First Unhappy Customer - Need Advice - Picture Included!
Business By tasteebakes Updated 6 Jun 2008 , 12:11am by peacockplace
yes...any time you have to cut cake out of something that's not it's original cake is carved...
Really?... I wouldn't have charged for a carved cake. I think of a carved cake as a 3-D cake. this was just a rectangle cut in half and stacked with the 4 corners cut off.
Funny how we are all so different.
ummm...first of all...do NOT give her money back...she got this cake at a STEAL!
BUT...this was NOT enough servings...I'm sorry...but by your measurements you actually gave her a little under 20 servings with the party slice from wilton @ 1.5"X2"X4" ....with it being 13" long and 4" wide...that gives them about 18 servings...maybe a little under because of the curves.
Stephanie
While I have to agree with the first part (as almost all the previous posts also say), I have to say that I tell all of my clients that a serving is a wedding serving (I personally eat 2 of those, but I didn't eat my veggies, so I have room!!!). And even if you are going with the party serving, your client states that there were 10 servings, and Party sizing says 18, so you are still closer to the 20 than the 10. DO NOT give any money back. If you feel that you must, you can tell her the different serving amounts for wedding and party servings and admit that you were TWO servings short...
Wow! Thanks for all your replys. I just got in from frying donuts (1am) and I ahve to turn around and open my shop at 6am. But I wanted to take a second to Thank you all!
I will be calling her tomorrow and will update you on the outcome. I am also hoping that when she went to serve it, she realized it was more cake than it appeared to be. It is a bit of an optical illusion, isn't it? I had never really thought of it that way.
I am not sure how old the Bday boy was but one of the girls I have working for me who is 14 believes it was for a boy in the 7th grade and that would make him 13 I think.
Anyway, it's off to bed for me, Thanks All! and I will update tomorrow!
sorry this happened to you...that cake was already dirt cheap for what it was....it was basically a 1/4 sheet...i always tell them a 1/4 sheet feeds 15-20....then i ask if they are having other food at the party...and they usually are...i tell them a 1/4 sheet will get you by then
i had one big guy come in once...looked at a 1/4 sheet....ask how many it fed, i told him...he goes...15-20!!!!!!!!!!!...that looks like it feeds one (me)!
so it's really all relative.
'
PLEASE LEASE DO NOT GIVE THEM A REFUND...these complainers talk to each other, and soon you'll have a shop full of gripers all wanting cheap cake.
truthfully....if it were me, i wouldn't give her another thought...i wouldn't call at all....i weed out my customers...i do not want the complainers anyway...so why bend over backwards to please them? good riddance...theres a happy customer right behind them to take their slot.
remember the soup nazi on seinfeld????? yeah!
I personally think having a standard size of a serving is best. If you want to feed a bunch of pigs, order more cake!
What's the matter with you? Charging ONLY $25 for that cake? and worse of all, contemplating that you should give her money back?
This lady has some NERVE...
Don't give her the time of day...
So you lost on BAD, UNGRATEFUL, CHEAP customer....
Consider yourself lucky...
ps / to avoid this problem, I usually SHOW my customers the pan that I will be using to create their cake, the one's that see it and comment that it looks too small are showed the WILTON serving guide, if they still insist it looks small... I suggest they buy more servings... that usually shuts them up 
Good Luck,
Your cake was lovely...
LA 
Your cake looks awesome!!!! I would not refund her one penny, nor offer a discount on the next cake. 25 dollars for a cake like that is already discount. I can not imagine that she would get a cake like that at the grocery store.
Stick to your guns-she will come back and if not, than you only lost a PITA customer.!!
I just read through this thread and now I'm on pins and needles waiting for the follow up! Had to post so I'll get that email letting me know when there's a new post! 
BTW...I think the cake looks great.
I had a lady order an Elmo cake for 25. I recommended the appropriate size and then drew out for her how to cut it. She appreciated that stating, "I would have just cut it into wedges," which would not have given her enough cake. I figured she might think this way because this is what I would have done before learning all that I've learned. Mom always cut huge wedge shaped pieces, so that's how I thought you cut a cake.
Great job on the cake! I suspect the lady got more than 10 servings when she actually cut and served the cake. Otherwise you would have received another call from her that same day. Sounds like she was overreacting until she actually decided to serve the cake rather than staring at it to determine the number of servings. Look forward to hearing the end result of this one. 
According to this guide, your cake would have served 24 in a wedding, 18 in a party, and 12 in a family. I'm sure she gave out family portions.
http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules/Forums/files/cake_serving_guide_219_1__657.pdf
IMO, just give her a future discount and explain the way Alison suggested. Oh and I have to chim in on whether a wedding cake slice isn't enough - US citizens are probably the heaviest in the world. We really should only eat a wedding size!
By my calculations, she should have had 26 pieces. I used wedding slices (1x2") since you stacked the 9x13. I also think you barely made a profit and no $$ back to her.
She could've even cut 1x3" pieces and had plenty of cake with very large slices! I bet you she started cutting it up and realized just how big it really was.
I don't think the 1x2x4 is the tiny sliver of cake that many act like it is.
So true! When I did my sister's wedding cake, I was shocked at how small the dimensions were and planned to cut larger slices. Did I at the wedding? Nope! I was stunned at how large the slices ended up being!
I don't think the 1x2x4 is the tiny sliver of cake that many act like it is.
So true! When I did my sister's wedding cake, I was shocked at how small the dimensions were and planned to cut larger slices. Did I at the wedding? Nope! I was stunned at how large the slices ended up being!
