Okay, so I had my first run in with a pain in the rear customer. I made a cake for this lady (who only gave me 3 days notice), delivered the cake to her and gave her a really good price. Three days later she emails me and says that she didn't like it. She wanted the colors brighter and buttercream instead of fondant, which is not what she said from the start. I told her I was sorry and even did a new sketch of the same cake she wants next month. I told her I am capable of doing what she wants but if she isn't happy with what I have to offer that I would gladly refund her money. That was Friday morning. I haven't heard back. Honestly, I don't want to do anymore cakes for her. I don't want to deal with her nonsense and I really don't want her bad mouthing my cakes to her fellow party goers. What should I do? Should I just call her and tell her sorry it's not working out and send her back her check? 
Thanks!
It's not an etiquette question on how to be "polite" ... it's a business question on dealing with a customer service issue.
Pull your notes and tell her, "I show that you ordered fondant so I cannot refund for the cake being fondant. "Brightness" of colors is subjective and measured by the eye of the beholder, so unless I have a color swatch to match the icing against, it's very difficult to describe "bright colors" over the phone or thru an email. For future cakes, I'm more than happy to try to match a color on the invitation, the plates or a fabric swatch if you can get it to me 1 week ahead of time". (which also removes the 3-day notice problem!)
I would go ahead and do the next cake. She may have just had a bad day and could turn out to be yoru best customer (we hear those stories a lot on here). If the next one turns out to be a momzilla deal, at that point, I'd kindly suggest that another decorator might be more able to create what she has in mind. (But don't sick her on a fellow CC"er!)
I agree with IndyDebi.
If your notes say that what you made is what she ordered then I would not refund her money. Sorry you didn't like it, I can offer you a discount on the next one (like 10% maybe).
But just keep your smiley face on and get through it and it'll work out.
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