This is just a vent really. I'll start off by saying I'm a hobby cake decorator and 95% of my "customers" are family and friends. The rest of my time is spent on a full-time job (40 hrs/wk), planning a wedding, and not to mention my house is currently on the market which means clean, clean, clean all the time! I don't have to time to worry about whether a customer (aka friend....albeit not a close friend) is going to follow through on a cake order!
She emailed me a good 4-5 weeks before her event, which was a smaller birthday cake for her daughter, which also happened to fall on Easter this year. So far so good! Not too time consuming, and notified me in plenty of time. She sent me a few ideas and told me to run with it. I gave her an idea of size/serving size and some different options we could do, to just let me know on the size and flavor. A couple weeks go by, no answer on the size/flavor. I figure she got busy and forgot, so I sent her a reminder. Another few days go by, no answer. I send her another email that states I need to have an answer no later than a week before her event. That deadline goes by, still no answer. Instead of sending her a message again thru facebook...I try her email thinking "maybe something is wrong with her facebook?" This time I give her until the Monday before her event (again...I need time to prepare for supplies, baking time, etc as I have many other things going on besides a cake "business"). No answer. By the time Easter rolls around, I spend the whole day worrying that she's going to get ahold of me wondering when she can pick up her cake and I have no cake to give her! And now, the day after, I have not heard a single thing from her. No "Sorry I changed my mind" or anything!!
Ultimately, its really not that big of a deal. Although, I would have really been furious had she called on Sunday expecting a cake and then gone around bad-mouthing my "business" aka hobby after I couldn't give her one. I just wonder how you can commit to something (as far as I was concerned, she was past the "just inquiring" stage and really was committing to the order) and then not even give a heads up of "hey, I changed my mind." Grr, just had to get this off my chest.
And yes I know what some of you are thinking..."Get a deposit ahead of time!". I'm just glad I hadn't bought any supplies. And I'm glad she didn't already give me the size/flavor (so I didn't have it all done) and then just plain not show up. Ultimately, the only thing I lost is another chance to practice. Its just customers like this that make me never want to go past this being a hobby!
She emailed me a good 4-5 weeks before her event, which was a smaller birthday cake for her daughter, which also happened to fall on Easter this year. So far so good! Not too time consuming, and notified me in plenty of time. She sent me a few ideas and told me to run with it. I gave her an idea of size/serving size and some different options we could do, to just let me know on the size and flavor. A couple weeks go by, no answer on the size/flavor. I figure she got busy and forgot, so I sent her a reminder. Another few days go by, no answer. I send her another email that states I need to have an answer no later than a week before her event. That deadline goes by, still no answer. Instead of sending her a message again thru facebook...I try her email thinking "maybe something is wrong with her facebook?" This time I give her until the Monday before her event (again...I need time to prepare for supplies, baking time, etc as I have many other things going on besides a cake "business"). No answer. By the time Easter rolls around, I spend the whole day worrying that she's going to get ahold of me wondering when she can pick up her cake and I have no cake to give her! And now, the day after, I have not heard a single thing from her. No "Sorry I changed my mind" or anything!!
Ultimately, its really not that big of a deal. Although, I would have really been furious had she called on Sunday expecting a cake and then gone around bad-mouthing my "business" aka hobby after I couldn't give her one. I just wonder how you can commit to something (as far as I was concerned, she was past the "just inquiring" stage and really was committing to the order) and then not even give a heads up of "hey, I changed my mind." Grr, just had to get this off my chest.
And yes I know what some of you are thinking..."Get a deposit ahead of time!". I'm just glad I hadn't bought any supplies. And I'm glad she didn't already give me the size/flavor (so I didn't have it all done) and then just plain not show up. Ultimately, the only thing I lost is another chance to practice. Its just customers like this that make me never want to go past this being a hobby!
not only did they NEVER contact me back about servings/flavors/where to go with the cake, etc. but they called 10pm the night before 
yes, i'm not even kidding. I politely told them I did not make the cake because I had left numerous messages and no one got back to me...how was I supposed to know what to do! and this lady had every excuse in the book. so, don't feel bad...it's one slight bad experience and you move on. stating what you need up front is a big help tho 
