Good luck to you with this MOB!!

Spoke to the MOB, and she acknowledged that she had provided us with incomplete information, never signed a contract, nor contacted us after our initial informal meeting. However, she is unwilling to accept any responsibility and said that her telling the venue that she wanted us to do the cake should have been sufficient enough. Apparently she expected them to order the cake by selecting the design and flavors, although that was not the contract she had with the venue. The only responsibility the venue had with the cake was to provide payment for it from the package that the MOB paid for.

At the end of the conversation the MOB stated that someone will pay and make this right. Well, I'm not sure what she expects us to do. We never had a signed contract and were never provided any information. We never received any payment for the cake. Therefore, it would be impossible for us to provide her with any sort of compensation or to make it right. She attempted to call again this afternoon, and I did not answer her call. As far as I'm concerned, this is now between the venue and the MOB. They can sort it out, and the venue can reimburse the cost of the wedding cake, if that is what she is seeking. But it is obvious she is getting nowhere with them and is calling to seek something from us. I'm sure it is not the last we've heard from her.

Spoke to the MOB, and she acknowledged that she had provided us with incomplete information, never signed a contract, nor contacted us after our initial informal meeting. However, she is unwilling to accept any responsibility and said that her telling the venue that she wanted us to do the cake should have been sufficient enough. Apparently she expected them to order the cake by selecting the design and flavors, although that was not the contract she had with the venue. The only responsibility the venue had with the cake was to provide payment for it from the package that the MOB paid for.

At the end of the conversation the MOB stated that someone will pay and make this right. Well, I'm not sure what she expects us to do. We never had a signed contract and were never provided any information. We never received any payment for the cake. Therefore, it would be impossible for us to provide her with any sort of compensation or to make it right. She attempted to call again this afternoon, and I did not answer her call. As far as I'm concerned, this is now between the venue and the MOB. They can sort it out, and the venue can reimburse the cost of the wedding cake, if that is what she is seeking. But it is obvious she is getting nowhere with them and is calling to seek something from us. I'm sure it is not the last we've heard from her.

At this point IMO the best thing for you to do is nothing. DO NOT answer any of her calls and if she contacts you again via email or other method simply respond that this is a matter between her and the venue.

Sounds like you handled the phone call in a very calm and professional matter. Love how she refuses to take responisiblity for something that is completely her fault.

[/quote] She attempted to call again this afternoon, and I did not answer her call. As far as I'm concerned, this is now between the venue and the MOB.

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Right on!

[/quote] She attempted to call again this afternoon, and I did not answer her call. As far as I'm concerned, this is now between the venue and the MOB.[quote]

Well said

She really has no recourse in this. She screwed up and now she's desperately seeking compensation for her error. If she starts harassing you I would send her an email with the name of your attorney on it and tell her to contact them with any future complaints. That should shut her up. Hopefully.

You just have to hold some people's hands every step of the way. She sounds like she didn't have a clue when it came to planning a wedding. I would say it's the Venue's problem also. They were the ones that booked the wedding package they should have guided them through it to make sure all ends were in place. If they recieved money for the cake don't they usually do a follow up? And it is a little strange that the bride had nothing to do with any of this isn't it?

"And it is a little strange that the bride had nothing to do with any of this isn't it?"

When my daughter was married she wanted nothing to do with the planning after she was not able to have a destination wedding - grooms family wanted a traditional wedding. She also lived 3 hours away and would not have been here to make decisions anyway.

Wow!

I wonder if the venue charged the MOB for a cake. It definitely sounds like it was the venue coordinator that dropped the ball.


I agree with the advice to not answer any further calls from the MOB. Let the venue deal with her since you never had a contract with her in the first place.

Sorry you had to get that upsetting phone call on Saturday...I can only imagine how you must have felt when they asked you where the cake was. UGHH what a nightmare for any decorator.

i'm glad that your relationship with the venue is okay and that you are both on the same page as far as what went down.

and can i just say that as a new business owner, how great it is reading these situations and seeing outcomes. Just going to file this one away in the 'hope i don't need, but for future reference' part of the brain!

If the venue charged her for a cake in the package, they'll have to deal with it. If they didn't, then she really has no recourse because it's a he-said-she-said kind of situation. Regardless, the OP shouldn't be involved at this point, it's between the venue and the MOB.

I do think that if she calls again you should answer and tell her that unless she can produce a signed contract and proof of payment such as a copy of a cancelled check, you're not involved in this, and that any more calls will be considered harassment that your attorney will be dealing with.

WOW! What a story! what did the venue end up saying? did they make you "explain yourself"

Can you imagine how the bride felt? She thought her mom was handling the cake, and then there wasn't one. Did the venue whip something up for her last minute?

Sounds to me like the venue needs to spell out clearly exactly what their, your and the client's responsibilities are and explain it all better to the client. I can kind-of understand how she thought, "Great, I've bought the whole package, that's done," and thought no more about it.

wow.. just wow. but at least you can wash your hands of it now. let the venue sort it out

