What is your refund policy in your contract? Would anyone mind sharing how they word it? I'm tweaking my contracts right now and haven't had anything in my contract that explains a refund policy. I honestly don't even know what my refund policy is or should be. Haven't had the need for one....yet, but I want to be prepared because I know the day will come when I have to deal with something like this, so I'd like to cover my butt now in my contract so there's no misunderstandings in the future.

Any help or advice on how to word and handle refunds or what your specific policy is?

I break it into three payments and nothing is refunded.

If there's an issue I'd just make a decision on those particulars at that time. I wouldn't craft a whole policy listing evey potential pitfall--but that's just me--lots of people do.

sorry, I mean a reafun policy on say someone who has a problem with the cake after it's been delivered. For instance, what is your policy or do you address refunds for customers who are unhappy with the cake or who ate the cake and then call a day or 2 later complaining there was something wrong with it. Should that be addressed in a contract? Should there be something to the effect that if a customer is not happy with a cake for any reason that the refund policy is xxx? Like I said, I haven't had this happen yet, but I brace myself when I get a picky customer who decides she wants a refund because she spent too much on a party or wedding and decides to pick apart my cake to get money back.

Yes I would address it at the time it comes up.
I neither expect nor provide in advance for anyone to not like my cake.
Neither do I give them ideas on how to complain either.

A lot of people do have lots of stuff in their contracts.
I'm just one opinion that I don't do this.

If I put a clause about a traffic accident or a kid bumping the table or an employee using salt instead of sugar, dude I can promise you that none of that stuff will happen and I'll still have to address the fact that blablabla happened instead.

So I'm not biting off trouble in writing before it happens.
That's how I do it.

Tons of people have tons of clauses in their contracts--we're all different. I do say that I reserve the right to make their cake to the best of my ability.

i have it that if there is a problem with the cake after they have recieved it i will only deal with the person who ordered it, not aunt sally or anyone else, and also that any uneated portions must be returned within 48hrs for further investigation.

I figure it there is a true problem and the cake isn;t served or eaten they can bring it back, but they need to do it right away.

Thanks for the replies! This helps me a lot in figuring out how I want to handle these types of things.

Totally with K8 on this! Yeah, I've seen some contracts (in here) that just make me wanna barf. 20 to 30 pages, for a frigging cake? Initital here here HERE HERE, sign here.....gimme a break.

So, no my contract is not 30 pages, but it is 3 pages. I've noticed that in these crazy economic times (I"m so tired of the economy by the way) people have been needing to add more details to their contract. 4 years ago, a simple contract was no problem, people rarely tried to get their money back. Today people still want the bling bling wedding that is totally out of budget and then the first person they try to recoup losses is at the cake. It's the easiest thing to complain about & get money back on IMO and thats what people go for. Even my wedding cake person has had to change her contract and she is very popular in our area. My contract with her was as simple as it got, it ain't any more.

Mine is 2...I got the one from Cake Boss website, not the show, the program. I added a few things to it, but not much.

Yeah, that's true. The actual policy parts are in the last page & a half.

Well that's a given Indy, particulars about order, flavors, delivery location, yada yada....I'm talking about the stooooopid little areas like "lighting conditions may affect color of cake" Initial here that you accept your cake may appear lime green under Sylvania brand flourescent lights, and puke green under GE Led lighting....ya know, stuff like that.

ROTFLMAO! Jaime I swear! How did your mother keep up with you when you were little!?

I'm like Jaime, I used the one from Cake Boss.........although I've changed and tweaked it so much it hardly resembles the same contract LOL

Mine is 3 pages long......

Here is my refund policy

4.  _______ Refunds: Cash refunds will only be given if cake was considered inedible/un-servable and 100% of the cake must be returned within 24 hrs. of the delivery time. No refunds will be given if cake is served or if cake is not returned for futher investigation.

I have read CC for years and I know I am in the overwhelming minority here but if a customer is unhappy with their cake, we will make it right. if the think a full refund is fair, that's what they get, if they think 1/2 refund is fair that's what we give them...even if there is none of the cake left over and everybody we spoke to at the reception site loved it.

I should state that we do almost exclusively wedding cakes and we work with a number of facilities as their "all inclusive package" cake vendor so one very unhappy customer whose concerns we blew off could mean a huge hit to our reputation and ultimately the loss of one or more of our partners, who are responsible for sending us a couple hundred wedding cake orders per year.

That said, we even state our satisfaction guarantee on our web site and on our quote forms and with over 1000 weddings cakes in the past 3 years we haven't had to refund a single one because someone was unhappy with it (knock on wood), but if it happens we will do whatever it takes to make them happy, even if they are trying to scam us for a free cake, I'd rather have our reputation intact than a few hundred bucks.

well, maybe if I had the volume you have it wouldn't be so hard to let go of $400.00 but that's literally more than I normally make in a month!! So If I have to lose that on a cake order that cost me $100.00 + out of pocket to make on top of not making the $400.00 profit...it's a HUGE hit to my family!

I've only had ONE person try to get a refund (which is why I put the clause in my contract) and she backed off once i let her know that I had spoken with people at her wedding and that the cake was perfectly moist and delicious, as well as the signed contract by her that stated that contractually she still owed me almost $300.00 in late fees that I wasn't holding her to. She apologized and said the cake was fine, just not what she wanted. Whatever that means, I don't know...but sometimes you have to stand up for what's right. I torted the cake and filled it and knew that what she was saying (that some of the cake was raw, and other parts were burned) wasn't true. If I thought the cake was less than perfect (I wouldn't have served it) but if there was ANY doubt that what she was saying was true I ABSOLUTELY would have given her a full refund and bowed out with sincere apologies! But I knew what she was saying was a lie. The groom's parents bought the cake and the bride and groom were trying to cash in on it and get a refund sent to THEM! it was all fishy!

I got my contract courtesy of someone on here (sorry, i forget who you are!) and it was originally 17 pages. I tailored it a bit and it's at 13 pages. 5 pages are basic info/sketch/estimate/and final signature. The other 8 some pages are detailed "I am not responsible for...", type stuff.

Sorry, but I want my ass covered if they come back to get money from me, legitimately or not!! Yes, they roll thier eyes as I'm reading through and realize they still have 4 pages left, but guess what???

I don't care! Book me or don't book me, I'm still going to make sure I don't ever create a "Guess what this Bride did to me" thread under the Cake Disaster forum.