Things Not To Ask/say To A Baker!

Decorating By step0nmi Updated 20 Oct 2016 , 2:28pm by ch5964

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LeanneW Posted 20 May 2013 , 5:43pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cazza1 

Now come on guys a 3 sided decorated only cake is perfectly reasonable.  After all if it is against a wall you are not going to see the back of it so why waste time and money on it!

I can't tell if you're sarcastic or serious.  I'm hoping, this is sarcastic.  But, this was exactly what the customer was thinking.  I make art, it has a price, take it or leave it, but do not tell me how make my art!!!!!!

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Sparklekat6 Posted 20 May 2013 , 6:03pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeanneW 

I can't tell if you're sarcastic or serious.  I'm hoping, this is sarcastic.  But, this was exactly what the customer was thinking.  I make art, it has a price, take it or leave it, but do not tell me how make my art!!!!!!

 

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costumeczar Posted 20 May 2013 , 6:37pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sherox 


Love your answer! Yes, I explained to her my cakes are priced the way they're as they're custom made etc. she told me she needed to explain to her husband as he does not understand why cakes cost so much. Neither did she in my opinion. Over the years I've had some customers who have really checked my limit of patients but for each one of them I've had some truly wonderful ones who make all the pain making my veins pop out worth it!icon_smile.gif

If she says that she has to explain to her husband, tell her to tell him that some cars are Maseratis and some are Kias. Both are cars but that doesn't mean they're the same thing. Same things with a custom cake and a store-bought mass market cake. You have to put it in terms that the person listening can relate to.

 

My friend's daughter is an avid knitter, and she even spins her own wool. She was saying that to her the cakes from the store are the same thing as custom work, and I told her that was like saying that a hand-knit sweater was the same as one from the Gap. Her eyes got really big and she said "oooooh...Oh yeah, I see."

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onceuponacake Posted 20 May 2013 , 7:34pm
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I get this one all the time:

 

Can you give me a discount?

 

Sure if my suppliers give me a discount and if my assistant will take a discount on her paycheck.

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Cakemommy2012 Posted 20 May 2013 , 9:11pm
post #1175 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparklekat6 

 

LOVE THIS!!!  HAHAHA

Quote:
Originally Posted by costumeczar 

If she says that she has to explain to her husband, tell her to tell him that some cars are Maseratis and some are Kias. Both are cars but that doesn't mean they're the same thing. Same things with a custom cake and a store-bought mass market cake. You have to put it in terms that the person listening can relate to.

 

My friend's daughter is an avid knitter, and she even spins her own wool. She was saying that to her the cakes from the store are the same thing as custom work, and I told her that was like saying that a hand-knit sweater was the same as one from the Gap. Her eyes got really big and she said "oooooh...Oh yeah, I see."

 

This is a great way to look at at!

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meriem Posted 20 May 2013 , 10:29pm
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A

Original message sent by Sparklekat6

 

Literally laughed out loud! Love it!

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vgcea Posted 21 May 2013 , 5:12am
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ALOL!

Original message sent by Sparklekat6

 

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LeanneW Posted 21 May 2013 , 4:43pm
post #1178 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparklekat6 

 

 

You just made my day!

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sherox Posted 21 May 2013 , 4:51pm
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A

Original message sent by costumeczar

If she says that she has to explain to her husband, tell her to tell him that some cars are Maseratis and some are Kias. Both are cars but that doesn't mean they're the same thing. Same things with a custom cake and a store-bought mass market cake. You have to put it in terms that the person listening can relate to.

My friend's daughter is an avid knitter, and she even spins her own wool. She was saying that to her the cakes from the store are the same thing as custom work, and I told her that was like saying that a hand-knit sweater was the same as one from the Gap. Her eyes got really big and she said "oooooh...Oh yeah, I see."