My suggestion to you would to be to set up some sort of checks and balances with this venue for any future weddings. For instance, if they have a wedding that chooses a package WITH a cake included in the price, and they check their paperwork a month or so in advance to make sure that they have copies of all of the contracts from all of the vendors (which they obviously don't do now, but NEED to start!!) on hand in preparation for the up coming weddings on their schedule. That way, if something similar to this happens again someone will be able to to contact you and ask for a copy of the contract. At that point, you can inform them that there is no contract, and the mess can be worked out in time. Another thing that you may consider doing is whenever you have a bride (MOB, MOG) come in for a brief consult and you write that up with your notes, etc. Send a copy of that to the venue with a clear and visible note attached that this party did NOT sign a contract or make a design/tasting appointment at that time. Having that in their file may prompt someone from the venue the next time they are speaking to that party and get them to ask questions such as "I received a note from the baker, but it seems as though no design has been agreed upon and no contract has been signed yet, when do you plan to do this? We only have "x" amount of time left until the wedding..."
And, certainly, if this particular wedding party paid for a cake, when the person that does accounts payables takes that money and matches up contracts/invoices in their books to account for the check that they are writing to the vendor, THAT should have prompted someone to question things also... Ex:: "The Smith party paid for a cake with their package and I am trying to pay the vendors, but I don't have an invoice from the baker, can someone get that for me??" At that point, if they were doing their job, they would have seen that there was no invoice from you and should have contacted you so you could be paid!! And at THAT point this could have been figured out!!
I'm sorry that this happened to you. But please, do yourself a favor and get together with the venues that you contract with and come up with some set of checks and balances so that incidences like this don't happen again.

Foxicakes, I am not the one at fault here and do not appreciate you insinuating such. I do have checks and balances with this venue. I WAS NEVER CONTACTED NOR HAD A CONTRACT. AT NO POINT WERE WE ASKED TO DO THE CAKE. There was not a contract to send the venue. I'm not sure how you do not understand that. I ended up being booked on the date, and had the MOB contacted me, I would have had to graciously turn down the order.

There have been no issues prior to this, and I ALWAYS provide detailed documentation to the venue. I always send a copy of the contract to the venue once a bride has contracted with us and do all necessary follow up work. Immediately upon the contract being signed, I forward an invoice for the cost of the wedding cake. I always speak to venues prior to our weddings to coordinate all details and delivery time. Sorry, I don't just take a back seat and not be an active participant in the process. I am running a business and understand how to do so. When someone makes a general pricing inquiry and does not make any sort of contact with me to let me know that I am doing their cake, I'm not going to chase them. I get hundreds of pricing inquiries a week, and I just don't have the time. To me this situation was no different. Just because this client was also a client of this venue did not change the fact that it was a general pricing inquiry, not a consultation or tasting, and certainly not a meeting to work up a contract.

This woman acknowledged that she knew that she was to contact me to schedule a consultationa and tasting but did not. I don't think it is appropriate to inundate the venue with all of my notes that go into a client's file. We didn't even get to the consultation/tasting phase so I'm not sure why I would be responsible for sending the venue anything at that point. The venue really has no reason to have access to all of my business data.

This is a money exchange only with the venue and otherwise is no different than a normal contact. I have no contract with the venue so I do have limitations with them. Clearly they are the ones that need to revamp their client contract and how they handle their clients. However, I did make the decision to have a separate contract for this venue's clientele outlining specifically that they are still responsible for ordering their cake from us, coordinating all details with us, and signing the contract. It will specifically state that the venue's only obligation is to send a check to us.
Again, no other client from this venue has ever had an issue understanding that and did not relinquish their responsibilities in planning their own weddings.

BTW, the MOB left a voicemail and indicated she paid the venue additional money beyond the package deal to coordinate the cake and some other things on her behalf due to her being overwhelmed. She said that is why she never followed up with me. With that being said, I still believe this is between the MOB and venue at this point. I'm not sure who is right, but I suspect the truth lies somewhere in between.

I agree with Mcaulir. I think the venue dropped the ball on this one. They were being paid to coordinate this event and didn't follow through.

Wow...this is really absurd! This was in no way no how your fault. I agree with other posts in that the MOB just got overwhelmed and didn't take care of things the way they should have been. Sounds like the venue could have paid attention to a little more detail as well.

Regardless of that this has nothing to do with you. I agree with you in not taking anymore calls from the MOB. If she continues to bother you just mention "slander" or "harassment" and she just might get the hint.

Sorry this happened to you I can imagine it has all been very unsettling.

Take care

Oh my. Babeacakes, I really feel for you. It's clear you take your craft to heart and want clients and vendors to get the best of your professional services. I'm guessing that's why you feel so distress in a situation in which you have no culpability. You have invested a great deal of time, money and energy to opening a new shop (good grief, that alone takes remarkable strength and courage) and you don't want anything to jeopardize that.

I don't think Foxicakes intended to insinuate that you were in any way at fault (at least thats not how it read to me). She seems to just want to give some ideas to avoid a repeat of this incident that was a loss for everyone ... the wedding parry had no cake, the MOB is caught with egg on her face, the venue has an unhappy customer and you missed out on a cake sale. It's clear you did everything you could do with checks and balances but every slip is an opportunity to plug holes in the system.

You do great work and I'm sure that soon this will be just another funny story in the baker's live

You poor thing. (((((HUG)))))

Just ask everyone to produce their copy of the signed contract.

No signed contract - no cake!

What a mess....but not the OP's mess! I hope the MOB gets it through her head that it has nothing to do with the OP.

BTW...I think foxicakes comment was taken wrong by the OP, I think she was trying to be helpful.

[quote="southerncross"]I don't think Foxicakes intended to insinuate that you were in any way at fault (at least thats not how it read to me). She seems to just want to give some ideas to avoid a repeat of this incident that was a loss for everyone ... [\\quote]

I agree that Foxicakes was trying to help but I don't think it should be your responsibility to do all of that. Like you said, you get lots of people come in for an informal discussion and it's all just too much work that is unnecessary. As it is with what you have in place it was easy enough to prove you were not at fault. The additional checks and balance are required for the VENUE but that's not your problem.

I am so glad you're in the clear on this one!