A friend of mine contacted me regarding the recent passing of her step-father. She ordered a slab cake, and 4 trays of assorted bars, tarts etc. Her budget was $200.00. When she first contacted me she said they were having a hard time finding an appropriate venue for the memorial, and were looking at Wednesday or Thursday of this week. I said fine, let me know.

She came over last Friday with the money, and I am POSITIVE she said "Thursday at X Venue, from 4-6, could I deliver?, did I know where that venue was?" I said I did, wrote it down, and that was that.

So today, I baked my a$$ off. at 9PM I'm filling the cake and she calls me. And says "Where did you deliver the cake?" I said "I haven't yet, I'm planning on taking it to X venue at 3:00 tomorrow." She said, "no... it was today" (Wednesday)

I am SO sure she said Thursday. SO Sure!! Even she said that in her fuzz from the loss it's possible she said Thursday... and then went on to say, Well, the trays of stuff can be frozen... and I'd like you to please deliver the cake to my Mother's house at X address.

SO... my question is, since I have NEVER gotten the date wrong before... how do I handle this?? What kind of reparation is due to my friend and her family? I plan on delivering the entire order... I would say that at least half the money went to ingredients... does that seem like a fair refund? Should I offer a credit for the full amount to be used in the future? I just don't know

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

This will be a sensitive subject. but it really does seem like it was the woman's error.

If she's a "good" friend, she'll take delivery, handle the doling out or freezing herself, and not expect a penny back. That's the right thing to do.

Deliver ALL of the goods and don't return a penny. YOU did nothing wrong here and YOU shouldn't have to take the hit because YOU DID EXACTLY WHAT YOU WERE ASKED TO DO.

MHO
Rae

This is why I NEVER take a verbal order. I always tell the person friend, family, or stranger to place the order online through my website or I have them email me what they want and all the important delivery information so there is an electronic record of what was ordered. I then enter the information into my cakeboss program so I have a second permanent record of the order details. So if a question arises there are two electronic records to refer to as to who made a mistake.

I know this was between friends but hopefully in the future you will write up some order form which they sign or acknowledge by email to ocnfirm info. I think that if she is still accpeting the order you do not ower her anything. She had the opportnity to say, well I don;t need it now so I'm cancelling because you messed up the date and since she didn't do that regardless of what she is using the products for she is getting what she ordered.

I see no mention of her asking for a refund, and she did say it was probably her fault and she'll be getting the order. I doubt she'll expect you to not be paid.

That being said, when I take a phone order, I repeat the date back, and the day... So you'll be picking that up on Friday, August 27 at 10AM.. they agree or correct me.. and I close the converstation. Ok, Thanks again for your order, I'll see you on Friday, August 27 at 10AM.

Every conversation is confirmd with an email.

As I said to all of my clients,, "If it's not written down .... it's not happening!"