I had an inquiry for a cake last week via email. Very vague. Gave me a date and wanted a quote. I sent my standard email, complete with every costs and detail outlined and all of the questions I need answered at the end of it.

She answers them all, and then on the last question where I ask her budget, she answers $200.....for 100 people....c'mon!!! Did you not just read that my cake prices start at $3.75/serving? Can you multiply 100 by $3.75....or did you think you're just so precious that I'd give you a cake for half price???

I sent her back an email saying that I probably couldn't help her out since a cake for 100 would start out at $375......OMG gotta love springtime....the idiots start to bloom!

Every one thinks THEY'RE extra special! I work for a pet groomer. The way he runs his business, clients book they're next appt when they pick up their pet so they always have a spot available for them. We do not do yearly shave downs or one time grooming's. It's a very successful shop and always very busy and yet we get at least two calls a day wanting to know our rates, ok no problem, I go into my spiel about how we do standing appointment grooming only, you pick your best day and time(tuesdays every 6weeks) and we set up your appointments in advance, blah,blah,blah, anyways never fails some geniuses just don't get it say things like"well I haven't had my dog groomed since last summer and he really needs it, can't you just wash and shave him?" Um, no, that's not what we do here, take him to a Petco or something. I really like when they get angry about it, I've even had a couple people call me names, over dog grooming! Sorry to get a bit off topic, but it comes down to I totally get where you're coming from, our policies are on our website and our yellow page ad so why is it so hard to understand?

I always loved the calls where they tell me they like the cakes on my website and could I tell them the pricing? I always responded with, "Oh? Did you not see the page on my website with all the pricing? (pause long enough for them to stammer some kind of answer, then I continue with .....) If you look on our website, you'll see the price is $x.xx/serving which means $xxx per 100 guests..."

I then offer to email them my intro packet, which they usually accepted.

Had another chic who had OBVIOUSLY cut-n-pasted one of those lists of "10 questions to ask your caterer". (I love making fun of those!). I always answered every question ... most of them with "this info can be found on our website page entitled "blah blah blah".

Well, at least you didn't get a girl wanting a 3 tiered square shaped cake with gumpaste flowers and gumpaste monograms for $60 for 100 people! My sister told her we won't be able to do it for her and the thing that gets me is I told her what our prices were BEFORE she contacted my sister for the design consultation!

Oh I get those all the time!

Client: "I'm on your website, what flavors do you have?" or "how much are you cakes?"
Me: "You see where it says Flavors/ Pricing? just click THERE".

I think people do that to see if you change your mind and give them a lower quote..Geez!

Reading, Thinking and Listening are skills that are no longer important!! Doesn't just happen in the cake world - happens with my employees all the time!!

Wait, those prices are for me? I thought those were for "other" people. I'm special. I want my pricing please...