Don't know what to do....I just had my first unhappy customer. She had never ordered from me before and wasn't there at the agreed upon delivery time so the business owner signed for it. I got wonderful comments and the band that was setting up (the only people present) asked for my business card.....however an hour and a half later I get a phone call from the customer. Her exact words were "Please tell me this is not the cake....It's too small and just not what I expected...." she then hung up on me before I could respond.
The cake was 5 tiers with a 14" base and the design was everything she had asked for. Although I will say I didn't personally think it was a good design but it was what she wanted......I'm lost. 
Don't know what to do....I just had my first unhappy customer. She had never ordered from me before and wasn't there at the agreed upon delivery time so the business owner signed for it. I got wonderful comments and the band that was setting up (the only people present) asked for my business card.....however an hour and a half later I get a phone call from the customer. Her exact words were "Please tell me this is not the cake....It's too small and just not what I expected...." she then hung up on me before I could respond.
The cake was 5 tiers with a 14" base and the design was everything she had asked for. Although I will say I didn't personally think it was a good design but it was what she wanted......I'm lost.
Before anyone can offer words of advice, what were the terms of the contract? Did the bride sign off on the design and the number of servings?
Was the flavor/design/frosting/etc. exactly as ordered? Did you ever meet with the bride personally and did she ever see a mock-up of a 5 tier cake? Did you take a photo of the cake at the venue when you delivered?
Before anyone can offer words of advice, what were the terms of the contract? Did the bride sign off on the design and the number of servings?
Was the flavor/design/frosting/etc. exactly as ordered? Did you ever meet with the bride personally and did she ever see a mock-up of a 5 tier cake? Did you take a photo of the cake at the venue when you delivered?
This this and this.
she has probably never seen a 5 tier cake in person. I had a bride that expected her 3 tier cake to be 3.5ft tall. Until I showed her with dummy cake exactly what it would look like.
hope this works out for you!!!
It was for a quinceanera and yes she signed off on the design. Everything was exactly as we agreed. We agreed to meet there at 4 and when she wasn't there I called....and nothing. When I texted her she said she couldn't talk and the venue could sign for it. I had to deliver a 3D grooms cake before their 6 o'clock reception on the other side of town so I couldn't stay and wait long. There are pics of it in the car right before we took it in and just one at the venue but it is a phone pic that is hard to see. It was so dark and nothing had been decorated yet by the family (this was 2 hours before the party). Yes I absolutely showed her a 4 tier dummy and an extra dummy tier for that height the day she ordered. She thought it was small then as well but she knew what she was getting. She found a cake with a short tier mixed with regular tiers and wanted that tier with fleur de lis decorations along the bottom. Tried to talk her out of it but again.....what she wanted. That was the only tier that was shorter than 4.25"
I got a call from a friend who attended the quince....she doesn't know the family well but offered me this. The venue moved the cake from where the table originally was. (Don't know if the woman was there yet but again we have pics that it was fine when we left and someone at the venue signed for it...) The venue was also VERY HOT when we arrived and she said it remained very hot. The air conditioning was not working and the doors were open all night to cool it off. That couldn't have been good with a bc cake.
I will post a pic as soon as I can.
I got myself into this one....I occasionally do cakes cheaper for some clients every couple of months (i.e. I have a young bride and groom who have a 6 month old and he's active military. They came to me with a $200 budget and asked about either plain cupcakes or a plain tiered buttercream cake and as big as it could be for their budget) They are having a small wedding so I basically decided to do the work for free and add some of the things the couple "wished" they could afford. This was another one....they had a $200-250 budget for cake and 250 guests for this quince. She brought 3 pics one was a really detailed 7 tier cake with different height tiers, the other two were mardi gras themed craziness. I offered to make the cake larger and scale back the design and we settled on a price she could live with.... I think her attachment to that seven tier monster with a small cake budget should have been a neon RUN sign. This is what I get for trying to do something nice.
With the pics at the venue showing the cake was ok, and everything else, you should be covered.
If she was doing it "on the cheap", she's probably having buyer's remorse.
Trust me, anybody that has an invite list of 250 people for a quince is NOT on a budget.
Trust me, anybody that has an invite list of 250 people for a quince is NOT on a budget.
Thankfully you have photos. I always take one. You never know what happens after you leave. Yes, no good deed goes unpunished. Thankfully you have the 4 corners of your contract.
It drives me insane when people are looking for a discount! How could anyone expect to pay $250 to serve 250 people? I am sorry this backfired on you! You did try to do them a favor, but they just seem like the type of clients that can't be satisfied! I hope you don't have to deal with this issue again! 
I could have written this post, because I had the EXACT same thing happen with a quince cake earlier this year. Almost exactly the same things that my customer said, too! If it was what she ordered and the contract was clear, don't give her anything back, That's going to be the next thing, they'll want 50% back (it's always 50% for some reason.) It sounds like you were clear on what she ordered, and she's trying to recoup some of her costs by complaining.
Yeah I am expecting that call. Truth is I was horrified when she said she didn't like it. But as soon as "it's too small" came out as the only thing she could criticize and knowing I showed her the dummies as an example I started to rethink it. Saying she didn't like the design or something wasn't done well enough okay explain it to me and I'll fix it however I can or offer a refund. But a five tier cake being too small and for the price I gave her trying to help her out that put me on the defensive. It was by no means small and to top it off the way she handled it, snapping at me and hanging up, was really rude and immature.
The venue was one of the cheapest in town and they had family barbecue for the dinner....then she wants a 7 tier cake for $250. It was all my fault for doing it to begin with from now on I will be way more careful with what I do. Thanks for the input everyone.
It's a shame that this kind of behavior is predictable. I finally got enough red flags in an email recently that prompted me to cancel someone's order. I knew n matter what I did for the cake would be met with complants and criticism. I told her as much too, returned her payment in full, and wished her luck in securing a new decorator.
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