Customer tossed my cake??!  

So gals, have my very own first issue with a customer. I made a Where the Wild Things Are cake and cupcakes this last weekend. Something struck me as strange right from the start in that it was not really that costly of a cake, but the customer wanted to pay for only half up front and then the rest at delivery. Also she wanted to buy a stand from me and even though I had mentioned that it was not white like the others she had in mind, but silver (basically cake drums with a fanci-foil covered styro glued together) that she could buy it from me if she wanted to, well she apparently was desperate, so she did. Well when I arrived to drop off the cake and stand on Saturday at 8:45am (a good 4 hours before their party) the lady I had been dealing with never even came to the door. Her husband and son answered and the husband akwardly took the cake like he had no idea what to do with it, and then asked me if they owed me any money. I told him yes and what the total was and he gave me money in $20's and it ended up being more than the total by $12. I was just thinking, nice tip, right. Well, come to think of it, he DID look at me funny, but I do not carry change with me and so didn't offer to give any back, etc. because I couldn't. So as I am walking away, I can hear they are visually pleased with the cake, etc and I am thinking great! They are happy, as they should be really, because it was a CUTE cake! Anyway, fast-forward to today, TWO entire days later! The lady emails me and says "FYI: The Max cake had a brown hair on the bottom of it, so we had to toss it." Nothing else. If you were her and this had happened would you have not contacted me right away?? Furthermore, the REALLY strange thing is that I do not have brown hair, I have RED hair and I am the ONLY one who works with or comes in contact with my cakes. Come to think of it, her husband had brown hair! lol Not to mention that it was on the bottom of the cake? Have you EVER heard on anyone inspecting the underside of a cake before? How would she even do that anyway?? I don't know gals, do you all think that maybe this gal was just a victim of buyer's remorse and really didn't have the money to spend on the cake in the first place, and THEN to find out that the stand wasn't what she maybe had pictured (even though I TOLD her that!) and with the fact that her husband paid me $12 more even, maybe she was trying to recoup something?? She has not asked for anything yet, but I have not decided how to respond. What would you do?? Mention that my hair is RED?? What??

Right. That is what I was thinking, but I want to handle this gently too...hmmm...what about doing the whole "customer is always right" and just refunding her for the actual cake?? not the decor or all my gumpaste work, or anything, maybe just the actual cake because she said it was inedible?? I would give her then $24 back....but I don't know,I konw I didn't do anything wrong...sigh.

I do have a pic. let me see...here it is. I ended up charging her something like $100 with tax. Delivery was free because she was in my area and then I charged her $15 to buy my stand and then her husband gave me the extra $12. So the total they put out then was something like $130. But like I said, she only wanted to pay 1/2 upfront and even to get that was like pulling teeth, I had to remind her that she needed to pay to book with me. It took her all week to pay that!! so...hmmm

thank you so much for your words of wisdom and your encouragement. So what would YOU do then?? Just not even email back? Or...hmmm..

ok. that sounds good! We shall see what comes! lol Thanks again, and thanks for your sweet comments about my cake too! It was really fun to make, good childhood memories too! I loved that book!

How's this for a reply??


Oh gosh! That is terrible! Well it is a good thing I have red hair and, so we both know the hair on the cake could not have been mine! WHEW!! I am the only one who ever comes in contact with my cakes too, so it couldnt have been from anyone else on my end either. Perhaps it was your husbands? I did notice that he had brown hair, if I am not mistaken. So sad you felt you had to toss the cake! What a bummer, and a lot of work too to go to waste. Well hopefully you at least got some joy from the look of it, because I think it turned out really cute and your little guy who answered the door with your husband sure seemed to just LOVE it! If its any condolence, I would like to extend an offer for 10% off your next order, so you will hopefully get to actually taste my delicious cake sometime in the future.

Blessings!