I had a customer contact me on the 20th, asking for 3 cakes. One for the 30th, & the other two for august. I told her I could not do the 30th because I was booked the few days prior to then & was actually moving on the 30th, as well. I added that on one of the august dates I had a wedding, but since her order was small,  I could deliver her cake a day earlier, if that would be ok. The 3rd date I was open. She then sends me some cakes she likes & we discuss her budget. I tell her that I will come up with a sketch to suit & send it to her soon. I then begin my "vacation" from work & start getting everything ready to move, while coming up with her cake ideas, & still working with booked clients. I get an email from her saying she can't wait to see what I've come up with, & she receives an auto-reply stating I am unavailable until the 1st, like I had already told her. She re-sends this email 2 other times & adds she wasn't sure if I was getting her emails. Again, she gets the auto-reply. Now during this leave, I talk to my bride for the wedding in august & she finalizes what she'd like, which is much more than we originally discussed. That's fine, but this means I will not be able to do the other woman's cake in august.

So the 1st comes, & the very first email I reply to is hers, explaining exactly why I can't do her cake, & apologizing. I thought this was really going to be a light, "oh that's too bad" type of email. Instead, she replies that she knew this is how it was going to turn out after I ignored her for so long. She is so glad she contacted me early because I'd be screwing her if it were only a couple days before her party. She would have given me so much business but she needs someone reliable. She knows things come up, but this was very unprofessional & hopes I will take her good advice to save future clients. Um... am I missing something? I told her I'd be unavailable, & all we had done anyway was discuss a few details. She wasn't booked, or even close to it. Maybe it's me, but I thought she went from 0-60 way too fast, over pretty much nothing. I'm not sure how to even reply to her, because all I want to do is tell her off a bit. I usually don't let these things get to me, but I really was not expecting this type of response, & it has totally thrown me off. 

AGood grief, I agree with you. It sounds like she is wanting you to apologize profusely while showing her with mountains of free cakes, and even then I doubt it would satisfy her. Save yourself the time and drama, and don't reply at all.

AExactly!

Like NcLeora said, just ignore her as talking with her or conversing through email will probably send your blood pressure sky high!  Actually, she sounds as though she may be a client that will find little things that aren't correct and nit pick you to death.  As for her saying she would have provided you with a lot of business, doubt it.

Yes, I a

Yes, I agree, & am also doubtful since she has posted on my facebook page numerous times that she really wants to order from me, or that she'll order soon, & it has taken almost a year to do so. 

AHit delete on her email and thank your lucky stars that you dodged that bullet.

Sorry, but I disagree with you, you did indeed tell her that you could do the cakes, she was awaiting on you to return to work and show her the sketches etc so that you could come to an agreement on the type/design of cake.

It is in my opinion, from the side of the customer, unprofessional to confirm that you could do the cakes, agree to do the designing over your 'closed period' and to continue the conversation once you open again and then to bail on her due to FORSEEN circumstances. The wedding cake was already booked, it is up to you to confirm the details of your already booked cakes before taking on more work.

Of course you are correct that there was no deposit paid so no real confirmation but you should have told her that there was a possibility that you may or may not be able to do the cake depending on the detail required for the wedding cake. It is just lucky that she has plenty of time to find another cake decorator.

I would be annoyed too if someone told me that they could definitely do something then they cancelled on me before I had had a chance to pay the deposit because they were indeed closed. I am not sure why you think her automatic response would be to only see things from your side of the road.

I don't mean to be rude but I think that it is wrong for everyone to just tell you that you were totally right and I hope that you can see it a bit from her side.

Yeah I agree with Bubs, your business will fail if you don't start thinking about the customer's feelings. She waited 10 days...10 DAYS just for you to tell her you couldn't do it. I'd be an upset customer for sure and would feel like you were picking and choosing clients. 

AWhat ^they said...

I also agree with bubs. I would be upset if I was your customer as well. And I don't have a cake business, so my opinion is entirely as a consumer. You need to manage your bookings better and don't tell your customers you can do their cake then cancel on them. If you have a customer getting excited about seeing the design you've come up with, it sounds to me like she thought she was booked. I don't understand why you think she wasn't even close to being booked? Because she hadn't paid a deposit? Was she aware that there was no booking until a deposit was paid? 

