ok, so my sister decided to have a (supposedly) reputable bakery do my niece's first birthday cake. I was so heartbroken she didn't ask me, but i was assuming it had to do with my brother in law, and such.
anyway, my sister sent me the picture of the cake she was getting. she gave the bakery a copy of the picture toput with her order. it was to be iced in buttercream- a 2 tier cake, with numerous lollipops stuck into the bottom tier, and polka dots on both tiers (those out of fondant). then a white icing border around bottom and top of each tier. also, fondant curly ribbons coming out from the top of the cake. very detailed, and cute. the only difference was she wanted it done in pinks, reds and whites and the pic had multi colors.
so, they deliver the cake the night befor ethe party, and she refused delivery. apparently it was NOT BC.. the entire thing was coveredin fondant. and, looked nothing like the picture. so she told them they had until 10am the next morning, and they agreed.
the next day, she accepted delivery for yet another incorrect cake. it looked like all they did was reice the cake, and they used a spray gun of some sort to put stripes on the bottom tier. the top tier had absolutely nothing other than a number "1" on top. no border on the edges, nothing. he top tier looked completely unfinished. and the entire thing looked nothing like the cake in the picture she supplied. t there was a border on the bottom of the top tier though which was cute, but nothing else, and still nothing at all ike the picture. so my sister called the bakery hoping to get some sort of refun (partial) for all of the things missing from teh cake. now i knew they werent going to, especially after all of the fondant was tossed after they screwed up teh first time. but they ended up getting into a heated conversationa nd my sister finally just hung up. i feel bad, but at the same time, my sister should have asked me to do it- but my bro in law is just viscious about anything to do with me. anyway, what you you bakery owners do, if a cake was sooo incorrectly done. granted, my sister should probably NOT have accepted it the second time if she was that unhappy with it, so i am not sticking up for her - i dont think a refund should be given considered she accepted it the second time,, even though was unhappy at that time. she is more upset because she re-submitted the picture to them on saturday so they would be able to do it correctly.....and they still didnt get anything right other than the lollipos. (sigh) of course i have to hear it from her, but i am just a hobbyist here! who wouldve done her cake-correctly-for free!

Wouldn't have happened to me. I wouldn't have taken an order for something like that to be done in BC when it clearly should be done in fondant. They would need to be ok with having it fondant. (For cripes sake, peel the crap off cause there's just as much bc underneath). The other parts about it being wrong, again, wuoldn't have happened because I'm so panty-wad tight about my contracts and nailing every single detail down to a tee, that I prevent these things from ever happening. Period. End of story. Sorry about the cake, I'd be pissed.

Sorry that this happened to your sister, but if the cake was still wrong at the time of delivery that would have been the time to speak up either to the delivery person or calling the shop to find out what happened. I do believe that your sister should get some sort of refund or discount for the cake being wrong twice. I had a cake that I couldn't get an element for in time and I let the customer know and refunded what I felt that missing piece was worth.
Your sister should call the bakery again and speak with the owner or manager about her issue with the cake.

If it was indeed totally different from what she ordered, I think at the very least I'd set up a meeting with the manager and ask what happened and why. She doesn't have to demand a refund, but she should have a reason as to why it happened and if this something she should be concerned about for future orders. (Not that she would use them again, but they probably would offer a discount or something to avoid bad publicity).

You could also make a small version of the cake and give it to her so they could enjoy pictures of it and maybe have a do-over party. It would also showcase what you can do. I mean your niece is 1...think she'll remember the bad cake?

Unlimited - The OP wasn't saying that the bakery should have done it correctly for free, she was saying that since it was her neice, SHE would have done it correctly the first time and she would not have charged them - it would have been a gift.

Oh my bad on that part. I had Cakewrecks on the brain, specifically the ones that should have been fondant. I do bc with fondant accents all the time, but only if it will look as perfect or better than whatever the original was.

She shouldn't have accepted delivery if it was that diffferent from what she ordered.

Having said that, if I owned a bakery that delivered the wrong cake twice, I wouldn't be in business for long. I'd probably refund the price of the cake if the customer had a legitimate complaint, and I'd be chewing my staff a new one.

The fact that she accepted the delivery after rejecting the first one does work against her, though.

It sounds like she accepted delivery so that she would have a cake for the party. Like a previous poster, my contracts are so detailed about the design and I am so anal about making sure that I live up to my end of the contract, that I would not leave out any of the design elements. But, if I did, I would offer a refund for what I thought the missing design elements were worth. Certainly, it would not be a full refund, but I would offer some monetary compensation because I didn't produce what was promised.