Disaster Transporting Cake...what Is The Protocol???!!!
Decorating By KimmysKakes Updated 2 Jul 2007 , 2:45am by Kitagrl
Hi CC'ers! Well, I had my first cake disaster yesterday and just wanted to know what I should have done. I made a 3-d mickey mouse cake that is in the Wilton 2006 yearbook. It came out adorable except I used rice krispies for the head so it wouldn't be so heavy. It was fine when I left the house but when I got to the party, his head had EXPLODED from the ride! I didn't know what to do. The father of the customer said it looked fine, that we could just "push" his head back together. lol Needless to say the customer WAS NOT HAPPY! It took me hours to decorate it. She said "Can I get a discount?" so I said I would take $20 off and free delivery next time. She still wasn't happy. I really couldn't blame her, it was for her son's 1st b-day party. I felt so badly I was shaking but remained calm. The father walked me outside and offered to give me a reduced price and that since I was "young" (which made me feel good cause I'm almost 40! lololol) I will learn that's just the right thing to do. Whatever! Anyway, should I have given her the cake for free or only charged her 1/2 of the price? What do you do when something like that happens? Thanks for your input! 
Sorry that happened to you! If it looked absolutely horrible, I probably would have just said-free cake. But I know that's really hard to do when you put so much time into it.
If the look of the cake wasn't ruined, I'd just discount. Since you want this person's business (and the moms at the party's business) again in the future, I think its okay to lose a little money now if it means getting repeat business later.
I had a cake once with a 3d elmo on top. I had never done anything like that before and wasn't quite sure how to. I ended up making him out of all fondant and then very stupidly did not put supports under him where he was sitting on the cake. By the time I got to the party Elmo fell forward and the top tier was squashed. I couldn't freak out b/c how would tha tlook to the customer? I calmly told her that it would be fixed and her child would have a cake. I left Elmo there to the side so I could fix him when I got back. Luckily the party was very close to my kitchen, I went home and used the cakes for the next days order iced and decorated them, stopped by the store and bought an Elmo candle and wrapped a piece of styrofoam to make a bench for the other Elmo. Grabbed my bag of red and off I went. Got there and the place was crawling with guests OI set up the new cake, went to the kitchen and fixed Elmo and sat him on the bench next to the cake. I know that I could have fixed the other cake if I wouldn't of had the extra at home, but that worked out nice. By the end of it the mother had the cake for her child, but I only charged $40 (1/2 price). She was very happy with it and asked us to stay for food!
You just have to do what it takes to make the customer happy (to an extent) sometimes people will find anything to make themselves unhappy. But definitely a discount on the cake (or a partial refund if prepaid) if it is salvable.
sorry this happen to you also, but I would have only given her a discount too since the father was smoothing everything over in the beginning and the end, and I would have offered her a credit for her next order. This way hopefully she will order from you again.
NO CHARGE!!
I had one cake disaster two years ago. Nightmare. Painful to talk about still to this day. I CAN NOT STRESS HOW MANY TIMES I REPLAY THAT MOMENT OVER AND OVER IN MY HEAD. It was a 4 yo. boy's bday. I wish so badly that I had walked away and not accepted a dime. It haunts me. I accepted her check, which she had given to me in advance. Wish I had returned the full money with a bonus cake. At the moment, I was bummed about the cost of ingredients and my time (up until wee hours) and felt as if I was still owed "something".
I believe it adds insult to injury when someone has to pay for something that they were very unhappy with. I hope I am not hurting your feelings, but just trying to prevent anyone from carrying the same grief I have. Wish I could roll back the clock. Good luck with everything.
If it was basically ruined when you got there I would have given a full refund, because the cake didn't even make it to the party in one piece...if the repaired Mickey looked okay I would have given the discount and judged it by how upset the customer was.
I always refrigerate my cakes before transport, that firms everything up real well (esp rice krispy treats, they get nice and hard) so that they don't wiggle and weaken during transport.
NO CHARGE!!
I had one cake disaster two years ago. Nightmare. Painful to talk about still to this day. I CAN NOT STRESS HOW MANY TIMES I REPLAY THAT MOMENT OVER AND OVER IN MY HEAD. It was a 4 yo. boy's bday. I wish so badly that I had walked away and not accepted a dime. It haunts me. I accepted her check, which she had given to me in advance. Wish I had returned the full money with a bonus cake. At the moment, I was bummed about the cost of ingredients and my time (up until wee hours) and felt as if I was still owed "something".
I believe it adds insult to injury when someone has to pay for something that they were very unhappy with. I hope I am not hurting your feelings, but just trying to prevent anyone from carrying the same grief I have. Wish I could roll back the clock. Good luck with everything.
Awww.... 
I had to give a refund last year, a lady wanted a certain cake and I was tired and up late and I made the cake wrong. I made it the wrong dimensions and didn't match the photo she wanted. She still ate the cake but I knew I did not do exactly as she ordered and she was highly displeased...I gave her back everything except some money for a mini cake she also ordered but had been fine with.
She still wasn't happy but....at least as you say, I had it off my conscience although I'm still sad that I let down a customer like that.
Since it is up to you to deliver the cake and the customer ordered and paid for a cake that is nice looking I would have given her 100% of the money back.
Yes things happen and it can end up costing us in the long run but how would you feel if you ordered a cake and it came to in broken and in bits? I wouldn't even accept it!
Giving the refund would have been the right thing to do. That way you show that you stand by your work.
I would never order from someone who delivered a cake to me that was broken and wouldn't give me my money back. Even giving 1/2 back wouldn't make me happy. So I wouldn't expect my customer to be happy with anything less then I would.
People order cakes for special reasons and getting a broken cake puts a big damper on the day. You should not charge them on top of it.
I think when a customer is being overly finicky ("Oh, the shade of blue is a bit greener than I expected..."), MAYBE a discount on a future cake is a good business practice (if YOU want to have them as a repeat customer). 
If there is a fixable problem (and you fix it) like a broken flower, a slipped border, a smooshed corner, then again, a future or immediate discount is a good idea as a goodwill gesture. 
If there's a major problem--wrong cake, broken cake, etc.--, I think it's almost like no cake because the customer really didn't get anything close to what they ordered. 
The odds are very small that they'll order again given those circumstances, so a future discount is probably worthless. I think the only way to make it right is to give the cake for free--that may save you really bad press and they may give you another chance in the future, too.
Just my .02
Rae
Sorry to agree with everyone, but I would give a full refund too. I don't think that you can just give money off. As someone with two babies, first birthdays aren't a wedding, but they are very special, and that moment was tanished. The customer is always right, even when they aren't!
Sorry to agree with everyone, but I would give a full refund too. I don't think that you can just give money off. As someone with two babies, first birthdays aren't a wedding, but they are very special, and that moment was tanished. The customer is always right, even when they aren't!
I agree, and while I haven't had to order any cakes for my kids (for obvious reasons haha), I know that so many moms I've worked with, it was like the cake would make or break the occasion. I guess that's why caking is sometimes so stressful because so much of the occasion depends on our work!
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