AIBU to expect the birthday cake booking date changed without extra charge?

Coming back to this, I do think the outcome is reasonable. It might be better to think of it as 50% for the late cancellation and 100% for the new cake booking.

Oh do people trying to scam free cakes typically pay £200 up front then cancel and not ask immediately for their cake at whatever state it is currently in?

The op could not sound LESS like she's trying to scam a free cake. She sounds a lot like someone trying to postpone an event, being a bit scatty about it and trying to get the cake she's paid for.

As someone who worked in a bakery she's the worst kind 😂😂😂 she's tried to scam a free cake and it backfired

You assume she had space in her freezer to store it for a two weeks. I think it is quite common to freeze cakes for a day or so but she might have needed that space for other cakes that needed assembling over these two weeks.

But she took the baker saying she would “freeze it for a later date” to mean for her - this was poor comms from the baker.

baker should have this situation in her T&Cs to cover her back.

Baker should have said either ok, thanks for letting me know about the cancellation or would you like me to deliver the paid for cake to you anyway

edit - spelling mistake

You sound like an absolute pain in the arse customer, cancelling things all the time and expecting free make ups. I’m glad I don’t tolerate customers like this!

The client cancelled before the delivery date of the cake. If she wanted the cake she could just have collected it on the day rather than cancelling Which is what I would have done personally. I will say it is very bad practice for the cake maker not to have a proper contract setting out the cancellation policy, but I don’t think their policy is unreasonable at all.

Her fee is for the time cleared in her schedule to make and deliver the cake. She commits to that time and likely turns away other work to keep her schedule free. It’s a set fee, not an itemised breakdown. So yes she should pay the full fee.

Like I said, I don’t think either of them communicated perfectly.

But there are plenty of services where you would lose not just a 50% deposit but the full cost if you cancelled with less than 48h notice.

Had the cake maker delivered the uniced original cake (and not made the - no doubt regretted - comment about the freezer) then I am sure she would be charging OP full price for the second cake also.

Anyway, let’s agree to disagree.

It might have been crossed wires but it should have been rectified by the cake maker as soon as she decided not to freeze it, give it away to someone else.

she gave away a cake they no longer belonged to her as OP had paid in full for it

@MsSquiz IMO that was crossed wires - OP called up to cancel and the cake maker didn’t say she would freeze it specifically for OP’s use later, because at that point it was a cancellation.

it may be that the cake maker realised that the vegan cake wouldn’t freeze well or that she didn’t have space after all, but at the moment
she gave the cake to a neighbour, the order was cancelled.

I think that the misunderstanding has been reflected fairly in the discount. YMMV.

Anyway, OP’s original question was whether the cake maker should just do a whole new cake for free, which I think most people believe WBU.

I don’t disagree that 50% off a second cake is a fair outcome.
the OP paid in full for a cake, including delivery, was then told it would be frozen to use later and then it was given away to someone else. That’s not acceptable. If a cake maker told me she would freeze a cake I had paid for, of course I’m going to presume it will be for me to use at a later date as it’s technically my cake bought and paid for.

the cake maker should have been clearer or have clearer T&Cs on their website/instagram page and these should also be sent to customers to make them aware, prior to purchase.

I’ve been in the OPs situation before when my child’s party was cancelled on the day of her party. Some suppliers were happy to rebook, free of charge. The caterer and cake maker still delivered their items as they were made and paid for. It was then up to us what we did with them

OP called her to ask if she had started the decorating and she said no. OP absolutely could have asked that she completed and delivered the cake for what - at that point - was a cancelled celebration.

It’s understandable that OP didn’t ask, because she was stressed about her DD, but OP has said herself that it would have been a bit miserable to have the cake delivered on the party day when there was no party and when the birthday girl had D&V. So chances are if the cake maker had offered that, OP would have said no.

The cake maker has offered to make a cake for the new date for 50% off. This seems like a fair compromise.

As the cake maker had received full payment prior to the cake being completed and prior to cancellation, she should have offered the OP a full and completed cake

The entire point is that the cancellation was too late (less than 48h) for the cake maker to find another client for that time slot.

If you cancel a driving lesson or a non-NHS dentist etc with less than the agreed amount of notice, you are still expected to pay for the slot. Same thing here.

Should she pay for the icing though as she didn't spend time on that?

You want to book her time twice and pay only once, that is unfair. As a former cake maker I would not be using frozen sponge in my cakes for clients, nor would I be handing over half done cakes to clients, for reputational reasons. Cakes left my kitchen perfect or not at all. You should pay her what she’s asking for

It did suck, yes, but reasonable adults understand that businesses are businesses, not charities. I booked a hotel room at a cheaper rate many months ago because I was going to a live show next month and didn't want to travel on the day. The show has been cancelled due to the main participant being ill. No ones fault. They didn't plan to be ill. The hotel didn't plan for the illness. I didn't plan for the illness. But it's happened and no one is to blame. The hotel room, it turned out, is non-refundable, and non-adjustable so I've lost a large chunk of money. Money I can't really affotd to lose (your £200 pales into insignificance, in comparison), but these things happen and businesses have to make a profit. That's how life works. So do you know what I did? I swore to myself (not because the main man is ill, but because I didn't check the small print on the hotel booking at the time), and then I moved on. You know, like a reasonable adult. What I didn't do was slate the hotel for being a BUSINESS. You're damned lucky the other vendors have supposedly not charged you!

She didn't have the free cake. All she had was the sponge so if you pay her for a new sponge, she needs to decorate it for free.

I don’t think so. She’s planned time and space and her stuff - this is a fully you problem

Maybe she thought twice about freezing it. Paying a bit extra to make a new sponge doesn't seem unreasonable; I imagine the biggest cost is her time for the decorating.

No, and she probably should have done, but it sounds like quite a rushed conversation when OP’s DD was pretty ill.

Ideally she would have offered to drop them, I agree. But she did offer to do the second cake for 50% off when the party was moved.

You've already paid for 'The icing on the cake', so maybe offer to just pay for a new sponge (even though the fucker said she would freeze it but lied and gave it away)..

The op didn’t have to pay for the sponges in the end @Tally2721- just 50% towards the time. This is definitely one of the threads where you can’t skip reading the ops posts and then have a meaningful contribution as the story changed throughout.

Did she offer the sponges to OP?