I delivered a cake yesterday and the client complained last night that the cake wasn't done.  Well, after several back and forths...the determination that the cake was done....she just thought it didn't taste good.  I did a cake for her a year ago with no problem.  But it just seems like she is trying to get her money back because she decided it didn't taste good enough to her.  Is this a valid request on her part?  I have been doing this for 13 years and NEVER, not ONCE have had someone complain about the taste.  I level all my cakes too, so, I knew the center was done.  Which is why I was able to let her know that her original complaint wasn't valid. 

It has been raining here all week and I think the weather may have kept the cake from rising as much as it normally does, but that is beyond my control.  I already caved and said I would refund a LARGE portion of the money.  But I think she just has buyer's remorse and I wanted to toss it around here.  Please help. 

Also wanted to add that when she placed the order, she asked me if I could make the icing sweeter than last year and I told her I didn't know if I could.  Well, part of her complaint today was that the cake was too sweet.  ????? 

What was her reason for it not tasting good?  Since she knew what it tasted like, she must have eaten it.  I'm not sure I would have offered her a refund, but sometimes it makes sense in the interest of business. 

not really sure, since her original complaint was that it wasn't done.  She said she has been baking for 9 years and this wasn't edible.  But the other flavor was ok.  I am still kind of dumbfounded by the whole thing.  I know by the tone of her complaint that she will never use me again (NO BIG DEAL!) and I offered the refund so she wouldn't slam my name, but I don't think that will even be diffused.  I think she thought after her original email that I would immediately offer a refund based on her statement that it wasn't done and I didn't because I knew it was.  She said I was calling her a liar and then she blew up at me.  After I explained that I knew it was done...she changed her stance and just started saying how it just wasn't edible.  My white cake is a little more dense than my other flavors...but not inedible and like I said, in 13 years have never had a complaint.  I explained that maybe that was the case...but I think she is just determined to get a refund...no matter what. 

And I never called her a liar, I would NEVER do that even if someone was.  I don't think that would be professional.  I was very calm and collected through every exchange.  :/

Changing her complaint means it's not a valid complaint. If there was something wrong with the taste, she would have said , "Hey, the cake tasted off", not, "hey, the cakes wasn't cooked."

I would assume she just wants her money back.

Also, if it 'wasn't edible', she would have a lot of cake she could return to you, to prove her complaint.

I would do the same as we do in our restaurant - if someones doesn't like the taste of a dish to the point they won't eat any more than a taste, we will gladly take it off the bill and ask them to re-order.  But we take the dish away.  If this cake was inedible, and she returned it to you with only a small portion cut into, I would refund her money.

If the case was "edible enough" to be completely eaten, by her and her guests, it was edible enough to pay for. :)

Liz
 

thanks y'all.  I already told her I would mail her a refund of most of it...I am kicking myself now because the more I think about it...the more it upsets me.  :(  When she changed her complaint, I should have said I am sorry and stopped discussing it with her.  oh well. 

Was the cake eaten or did she throw it away??  Was uneaten return the cake to you? If she didn't or if it wasn't...then I would not refund her anything. end of story. Because not just liking the taste and something being inedible are two different things.

Since you already said you would refund some, I would only refund 20% at the very very most..honestly I would probably only give her bak 15%  if she didn't return the cake back to you.  If you are going to give a refund, then pay yourself for your material costs and part of your time spent.

You didn't get any cake back did you? So she used your services/goods and she needs to pay for at least that. case closed. 

Peggy Porchen used to have a disclaimer on her site, I can't find it now its been updated but it was something along the lines of 'taste is subjective and we don't take back cakes just because you don't like the taste'.

thank you guys, SO MUCH.  I am sitting here reading other posts and I have come to the conclusion that it is the right thing to do to give her a partial refund.  The only thing eating at me is the harsh way in which she handled the whole situation.  She came at me and told me it wasn't done and when I disagreed with her, she became irate (instantly) and started attacking me and telling me I was calling her a liar.  She never gave my comments any consideration.  Like she could have said, well, maybe it is done, but it just didn't taste right...in a nicer tone.  She was immediately rude and harsh and demanding I give her half of the money back..and telling me that I should accept criticism and not think I am perfect.  And the kicker was, she was texting all this to me while she was in church.  I am going to give her a little less than 50% back and I explained that I also drove her cake to a city 2 hours away so she didn't have to transport it.  (I was going that way anyway, but I still had to drive quite a ways out of my way to the location)...so I feel like I did a little above and beyond...for a birthday cake.  I am not trying to sound disgruntled...but I never complain much about anything...I just chalk it up as a bad choice and never request a service from that person or place again.  

