Anyone getting more "entitled" clients lately? - Page 2

I've actually been getting a lot less of this lately, which is weird. I raised my prices and the entitlement crowd seems to have gone elsewhere.

Well, not EVERYone in the entitlement crowd- I do have a silly bride who wants a 35 serving cake in June, and waited until march 1 to ask if I would still honor the special I offered through Jan 31st. Then, even though I told her no, she booked me, and told me on March 13th that she "HAD" to have a tasting/consult appt by Mar 25 and I needed to let her know when I could make space for her right away. Ummmm... my calendar, which is online and accessible, is booked until April 25th. Deal, dearie.

I sincerely believe that we DO have to understand that we CAN turn down business. I interview them when I'm doing a consult or even over email. If they give me the run around, I cut them loose. For me, after a bad experience last year which resulted in a BAD review that is now up for the whole world to see, I realized that I have to protect my business and my livelihood from those who think they can take advantage or who live by the idea that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
And I HATE those silly bridal magazine articles. We should burn them all...

just wondering how you interview the bride eg. what questions do you ask and what are the bad answers?? I'd love to know so that I can also avoid that type of customer.

I just had a bride book with me who's email title was "You Won!" Won what exactly, didn't know I was in a contest...guess it's good I won.

Oh my word YES! I just had a nasty email from one of these today!!! Angry at me because SHE was paying "top dollar" for a cake (for 60 servings) and I would not give her an "assortment of baked items" to try so she could "make her choices". She decided I had terrible customer service and she was taking her business elsewhere.

She wanted to know how she was supposed to order such an expensive cake from me if she's never tasted my work. (I did offer her a paid tasting option but that was, evidently, offensive.)

Good riddance.

I don't think there are set questions to ask. It's more of an observation of the person's attitude, like some of the comments that others have shared in this post. Also, for me, I also pay attention to whether the person seems to be listening to what I am telling or explaining to them. If they are argumentative, demanding, or don't seem to be listening to me, I'm inclined to pass up the order. It hasn't happened very often to me, but it has happened.

Like the one I had who worked in a school cafeteria so she knew "ALL about food!" and food prices .... until I told her, "No, you CAN'T go back and check pricing on this at your end because the food distributors give schools and hospitals such ridiculously low pricing that they have to gouge the rest of us to make up for it."

She also wanted me to make something like 25 servings of food (food ... not just cake) for a 3 person tasting. Bite me.

Her quote from me got lost in the Cyber Black Hole. I just decided I wasn't going to work with someone like that.

OK, I understand that! I'm always sizing up people subconsciously so I "interview" brides too, I guess. I'm just not at the point where I can say I absolutely will not work with someone just because they're self-absorbed or fidgeting (not that I would tell them that). I guess when I'm popular, I might be able to do that but for now I need the money.

I have my (legal) baking biz to supplement my income from my day job, so I need the money, too. However, I have turned a couple of orders down when I needed the money, because I had a sense that the bride would never be happy with what I (or any other baker for that matter) would produce. IMO, I would lose money in the end, and my time would better spent elsewhere.

Darlin' I "needed the money", too, but its a business decision. I cant' afford to invest the hundreds of dollars it takes me to buy the food supplies for a large catering, pay my staff, pay my vehicle expenses, which includes expensive comm'l insurance rates, just to have the bride come along later to try to find something to complain about so she can get it free. I would have too much invested as a potential loss (and a final catering invoice is in the thousands of dollars). I'm money ahead to let someone else deal with the problem that I KNOW is coming down the road.

Its a prudent business decision. But that's the kind of thinking that the entitlement folks have of us when they think we are BEGGING them for their business and will do ANYTHING to book SOMETHING. I saw it in my cake/catering biz; I see it in the hotel biz now.

I want to extend a sincere THANK YOU to all of you brave bakers and designers on this site. I have been a reader on this site for two years. I started out wanting to make wedding cakes part of my business. I really don't think I would have been happy dealing with some of the brides you all describe. Coming into this business later in my business life, I was not sure I had enough years left to hear all the difficult requests and know the best way to handle them (or not to politely request that they leave). I am reserving wedding cakes for family only. And "hats off" to you owners who have such a valuable skill.

I also had a bride contact me with a picture of the kind of cake she wants and says she got an UNREAL quote from another baker for it and pretty much is asking if I can beat it. I replied that there is no way I could do better so she'd be better off going with that other baker! I mean the price she was asking me to beat was basically me paying her for the cake!

I have two words which I think epitomises modern youth culture, and everything wrong with it.
REALITY TV. (which is ironic, as nearly all of these shows are so far from reality it's just ridiculous!)

We unfortunately now have a generation of late teens and twenty somethings, who have been raised on a TV diet of Saturday prime time shows mostly consisting of people competing in ridiculous competitions and people are now obsessed with celebrity and being famous for nothing in particular. A lot of young people (not all) now seem to think that it is a normal way to behave when they see these people with their fake amateur dramatics, thinking that they're all that, and think that it's cool and acceptable to behave in such a way.
You've only got to look at shows like My super sweet sixteen, whatever country's next top model, bridezilla, and of course, our very own industry's shows like ultimate cake off.
I think that shows like super sweet sixteen are representing an extreme of culture when featuring these self absorbed bratty kids, but unfortunately, a lot of regular kids through watching these programmes actually aspire to that.
Television entertainment shows and general media are responsible for the huge cultural shift and we're now reaping what we've sown unfortunately.

Ultimate cake off was the first thing that sprang to my mind when I read a few posts here describing how people are asking decorators if they are "up to the challenge".
In a nutshell,I think kids are just watching far too much TV these days!

MamaD

It was definitely becoming a too common occurance for me. I decided I'd had enough of it and did something rather drastic (for me). I removed contact and pricing information from my site and posted that I am not accepting orders at this time. There was so much life (and death) going on around me when one b-t-b decided to email me the night before our SCHEDULED appt. to inquire about her appt. and say that I never confirmed her date/time (I did and showed her through the previous emails). When I showed her that it was confirmed, and that we were definitely on for the following morning, she didn't return email (I wasn't expecting one though) but, she also didn't show up to her appt. nor call or email to say she couldn't make it either. This person had been calling and emailing regularly...ocd style...to be sure she was able to get me to make her cake. Haven't heard from her since.


The phone calls and emails have never been so heavy with inquiries since I put business on hold either.

I've been working on a pricing chart for my site while on a vacation from caking...almost doubling my prices. If they want the world...they're going to have to pay for it.

What is with all of the harping on the 20-somethings? There are rude, ignorant, cheap, crazy people in every generation... Maybe it just seems like its just the 20-somethings because the 20-somethings are the majority of people getting married.