Bride is so angry.. asking for a full refund.. LONG story :( - Page 5

Oh well, in that case, I woulda kicked her a$$ out of my shop and thrown the cake on her after I tripped her going out the door. But that's just me.

But the fact is, the bride didn't get what she paid for. She gave the OP a picture and said, "Can you replicate this for $250 for 200 servings?" and the OP said she could. But she didn't. The fact that the OP was willing to do it for a loss is not the bride's problem. She had a right to expect the product that had been agreed to.

I think in this case, it's appropriate to give a full refund especially because it's going to allow the OP to survive this trauma. I'm so sorry this happened to you!! I'd be so traumatized, too. Once you settle it with her, you'll feel so much better. Then get back on that horse...

Exactly. I don't care if I said I'd do it for free, it matters not. It is still a representation of my work. I put just as much work (as far as finish and quality) into a free cake as I will the $1400 job later this year.

Well, from my hazy memory of my first year contracts class, I think a refund would be awarded here. Technically speaking, if a buyer of goods accepts goods that are 'nonconforming' (don't meet expectations), then they are entitled to the difference between the value of the goods as promised and the value of the goods received; i.e. if you contract for a 7 tier masterpiece and receive a Wal-Mart sheet cake, you get the $ difference between the two. This case is different since they basically contracted at a price that was lower than the market value of what was promised. However, since the bargain wasn't unconscionable, Bride should get the benefit of having made a keen bargain, and should be compensated. The refund of the fee is forseeable and therefore a legit measure of damages. I think, if the judge used the reasonable person test and determined that a reasonable person would consider the photo of the promised cake and what was delivered to be substantially different, she would award the fee as damages, or perhaps award the $ difference between what was paid and what was delivered, but again that's hard to determine since what was paid may not have been much more than the worth of what was delivered.
On another note, I am a newlywed myself. My decorator called me a couple days prior to my wedding and told me that the design wed discussed just wasnt working out. We had agreed that she was going to do a purple icing base and stencil a design with ivory icing on top. Well, the purple was bleeding into the ivory and it wasnt coming out right. She called to ask if I would mind if she reversed the design, stenciling purple on top of ivory. I told her that, faced with the alternatives of bleeding color or coming up with an entirely new design, I would much prefer to reverse the colors. I didnt mind at all, commiserated with her, and wound up with a beautiful cake. Much better than had she simply shown up with a cake neither of us was happy with.

I'll be honest and say I dont want to face her in fear of breaking down in front of her because i am sensitive like that, but at the same time I dont want to seem like a coward.

What's the best way to handle this? What should I say? and how do i basically ask for banking information so i can transfer it without having to face her?

and a completely different story is now how do i face our mutual friend, because she is the one who referred me?




I feel your pain! In addressing the issue of facing her in person or not, I have a few thoughts. I am an avoidance-avoidance type person. As much as I don't want to, I wear my heart on my sleeve! It makes it difficult to carry on an emotionally charged situation with "professionalism." However, if I didn't "face" that person and just did things in writing, I wouldn't have peace about it for wondering what they thought of me, what their contact with "R" would be like about me, are they still upset, did I make things "right enough" with them...my mind would be in a whirlwind!

I know this isn't cake, but I had a horribly distressing situation with a hostess as a consultant for a well-known cooking company that supplies stoneware, etc. She took the situation completely wrong and tore me up one side and down the other, as did our mutual friend. I was devastated and stopped doing parties for awhile because I was so "traumatized." I'm trying to get back in it, but it's hard because of fear. I never had peace and am upset with myself that I gave her that much power. But, I am who I am and not amount of therapy hours has changed that, unfortunately. I often thought if I could have talked to her in person, maybe things would have turned out differently.

I don't want you to suffer with unrest. I completely understand about the cake not being up to your standards or hers because sometimes cakes just don't work out the way we want. I will be praying for you and the situation and hope you will have peace when all this is resolved.

HUGS to you!

Well now there's a thought - how much should she give back if she had done it for free. But I mean she didn't. She almost did though if you're not buying wholesale you're sure gonna get right up close to $200.

