S.; AND continue horse shopping for this buyer.
- Optimistic potential for two sales! (True salespeople will love this one. They will totally believe that they will come away with two sales!
)
5- The buyer is so discouraged at the news that this sale won’t go through per her budget, she gives up the search (or switches to another seller rep). A motivated seller will keep this buyer in mind and hopefully contact her again later “I’m so excited for you, I think we found the right horse, at the right price!”
6- BUT THE TRUE SOLUTION: Before the seller begins the horse search, start with a realistic shipping quote to LAX + all ancillary costs for any horse in the geographic region of the buyer’s interest. Go over the details with the buyer and get the buyer’s signed approval for the true shipping budget. That defines the real price limit for the horse, to fit everything into the buyer’s total budget.
The real miss here was not starting with all of the shipping and necessary ancillary costs, shown to and approved by the buyer, before the horse search began. The seller will then have a true agreed price range from the buyer.
The lack of a realitic shipping quote at the beginning of the search has to be on the seller who represents that they know everything about getting a horse to a buyer in the U.S. This is a huge reason I mistrust this seller – This is her business, fer gawd’s sake, any time a quote has a fixed-cost element, that is where everything starts. Customers can’t be relied on to do this correctly. She knows that.
But – this seller didn’t do that, despite all of her experience. Interesting. This seller also didn’t pursue any of the options above, which are fairly standard in any industry that relies on quotes for business, because of course mistakes do happen. Or, she might have pursued other better ideas of her own to make it right with the buyer.
But this seller didn’t do any of the above, or her own better idea, to straighforwardly fix the mistake and give the buyer options. Instead, she just shoved this transaction through, by putting the buyer in an untenable position. Even more interesting. 
I do not take important advise from Facebook.
Honestly all of these situations suck. I could have done some things differently to protect myself and I learned the hardest way possible. It sounds like you did a lot better than I did in that regard and still got screwed to some extent. Unfortunately buying anything is always a gamble and that gamble increases with imports.
This buyer in the UK used her next-level internet search skills and found that the U.S. seller/scammer had also scammed an employer out of $40,000. In New Jersey. She was on a years-long probation for this scam. This info wasn’t from some skeevy internet “background check”, it was directly from the government’s public online files, as the UK buyer had scoped out where the seller actually lived, and her true real name.
