Wanna hear something funny? I just glanced down at the check and the numbers say $283.75 but she wrote it out longhand as "three hundred eighty three and 75/100"....so I doubt I can cash this anyway.
Actually, I work at a bank and here they will cash the check for the longhand amount, not the numerical.
Wanna hear something funny? I just glanced down at the check and the numbers say $283.75 but she wrote it out longhand as "three hundred eighty three and 75/100"....so I doubt I can cash this anyway.
Actually, I work at a bank and here they will cash the check for the longhand amount, not the numerical.
I work for the Finance Dept. for the City of Tucson, and this is also what we go by, but I agree that she was hoping for a stall, to have more time to get the money together.
Good luck with this bride... she sounds like a handful!! 
Best of luck with this one!!! hope that it all works out and she doesn't turn into more of a PITA than she already has!!! Let us know how it ends up. 
I am glad you got your money. This chick is definitely a handful.
This is what my contract says about payment:
Final payment is due on the date agreed upon in the above contract unless alternate arrangements are made in advance with CSS approval. Payment after contractual date must be in cashiers check or cash only and will have a late fee penalty of $25 per day. If CSS have not been contacted by bride/representative and payment has not been received, CSS will consider the contract null and void 7 days prior to wedding. Any and all prior payments will forfeited.
I actually had a situation like yours once. Never met the bride. It was all on emails/phone calls. She missed 2 appointments with me. She lived 90 miles away and was student teaching. Her fiance was from New York. Her grandma died....she had to go to NY to see fiance's family...yada yada yada. Never got the deposit. It was for Labor Day Weekend. I spoke to her 2 weeks prior to the wedding and she was sending the $ with her friend that lived her. I realized on the Monday before the wedding friend had never brought the $. I called her Monday night JUST in case she gave money to friend and friend didn't bring it/forgot/lost/stole it. Got her voice mail. So I very politely stated that her friend never brought the money so I was assuming the wedding was canceled or that she had gotten another decorator and that I was just letting her know that she would not have 2 cakes there as I would not be doing a cake for her wedding and hoped everything went wonderfully.
I got a stressed phone call the next morning from her fiance saying yes they wanted the cake. I told young man as nicely as possible that I had made plans to go out of town as it was Labor Day. I really did too! I said I would have to call my husband to see if plans could be changed. Actually I called my friend to see if she would deliver the cake for me. My husband said we would just stay in town. I let fiance boy stew for 2 hours. Called him back. I told him yes I would cancel my plans but as per my contract there was a late fee because I now needed to jump through hoops to get supplies in Houston that were needed. (I had actually already bought what I needed in Houston. It was a special tool to put straight lines on a cake to put the little thin ribbons in several places on the cake) I told him I need a cashiers check FedXed to me plus an extra $200 for the late fees. All he could say is yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. It will be there tomorrow at 10:30.
Later I did the maid of honors wedding who owned a florist. She said there was PANIC in the ranks but she totally understood. She doesn't order orchids for people who haven't paid for their wedding flowers - they are perishable like cake is!
This is the one and only time I have enforced this and I have had people not pay one the date but it is close. But she never paid a deposit either and kept missing appointments.
Remember, like they said in the Godfather...it's not personal...it is business.
I also like to make light of it when I go over this part of my contract with my brides. I had cake at my wedding because my mom paid for my cake. You will have cake at your wedding if they are paid for...otherwise you will not.
We all laught and make like of it but I am serious. I would NEVER make a cake that is not paid for in full.
sorry for the long post!
I think that is some of the best advice I have heard, Denise.
I think the key here is to stay calm, polite, but all business. It is what it is...if you pay, you will have a cake. If not you won't.
Again, you are not running a cake charity, but a cake business.
Can't wait to hear how it goes. If I lived close I would deliver a Margarita for you to have when you return from delivering the cake!
wow! what a saga; i'm just now reading this whole thing. i would have probably done the same thing as you; waffled about what to do, agonized over it and although i would have wanted to cancel, wouldn't have.
post a pic when it's all said and done!
ashley
And now I'm behind a whole hour. What a doofus. Deep sigh....it will be fine. Be sure to post a pic when you are done with the cake. Can't wait to see it.
Peggy
I'm not going to know how she likes it. I'm going to stab myself with an icing spatula.
My top tier crumbled as I was trying to crumb coat it. I had made my icing dam, filled it and was crumb coating it when the bottom layer just crumbled into a heap. I had to use the extra one I had made just because I had extra batter left (I made batter for a 6 in tier and I only needed a 4 in).
I think the gods of cake decorating hate me. 
I can't imagine what's going to happen when I try to transport and stack this stupid thing!
This might be late but one thing I do is when I have a tasting, I require a $50 deposit up front.....if they don't want to pay me deposit money, then they pay me a $25 tasting fee. That way anytime I do a tasting, I have money in my hand when they walk out the door (they know this before arriving). I don't want to risk spending time getting their tasting ready and spending an hour talking with them (and my husband spending an hour babysitting the kids at the park or whatever) only to have them breeze out the door and find someone else...or put me off until the last minute.
Maybe in the future you could do something like that to avoid a similar issue? I hate that you are having so many problems...Sorry about that.
Yes, I have it in my contract that regardless of reason, a returned check incurs a $35 fee. Bank opens at noon....
Just go to her bank and cash it...then only she pays fees, not you...and you get your money.
unless the check is made out to a business name (i.e. Cater It Simple instead of to Debi Brim). Banks (usually) won't cash a business check.
That's a good idea, Kitagrl. I was collecting a $20 deposit and refunding it if they showed up, or applying it to their order. But I like your idea better. Maybe I can start that this weekend. I'll spend some time Memorial Day re-wording my website.
I also have my clients make out the checks to me personally. My bank wanted a tax id number or some such thing and I just opened a personal account instead. So next time I will go to her bank. As it happens, it appears to have cleared!
If and when I ever get done with this cake from hell, I'll post pictures. It's not going well, though, so it's liable to look like moose spit.
I swear after I deliver this cake I'm gonna put a bendy straw in my bottle of Crown Royal and hit the couch in my jammies......
Right (re. the business name) but then my own bank won't cash it either because I don't have a business account (I mainly use Paypal, and then bookkeeping to keep track of non-Paypal transactions) so either way I just tell my customers to please make checks out to my name.
Well, it's done! The bride came in as I was cleaning up and raved. THen she asked me to consider pricing for one of my cakes for her daughter's 5th birthday! So I guess she's pleased. At least until she eats it! (Kidding...I'm pretty sure that part will go well.)
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1224707&done=1
Thanks to all of you for your support! (Looking for my bendy straw and Crown Royal)
It looks great. Congrats and I hope you found that straw and bottle!
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