Wish I could come up with such clever answers when I'm dumbfounded and fuming over what they say! But truly I've learned to appreciate anyone and everyone who are passionate and truly proud of what they do. And sometimes it's even hard to just let my creativity do the magic when a order comes after such a conversation.

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sherox Posted 21 May 2013 , 4:55pm
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A[SPOILER=Warning: Spoiler!][/SPOILER]

Original message sent by Sparklekat6

 

:grin:

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Hannahscakes Posted 21 May 2013 , 5:46pm
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AOkay so this happened to me two weeks ago.. My friend wanted me to make her college graduation cake. She wanted it to be 3 tiered chevron for $70. HA! No. So her mom came in and started talking me down on prices and changing the design and size 50 times no joke. I almost just didn't do the cake. In the end they wanted 3 tiers of ombré roses in red and yellow. But more of a crimson and gold BUT not too crimson and not too gold. WTF?! So I make a beautiful cake exactly how they want it.. Her mom sends her sister to come pick it up. He sister places it in the passenger side of the car tilted and no one to hold it. I freak out and say it won't travel like that and she says this, "well its my a$$ if it doesn't make it there so it will!" so I let her be on her way.. The day after the graduation I get this email from my friends mom: Hannah, lindsey's cake was delicious. Everyone had great things to say about it. However, the bottom 2rows of icing had fallen off by the time it got to my house from yours. I thought you would want to know this so you could prevent it from happening to someone else. Also, the cupcakes were beautiful. Also I sent 2 pix of cake to your email. I was furious!! Who does that?!

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cakealicious7 Posted 21 May 2013 , 5:57pm
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A@ hannahscakes I would have blown a fuse!!!!! You spent all that time making the cake and she tilts it in the car?! I really don't know how some of you guys do it!!

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Annabakescakes Posted 21 May 2013 , 5:58pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hannahscakes 

Okay so this happened to me two weeks ago.. My friend wanted me to make her college graduation cake. She wanted it to be 3 tiered chevron for $70. HA! No. So her mom came in and started talking me down on prices and changing the design and size 50 times no joke. I almost just didn't do the cake. In the end they wanted 3 tiers of ombré roses in red and yellow. But more of a crimson and gold BUT not too crimson and not too gold. WTF?! So I make a beautiful cake exactly how they want it.. Her mom sends her sister to come pick it up. He sister places it in the passenger side of the car tilted and no one to hold it. I freak out and say it won't travel like that and she says this, "well its my a$$ if it doesn't make it there so it will!" so I let her be on her way.. The day after the graduation I get this email from my friends mom: Hannah, lindsey's cake was delicious. Everyone had great things to say about it. However, the bottom 2rows of icing had fallen off by the time it got to my house from yours. I thought you would want to know this so you could prevent it from happening to someone else. Also, the cupcakes were beautiful. Also I sent 2 pix of cake to your email. I was furious!! Who does that?!

"Yeah, and I thought you should know that your stupid sister placed it in the car seat like a dumb B* after I told her not to. "

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Norasmom Posted 21 May 2013 , 7:21pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sherox 

 
icon_biggrin.gif

icon_biggrin.gificon_biggrin.gif

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carmijok Posted 21 May 2013 , 8:02pm
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A

Original message sent by Hannahscakes

Okay so this happened to me two weeks ago.. My friend wanted me to make her college graduation cake. She wanted it to be 3 tiered chevron for $70. HA! No. So her mom came in and started talking me down on prices and changing the design and size 50 times no joke. I almost just didn't do the cake. In the end they wanted 3 tiers of ombré roses in red and yellow. But more of a crimson and gold BUT not too crimson and not too gold. WTF?! So I make a beautiful cake exactly how they want it.. Her mom sends her sister to come pick it up. He sister places it in the passenger side of the car tilted and no one to hold it. I freak out and say it won't travel like that and she says this, "well its my a$$ if it doesn't make it there so it will!" so I let her be on her way.. The day after the graduation I get this email from my friends mom: Hannah, lindsey's cake was delicious. Everyone had great things to say about it. However, the bottom 2rows of icing had fallen off by the time it got to my house from yours. I thought you would want to know this so you could prevent it from happening to someone else. Also, the cupcakes were beautiful. Also I sent 2 pix of cake to your email. I was furious!! Who does that?!

