Ok, so at my store we took this last minute order for a cake a customer saw on Pinterest.  We hate copying peoples cakes so we made something similar.  When taking the order (she was definitely young.. low 20's at most) the first red flag was she instantly asked about our return policy.  We do tell customers who place phone orders but she's been the only one to ask before we got to that part.  

Saturday comes and her order is due at 1pm.  10am she strolls in demanding for her cake.  Mind you we had 20+orders, a wedding and a total of 5 cakes that day.  She went "Well I thought the time was a rough estimate!"  Rough estimate or not.. 3 hours early and she couldn't even call us and ask?  She rolled her eyes and stormed out without even saying anything to me.  Ok.  3pm comes and her boyfriend or brother or whatever calls and said he's late and will pick it up soon.  I leave by this point.  This is what the cake looks like finished.  http://imgur.com/PtNCQTL

 7pm I get a phone call from an employee tellin me the boy picked it up and while it was at home, something happened to it but he doesn't know what.  The kids at the house might've ruined it.  Either way, it was ruined.   He begs her to help fix it.  (We now have cake pick up waivers taking no responsibility for negligence and there will be fees for fixing cakes).  Here's cake post pick up.   http://imgur.com/3iH1iDU I mean, it's bad.  It was slow so she did as much as she could.  She isn't much of a decorator and for free, she didn't spend a whole lot of time on it.    http://imgur.com/aM6TtwL

Sunday I get a call from the boy.  No one ate it.  Everyone said it tasted bad.. which no one has ever complained about the taste of our cake.  I offered a 50% refund in store credit, but nothing more.  I asked him to bring the cake back.  

Sunday night comes and they come back to order another cake.  More simple this time.  They wanted gold dripping off the edges, but we told them we could only do white chocolate.  They wanted it Monday, yesterday!  We typically require AT LEAST a 72 hour notice, but we squeezed him in for today (Tuesday).  Our chocolate wasn't cooperating with the decorator so we went with our white and glossy we use on our sugar cookies.   They came in a few hours ago...  hated it.  We told them with that short of notice, it wouldn't be exactly how they wanted.  

Im supposed to talk to these kids tomorrow and I'm dreading it.  I think they're honestly just trying to get things for free.  They didn't bring their original cake back which we undercharged for in the first place and got to keep it AND get another cake for $15!  

Any opinions on how you guys would deal with these customers would be very appreciated!!!

Your first clue should have been this young ladies attitude. Rough estimate..really. Pick up time is the pick up time! And I wouldn't have refunded a penny unless that cake had been returned, especially after all the extra time on it. If wasn't eaten..prove it. Sorry to day, sounds like they are definitely scamming you. Trying to get freebies. As for the drip cake, don't budge on the price. Don't you take a deposit for your cakes?? 

I am a bakery owner, I bet you regret taking the 2nd cake.  I've done something very similar.  I was at a convention & told my employees "no orders until I get back" - of course they had a desperate customer, I agreed to call her & made the call from the convention.  I agreed to make the cake by Friday (it was Sunday & I wasn't going to be back until Tuesday, I did everything myself at that point). I made the cake exactly as we discussed except I forgot a starfish at the top.  I added it when she picked-up & said "WHERE'S MY STARFISH!?"... so I apologized & added it.  She had dropped-off huge shells for me to place on the cake, I let her know those would fall off during transit & ruin the cake, so she should place them after the cake is set on the table.  She later complained and said I didn't do the bottom tier in the flavor she requested (and sent me a photo of barely touch butercream, she didn't even cut into it!), and said the decoration wasn't really what she had been hoping for (it was better than she could have imagined, beautiful buttercream ruffles)... I didn't deserve anything she was throwing at me for fitting her in last minute like that.  She threatened to turn me in to the BBB & my response was, "All I can say is, thanks for the warning", and we hung-up.  I can't know for sure, but I just "know" that she ordered that cake with a plan for complaining and getting her money back.  I didn't give her anything back & I don't think you should offer your customers even store credit!  The cake was beautiful when they picked-up, THEY ruined it, that was very gracious of you!  You need to stand your ground & tell them as much, and let them know everything you did extra for them, the late order, how much you had to do, and that you fit them in, gave them a better rate, and fixed the cake for free.  Also that you took the additional last minute order.  I would hope that they never try to order from you again.  If they didn't return the original cake, and you didn't assess anything wrong with it, they shouldn't have received anything.  They wouldn't be able to do this with any other product, don't let them do it to you.  If they don't come back you'll be happier!  =)  Good luck with it!

Good for you OCakes for not giving that customer a penny. Especially when you absolutely know you have provided a quality product. The big give away is when they threaten, which usually scares people. It's just a tactic. Many years ago I worked in a dental office, and I could usually pick out the patients that would try and weasel out of paying for procedures. I made them bring in there payment in full day before procedure. If they didn't agree, so sad, to bad, go find another dentist. 

Thanks jchuck!  Exactly!  Cake decorators are usually so "nice" that they give away their stuff or refund, etc... we need to stand up for ourselves!  =)

Oh reading this makes me feel so much better about some of my business decisions...."the cake tastes bad" is always the second reason why they are calling if they feel the first complaint is not justifiable enough...(oh and by the way, it ruined my whole party) lol!  I stick to my guns with things like this, some call me an addh89le but once you let these people get away with it, they just return with the same issues year after year.  And honestly those last minute cakes are always the one's who have issues!  I wouldn't give any money back, even if they do return again are you going to make money off of them?  Or are they just not good customers...?  I always say there's not only a choice in business's but theres also a choice in customers you probably want to have as well.

jchuck, we do take deposits on cakes but their second cake they used the credit I gave them on their first cake towards the price.  Yeah, I'm definitely going to let the girl know, hey, I told the dude to bring the cake back twice, and you guys didn't do it.  Two, we take orders a week in advance so we can actually have the supplies and decorators available to actually do your cake.  

My crappy situation is the fact that my store is a corporate owned cupcake shop however cakes, we can do what we want per store.  I have to tread delicately with how I treat my customers because who knows what they'll try to do up the ladder through corporate.  She's just not going to be satisfied and I REALLY hope she never comes back because I'll flat out tell her NOPE lol.  

Ahhh..I understand your situation a bit better now.  Are you the manager or franchisee (owner)? Even still, I don't suppose corporate has had many complaints about your shop. My neighbour works for Payless, manages a store. Fortunately for her, when she has a disgruntled customer, she's able to hand it over to the district manager, and they deal with them.