I will have to look into that lady and see if I can find something along those lines.  Thank you, Sugared Saffron!!!!

oh and she kept telling me that she had the top tier for me and would give it back to me..(it was a 3 tier cake) but the bottom tier she threw away because it was inedible.  She said the middle tier was fine and went really fast.  (SOOO confusing!!!)  I wish I had gone with my gut and baked the top two tiers the same; that way, most of the cake would have been to her liking. ?

Sorry to hear of your bad experience with your customer (so called customer!)...what is very confusing to me is that she mentioned that she has been baking for NINE YEARS....

With that said no one ever likes to recieve negative feedback but I suppose that not everyone will be happy with the end product (as we dont live in an ideal world), but taking into account that she has already sampled your service/cakes previously then she would know what to expect.

I agree with the other posters on this thread..I would not be offering her 50% refund...no way hosea!!!

Have you told her that she would recieve a 50% refund? If so, then you would have to honour your word....if not then I would refund 20% and put it down to experience.

Why didnt she bake her own cake if she felt for a split second that her cakes would be edible.

Also if the bottom tier was inedible and the middle tier was edible - how does she know or how would you know if the top tier is edible/inedible???

From the above sentence....I would refund her 20% based on two cakes or solely just on the bottom tier alone. I wouldnt be refunding money back on a cake that was edible......

I can understand why you would offer a refund to prevent her from damaging your business name etc....but that refund would be based on non edible cakes only!!!

Just my two pennies worth...

I've got news for you... a refund isn't going to stop her from bad-mouthing you.  She will still tell everyone how awful your cake was whether it was or not.  Money won't shut anyone up unless legally required to do so. She lied to you at first about her reasons, why should she not lie to her friends?  

I would send her a 20% refund and be done with it.  There was nothing in writing between you was there about a 50% refund was there?  If you have steady customers and others know your work then why worry about one bad apple in the barrel. I doubt if she has many friends with her attitude and who would want people like her as your customers? 

Then I would also immediately put the disclaimer mentioned earlier about taste being subjective in whatever promotional materials you have.   Good luck!
 

This is why in my contract I state that if the customer wants a refund they must return the uneaten cake, this way I can see what exactly went wrong with it.

this client just seems like a pain in the ass with buyers remorse.  I'd give her a 20% refund and would never take another order from her again.

Please, please, please do not bake for her again.
Common sense says that she will repeat her complaints.
If I don't like the taste of Applebee's, I don't go there.
She should have just not called you to begin with if your icing wasn't sweet enough for her based on the last order she placed.
Really...who calls someone with set recipes and asks them to change their tried and true system because their opinion is that it isn't what they want?
I wouldn't call up KFC and tell them to make their gravy thicker.
Sheeesh.

christyann
 

Thanks you guys! :)  I REALLY appreciate all of your kind words of support. 

Well, I was so upset by the whole thing that I wasn't in a big hurry to send her refund...and I WAS going to, I just didn't make a hurried effort to do it. 

Keep in mind that I JUST delivered her cake on Saturday.

SOOOO,  today I recieved a text from her at 1:52pm asking me when I sent it.  I never responded because I was busy homeschooling my son.  THEN, at 3pm...she sends me a 2nd text to tell me that since I didn't respond to her first one, she wanted to settle it between us and be done with it, but since I didn't respond, she filed a Civil suit against me and was suing me for the FULL cost of the cake plus court costs. 

I explained to her that I just received her message on my phone at 1:53pm and she said that she sent it the night before.  She said she would call and hold off the lawsuit until Monday to see if she gets my refund.
 

I am an honest person and always want to do the right thing, but GOOD GRACIOUS, I REALLY wish I had never responded to her first complaint.  :( 

I went ahead and sent her a $80 refund.  (the cake was $175...she wanted half back)  I told her at first that I would refund $50...but she kept harrassing me. 

