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Refusal to pay cake, le bron, florida

post #1 of 63
1/4/12 at 11:45am
Thread Starter 
According to an article in the internet , a famous player LB J rejected a baker's cake. this I believe was in florida. let me preface by sayig that I do not suffer from hero worship and that it could have been him or his "people" that rejected the cake. His rep stated that maybe the cake was worth 600$, it's just flour, eggs and cake. The baker hired extra employees in order to complete the cake. The article has a picture of the cake. it seems that in lieu of payment, she would receive free publicity. since i know that this individual is akin to a god for many, it appears it would have been a great deal. I hope she is not one of our members, regardless, I feel for her. Interesting enough, her cake was not returned, thus it did not pass muster, but someone benefited. did she have a contract?, don't know.
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post #2 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:03pm
I just finished reading that article and one thing I will say is that I don't care who the person is, I WILL NOT do a cake just for publicity only, superstar or not, I prefer payment for my work.

I will also say, the guy in the article who just said it's flour, eggs, and sugar, truly needs to be thumped on the nose. icon_mad.gif
I dream about cakes and stilettos!!
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I dream about cakes and stilettos!!
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post #3 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:04pm
Here is the article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/LeBron-James-rejects-his-3-500-birthday-cake-a?urn=nba-wp12773

Sounds like the baker willingly accepted the order for publicity in lieu of payment, and I bet the contract had a clause that allowed the customer to reject the cake if it was not satisfactory. So it's not really a refusal to pay for the cake, since the customer never agreed to pay for the cake in the first place.
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Recent Articles: The Magic Pricing Formula • Copyright Law
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post #4 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:21pm
Oooh, as soon as I saw the headline on the Yahoo! front page, I knew the ears of CC folks would be perking up icon_lol.gif
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post #5 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:26pm
After looking at that cake I wouldn't have accepted it either. That is no $3,000 cake. There are flaws and the work is not clean. I'm not for entitlement freebies, but this cake? Really?
A closed mouth gathers no feet.
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A closed mouth gathers no feet.
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post #6 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:34pm
It was not LeBron, the article states that it was its handlers.And I agree, that is not a 3,000 dll cake. And when you agree to make it for free... then it should be free. The publicity (albeit bad) is there (hence, we are discussing it here).
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post #7 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:56pm
Well, living here where this happened, I would tell you that she is complaining in order to get her free publicity one way or another. On the news, the hotel that contacted her for the event takes responsibility for the order and has offered to pay for the cake, which was not in the original contract. It seems that the decorator is upset because another cake was bought by a friend of the famous person, and was chosen over hers, and therefore she didn't get pictures of her cake taken with a famous person. So, what do you do then, you make sure that the world knows that you were taken advantage of by a famous person. That way you get publicity one way or another, although I'm not so sure I would want my publicity in such a negative way.
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post #8 of 63
1/4/12 at 12:56pm
I don't want to sound full of myself, but unless that's real gold, there's no way that cake is worth $3,000. But I would say she still came out ahead - - what do they say "as long as you spell my name right . . ."?
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post #9 of 63
1/4/12 at 1:24pm
OMG! I too thought right away "this is going to be on cc!"

Has anyone read the comments below the article? They're awful! There's over 4,000 of them. I only read about 200 and had enough. There are a few that "get it" as far as cakes prices and do say that cakes are expensive but this was in no way a $3000 cake and I do agree. But NO ONE has said the cake is nice in any way. They all think it's ugly (no comment!).

She's definitely getting publicity out of this, too bad it's the wrong kind! Sad part is, it's her reputation that's being damaged, not LBJ's or the actual employees of hers that are probably responsible for the cake/design.
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post #10 of 63
1/4/12 at 1:39pm
That cake looks way too simple to be a $3000 cake... I really hate when celebs take advantage though. If she agreed to publicity and didn't get it they should have paid something.
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post #11 of 63
1/4/12 at 2:04pm
Thread Starter 
this is a bad situation all around, I would not want this type of publicity. Also, with the type of income the handlers or whomever make, don't use the cake but pay her something.
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post #12 of 63
1/4/12 at 2:16pm
Being a fan of LBJ, as soon as I saw the cake I understood why LBJ's people turned it away. The colors used are too similar to his previous team colors which is Cleveland and not his present team the Miami Heat. But that definitely should've been outlined in the contract if there was one. And while the cake is not bad, it is very simple.
Muffins are just ugly cupcakes.
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Muffins are just ugly cupcakes.
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post #13 of 63
1/4/12 at 2:26pm
I think it's just as big a travesty to charge celebs ignorant prices for things just because "they can afford it."
He's still got the whole world in His hands.
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He's still got the whole world in His hands.
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post #14 of 63
1/4/12 at 3:22pm
One think I am wondering is where the $3000.00 price tag came in? Did the baker actually say that the cake was worth that amount or is that a number that someone else attached? Because I value my hard work but I can't forsee a 5 layer cake being worth $3000.00.
Sweet Southern Bakery
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Sweet Southern Bakery
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post #15 of 63
1/4/12 at 3:24pm
here is the picture of the cake and yes I believe this cake is worth 3000
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/shortorder/2012/01/lebron_james_birthday_cake_and.php
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