Well I had a complaint and I lost it! A lady had sent me a picture of a plate she was using for her 2 year old daughter's b-day party, wanting to know if I could do a cake that would match it.
The party, being for 30 people I offered her a small 2 tier that would serve 44.
Her grandmother prepayed for the cake and I charged 95+ tax.
She picks up the cake and the words out of her mouth were" Oh Laura it is so adorable!"
Skip to Sunday morning when se calls and says, although I thought the cake was adorable my friends and grandmother thought the cake was to small and way over priced....and wanted part of her grandmothers money back.
Here is where I lost it....she wanted to know what I was going to do to make it right? Make it right.....it was adorable and very fairly priced. Then she preceded to tell me that she had gotten a much bigger cake at Food Pyramid for a cheaper price. I think my words were...then go back to Food Pryamid!
The little castle cake is in my photo's.....should I call her back and apoligize or should I let it go...she wanted at least a gift certificate off another cake...I am thinking a Food Pryamid gift certificate! I do have a short temper and after a long cake weekend, did not take her call very well.
Just a little feedback on what you all think I should do....

If you think the cake is worth $95 then stick to it and tell her to go to Walmart next time she wants a bigger cake.

Hmmmmm, if she knew ahead how big the cake would be.... like I would say, I'll make a 10" round..... she knew what she was getting. Your prices are your prices. I would not give her any money back. They also were happy with the design.

You probably lost the customer either way.... it's a tough thing when someone isn't happy.

Best wishes to you -

Jennifer

I think that cake is adorable! Based on your other work, 95.00 was perfect! You do some amazing cakes, and to me it'd be worth every penny!

The cake is adorable. I missed the part where you lost your temper, unless you yelled at them to go to Food Pyramid.

Did they not decide to purchase that design and that size cake?

"Uh, Mr. Realtor, the house I just bought from you? The one with 2,000 square feet? It's a little small for the price. What can you do to make it right?"

Seriously. If you had an agreement to create a certain style and certain size cake, you did exactly what you were contracted to do. Now, if you never told them what size it would be, maybe just maybe they have something to talk to you about.

And, if grandma paid, you can't talk to them about this. No one can get money back for someone else. You can only deal with the party who contracted the work.

I like your cake, and I would pay $95.00+ for it.
I think there are way too many people who want pretty cakes and don't want to pay for them.( As you can tell on how many threads there are about customers complaining and brides on the rampage.)
I wouldn't give her a dime.

Heck NO! If you told her it would serve 44 then maybe they did not cut it right and had less servings. Which is why they may think you need to give them something back. People are just stupid sometimes!!! They ate it right? Why would you give them anything. The cake is super cute! =)

That cakes looks worth more than $95! And it does not look small to me for 44 servings. do not give her back anything!

I would have answered the same way you did.
She obviously couldn't get that adorable cake at Food Pyramid thats why she didn't go there.

I looked at the pictures and $95 is more than fair.
If she knew how big the cake was and how much it was, then tough noogies for you.
Your not in the business of price matching.

I love the cake. I think it's so adorable! I wouldnt give them anything back or an offer for a discount. You gave them what they asked for. They probably cut the pieces to big.

The lady ordered the cake (albeit her gm paid for it)
The lady thought it adorable when she collected it.
THEN her friends think you overcharged

So in actual fact NOTHING was wrong with the cake - THEY just think it was overpriced.
Just goes to show that her FRIENDS have no clue about baking and decorating cakes.

No - no refund not even a voucher -
There was nothing wrong with it when she collected it - and i am guessing that it was eaten
Why should you loose out because of what her frineds think is a right price -
LOL -anybody would think they paid for it -

Bluehue
Just went and had a look.
You put alot of detail, time and effort into it - great job.
Still believe in NO refund OR VOUCHER.

I think the cake is adorable. I would stick to your prices. Maybe you could call her and tell her you are sorry you lost your temper (if you did), and tell her that you make fresh, custom cakes and you are not in competition with the Food Pyramid. If she wants a grocery store cake, she needs to order it from them next time.

Do not call and apologize your cake is awesome . She is just going by what others are telling her she liked it before she talked to them.

If she knew in advance what she was getting and the cost, I would leave it alone.

The cake is very adorable. They get what they pay for. If they wanted a $20.00 cake, I guess you could have threw a box mix together, bought some frosting, threw it on the cake and then top with some candles! People are sooooo rediculous!! You did a great job on the cake....nope, no refund, no voucher, no nothing!!!!