Yeah, that one crossed the line.

Sometimes people have to learn that behaving badly will not always get them their way. I had a customer once who was unhappy that he didn't get a refund. It was not a cake or any other sort of food item. But this grown man took the item in question out of the store, threw it in the grass, and then jumped all over it while he screamed (much to the amusement of the ladies in the beauty parlor next door, and the ones in the gym on the other side of the shopping center). Then he got in his car and peeled out, leaving it on the grass. He called me about an hour later to apologize and I thanked him for his apology. Then he asked again if he could have a refund.

This was a topic of discussion elsewhere on CC. Apparently, the bride went on another site and said that the whole thing was a set up - she was told be a bridezilla, to do that to cake, that Buddy knew about it, was prepared to 'make her a new one', etc. The 'new cake' was the one originally ordered, but the 'ruined cake' was a set up from the get-go. The amount of work it took to create that 2nd cake - there was no way it could have been done in one day, even with his army of staff. Drying time takes more than that.

[quote="Texas_Rose But this grown man took the item in question out of the store, threw it in the grass, and then jumped all over it while he screamed (much to the amusement of the ladies in the beauty parlor next door, and the ones in the gym on the other side of the shopping center). Then he got in his car and peeled out, leaving it on the grass. He called me about an hour later to apologize and I thanked him for his apology. [b:6f417b31ad]Then he asked again if he could have a refund.[/b:6f417b31ad] [/quote]

You have got to be kidding! (But I know you're not.) Too funny!

Sssshhh. Don't let anyone else know! To be really honest, I wouldn't have never taken the cake order for that price. I think the best thing people can learn from the OP's story is to price yourself fairly, even if it means you do end up giving back bigger refunds. That way you don't feel so bad about actually taking a lost and then having to refund money as well. I hope that makes sense.

But this wasn't a business transaction... Not really. This was a favor for a friend. And you could counter and say that anything involving the exchange of money for a product is considered a business transaction, but I would disagree. Let's face it, if some random person off the street came in to her shop (or called her or whatever) and said, "Hey there, I need a cake that feeds 200 people and I want it to look exactly like this picture of a really expensive cake I found in a Bridal magazine...OH! And I would like it to only cost $250," she would have (hopefully) looked her dead in the eye and laughed heartily until she left the shop.

What it's going to come down to is what the OP will feel the best about doing. If that's giving back the money, then she should do it. If she thinks giving a partial refund and a discount will do the trick, then do that. At the end of the day, she has to do what's right for her.

DL, I take the attitude that anything I do, free, discounted, donated, whatever....I am always going to represent by business in the best possible light.

Jamie, I agree with that wholeheartedly. I believe that you should always do the best you can no matter what you're doing. All I was trying to say is that I hate when people want things for free and then complain about them. The OP did her best and things still ended up not working out for her. It's just an entirely messed up situation. That's all...

True, but if I made a decision to do something discounted or even free, even if it went against my better judgement, I still made that decision, and now owe the client my best work, and my best solution when and if things don't go right. OP will do what is do right. I just don't like the arguments of people being dismissed for situations like this because they didn't pay enough in the first place, or got it for free, or whatever. They are still a client, no matter what. And a client is a client, be it a budget cake or a gold encrusted 10 ten tier monstrosity.

To the OP: Do what YOU feel is the right thing to do. Only by doing what you think is right will you be able to move on from this. Also, maybe sit down and have a honest talk with your friend about the situation, and explain to her that you'd hate to have another situation in the future where she is in the middle, and that you would like to keep any business she sends your way as 100% business; no favors, no discounts, etc. Only then will you be able to keep that friendship AND a business relationship separate.

To some others...think of it this way. You buy a set of dishes and spend quite a bit of money on them, and you receive them. You open the box and notice that one of the plates is chipped! Do you send them back and ask for a refund/replacement? Or do you shrug and said, "Oh well, I can still eat off it."

Sure you can eat the cake, but it's still not what was agreed upon. The cake was "chipped" in this case. Just a thought.