Hi all,

On Friday I made and delivered 6 Christmas Fruit Cakes to a local bank. I had sent them some samples of the cakes and a flyer earlier in the month letting them know of the size and prices. Most of the orders were for my 6 inch cake which I quoted at $80 TTD or about $12.50 USD. 

Later Friday evening, I woke up to a bunch of missed calls and messages on my phone. Apparently, the customers did not like the SIZE of the cake and refused to accept it. I was dealing with someone in the bank who took all the orders and collected the money etc. She is the one who called me franticly that evening. 

Needless to say I was upset and it seems like they want a refund. The problem is that the cakes are STILL in the bank and will be there till they open on Monday.

I was thinking to refund the money to the persons who did not open the box. The box has a window so you can clearly see the cake. Those who opened the box will get no refund because Lord knows what they did with it. A lot of people are telling me NOT to give them the refund. "They ordered a 6 inch, when they got it they thought it would have been BIGGER and now they want their money back???? Heck no!"

Let me know what you guys think I should do. I am really upset and feel helpless because I cannot do anything until Monday.

Thanks guys.

It surprises me that people who work in a bank do not know what 6 inches looks like...

Oh how upsetting and now you gotta wait all weekend with this burning on top of your head. What a mess.

I don't know I mean the cakes are sitting there for days now by the time you get them back.

I probably would refund just to avoid any further flaring of emotions and all. 

But yes I guess just refund the unopened ones.

Try to bring about some calming.

But I would insist that they understand that you delivered exactly what you advertised.

So sorry this happened. Maybe others in the bank would want to purchase them instead?

In a perfect world huh.

AThey received exactly what they ordered, and in my opinion you undercharged. $12.50 isn't a lot of money. Maybe once they taste it, they'll be reminded why they ordered it and theyll feel better about their purchase. I wouldn't refund the money.

AI chuckled when you said a woman ordered them, the thing that came to mind is woman are constantly being told what 6" is by men... If you get what I mean lol!

On serious note, did you put on your advertising that they were 6" cakes? If you did then they have nothing to stand on when asking for a refund. I would say, I clearly stated on my advertising that they were 6" cakes. As a gesture of goodwill you could give them some sort of a discount, I'd probably say 10% or 20%.

If however, you didn't state they would be 6" then you could refund on unopened boxes.

How tall are the cakes?

Are these the black fruit cakes famous in the Carribean?

I think you sorely undercharged and the bank people are nutso.

The problem is the one lady kind of in the middle here. She kinda needs some relief I think.

She's gotta stay there and work with those people so...that makes a plot twist you have to factor in.

I've been in almost this exact same situation before and what I did is I found some dog poop and put it in a paper bag, set it outside their front door, lit it on fire and then rang their doorbell. They came out, saw the fire, stomped it out and BOOM! POOP ON SHOE! LOL

The bankers are idiots.

I'd advise all my friends & family to withdraw their money and get a new account somewhere else.

g

A,

HERE IS THE FLYER. Can anyone of you tell me what the hell the misinterpretation was for. I really love these blogs cause you can come on here and just vent and rant. I am sooo mad. I sat here thinking what the hell I did wrong??? I did not lie. I used 6 inch pans on a 6 inch cake. As you can see on the flyer the deadline for ordering was on Saturday 15th. THEY NEVER CALLED WITH THE ORDER ON TIME. The woman who i was liaising with called me Monday. I was mad about that too cause there was a cut off. Now I deliver the cakes and your colleagues are upset. One of the cakes is her order also and she does not understand who they don't know what 6 inches are. The thing is as someone said...she has to continue working there. So I cannot be rude. I just want to kick down that bank door on Monday and storm in there and grab my cake....FLING the money after them and leave. 

I gotta little room in my jar called "Ashes of Idiots" but hurry it fills fast!!! hahaha

(I deleted the picture of my jar because I'm not sure if it's ok to post that.)

AND ANOTHER THING. The woman in the bank is not answering my calls. Since she called me on Friday saying that they did not want the cakes I have called her about 7 times. She is not responding and I think that is most frustrating of all. I wanted to know if I could have gotten into the bank today. There are security guards there and probably some managers or two working or even a cleaner. Somebody could hand me my cakes and I would go back with the money on Monday. In fact, I think she eventually turned her phone off cause it kept going straight to voice mail. What the hell kinda Christmas is this????? Last Christmas I posted about a bride/friend who wanted me to do 750 piped cookies for FREE. I cried last Christmas and I am crying again. I am thinking about just packing this sh!t up and going to look for a job. A nice 9-5 and never doing this again. 