You really need to reply to this. I would say something like, "I appreciate your nice comments...I am sorry the cake was not perfect. I was afraid that would happen when your sister placed the cake in the passenger seat and it was tilted and not flat. I warned her that it would not travel like that but she assured me she would take responsibility should something happen to it. Apparently she didn't. Please be aware that whenever a cake is picked up for delivery, it MUST be placed on a flat surface...not the front seat of the car where it can fall prey to tilting and sliding. I can't guarantee how it will arrive when my instructions are ignored. I'm glad you enjoyed it but sorry the delivery did not go well."

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shanter Posted 21 May 2013 , 8:08pm
post #1186 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by sherox 

icon_biggrin.gif

 

 

I don't understand the spoiler thing--I don't see anything.

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j92383 Posted 21 May 2013 , 8:17pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by carmijok 


You really need to reply to this. I would say something like, "I appreciate your nice comments...I am sorry the cake was not perfect. I was afraid that would happen when your sister placed the cake in the passenger seat and it was tilted and not flat. I warned her that it would not travel like that but she assured me she would take responsibility should something happen to it. Apparently she didn't. Please be aware that whenever a cake is picked up for delivery, it MUST be placed on a flat surface...not the front seat of the car where it can fall prey to tilting and sliding. I can't guarantee how it will arrive when my instructions are ignored. I'm glad you enjoyed it but sorry the delivery did not go well."

Great response. Very professional and shifts the blame to the right person without sounding immature or like you're making excuses for your mistakes.

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8CuteCookies Posted 21 May 2013 , 8:30pm
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Can you make the icing, not so sweet?

 

Yep, got this question this morning for a wedding cake in 12 days.  I said, "I'm sorry that's my recipe and we had a tasting for this reason, I'd be willing to give you your money back and you can go somewhere else."  She stopped right there! 

 

Reading this has helped me deal with not being offended, Thanks

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Hannahscakes Posted 21 May 2013 , 8:53pm
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ACarmijok that is a brilliant response!! Too bad I already responded a couple weeks ago.. Basically just told her that I could offer her a 25% discount but that when cakes are picked up they need to be eithe held by someone or laying flat and supervised otherwise they won't make it there. She then said " I don't want you to do anything to "fix" the cake. Just wanted you to know for future customers.". Which made me even more livid because she still completely ignored that it wasn't my fault and all hers!

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sherox Posted 22 May 2013 , 4:57pm
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A

Original message sent by Hannahscakes

Carmijok that is a brilliant response!! Too bad I already responded a couple weeks ago.. Basically just told her that I could offer her a 25% discount but that when cakes are picked up they need to be eithe held by someone or laying flat and supervised otherwise they won't make it there. She then said " I don't want you to do anything to "fix" the cake. Just wanted you to know for future customers.". Which made me even more livid because she still completely ignored that it wasn't my fault and all hers!

Just reading it makes me so angry! I think the hardest part of caking is dealing with difficult customers. I had customer in January wanting a baby bag( diaper bag) cake. After so so many mails back and forth I designed and did her cake. Her husband and sister came to pick the cake and looked at it with a microscope and was immediately calling her back home to say I have not put her ( rather long) message on the handle as she wanted but on the board and after explaining to them how it was difficult since its not a large cake and that to include the message in the handle I would have to make a extra long hanle which would look disproportionate to the bag they ,again made more calls to her to get the approval and finally the cake was on the way. And after a while I get an angry call from her telling the handle has broken off! I told her calmly as the party was in the evening she can bring it back and that I would fix it for her although it was perfect when it left....but she decided she'll rather be angry and hostile and said she can't bother and that I should know better and use 'stronger icing' on my cakes!! I guess concrete should do! I would have put it down to the fact she was pregnant but I have done a CNnon DSLR camera for her before ( which came out pretty good and got me so many compliments) and she flipped out when she realized the tiny numbers on the zoom Lens was wrong!!:-(