I agree. When you look at it from the top, it looks kind of small. But, lie that sucker on it's side, showing all 4 inches of height and filling and everything, and it's a nice size piece of cake.
I am so glad this came up, I've been worrying that I might face this -- thankfully, not yet.
I have to agree that I thought that the wedding size sound small until I cut it!
and cakes look smaller than they are!
I send a lot of practice cakes to work with my DH and I always ask how many servings he gets... I'm usually surprised
anyway, when I have quoted a price I always state my price per serving and the 1x2x4 serving size and then mention if you want more, order more. I don't do wedding and party prices, it's just to confusing for me. 
I think that your cake was great and that you shouldn't offer to refund any money (again too cheap to start), but if she continues to be irate, offer a discount on a future cake (10%)
I don't think the 1x2x4 is the tiny sliver of cake that many act like it is.
So true! When I did my sister's wedding cake, I was shocked at how small the dimensions were and planned to cut larger slices. Did I at the wedding? Nope! I was stunned at how large the slices ended up being!
I agree. When you look at it from the top, it looks kind of small. But, lie that sucker on it's side, showing all 4 inches of height and filling and everything, and it's a nice size piece of cake.
Especially with a big ol' scoop of ice cream along side of it!!! Mmmmmm!
Just out of curiosity, How many servings does the loaf of Pepridge Farms pound cake (in the freezer section of the grocery) say it has in it on the nutritional label? That's not near as big, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was also based on slices that where cut down the middle and in 1" slices from there. When people start looking at servings sizes on the sides of the boxes of items they buy in the grocery, perhaps our servings sizes won't seem so small!!!
I don't think you should give any type of refund. She came and picked it up and took it with her. That is a sale. When you buy something at the store and when you get home you decide you don't like it, you can't go back to the store and get a refund and keep the item...........you'll have to return the item to get your money back. I'm sure it's too late now for her to return the cake. She should've said something upon picking up the cake. Did you talk to the lady that sold the cake to her? did she complain to her at the time of pick up? I suggest a percentage off for a future purchase.
I can't wait to hear how this turns out. She doesn't deserve to get a refund. I explain to people that my servings are based off of the wedding slice and I have a block of wood mocked up to show what that looks like on a plate. Most people agree that it's more than sufficient. It's more cake than it sounds like it will be.. more than I can eat, but I am not a big cake eater. If she was told how big the servings would be she should have ordered more cake.
If you offer different serving sizes make sure you have different prices for them. Party servings are 50% more than wedding servings and should cost 50% more.. so if your wedding serving costs $3/serving.. your party serving should cosy $4.50/serving and if you have a Jethro serving that is twice the size of a wedding serving it should be $6/serving. It gets confusing though.. I had this originally, but people look to you to help them with deciding how many servings they will need. If she didn't tell you that they wanted HUGE pieces.. it's not your fault.
Obviously someone wanted their cake and eat it too!! She has nerve of a toothache (and maybe even getting one after eating all that cake!)considering she basically stole the cake for that price! The cake was great looking and I would not offer a discount or anything to her since she got a discount already is what I am thinking.
Good luck!!
I'm anxious to hear how this turns out too.
I do think you need to charge more...My carved cakes start at $5 per serving which would have made your cake, based on 26 servings $130.00. How the heck do you make any money much less pay for the ingedients by only charging $25?
When my clients pick up their cakes I usually give them a cutting guide which states how large to cut the slices so that they can get the correct number of servings. They really appreciate having this information especially with carved cakes.
Just one more question about the serving cart that someone posted on here that is on this site here that Indydebi created, are the cakes for example a single 6 inch round and so on or 2-6 inch rounds stacked?? I hope that make sense! Thanks because I have been looking for a chart for serving sizes!
Just one more question about the serving cart that someone posted on here that is on this site here that Indydebi created, are the cakes for example a single 6 inch round and so on or 2-6 inch rounds stacked?? I hope that make sense! Thanks because I have been looking for a chart for serving sizes!
The majority of serving size charts go by double-layer cakes, not single.
Customer should have know that a "Serving" is something totally different to teenage boys! From the theme cake, I bet I am close to saying it was for a bunch of boys. I raised 4 boys, and "lunch" was as much as 3 Big macs or Quarter pounders + fries EACH! My 4 sons could/ would polish off that WHOLE cake in one sitting--- doesn't mean I would expect to pay for "4 servings"!
People never cease to amaze me. For what you charged this customer, she has NERVE complaining. I wouldn't refund a penny.
I would tell her to please return it for a refund.
(I mean of course because she can't return it because she served it.)
And you should definitly charge more for your work.
Customer should have know that a "Serving" is something totally different to teenage boys! From the theme cake, I bet I am close to saying it was for a bunch of boys. I raised 4 boys, and "lunch" was as much as 3 Big macs or Quarter pounders + fries EACH! My 4 sons could/ would polish off that WHOLE cake in one sitting--- doesn't mean I would expect to pay for "4 servings"!
Sounds about right for teenage boys.
As to the customer not being told about the serving size if she didn't ask it isn't really the decorator's problem. It might be nice to have a display to show people and may help avoid these issues with people but I fail to see how that should have any bearing on refunds or future discounts. Especially if the decorator is using standard serving charts.
She has nerve of a toothache (and maybe even getting one after eating all that cake!)considering she basically stole the cake for that price!
Huh?
If the OP didn't like the price she didn't need to take the job. The OP's pricing structure isn't the customer's fault.
Separate the serving size issue from the lowball price.
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