Hey everyone. I really really need some advice. I'm so upset about what has happened.

I made a cake a couple of weeks ago for a client. The lady asked for a chocolate cake filled with fresh fruit.

Anyway, I didn't hear from her in the days following the event, which worried me as my clients normally message me to thank me for the cake ect.

I received a public message today from this lady and she said "Oh look, it's my kids cake!!! It might look beautiful but it was far from it. You are a joke. The cake had 3 little pieces of fruit in it and was a block of sponge cake which was horrible. Your cakes are a rip off!!!"

As you can imagine my horror at reading this awful feedback. In my defence, the cake did not have 3 little pieces of fruit in it, I always make sure my cakes are filled with plenty of fruit, so this is not true at all.

As for the sponge cake, I always taste the top part  which I cut off to level the cake. And they are always how I want them to taste.

I'm so upset by this, it makes me want to stop anything to do with baking. I've been baking for 2 years and I feel I have learned a lot since then, this feedback has left me feeling gutted.

If anyone can give me some advice about this, I would be so grateful.

Thank you in advance

I'm so sorry for you.. :( If you've never had complaints before and people seem content, it's probably nothing to worry about! Some people seem to think they can say anything over the internet because they don't have to face the person they're insulting. That's just cowardly, and says more about her than it does of your cakes! 

It's hard to take her seriously when she came at you in such an inappropriate way. For now, I would ignore (delete!!) her comment and keep going. However, if the same complaint keeps coming up from others, then you may want to investigate where the criticism is coming from. 

Oh, that can be very upsetting! Was it a public message on a business page, such as Facebook? Do you have a business that she can hurt, or do you just make cakes for friends?  

Thank you for your replies. The client didn't give me any info as to why she thought the sponge cake was so horrible,. I replied to her and apologized and asked if she could please tell me what she wasn't happy about so I could do something about it. She hasn't responded to me. And yes, it was on my Facebook business page. I'm worried that if I delete her message, then she will see that I've deleted it and go even more crazy at me and try to blacken my name even more. It's so embarrassing. Thank you again. 

I forgot to add, I make my cakes for the public, not just family and friends ect.

ADelete it, block her from your page and move on. If you know it wasn't a legitimate complaint, don't waste time on it.

Very cowardly to not confront you first!  Who knows, maybe she (or a friend of hers) makes cakes and just wanted to smear your name.  Sadly there are people out there like that.

As someone else said, it's hard to take her seriously, but you do need to ask yourself...do you have repeat customers?  Do most people say "thanks for the cake" or are they RAVING over it, along with all of their friends?

You definitely want to be able to back yourself up if someone mentions it.  When you get reviews from happy customers, cut and paste them to you FB feed.  Or ask your customers to rate you on there.  That helps. 

Good luck and delete it, if you can.  If it was me, I would contact her and see what's up.  In the nicest way possible, of course.  Tell her that you were hurt by her comments being posted so publicly when she could have just contacted you first.  Your biz is important to you, and you are always learning so her feed back is valuable...blah, blah, blah.

Not to drag it out, but if you get to the bottom of it, you will be able sleep better and lose that feeling of wanting to throw up EVERY time you think about it.

on Facebook?  Delete and then ban her.

ADelete delete delete!! Do not let a nasty comment stay on your page for a second! It's your page, your business. I she goes crazy over it, so be it. Let her throw a tantrum, but don't let her nastiness stay posted for other clients to see.

I have deleted her comment and blocked her now. She didn't reply to my message to try and resolve the situation and find out exactly what was wrong with the cake. I was shocked to read this message as my clients normally go crazy over my cakes and my fan base increases with every cake, so this kind of knocked the wind out of me. Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. Praise the Lord for Facebooks delete and block settings :)

AOk, let's see the cake, and what you charged for it, if you don't mind. I'm nosy, but I'm curious about something too.

Does this go with the problem of using fresh fruit in cakes.  Perhaps it sat on the counter for days before eaten?? 

AWhat a awful way for this lady to treat you and your business! I think some people don't like sponge cakes as much as a normal chocolate cake. However that doesnt mean she should have been so rude. I personally would rather have a rich chocolate cake. Unless it is sponge cake that she asked for... If you just prefer to use sponge cake, do you use a simple syrup on it? If not, give it a try. It gives it more flavor and more moist.

Wow how rude. If she had something bad to say, she could have said it in a nicer way. Nobody should be treated that way. I'm sure you're cake was great! If she messaged you on Facebook, I would just block her.

A

Yup.

It might be just me but I have a fear of writing anything negative on someone's Facebook page.  I think it makes me, as a person. look like a nasty shrew.  It would have been to her benefit to call you or email you about the problem she had with the cake.  if your cakes are good, you have your customer base, and that customer base is reading her comment saying "what is this crazy woman talking about, I like her cakes."  

Glad you deleted her.  

ASame thing just happened to me. I panicked and got so upset that I deleted my Facebook page and business page. I've never had someone go public and say horrible things like this customer did yesterday. If a customer was upset about anything in the past, they would just contact me. Never anything major. You would think this was brain surgery to these people and we did bodily harm to them. Having difficult time getting over this myself.

I don't mean to revive any older threads, but I had to google search bakers reactions to "my client said my cake was nasty". I am just completely distraught! 

Had a client call me one week after her event to tell me that while she loved the appearance of the cake, it was "just plain nasty" and "no one could eat it" and "it tasted old". I couldn't believe it because the night before the event, I baked up the cakes and used left over batter to make a smaller 4 in square for my bf and I. We tasted the cake, his only comment was "could be more strawberry", but the cake was still very warm. I tasted the scraps as I torted and filled and everything was fine. Fortunately, the client was very courteous about the way she expressed her message, but I still felt a punch in the gut. I couldn't believe the cake tasted anything less than good because I had received texts from reliable sources the same night of the event telling me that cake was delish!

My boyfriend thinks the client just had buyers remorse and wanted her money back, I disagree tho because she is well to do... anyway, I am baking up the recipe again to see what might have gone wrong because to have someone call my cakes "nasty and inedible" is just simply embarassing!

Claire must be clairvoyant. I just logged on to write the same thing! 

I'm curious to know what the OP's next steps were!

most people who do this baking decorating are enamored with everything cake.  That amorous adoration of cake does not extend to the rest of the world.

It's often just another product that people purchase with their money, and they do not have the same emotional attachments to it that the creator does.  It's business.

People are pretty cut throat and cold blooded in business dealings.  There is no magic happy dust in a cake that turns people (customers) into angels.

AI'm always amazed when people ask for help and then get all upset when they get it! I'm in a jewelry course right now. 120 hours with a master goldsmith who is European. He doesn't care about my feelings one bit. Today, he told me if he had hired me, he would fire me for something I did wrong! Yes, I wanted to cry, but I want to learn, properly, more. So I check my ego at the door, shut my mouth and am learning more than I can imagine. I'm 52, a professional with a Masters degree. Is this easy??? No. I feel like a dunce. But the best are exacting and I thirst to learn what he knows. This is why I respond to criticism here with thanks. I wouldn't waste another moment arguing with people who want to be right. Nancy

AOops, I think I replied to the wrong thread! Sorry.