ok, so i did a dummy cake for an auction at my old high school. it was a 12 inch round ( 4 inches tall ). the certificate was for ONE special occasion cake that was a 50 dollar value. well a lady whos daughter is on the dance team won the bid. so she calls me and tells me she wants me to make the cake for her daughters graduation party. ok, no big deal, right?? WRONG!. by the end of the conversation, i was talked into making 2 two-tier cakes. one for each of her daughters. thats not even close to what the certificate said! she also talked me into making a dozen chocolate covered strawberries with little chocolate squares on top as graduation caps, along with icing tassels to match the two sets of school colors. ALSO, two fondant figures, one with a grad. cap, doctors coat and stethoscope, and one with a clipboard in her hand. i cannot even believe i agreed to do this. she took advantage of me completely. so i talk her down a little: one 8 inch square cake along with 2 dozen cupcakes to match. each dozen was a different flavor and so was the cake. the other cake was a 12 by 8 inch cake with a 6 by 4 inch round on top. both cakes had fruit fillings.

well the cake was due on sunday. i started on friday night, and worked on it saturday morning, went to work from 5 to 12, then came home and worked until 9:30 sunday morning, took a little nap until 11, then worked until 3:30. i was just about dead. not to mention the fact that my dog ate one of the fondant figures! so here i go walking out the door when it hits me that i didnt make the freakin strawberries! i tell my mom and she didnt even know i was asked to do them. she told me to forget about it! that she took advantage of me completely. well i get there, and we had agreed that she would give me 50 dollars for everything. well i am most certainly not out for anyones money, but that barely covered the ingredients, including the 50 dollar value! when i get there, she is of course pissed about the strawberries, but do i care?? nope! i will NEVER do a cake for this woman again! she is a friend of mines mother, but i cant believe she milked it that much!

btw---sorry this is so long! i had to get it out!!! thanks!

I have one almost that good for you. I had a member of the center where I volunteer call and ask me if I would do her wedding cake as a gift. I was so taken aback by her nerve that I found myself saying yes! Now she comes for a cake tasting and to choose a design, and I provided lunch as well. She was there for 2 hours, chose a design for 125 people. As she is leaving she says "Now you will send me a written contract, right?" I tell her I do contracts for cake orders, but this is a free gift cake, why would she want a written contract? She says "In case it isn't what I want I can't come back and complain to you" What? Then a few weeks later she calls and ups the amount of guests to 200 and asks if she can come for another consultation because she felt rushed at the first one. I told her no on the consult. and no to the extra guests unless she wants to pay $6.50 per serving for the added guests. She decides that 125 will be enough. Now is she going to have the extra 75 guests not receive a piece of cake?

End of the story, she has cancer and is quite ill, they have cancelled the wedding and I felt so sorry for her I made her the little 6" heart shaped cake in my photos. I am such a sucker.

the nerve some people have!

Crikey, this woman saw an opportunity and it appears she was going to milk it for all it was worth...

I'm just wondering why she thought she could have whatever she wanted and all for $50. How was the 12" dummy cake (4") high decorated - was it plain'ish or detailed pattern, fondant or BC?

Re quantities/servings/cost much would a cake that size serve/cost normally - would it be more than $50. Did the certificate stipulate details or indicate what the lucky winner would be able to have for that amount?

All you can do is learn from this lesson and I suppose think ahead next time. Mostly everyone learns the hard way that as suppliers they have to manage their customers' expectations from the start and to reign them in the moment they start losing sight of what they get for $50.

It's not wrong to want to accommodate their wishes as far as you can but the only person who can let someone talk you into doing something you don't want to do is you! It's just not always that easy to remember that when faced with a ' take-for-a-miler', is it?

Good Luck for the next time!!

ShirleyW - why does it make you a sucker -for feeling sorry for someone, especially someone going through a bad time,a nd for making them a gift? I can't see that it does.

