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Contract: Unforeseen, AOG, Illness, Ect? Provide for Refund? - Page 2

Poll Results: Your Liability for "Unforeseen Circumstances" Clause provide for refund

 
  • 0% (0)
    Acts of God, unforeseens, accidents = No refund
  • 12% (1)
    AOG, et al = depends on completion of cake for amount of refund
  • 62% (5)
    Any Non-Delivery will get Full Refund
  • 25% (2)
    other, (with kindness to explain below)
8 Total Votes  
post #16 of 18
6/13/12 at 7:15pm
Oh! Another one - every time Obama comes for a fundraiser, which is like, once a month now, whole city blocks are completely shut down for hours by the secret service. Nobody gets in or out. Again, if you happen to be having your reception at the same or neighboring hotel, there is no way a cake is getting in. And not pike the president posts his schedule, so there is zero way yiu'd know. These thoughts ran thru my head when I was stuck on the sidewalk with my baby trying to get home and couldn't because I live 3 blocks from the Intercontinental, a favorite Obama fundraising dinner location. It took 3 hours before they would let people pass. The route to the airport is on my street so it gets shut down too when he comes in and leaves.

Again, I live in a different universe then most but those clauses are necessary for me. But one could argue that you will never have to worry about 99% of what I listed so you don't need that clause in your contract.
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post #17 of 18
6/13/12 at 7:51pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FromScratchSF


c)  Beyond Buttercream cannot perform as contracted due to the aforementioned conditions:
i)  If item(s) ordered are not completed at time of uncontrollable circumstance, all payments, including the non-refundable retainer fee, will be refunded in full.
ii)  If item(s) are completed at the appropriate time, but cannot be delivered due to uncontrollable circumstances as described above, the Client will be refunded 50% of the total cost of item(s) plus any delivery fee charged.



I think that this feels like a very fair agreement for both parties. First, if the baker isn't sitting on a cake (and technically the ingredients could be reused and resold when the unforeseeable circumstances pass), the baker isn't profiting from non-delivery and making the client pay. Second, if the cake is made and the baker is into the product for an amount of money, the bad luck is shared by the two parties who are invested in the cake. Though I can see how the customer would still expect there to be no cost to them if the product they ordered did not arrive even if it was because of a flood or a police action that made delivery impossible.

I see both sides of this issue. But being that I am not in a situation where there are regular disruptions to transportation, it would be wise to play the odds of having to refund and making a more warm and fuzzy contract, then to bring up worst case situations that are off putting.

FromScratchSF- do you have customers balk at this clause? Or is it standard for customers to expect to 'share the pain' with vendors when circumstances like you mentioned come up?

and thank you all again for a great conversation on the topic.
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post #18 of 18
6/13/12 at 8:16pm
No - I've had a few people let me know that they appreciate it spelled out since they live here too - they know what crazy unforseen bizarro crap that happens. In fact, a regular conversation I have at consultations is "what happens if someone blows up the Transamerica Building?"

Like I said, I could easily see Rae's point about it being unnecessary, I just wanted to share some examples of where it works and why.
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