I want to pull my hair out right now! And I feel so bad about wanting to do this.....

A friend of mine refferred this lady to me. My friend said this lady has flaked on her several times (friend of mine does hair). Friend says just make sure she pays before I make the cake---she wld hate her to stiff me. I say okay no problem.

Get in touch with the lady. She tells me what she wants: Sheet cake, 1/2 chocolate, 1/2 vanilla, vanilla BC icing...decorated with batman and hulk fighting. Okay no problem......

This lady has called me and emailed me EVERY day since we finalized the cake...she keeps asking "how the cake is coming"? AND when I dont answer her emails, she will call me and leave me vm's asking if everything is oky with the cake because she hasnt heard from me!!

She's driving me nuts with all the calls and emails. So this one is my fault...but when we were talking about a cake design my cell phone shuts off. So I email her and give her my wk #...this was BEFORE I knew she would hound me all day. She calls and we go over what she wants and when she wants it..okay no problem there...But she doesnt want the cake until Sept. 19th!!! That's three weeks away!

I want to tell her I cant do her cake. If she is this crazy now I can only imagine how she will be once the cake is due.....How do I "break up" with this lady????

Oh and I should mention that I told her she would have to give me a $20 deposit on the cake...just so I could buy what I needed and make sure I didnt get shafted for the ingredients.
She hasnt given me the deposit money...She just agreed to pay the deposit.

Ugh....all that headache over a sheetcake with copyrighted characters...no thanks! Tell her you have all of the information and will speak to her again at delivery time. There is not need to phone every day, and emails are not necessary. Good Lord!

Run away from this as fast as you can and tell your friend you're sorry but can't work with this woman. No deposit - no cake gets you out of it. Good Luck!

Yeah, just think of something polite...but unwavering! I'd want out too!

So you haven't received the deposit. So now why do you have to do the cake?

Be honest. Tell her you have been made aware of the fact that you can not duplicate the characters and that you do not have time for the constant contact. Tell her the constant contact is distracting you from your current projects.

I hope costumeczarina sees this--she'll be so proud of me~~

I would say, "ma'am you have called me on the phone every day about this cake. I'm not interested in pursuing this relationship any longer--that's too great an investment for me. I don't communicate that much over cakes that costs thousands of dollars. Sorry I'm no longer available to do your cake."

But I would have made her quit calling me long ago too.

Now this is the chick I could talk all day about scratch versus mix and freezing and etc. But I don't have a problem inadvertently pissing people off a bit in a kind and gentle way. Especially if the kind and gentle is also directed towards me.

There's no law says you gotta dance with the nutjobs.

LaBella, No I haven't received a deposit from the lady. I instructed her that I wld need $20 to hold the date and that wld go towards the fee of the cake.

LKing, Yes I want to be honest with her and not feed her any BS. Even though she is constantly calling, txing, and emailing me. I know the laws about the character cake and I'd like to stick with that and not go into to much detail with her calls.

Does any one know if there is a Bakers website about copyright laws that I could possibly refer her back to????

I'm terrible with people so like a rerun of Seinfeld that just aired, I have to have all my excuses lined up:

#1: The next time she asks "how's the cake coming", just tell her it's NOT! In fact since you don't have a deposit to hold the date, you are close to being booked solid on that day, unless she pays in full now. This answer is if you still want to do the cake, but don't want to get stiffed on the $.

#2: Again, "how's the cake coming"? "It's NOT...in fact while I've been waiting for the deposit, I've researched copyright laws and I am unable to do those characters". Be prepared for her to scrub the characters, then revert to answer #1 or #3.

#3: Again, "It's NOT...in fact while I've been waiting for the deposit, I am booked solid now with paid orders, and am unable to do any more cakes".

Good luck!

Patty I like answer #2...

I should tell her that after talking about an upcoming cake with my fellow cake decorators I was instructed that I would be breaking the law with doing this cake and inform her of character copyright laws.....

Oh hell she's calling me right now......