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sherox Posted 22 May 2013 , 4:57pm
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A

Original message sent by Hannahscakes

Carmijok that is a brilliant response!! Too bad I already responded a couple weeks ago.. Basically just told her that I could offer her a 25% discount but that when cakes are picked up they need to be eithe held by someone or laying flat and supervised otherwise they won't make it there. She then said " I don't want you to do anything to "fix" the cake. Just wanted you to know for future customers.". Which made me even more livid because she still completely ignored that it wasn't my fault and all hers!

Just reading it makes me so angry! I think the hardest part of caking is dealing with difficult customers. I had customer in January wanting a baby bag( diaper bag) cake. After so so many mails back and forth I designed and did her cake. Her husband and sister came to pick the cake and looked at it with a microscope and was immediately calling her back home to say I have not put her ( rather long) message on the handle as she wanted but on the board and after explaining to them how it was difficult since its not a large cake and that to include the message in the handle I would have to make a extra long hanle which would look disproportionate to the bag they ,again made more calls to her to get the approval and finally the cake was on the way. And after a while I get an angry call from her telling the handle has broken off! I told her calmly as the party was in the evening she can bring it back and that I would fix it for her although it was perfect when it left....but she decided she'll rather be angry and hostile and said she can't bother and that I should know better and use 'stronger icing' on my cakes!! I guess concrete should do! I would have put it down to the fact she was pregnant but I have done a CNnon DSLR camera for her before ( which came out pretty good and got me so many compliments) and she flipped out when she realized the tiny numbers on the zoom Lens was wrong!!:-(

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jgifford Posted 22 May 2013 , 5:19pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sherox 


Just reading it makes me so angry! I think the hardest part of caking is dealing with difficult customers. I had customer in January wanting a baby bag( diaper bag) cake. After so so many mails back and forth I designed and did her cake. Her husband and sister came to pick the cake and looked at it with a microscope and was immediately calling her back home to say I have not put her ( rather long) message on the handle as she wanted but on the board and after explaining to them how it was difficult since its not a large cake and that to include the message in the handle I would have to make a extra long hanle which would look disproportionate to the bag they ,again made more calls to her to get the approval and finally the cake was on the way. And after a while I get an angry call from her telling the handle has broken off! I told her calmly as the party was in the evening she can bring it back and that I would fix it for her although it was perfect when it left....but she decided she'll rather be angry and hostile and said she can't bother and that I should know better and use 'stronger icing' on my cakes!! I guess concrete should do! I would have put it down to the fact she was pregnant but I have done a CNnon DSLR camera for her before ( which came out pretty good and got me so many compliments) and she flipped out when she realized the tiny numbers on the zoom Lens was wrong!!icon_sad.gif

 

 

And you made another cake for her why?

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ellavanilla Posted 22 May 2013 , 7:11pm
post #1193 of 3221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hannahscakes 

Carmijok that is a brilliant response!! Too bad I already responded a couple weeks ago.. Basically just told her that I could offer her a 25% discount but that when cakes are picked up they need to be eithe held by someone or laying flat and supervised otherwise they won't make it there. She then said " I don't want you to do anything to "fix" the cake. Just wanted you to know for future customers.". Which made me even more livid because she still completely ignored that it wasn't my fault and all hers!

 

Why would you offer a discount for something that wasn't your responsibility? Now you just feel more ticked off. The only thing I would have offered was that next time she pay for professional delivery. 

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Hannahscakes Posted 22 May 2013 , 7:39pm
post #1194 of 3221

AThat's a good question. I don't know why I offered one. Just felt like I should one minute and then felt like I shouldn't right after that when I realized none of it was my fault! Grr. Lesson learned.

