Getting stood up in business

The 1pm meeting didn't happen today. Our host had an "internet emergency", but apparently had also completely forgotten we were meeting today. Hence he didn't provide any cancellation notice. This customer isn't one of our best and with actions like this, things don't look good for a rosy relationship any time soon. The result, my sales mate and I wasted approx. 2 hours of our business day and guzzled 37 kms worth of liquid gold. There's an unwritten rule in sales, that if you call to confirm a meeting, you risk the chance the customer will wiggle out of the meeting with some lame excuse. This approach typically works, but about once a quarter we have a fumble and wonder if the rule needs a special corollary for the sly, self-important, middle manager.