Ladies,
in reality. Doing what the both of you did certainly does not make you a sucker nor anything of that nature !
You both share a passion of baking.
So naturally you'd like to share that love of baking hence the fact both of you either donated or volunteered to gift someone with that.

So the whole point before i get to ranting lol
is.. .
it was all in the name of a good cause but everyone always has another motive than you.
so get past those that take advantage cause they just envy the love of the talent you have.
if you see what i'm saying. :]

keep doing what you guys are doing !
its a great thing !

Don't let people take advantage of you!!! She definately was wrong in milking it, but, on the other hand, people can only do what you allow them to do. At least she offered to pay something extra, right? You should have told her that the certificate would cover one cake, as stated, and you will let her know what the cost of the "extras" would be. Then she would have decided whether or not she really needed those strawberries.

I hate to say it, but by not giving her everything she asked for can only hurt your reputation. I know why you did it, and I think most of us have been there....but it's easier than you think to say no. I'm sorry this happened to you...it's stuff like this that makes you resent something you really love to do!!!

sorry that happened to you....next time just put your foot down plain and simple.

I always say that "No" is such a lovely, but totally underused word in our vocabulary.

I must admit that with every message on CC, I learn a little more, and with that I become empowered. I also use my answering machine and my telephone ID to remain strong. When a call comes in that I don't recognize, I mentally prepare myself before I answer the phone. Most of my customers are great, but every once in a while I feel used. BTW, I used to use this technique with my ex-husband. Worked like a charm! LOL

well LaceyLou, and Shirley you both are good people .People who try to take advantage of you should be ashamed of them selfs .On the bright side my Dh does not think I can do this for money ,but I made him read this post that nice people can also do bussiness LOL

LaceyLou- I bet it will be that much easier to say "NO WAY" next time and not feel at all guilty .

Shirley - I can't even imagine the gall of a bride (even one I knew super well) of ASKING for a 600+$ gift!

Something similar happend for two years I auctioned off a cake for a charity auction. I said the cake value was $50, they bid $50 and no counterbids to "up" the price (we have a pretty small group, so this is typical).The $50 cake ended up being a double layer 12 inche square cake (I would normally charge WAY more than $50 for that).

The next year I did the space shuttle cake, but this time whoever did the stupid auction thought $50 was the "retail" price and decided to make the minimum bid $25, so the lady got my space shuttle cake for $25... I made the same cake a few months later for $50...

THIS year, I said what size cake went with that $50.... no more ENORMOUS or specialty cakes for cheap people!!!!

Melissa

I'm sorry you had to go through this i know how it fells,i use to be just like the both of you letting people sob story's get to me, or caving to thier demands because they made me fell like well i'm paying for it and like they were doing me the favor by coming to me and not the store but its because the stores put their foot down and i was basicly paying people to take my cakes when all was said and done but then one day after getting stiffed on a 90$ cake i had enough and i put my foot down and adjusted my prices and no loner let people get away with i'll pay you later (some of my family did that) and then not or taking forever to get the money. its alright to be nice but one thing is being nice and one thing is letting poeple take advantage, like my mom says if you can't afford to give a party then don't give a party.

In the "Lessons Learned" column, gift certificates might be written to indicate a specific dollar value "to apply to your order" rather than "a free cake". That way, when someone gives their laundry list of what they want, it can be totalled up and the gift certificate value deducted " ..... leaving a balance due of $xx.xx. Will that be check or charge?"

adven68 I totally agree with you. You can not let people push you around, and people ONLY do whats allowed. So you have to learn to say NO. i am still learning. It saves you soooooo much time and money.

well i have definitely learned a lot from this! my dad reminded me that i should not do cakes for family friends. it sounds kind of mean, but i have lost count of how many cakes i have done for free...but were not meant to be free! and i cant exactly get rude with them and demand my money! but regardless of that, i also have lost count of how many customers i have gotten through these family friends. word of mouth can be a really great thing!