AIf she wants a refund she should deliver the cakes back to you. Leave one more message with a deadline for when you will no longer accepting the return, and if the cakes are not in your hands by that time she is out of luck.

I'm not quite sure why this is an issue.  They ordered and paid for 6" black cakes.  You delivered 6 inch black cakes.    You did exactly what you said you would do.  And, apparently as a favor, since they didn't get the order in on time.  How can they not like the size?.  6 inches is six inches.  There is nothing subjective about this.   The only exception to this is if black cakes are usually  much taller than what you made.  If that is the issue, they might possibly have a complaint, but I'm not even sure that would be valid. 

In my opinion, you do not owe them any kind of refund.  Of course, if you left lots of messages about refunding,  it might seem that you have no choice now, but even then, I would probably just say (when I finally connected with the person who I had dealt with) that after much consideration, you have concluded that no refund is due.   If you want to be overly nice,  you could offer coupons for 10% off on future orders, but I wouldn't even do that, it weakens you and makes it seem like they have a point, which they don't.  

Your husband is a customer of the bank.  They have to be nice to him, not the other way around.  After treating you this way, I'd think she would have to be extra nice to him to keep him as a customer, not that you have to make things easier for her.  Unless, of course, you are desperate to keep them as a customer. I would be happy if they didn't order from me again.

AI agree with itsacake! How rude of them. I bet what happened is no one gave that woman the money to pay for them and she had to dish it out herself. No money back to them and if they can't let it go then get a new bank! U way supercharged too!

AI got the impression that OP's husband is an employee at the bank, if he is just a customer then I would be less inclined to offer a refund at all.

AWhy should you refund? They got what they ordered. What will you do with the cakes you get back? I don't think you should refund!

I'm confused as to why there would be a refund...I wouldn't do it if you delivered what they ordered. That's a very low charge for that kind of cake anyway, in my opinion, so it's not like they can say the value of what they bought wasn't there...

Whew! I'm SO SORRY you're going through this! Hmm. I don't think you should refund anything.Your flyer was clear. Have your lady-friend go to work with an inch tape so they can see that they got their six inches of cake. I trust the cakes were at least 3'' high? For $80. that's a steal! Give them the phone number for KISS BAKING CO. for next year...

There must be something about banks... My bank contacted me to order a birthday cake for an employee.. They had a $30  budget?? really... To be nice I offered to do an 8in basic buttercream cake.. An employee at the bank called me requesting a "sushi shaped or fondant cake with lots of fondant flowers" .. I expained to her that would go way over their budget.. she said they only needed the cake to feed about 6 people... I told her I could do a 6in round cake with a few fondant flowers and a name.. she agreed..

  When she came to pick up the cake, she was said it was so pretty....and  she refused to pay the sales tax because the year before she ordered a cake from me when I was working out of my home.( I now have a shop, so I charge sales tax like all normal businesses)..She stormed out of the store.. She calls me back and tells me that the cake I made was way too small for the price $30??? really ??? and continued arguing about the sales tax.. which was like $2.70... SO I called the bank manager and explained the situation.. She apologized and sent someone else to pick it up and pay the full amount.. Apparently the lady wasn't supposed to call and change the order at all, she took it upon herself.. People can be so ignorant and demanding.. I mean .. what the h#ll. ..???

OH, and I would go to the bank with my flyer in hand... and a ruler.. I would say, "Oh, I thought there was some mistake. No, these are 6in.. You were charged the correct price. What exactly is the problem here?? Oh, is the bank manager around?? hmmm..." yeah ....NO REFUND

I'm sorry you're going through this OP. The only thing I can come up with is a suggestion for next time. You said 6 inch cake but we all know that doesn't exactly tell much about the overall size of the cake. A 6x2 single layer is much smaller than a 6x4 double layer even though they're both "6 inch cakes." Maybe you could include full dimensions in simple terms for 'laymen.'

Maybe so but the black fruitcake is a very definite very special type of cake for that part of the world, well known.

Those fellow Trinidadian ladies knew what they were purchasing as far as that goes I think.

I'm sorry that you feel like you need to refund at all; you don't. I agree with mskerrih. I would make the decision that you did what you were asked to do, AFTER the deadline, and go in there with that attitude. Take the flyer, the ruler and ask what the problem REALLY  is and see what happens. At least then she will have to come up with a valid reason for sending them back. ANYWHERE you go and ask for your money back you have to have a reason.  It doesn't have to get ugly and probably won't. Good luck and let us know what happens.