OK, well we all agree, payment up front.

Moving on from that point, I have problems with the timing as well. If an event starts at, say, 5pm, my delivery is always at least an hour before hand, but I always start with trying to arrange two hours before to give everyone some breathing room and to give me a decent window to deliver. Who shows up to deliver anything for a party when the guests have already arrived? SO... by my math, you were anywhere from 2 to 3 hours late delivering your goods, not 15 minutes.

I too bake in a commercial kitchen, so believe me, I know things can happen, but if I had to re-do an entire order making me that late (and I'm sorry, that is really really late in my book), I would have called the venue, let them know I had to re-make their order and see if my new arrival time was acceptable. NOT lying about it is key (not saying you would, but lots of people say dumb stuff like "I'll be there in 30!" when they know it will take 2 hours or more). That call would have happened as soon as I knew, and that would have been 4 hours prior to the event start time (because it takes time to load then drive to the event, I always give myself an hour, so if event was at 5pm, delivery at 3pm, I would have got to my kitchen at 2pm to load up... 4 hours) when other arrangements could have been made. I would have offered a massive apology, free delivery, and a small discount.

Even if I though I was a super star and could remake the entire order AND be mostly on time, I'd still call the venue to let them know the circumstances because I know I need to leave myself an out in case I can't make it. Communication is always key to a successful business relationship.

IF the person was upset I would be that late with my baked goods, I would have offered to get alternative treats pre-made at other brick and mortars that I would deliver to be as close to on-time as possible instead of trying to remake everything. I have several back-up bakeries in my head that I can run to in an emergency that offer a similar quality product. It may be different flavors or not cake pops, but it is sweets on time. If this makes venue person happy I'd offer no discount because I'd most likely be out of pocket buying retail replacements, but they should be happy they are getting treats on time before the start of an event, and I would still look good as having done everything I could to make sure their party was a success. At that point, my priority is customer service and making my client not feel like an idiot having an empty dessert buffet. I would put aside my pride that I had to fall back on a competitor to cover my butt.

Knowing very vague bits of what happened, I think really poor choices were made on your part. I wouldn't bother trying to collect any payment, written contract or not.

Jen