I recently had a "rush" wedding cake order (with only 2 days notice). I have emails back and forth with the customer. She was a wedding planner desperately looking to find someone to make the cake. She came to me. I was able to make the cake, and we emailed back and forth during the first and second day. She called me the day she requested the order, and she then paid via paypal. I had sent her an invoice thru paypal, where she typed a personal thank you note to me. Once she came to pick up the cake, I had her sign MY final invoice, since she was leaving with the cake, I didnt want to be responsible for any damages she may make.

I received an email from paypal, that she now has claimed "unauthorized payment" thru her credit card company! So MY paypal balance is now negative. I sent paypal a scanned SIGNED copy of my final invoice she signed, and wasnt sure how else to "upload" the emails, so I just took a screen shot of them and sent those too to paypal. I also told them that I have pictures OF the cake if need be, and gave them HER phone number she called me from that day.

This is OBVIOUSLY a fraudulent claim! Has anybody else have this happen to them? I am in shock!

I really feel bad for you. The wedding planner should be ashamed of herself. You were really doing her a great favor to take a wedding cake on such short notice. You saved her reputation while she stabbed you in the financial back.

I hope that Paypal does the right thing by resolving this quickly in your favor.

Have you worked with this planner before? Is she someone local that you could walk into her office for a business "chat", or at least call to find out why she did this?

I honestly think I would have a talk with the wedding planner. The problem is because of her, so I would apply appropriate pressure to her for payment, while I would continue to stay in touch with Paypal.


-Debbie B.

Can you reverse look-up the phone number and get her address?
I believe that I would be paying "Miss Planner" a visit. If you are a legal business--take the police with you as that is theft.

I had a wedding planner call me for a wedding cake. Made the wedding and groom's cake as planner ordered, used my SFS system and 2 silver cake plateaus. Gave planner pic of SFS and stands when I set up cakes. Told planner I needed them back no later than the following Tuesday.

I had call the planner several times after Tuesday to get my stuff. Planner brings the SFS in a ziploc bag still covered in cake and started to get back in her car. I asked her where are my cake plateaus. Planner acted as if she had never seen them. Showed her the copy of pics and her signature that all would be returned on Tuesday. She had to go find them. Planner quit taking my calls. I had to go find them myself--still covered in strawberry juice--the finish was ruined.

Found out that "wedding planner" was just a friend of the family. I will now only work with certified wedding planners. If they aren't certified, then I will work with bride and family ONLY. Sorry, my policy now--been burned once and I am not stupid enough to put my hand back in the flame.

Gah, I hope she isn't going to try to claim she has no idea who you are, but that the person you communicated with and supplied the cake to had illegally hacked her PayPal account and used it to place and pay for a cake order.

Double Gah, I hope that is not what really happened! (I.e. I hope you and a third person were not BOTH defrauded by this cake thief). Best of luck to you in the resolution. This sounds like something to be leery of - customer pickups paid using PayPal, how can you prove that the person who orders the cake and shows up to pick it up, is actually the rightful owner of the PayPal account used to pay for the order...?? Well I guess unless you insist they provide an ID which matches their "verified shipping address" on PayPal?

The worst is you will just need to hang tight till PayPal decides it. It seems unlikely someone would pull this kind of scam (meaning using someone else's account fraudulently) for a cake order??!! When your PayPal account is used for a purchase, you get an immediate email notification, that would be pretty risky to do with something you were going to go pick up in person two days later. Weird.

If PayPal decides there is a third party whose account was used, you will have to go after the lady who heisted the cake, at least you have the phone # and emails, hopefully those can be traced. I'm so sorry this has happened to you!

Just a question... is your paypal account set up to show that is your bakery name?? Not to totally back her-- but if it came across as a name she was unfamiliar with, maybe that's why she filed a chargeback?? Just a thought and a hope that it was an honest mistake and not a horrible person

what she did constitutes fraud And theft.. fraud of the paypal and theft of the cake and services. i hope paypal doesn't let her get away with this. i 've used PP for Years and have always loved its security. i hate the thought of having doubts about it now *sigh*

hope things work out for you M5K!

She had sent me emails from her seperate PERSONAL email account, with her name on it. She said she was a wedding planner desperate to find a cake, the wedding was far away, I told her she would have to come pick it up. She agreed. When time came to pay for the cake (immediately, since it was only 2 days notice) she let me know that she would be paying with her "wedding planner" email, which also showed up with her name. She called me to give me details of the cake, flavors, design, and even told me that the wedding was very small, in the backyard of family member, and their total budget was $2K, etc. She asked me if she would send payment to my website email, I said yes.

I then sent her a paypal invoice, and she paid thru her wedding planner email, (which she sent me a personal thank you note). After that she wrote me back from her normal email letting me know she had paid already. She came to pick up the cake as scheduled, and had a lady with her, holding flowers (which they were going to use as the topper, they requested the cake be plain on top). I asked if that was the bride, she said no, it was her "assistant". I had her sign my detailed invoice, then she had her "assistant" carry the cake into their car. My thought on this was that she was just a friend of the family helping her out.