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Hannahscakes Posted 22 May 2013 , 7:41pm
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ASherox..seems like my situation where the cake looks great when it leaves my house and then they screw it up during transportation and blame it on us!!!

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PTDixieGal Posted 23 May 2013 , 1:28am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ellavanilla 

 

Why would you offer a discount for something that wasn't your responsibility? Now you just feel more ticked off. The only thing I would have offered was that next time she pay for professional delivery. 

People don't want to accept responsibility for what they do-they want someone else to blame. During the day I run a cash register at Walmart; at night I am learning to decorate cakes...they do this to cashiers too..."THAT CASHIER WAS RUDE TO ME-SHE WOULDN'T GIVE ME THIS FOR $1.00!" (even though the sign said $10.00)

 

Me personally-they need to learn to READ and THINK FOR THEMSELVES.

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MissMona Posted 23 May 2013 , 2:44am
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Okay, I've got a good one for y'all, I had forgotten about this!!!  A couple of years ago I was having lunch with a very good friend, a wedding planner.  Just after we placed our order my phone rings and an unfamiliar number pops up.  I excuse myself and take the call, thinking it's a potential client.  

It's a man asking if I can do a cake for his parents 50th anniversary.  He gives me the date and such and we start to discuss his ideas.  He's telling me they are kinda "old Hippies" and he would love to do something along those lines.  He begins to explain that they smoke medicinal marijuana....and what could we do with that????  icon_surprised.gif

Then he just has the most brillant idea!!!!  He could bring me some and I could bake it into the cake for them!!!!!  icon_eek.gif  He's talking about how he works in the same town I'm in and could easily drop it off to me.....I WAS FREAKING OUT!!!!!!   Then he asks me something about my lunch companion....I was reeling.....and I was like, "What?"....I look up and she's DYING LAUGHING!!!! icon_confused.gif

 

 OMG!  Thank God for pranks!!!!  I just KNEW the DEA was hovering nearby to get me or something!!!! LOL!!!! 

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Carrie789 Posted 23 May 2013 , 3:04am
post #1198 of 3221

CakeWrecks used to be my daily smile. Now, reading this thread is right up there on the entertainment scale.

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kazita Posted 23 May 2013 , 3:25am
post #1199 of 3221

A

Original message sent by MissMona

Okay, I've got a good one for y'all, I had forgotten about this!!!  A couple of years ago I was having lunch with a very good friend, a wedding planner.  Just after we placed our order my phone rings and an unfamiliar number pops up.  I excuse myself and take the call, thinking it's a potential client.   It's a man asking if I can do a cake for his parents 50th anniversary.  He gives me the date and such and we start to discuss his ideas.  He's telling me they are kinda "old Hippies" and he would love to do something along those lines.  He begins to explain that they smoke medicinal marijuana....and what could we do with that????  :o Then he just has the most brillant idea!!!!  He could bring me some and I could bake it into the cake for them!!!!!  8O   He's talking about how he works in the same town I'm in and could easily drop it off to me.....I WAS FREAKING OUT!!!!!!   Then he asks me something about my lunch companion....I was reeling.....and I was like, "What?"....I look up and she's DYING LAUGHING!!!! :?

 OMG!  Thank God for pranks!!!!  I just KNEW the DEA was hovering nearby to get me or something!!!! LOL!!!! 

OMG!!! TO FUNNY. I would of just died.

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cazza1 Posted 23 May 2013 , 5:40am
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I was being sarcastic guys but I would take the half iced cake for my hubby cos he doesn't much like the icing and scrapes half of it off.. Actually once I made a birthday cake for a lady in my parchment group and I was playing with sugarveil for only the second time and managed to wreck half of it.  I didn't have enough to cover the whole cake so it was only on the front.  She didn't care, said she was only looking at the font anyway and loved the roses and lace.

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