I need to send this email pretty soon, but I am a bit on the perturbed side with this "poor me" bride.

Background: Bride called this week Wednesday for a wedding in August. She says she "was" going with another baker but she decided they just didn't offer what she wanted
She then went to about 5 other places and no no no, they weren't good enough. Someone recommended she check with me. The wedding is very small (for this area) and will only result in a $250-$300 cake. My tastings are booked until April, and she whined that she needed to make her decision about this right now because "the cake is the most important thing." OK... I offer her my to-go tasting, we set up a time to pick it up last night (Saturday evening).

She's a no-show. I call, the phone is disconnected, I email and no response. So today she calls and leaves a message a few minutes ago and says her phone number is ***-**** (she wrote me an email with the phone number and wrote the wrong number), and she says she can pick it up "sometime today". No "I'm sorry" no, "I forgot" NOTHING about our appt. And its a Sunday. Not gonna happen.

This does not happen very often around here. I have had 0 no-shows in the life of the business (cancellations, yes, but not no-shows.)

Below is the email I've composed because I want to cut her loose. I am mad, and I while I want her to know that, but I don't want to go overboard:

Hi flaky bride~
thank you for your message. I used the phone number you supplied me with on your email, which was ________. Scroll down in our emails and you can see where it was supplied. I had prepared the samples for you to pick up as arranged at 4-4:30 yesterday and scheduled my Saturday evening with that in mind. The samples are no longer good, as they are uniced so that you can pair them with different icings. They will no longer be moist and therefore have been disposed. I do not work on Sundays, nor do I do any cake pickups or phone calls.
I'm sorry that you did not come for your cake when scheduled. I think that it would be best for you to look elsewhere for your cake and wish you the best.

Is this ok, or do I need to re-word?

Sorry that this happened to you.

I think your letter is great; to the point yet professional.

Sounds good to me. How rude of her to think she can just prance in whenever. Obviously she's only thinking of " her " shedule & not yours. Good for you, it's to the point but not mean

I would try this approach:

Dear Barbie (insert proper name here.)

Thank you for your inquiry into My Fabulous Cakes (insert name of company here). We waited for you at the time we agreed to meet on Saturday March 5 at 4:00 pm (insert proper date and time here) and you were a no show. Each tasting is prepared especially for the bride to be as fresh as possible during that time and unfortunately the tasting is no longer possible. We would have appreciated a phone call or email with a proper (not disconnected) phone number saying this date was inconvenient for you, but since we could not get ahold of you, we could not tell you that Friday August 6 (or whatever her date is) is no longer available. Good luck in your endeavors.

Or something like that. I'd leave the "personal" stuff out (like -- you bubble headed boob!! You don't even know your own phone number!!) even though I've felt like saying those exact words to some prospects.

Hopefully others will have a better solution than mine!

Your message sounds good to me.

Dont blame you for not wanting to do this cake you just get a feeling when its going to be more trouble than its worth and this one has that written all over it.

How about..

Dear Rude woman,
I was sorry that you were unable to make our appointment. As I stated earlier my time was very limited and I am no longer available to do your cake.
I may be able to suggest some other bakers in the area.

Professional-but-not-a-pushover baker

Bob,
Sometimes you need to just get to the meat.
This is not debatable.

"You messed up.
Opportunity is now over."

Next!

mommachris

Love your reply... but I would probably add the stuff about discarded "tasting" and say you are happy to prepare her another one, once she sends you $______ to your paypal account and give her ONE specific date and time to pick up. You are in the business to make $$$, so if she pays... go for it....

BUT, I bet she will STILL be a PITA bride... sorry.

Thanks all. She has now called me 3 times in the last hour or so (I didn't answer).
I think you're probably right, I'll cut some of the personal stuff out, but I WILL be leaving the part about the phone number in, just so she knows I didn't flake out on her and dial wrong. Not that its my responsibility to babysit her and remind her of a pick up she specifically called to schedule and told me the time most convenient for her....
In one of her emails this week she even asked for driving directions- but didn't give a location. just 'please send me directions.' And she's emailing me so she has access to my website that has directions AND Google.
Ok, well.... if you are at the north pole, drive south until you hit WI, if you're at the South Pole, drive up....

I'm typing now... will post soon!

I too am sorry this happened to you, for this very reason I'm trying to come up with a simple one line sentence to be put on business cards that basically says my prices are not negotiable and bridezilla behaviors won't be tolerated. I feel the people that would be offended by this are the very ones I don't want to deal with anyways. I just don't like drama, dealing with people like that are draining!
Some of the dumb "reality" shows make people think that that IS acceptable behavior!

I always hate it when people inquire about a date first and then you end up telling them "Yes I'm open" and then they proceed to be annoying. haha. Then you're like, stuck! Unless you suddenly get booked up REAL quick, there's not much room for excuses to get rid of them!

ok.... I sent it. Thanks so much for the suggestion of taking personal stuff out! I always suggest that to others, but sometimes when you're peeved its easy to loose sight of the professional side of things. Below is what I sent:

Dear Whiney-

Thank you for your phone message. When I placed a call yesterday at 5pm, I used the phone number you supplied me with on your email, which was _________. Scroll down in our emails and you can see where it was supplied. I had prepared the samples for you to pick up as arranged at 4-4:30 yesterday. Each tasting is prepared especially for the bride to be as fresh as possible and unfortunately the tasting is no longer possible. While things do come up, and it is understandable that appointments can be missed, I would have appreciated a phone call or email. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to make your cake and wish you the best in your search.

I deleted the line that suggested she "go elsewhere" for her cake- but I REALLY wanted to put it that way!!!!
Did I control myself enough?!

I think its great although I would probably change the word "I am no longer ABLE to make your cake" to "I am no longer AVAILABLE to make your cake".

Good luck!

Suzy... that's when you quote it high. I have no problem adding in fees for high maintenance people that make me work 2x's as hard as a "normal" customer. Just stinks when you don't know that till it's too late!

Jentreu, you said it perfectly. I have been racking my brain for the proper wording but it just hasn't come to me yet. My intent is not to offend anyone. I recall another CCer saying they don't put up with any guff from people either but I don't remember if they had something stated in their contract or how it was done but she stated she didn't have any issues with these types of people.

I hope y'all don't mind but I'm taking notes fast and furiously here!

Babs, when you do come up with that line, Please post it here.

Maybe we should collectively put our heads together here to come up with that one line!

I hope y'all don't mind, but this is what I put up on my www:

Brides, We are very selective about the commissions we accept. While we are very happy to have your business and we LOVE making wedding cakes, we are an exclusive studio and we simply do not need every brides business. Brides dont just choose us, we choose them too. This is why we do not tolerate rudeness and other bridezilla behaviours.

(Personally it's almost become "code" for the WalMart crowd to accuse us of being rude and snarky toward potential clients when we give them a quote -- I'm REALLY hoping this helps sift them out!)

You know, we've all seen that sign in the mechanic's, the plumber's, etc, that says:

Rates:
$10/hour if I come and fix it.
$25/hour if you've started to fix it.
$100/hour if you fix it and broke it and now I have to redo the whole thing.

We need a similar price structure:
$3.50/serving for our wonderful brides!
$4.50/serving for our wonderful brides with interferring friends/relatives
$10/serving for having to deal with bridezilla attitudes.
It's your choice!

Debi I think you nailed it! I would just tweek it a bit for a broader population as there are just as many ill mannered customers that don't happen to be brides.