Yep, have to agree that I'd be pretty annoyed about being cancelled on after being told you were available. I realised you didn't consider her 'booked' but she obviously did given that a) you'd told her you were available, b)discussed a delivery date, c)had received design ideas from her, d)were working on a sketch, e)had discussed a budget.

From her perspective, I'd think we were definitely 'booked'.

AI can see that to a certain extent, but the fact that the customer hadn't put deposits down means they're not booked. And if she knew that the OP was out of the office (how many autoresponses do you need to get) but kept emailing shows a bit of a high-maintenance client attitude. If the OP got back to her as soon as the "vacation" was over and told her the date wasn't available there's not a lot that you can do if no deposits were taken and nothing had officially been booked. Sure, be more reluctant to tell people you might be available in the futre if you're not sure, but getting a lecture from someone who can't take a hint from autoresponse is unnecessary.

This reminded me of a woman i had emaling me last year about possibly doing her wedding cake. Too long to go into here, but she was very demanding and couldn't take "I'm on vacation right now, sitting in my hotel room, and will get back to you next week" for an answer. After three or four emails where i kept telling her i would get back to her when I wasn't on vacation i told her I wasn't going to de her cake. I have to look those emails up now, that was one for the books...

Bwuahahaha! I went back and found the emails and the whole story is coming back to me now. It's way too long to tell now but just say that this woman was expecting a lot for nothing. What made me laugh is that I finally told her I couldn't do her cake and referred her to someone I don't like, hahahaha!

I completely agree with you on this. If she had cancelled at this point I'm sure you wouldn't have responded so negatively that quickly. I can think of several instances where I ordered something and paid for it and then find out weeks later that my order was cancelled because the item was no longer available.. I can understand her not being very happy but her response was a bit dramatic in my opinion. 

ASo from the customers point of view you said you could make her cake, discussed ideas and budget and told her you'd send her a sketch. So even if she did realise it wasn't booked until she'd paid the deposit, she couldn't pay anything until she'd approved the sketch and knew the price. She sent you an email and started worrying when she got the auto response. She sent several more and got even more worried, started to think you were going to say you couldn't make it after all. Then when you do reply to her it's to tell her you can't make it after all. I'd be upset I wasn't getting my expected cake and angry at the bad customer service. I agree with your (almost) customer, it was unprofessional.

That's cool - of course anyone can refuse a client for whatever reason they like.

Not in America.

Honestly, I think the OP's main problem is that she doesn't consider what the cake means to her clients. I actually see this a lot on these threads with people upset over customers asking for a refund. Customers get very excited and anxious about cakes!  They are emotionally invested in their event and the centerpiece. So for the customers cake to just be thrown away as unimportant at the sketch stage IS upsetting and I think it was a terrible move for the business. Its smart for event businesses to treat every event as if it is your own and act excited towards the customer to show them you are just as invested as they are....even if you are just acting. To you it's just a cake....to them its an emotional purchase. This is off topic but it also upsets me when people are like "NO REFUND for the damage---they still ate it didn't they??" so dumb. Anyone with half a brain knows that the cake is like 25% eating it and 75% enjoying it's appearance at a party. And what are they going to do, not serve cake at the event? yeah, no. Ok sorry...not sure why I am rambling....

Completely agree with NcLeora! Don't reply at all!!

ATime and time again I read that people running businesses and selling cakes are getting frustrated because customers don't understand or appreciate the work that goes into a custom cake. They talk about the quality and service customers will get from them as opposed to getting their cake from a supermarket. They complain about people who undercharge hurting the cake business as a whole. When somebody gets a customer who understands how important the cake is and can afford to pay for it wouldn't they want to hang on to her? I don't understand how anyone thinks cancelling this customers order is professional or good for the custom cake industry as a whole. OP, you said "am I missing something? I told her I'd be available........" Clearly you're not missing anything because you said yourself you told her you'd be available! And you said you were talking to your bride during your time off but didn't get back to this lady until you were back at work. You knew she was emailing you and getting worried, wouldn't it have been kinder to email her as soon as you'd spoken to your bride and realised you couldn't make the other cake? To give her as much notice as possible so she go somewhere else if nothing else. I'd be feeling really bad for letting her down if I were you. But I wouldn't have let her down. If I said I'd make her a cake, by hook or by crook I'd make her a cake.