How uncouth can you get? Sheesh, she is probably one of those people that buys an expensive dress to wear to a one time event and then takes it back to the store the day after to get her money back.

The cake is adorable and Food Pyramid could only dream about making something so cute and custom!

No refund, no certificate! Sounds like someone at the party told her she was crazy to pay that much for a cake because they buy grocery store cake and are cluless as to how much real cakes cost.

I don't think you lost your temper, you were being honest.

I wonder if any of my customers sit around at parties talking about how much they paid for the cake, the decorations, the gifts, etc... I think it's ridiculous that the customer came back after LOVING the cake and not having a problem with the price the grandmother paid until she got an earful....

I think she got a bargain! I start at $3 per serving for BASIC buttercream, so would easily have charged her $140 for the same cake! Some people just don't get it and never will, I long ago stopped trying to educate them why my prices are what they are! They either pay or don't, no skin off my nose either way!

Oh give me a break....no refund, not for any reason whatsoever. Holy crap.

Oh you guys have made me feel so much better, thats why I love it here!
I think I will forward this link to her if she says anything else!!

I was not nice to her on the phone I mean not nice to the point she knew I was pissed....but I was mad because she could find no fault with it at all!
Not only that....she said I did think it would have more to it "like stars shooting out of it" I replied to that...."for 15$ extra it would have stars shooting out of it!"

It was a long weekend...glad it's over....she is now on the do not answer... part of my address book!
Thanks for all the sweet comments!
Laura

I don't think so... The cake is worth $95. Now if it were just a 2 tier buttercream and not custom detail, I would be saying that maybe it was a little high, but regardless she agreed on the cake, checked the cake out at pick up and took the cake and ate the cake.

My area is one that you can't get a lot so I do a 2 tier buttercream for $50, but I wouldn't do that cake for $50. I definitly would charge $95 or more even here.

Lady orders cake and grandma pre-pays for it. Grandma then sees the cake at the party and says "In MY day...!" and tells lady who ordered to get part of her money back because she won't pay that much for cake. That's my bet on what happened...

Don't budge...you did the right thing! In OUR day, that cake is worth $95.00+!!!

Your cake is adorable and more than fairly priced. The only thing that needs to be "made right" is her (and her friends) idea of what a home made, fresh-not frozen custom made-to-order cake is worth!!!!

I looked and your cake is very nice, worth $95. I would not offer a refund or gift card. However, if it was me, and I felt that I had lost my temper, I would call or write a little note to apologize. I would briefly state that this is a custom cake and the grocery store is not your competitor, but apologize for my tone or whatever. Then I would feel like I did nothing wrong - price was correct and I apologized for any innapropriate behavior on my part. That is just me.

I looked and your cake is very nice, worth $95. I would not offer a refund or gift card. However, if it was me, and I felt that I had lost my temper, I would call or write a little note to apologize. I would briefly state that this is a custom cake and the grocery store is not your competitor, but apologize for my tone or whatever. Then I would feel like I did nothing wrong - price was correct and I apologized for any innapropriate behavior on my part. That is just me.

Your cake is adorable and worth every penny. Cake muggles just don't get it!

I was sitting at the park today with some other moms and they were talking about one of the little girl's birthday cakes.....and one of the moms said she wouldn't pay $40 for a birthday cake, no matter what it looked like! Then she proceeds to go on and say that she ordered a princess cake last year and how ugly it was, but "I only paid $20 for it". Well you get what you pay for! Then another mom said "Oh, Stacy does cakes!" and this same mom asked me what I would charge to do a castle like the one in my photos. I told her it depended on how many she wanted to feed but it would probably run around $80-$90 with all of the work involved. They couldn't believe it! And that's CHEAP in my book, that would be very little detail!

I swear, people are just ignorant!

that cake is just beautiful!! love the little castle so much detail!! it's sad when people pick the cakes apart or compare them to grocery/chain stores-you cannot get a custom cake like that at walmart price. more servings yes, crappy dry cake and rot your teeth sweet icing yes-custom cake NO!!! sorry you had to lose it

I guess the bigger question is you 'only' charged 95.00!! love this cake.
Don't worry you were much cooler than I would have been.

I would suggest that she send that picture to 3 custom bakeries in your area and ask for a quote to replicate it exactly. It will be more than $95, guaranteed. I did that with a potential customer once, boy did she come crawling back to me.