I never had a CLUE that it would be possibly be someone else, since she wrote me from her personal email AND her wedding planner email (invoice)...plus I talked to her on the phone. I am going to try that reverse phone number lookup possibly. I did this woman a HUGE favor, she said their original baker backed out on them last minute, and they couldnt find nobody else. If she wasnt happy with the cake design for some reason (I did just as she asked, all white with some hot pink scrolls on the bottom tier) maybe only 2 days notice for a WEDDING design wasnt possible...but she should have came to ME to ask for a partial refund or something, not file a claim that she didnt order a cake. Why someone would order a cake "fraudulently" is beyond me if this is the case.

I had emailed her a few days after the wedding, asking if I could get any feedback from the client, and if it is possible to get "finished" pictures of the cake, since they asked it to be so plain (they were adding ribbon and a flower topper on site). No response. No WONDER why.

Unless I missed something here, isn't it strange that she had a wedding planner and only had a $2000 budget? Obviousley, this was just a friend that she didn't pay. Otherwise, how would she of payed the wedding planner? Right?

The nerve of people! I am so sorry that this happened to you!

My answer to these situations is save everything and call Judge Judy!!!

I just figure wedding planner or not, she could have been just that...a friend helping out in planning their wedding. Either way, she cant prove really that she wasnt the one who ordered and picked up the cake. Her claim is that she didnt authorize payment to the cake...so she could get a refund thru her credit card company. Yes she did!

So beware you gals...some people are just out there to take advantage of you!! I thought paypal was safe...apparently it isnt that safe. Now if they withdraw the money FROM my linked bank account until it is resolved, then I am going to be more upset.

This is why I don't like to use paypal and credit cards.. with checks and cash you get paid and there is no worry for a chargeback. PayPal is known to side with the payer before the payee so be prepared to fight with them. Honestly.. if you saved everything and have a good paper trail take her to court. It doesn't cost much to file a claim in small claims court. She is trying to steal from you.. horrible. Sometimes the threat of court is enough to knock some sense into people.

This is terrible. First your website, now this.

How much was the cake?

Hence the reason why if I were selling cakes, I would never, ever accept an order via the Internet. You are the second person who posted to a forum, in two weeks, who had this happen to them.

Teach me something - How do you know that the wedding planner is certified? Even if they have a trade membership card, it could be an expired membership. I would suggest that if you find yourself hesitant about dealing with a wedding planner, ask to see their business license.

Theresa

Don't expect to much out of pay pal my son built a computer for someone and got pay pal's approval that the payment was good and to go ahead and send the computer. The customer's payment was not good and pay pal would not help get the money back at all. My son was out $1500.00 He really tried to get that money back even got a lawyer but he gave up because pay pal was so unreasonable. My son had all the correspondence and everything. He even has a recorded phone call with pay pal admitting their mistake.

I truly thought that paypal was going to be the best way to get a payment. I am hesitant on accepting checks, as they could bounce. Unless I have some kind of payment policy on checks, that they would have to clear X amount of days before the cake order is due.

What do you all suggest on check policies?

For cakes done so close to the delivery time, I would want the customer to take the time to drop off cash to pay for the cake in full before the work was started on the cake.

-Debbie B.

So do you all mostly suggest cash only? I do NOT want to deal with this paypal issue in the future, I might remove that as one of my pament options. With checks, I know there are NSF checks out there, and you will probably get stuck with those fees if it turns out to be a NSF check, right?

Thankfully, I received an email explaining the situation from the wedding planner...

The bride wasn't aware of who I bought the cake from and that it was through paypal so she called the bank to tell them it was an unauthorized charge. I called her though and let her know what was going on and she let the bank know, so there shouldn't be an issue going forward. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience!

I'm glad it all got worked out for you.

Phew.. hopefully PayPal will be quick getting your money un-tied up.. they can be slow on that.

For the one who asked about check policies.. my policy is this.. I will accept checks up to 4 weeks before the event date. After that it's cash only.

paypal is bad!

I've gotten stuck on the "charge back" for an item I sold on ebay. They do not return any calls, it is nearly impossible to get a human.

Small claims court would be the way to go.

If you search the net you will find TONS of people stuck with charge backs and accounts that paypal willl "freeze" locking up all your money. If I did paypal I'd make a totally seperate checkiing account so they can't get any of your money.

What a relief! I am so happy for you, and this restores my faith in humanity .

Going forward, I think if you want to continue to accept paypal you could just require photo ID upon pickup. I know that paypal has that "verified address" system, so when they pay you could ask them to fill out the form to include their "verified address" and then when they pick up the cake, they will need ID with that address to prove that they really are the owner of the paypal account. Kinda like at the library when I had to bring an ID or utility bill that proved I was a resident of the city.

Just a thought anyway, since you'd prefer to keep your paypal option available!

I'm glad that this has been straightened out! Hopefully PayPal won't take their time getting your $$ back to you!!

Do you guys ever take money orders or certified cheques??

No money orders, but I'll take a cashier's check and a money wire from Western Union if need be.