I really feel sorry for this individual and especially her children because she is probably raising them to ***** and moan to get whatever they want for nothing.  :( 

It's people like this that make me want to just throw in the towel.  And it is taking EVERY inch of the Christian person I am to not give her a complete piece of my mind.  She would probably try to take me to court.  UGH!!!

AOne of my first official cake orders was from a woman who's children I happen to watch after school at our local YMCA. She heard I was doing cakes and approached me to make one for her sons Birthday. This woman is difficult to say the least (not about my abilities as a child care provider but with management; pricing, it's always something,) I knew better but I was so excited and had never personally had problems with her (just listened to her complain about everything from her coworkers to the weather when she would pick up her children) again, I should have known better!

Over the next few days her son and I put sketches together, per her request, I sent them home (approximately 6weeks before the party) I simply told her I would need two weeks notice, a small deposit, and we would need to set aside some time to finalize everything.

The week before her sons party I still hadn't heard back from her and frankly I was relieved, however, on Friday when picking up her son she said she wanted a sheet cake with a combination of the designs (but had forgotten to bring the sketches which was ok). She explained that there would only be 5-10 people attending the party so I suggested a 6/9" small square cake. She didn't want to spend a lot of money, then told me I had free range on the design (as long as it was Cardinal baseball themed) & a marble of chocolate and vanilla, and I told her I would do it for $20. (This was Friday night)

Saturday after I had just pulled the cake out of the oven I received a text message asking for a larger cake 'just in case'. I calmly agreed and explained that the larger the cake the higher the price, which she just didn't think was fair considering I was her last option now that her son's birthday party was the following day-she wanted a long sheet cake like from the bakery and the prices at Krogers are... Fuming and realizing I should have went with my first instinct, alas I agreed to make the ridiculous 9x13 (explaining that is was a lot more cake than she originally requested) and only doing it for $30. At this point I just wanted this finished and my business complete with her!

I ran to the store to buy two more cartons of eggs (baked both batters from scratch, knew nothing of extenders at that point) and everything else I needed to remake this cake. I stayed up all night baking and remaking the decorations, etc. I showed up at the party, early, with her sheet cake covered in green piped baseball field grass, fondant bases, a scoreboard sticking out with a Happy Birthday....small fondant bats and baseballs stuck to the corners of my bottom trim and a chocolate transfer identical to the Cardinals logo with the bird on the bat unfortunately I was too irritated to take a picture.

Funny enough the mother 'forgot' my payment, thanked me and told me she would bring it Monday ugh! Monday afternoon I received a text stating the cake tasted funny: the yellow being mixed with the chocolate lol I apologized and kindly reminded her that's what she ordered and my family enjoyed the first cake that was meant for her party (and of course I tasted the scraps from leveling it was actually one of my best cakes to date). Anyway, her son was raving and bragging about his special cake to all the kids. When his mother came to pick him up she said she was confused and it was probably b/c it was so dry, again I apologized and kindly reminded her that at her request I remade the cake and I'm not sure I could have made it any fresher. Well darn she forgot her checkbook again...this went on for several weeks. Every day she would pick up her children and every day she had a new complaint, the price was too high, etc. l never mentioned the cake to her she would always bring it up and her final complaint was that the cake was simply too large! Amazingly enough she finally paid me two months later (the original $20). And several months after that I received an apology, something about her meds

Needless to say I learned several painful lessons from one order (contract, deposit, if they don't plan to pay take that cake right back out the door with you, etc). I was devastated and mortified and oh so discouraged! It took me months to bake again. I am not sure why but these people exist everywhere, don't let one bad review get you down! I'm sure it has happened or will happen to all of us maybe even more than once, just don't let someone else get in the way of your passion.

 I think you should write her a thank-you letter.  That's right.  A calmly worded letter thanking her for presenting every worse case scenario you could ever have imagined...and that as a result of her 'efforts'  you have changed your policies and procedures so that you will no longer have to deal with bullying customers who harass and hound vendors such as yourself with constant texts and fake lawsuits based on a ridiculous complaint that she could not prove.  

Tell her she did you a favor because it might have taken YEARS of satisfied customers before you would have experienced everything she threw at  you in this one order...and that because of her, you are now confident that you are prepared to recognize and refuse any orders from individuals like her that may end up costing you time, money and headaches.  