Okay I've got to get on the ball with this one....AND you know I think I will be addressing the phone calls...

Tell her that her date is not secured because she has not paid the required deposit and that you are unable to do the requested cake because the characters are copyrighted and you do not want to be sued.

You can also tell her that you are not allowed to constantly receive personal calls at work and doing so would get you in trouble.

What PattyT said!

Nip it now, Alvarez. You'll be glad you did!

I like what PattyT said.

I did it!!! I sent her the email.

I told her VERY nicely that I was not able to draw the design that we had agreed upon due to another baker informing me of character copyright laws. I told her that I could purchase a kit, but that would have the edible image she did not want, and I doubted I would be able to find one with Batman and Hulk fighting like the picture.

I told her SHE could print the picture out and put it on the cake if that is what she wanted but I couldnt.

I reccomended another bakery who might be liscensed to do character cakes.

AND I feel so relieved!!!! It's weird...

getting rid of PITAs feels very empowering....you'll be able to do it quicker next time.

Since I sent the email she emailed me twice. Once to ask if I would please call her and the other saying she STILL wants to order from me but if I could make it a batman cake......

You didn't exactly say no either, unless there was more to your email than you mentioned here.

Just write back, "I really wasn't aware of the copyrighted character issue before, but it would apply to Batman too. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Since the party is three weeks away, you should have enough time to find another baker who can do what you want. Thanks for understanding."

And then don't reply to her emails and program her number into your phone as "PITA do not answer" so you don't pick it up by mistake.

I told her I wouldnt be able to do the cake the way she wanted. She insisted that there be no edible image on the cake---that's what I was going to do in the first place, but she said she didnt like them. She asked if I could draw (pipe) it on with the BC and I said yes...I know I shouldnt have said that, but I did.

In my email I told her I wouldnt be able to do the cake the way she wanted because of the character copyright laws. I did tell her I could buy the kit, but it would have the edible image that she didnt want. I said that I could make the cake the way we talked about just leaving off the image of the two characters and SHE could put a print out of the image on the cake herself.

I emailed her back stating that I was not able to call her since I was at wk. and couldnt receive calls at this time.

Okay, this may sound a little harsh, BUT woman up & tell her you can not do the cake. Why are you giving her the impression that you would still do it, if it wasn't for the copy right issue. You just need to tell her as you have received no money, theres no contract, and you don't feel comfortable doing the cake any more. I don't know why business woman feel the need to tip toe & be so accomodating & considerate. Then we wonder why woman don't always get treated the same as men in business.

Bella, I forgot to add that in my first email to her stating I couldnt do the cake the way she wanted I also told her that I had no deposit from her and I had another lady wanting that day for a cake with a deposit. I aplogized for any inconvience and I even directed her to a bakery that I said might be able to accomodate her cake needs.

When she emailed me back asking me to call her and another email asking about a batman cake....she had attached a picture of a batman cake like the ones from the Wilton character cake pans...I told her AGAIN that I wouldnt be able to do it because of the pan and those were for home use as well....I told her if she wanted a character cake and did not want the edible image to visit the bakery that I go to buy supplies or go to Michaels and she could buy the pan her self. I told her again that I wouldnt be able to make a cake the way she wanted...nicely. She is now asking how much I charge for cupcakes. I added a $1.00 to my base price. Which would put her around $100 for the serving she was wanting...maybe I got her on that one.

OMG! She would drive me crazy! LOL!

Good job and I apologize. I know your a sweety, cause your always a sweety on here. Maybe I need to practice that too...nah, it doesn't work for my sanity!

Oh you poor thing....wish she would go away...but here's a hug for you! ((hug))

No it's okay...I probably would be annoyed with me to if I were you! I really wanted to help her out with out being such a you-know-what. And be nice about it. I'm not sure what goes on in her head and i probably dont, but some ppl really dont get it, huh?

I'm always very nice and I can be very accomodating (believe it or not), but there is a line. Be all about the cutomer service, but be ALL about the business end! Like you said, some people really don't get it!