This girl sends me a pictures of a poker themed cake with cards, chips, dice, #21 sticking out on top, heart, spades,well you get the idea, and dumb me quotes her $125 for a cake that serves 30-32.

So she writes me back and tells me, "Give me a better price on the cake",just like that. I felt as if she was threatning me. Give me a better price or else.

So I used the line so many of you have written on here about. I told her my cakes were fairly priced, especially this cake with so much hand made detail,but if she wanted to I could recommend someone who made buttercream/fondant cakes and see if they gave a better price.

They actually charge more than I do. She just responded "Thanks for your time." I don't think I am ever going to get over this. It makes me so ANGRY!

Its not like I go to Olive Garden and ask them to give me a discount because I want the $15 plate but only have $10.

yeah I deal with that kind of thing all the time too. I am way underpriced compared to other people, but (and I know K8 will slam me for this), but the area I am in, I am priced accordingly. Yes very small farm town. And I believe I am in line with other bakers in my area, but would LOVE to get more for my cakes. But still I have people wanting cakes even cheaper than what I am charging now. Around here they want a 2 tier buttercream/fondant cake for $25! Of course I just tell them no, but still they ask all the time.

i understand everything you are saying... you don,t need her business.. she would be trouble the whole way.. someone nicer will call you, and you will enjoy doing their cake.. believe me..hth weed out the cheap-o's to start with and go on with your regular pricing..you deserve to get what you are worth.. that is how i feel about all of us decorators..

I totally feel the same way. I mean maybe if she would have sent me a plain cake with polka dots or something but a POKER cake!

Get real lady!!!! LOL

and its a rush order for Thursday!!!!

I wish her all the luck but I would love to be on the other end of the phone when she calls up bakeries that do NICE cakes.

We have a lot of MOM and POP bakeries here that do mostly buttercream with lots and lots of it. Walmart style x's 10.

*rolls her eyes at people* I'm sorry but no one has the right to tell you to give them a better price, especially in a rude tone. I don't tell the girl that cuts my hair I don't want to pay her price and offer her less. If I didn't want to pay that much I'd go somewhere.

My reply would have been simply. "My price for this cake is XX." We do not have to explain our pricing system. I'd probably point out that I am also not a flee market and that I don't haggle on prices.

My price would have went up as soon as I got her email asking for a better price. Price would be better for me and that is all I am concerned about.

Your price is your price, stick to it.

Jen

I agee...like the other decorators say on here.....someone will always come along that is willing to pay what you are asking. If she wants to pay a cheaper price , let her get a Walmart special and see what kind of poker cake she gets then! I also have my prices too low because of the area I live and I know Debi will probably yell at me but like others have said...people around here want the 25.00 cakes they get from the grocery and I guess it's up to us to "introduce" them to QUALITY cake baking and decorating . Hopefully I can up my prices as I build my reputation and maybe you can too?

Her: GIVE me a better price.
Me: ex-CUSE me?????????

"Not everyone can afford me .... and that's ok!"

Some people think they can bargain on everything. I used to manage a convenience store and people would try to bargain there. I've heard people asking for discounts at Walmart and Target too (Target actually gave one, I was amazed).

I had a customer pick out a 3 tier cake for a graduation cake. See picture below that she sent to me via email. I quoted her $200.00. She calls me and says they can't afford that. It was a bargain, but I tell her I understand and offered to do a very nice full sheet cake for $70.00. She said she'd get back to me. I won't budge on my price, it's way too cheap to begin with. I was giving her a real break as she is sort of a friend. I wish I could begin to understand the mentality.[/u]

consier yourself lucky not to have her as a client.

I had someone email me for a cake, gave her a price and then she also came back to me with "can you do anything batter than that?"
so, I explained, very politely, about all the work invoved & I was really fairly priced, and I invited her to shop around just to prove that I'm not that expensive.

so, she camoes back with an email slike this:

Irene? Are you Irene M. from so-and-so church? It's me! Annie Smith! (someone I knew from church for years...never was close with...never even went to her house or parties or anything...and..haven't seen in a good 10 years) and really...NOW you realize who I am. How did it suddenly come to you?
so, she writes..."Now you HAVE to give me a discount!"

just like that. Not even a "how have you been?" or "what are you up to?"

I replied with a "hey, so nice to hear from you...hope all is well.....sorry but I really can't lower my price"

I never heard from her again.

I think it's the norm today for people to expect a discount on EVERYTHING. When I bought my first car in the 80's, there was no such thing as a rebate. Now, who'd buy a car without one? So I suppose it's natural for them to think you'll give them a discount on a cake. They probably figure there's no harm in asking. But when they DEMAND a discount, that's just plain rude!

The woman asking for the poker cake was beyond rude. There have always been rude people, but I'm afraid that is getting worse. And the example of Olive Garden not lowering their price is only partly right. I'm clipping coupons right now and in yesterday's paper, Olive Garden had one. So many stores, restaurants, car dealerships, etc. are offering discounts now. And every time I turn around, there is a financial guru encouraging consumers to always ask for a discount. So I think we need to be mentally prepared for this way of thinking out there.

But, please, unless your children will go to bed hungry, don't do business with someone that rude.

Reality TV is partly to blame for the "new" rudeness. Bad behavior is always rewarded on those shows. Gimme, gimme, gimme. And how about sponsored weddings, in which brides and grooms sell their souls for freebies?
I think it's very scary to see where we're heading.

So I was sort of on the other end of this recently. I found a stainless steel table on CL the other day. They had $400 OBO. (no way it was worth $400- most that size aren't even $400 brand new).

Since it said OBO, I contacted them and said I'd give him $60.00. The only response was very simply:

"No you won't".

didn't bother me any, and I kind of thought it was funny.