Then sign off :  Best wishes on your hunt for a new baker! 

PS. Any further communication from you regarding this issue will be construed as harassment and WILL be treated as such in a court of law.  Have a nice day!

hi all i had a lady who got a cake from me for her daughter,she loved the cake and sent me facebook messages telling me how good it was,last month she ordered a surprise cake for her best friend,i put this in my order book,cake due on 27th march a tuesday,on friday she sent me a message asking was i still ok to do the cake,i told her yes,on saturday i spent the best part of the day making bits for her cake(she wanted a cake plus cupcakes with make up and small handbags etc),quite time consuming,she had sent me pic of cake she wanted on my facebook account,i turned laptop on on sunday midday and had a message from her can i cancel that cake.i sent her back message that i had spent previous day making parts for her cake,she replyed cant afford it as have to pay my rent,i replyed we all have bills to pay,she replied ok will take it but can u give me it cheaper,told her it was rock bottom price already,she then came back with her friend didnt like the flavour of my last cake and she wouldnt like this one.as  she didnt ask wat flavour i had done the cake and she didnt tell me wat flavor she wanted how did she kno wat flavour the cake was,after much toing and froing,i decided to put pic of cake on my facebook page explained briefly wat happened with cake(didnt mention any names) and told all my friends and family if anyone wanted the cake for present for sumones birthday in nxt few days would give them cake at reduced price,the cake was sold 3 minutes after pic and message went up on my page,next thing u know girl on asking why i was naming and shaming her even tho i didnt give names,pointed this out to her and she replied dont think i will order cake from u again,hah to which i replied dam right u wont cos i wouldnt take order from her you again.made sure i put lots of the cake pics up on my facebook so she could see how good her cancelled cake looked then after that i defriended her.thats 1st time ever someone said they didnt like flavour of a cake they didnt even taste lol,

wow, SMckinney...you are a saint for doing such a time consuming cake for $30.  I am so sorry you had to deal with that!!  :(  I think sometimes we need to go with our gut instincts BEFORE we accept an order.  I think it will save us a lot of time, money and headaches in the end. 

Thank you for taking so much of your time to share your frustrating experience! 
 

cakefat, THANK YOU!  :) 

and carmijok...That is absolutely genius!!!  I think I might do that! 

And I did send her refund certified/return receipt so she CAN IN NO WAY try to claim that she didn't receive it. 

You all are so sweet!!  I am so glad that I am not crazy in thinking she was wrong in how she treated me.  Sometimes I really doubt certain situations and wonder if I am the one with the problem. 

Thanks y'all!!!
Leslie

AI had a customer with a similar complaint. She claimed the cake did not taste good because it was not fresh and was not made of quality ingredients, something I state in my flyer. I replied that I was sorry to hear she did not like the taste an added my baking schedule an a list of ingredients I used for her cake to prove her claim was not true. i asked if there was some cake left for me to identify the problem. she did not reply. I also leveled that cake and had these pieces with my husband for coffee the day before, to us it tasted really good. I guess she wanted her cake for free...

thanks azcouture for your comments.Has i had done a cake for this customer before i trusted that she would pay for this cake on delivery.I have now learnt my lesson and will be making everyone pay before i do their order,

A

Wow. That was so incredibly unprofessional. I would never argue with a client in that manner & certainly not on Facebook. I can see you telling her you had begun preparation and asking her to cover costs thus far. I can also see you pairing it in FB without names (as you did) but responding to her comment is beneath you. Delete her comment & send a PM.

In business, you will encounter crazy rude people. You must rise above & remain professional.

delicious desserts as she didnt have the manners or courtesy to ring me but instead  left the message on my facebook page and as this made me so angry i replied through facebook.Looking back now in hindsight it wasnt very professional and i should not have stooped to her level,but as you can imagine i was very angry and this was the first cake that anyone ever cancelled from me.We learn by our mistakes and i have learnt a few lessons from this which i will carry forward to future orders and possible cancellations.thank you for your comments 

A

Exactly. Lesson learned. Clients can sometimes be infuriating!! Our job is to rise. We all loose our tempers. Next time, it will be easier.

I'm passionate. I take it all to heart. It's so hard not to let other people see that side.