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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to only partially refund...

103 replies

NoMoreMarbles · 23/03/2012 11:50

ok so...

i make cakes as a hobby and only charge for materials and maybe another £10 on top. i had an order request in november from a girl who works with my sister and she kept changing her mind on what she wanted. she wanted her cake for todays date.

i sent her a message in febuary confirming details and she sent me a picture of a cake she had seen and said she wanted this one (lilac icing, 1 tier with 24 cupcakes) i told her this would be £65 as materials for what she wanted amounted to around £55 factoring in electric to bake and petrol to run around buying things and she agreed to this price and wanted to pay there and then.

i made the cake, spent 2 days (evenings after work) baking and decorating it to how she has asked going from the pic she sent and put my own take on it (it really does look nice too)

she asked for a pic this morning before i was taking it to her house (15 miles away) this afternoon and she says she doesnt like it, the lilac is not the colour she wanted, she wants pink and she wants a 3 tier pink icing...nothing AT ALL like the sample pic she sent me...

i then received a call from her dad who proceeded to threaten me and said either i give a full refund with compensation or he will "sort you out, im warning you" (his exact words) and then sue me for the refund

at this stage i had already offered a 50% refund but said i was not willing to refund the full amount just because she had changed her mind. alot of the original messages between myself and the girl had been via my facebook cake profile page and due to issues with FB i cant see the original messages (hate FB!) and messages were relayed between my sister and the girl and myself as she wouldnt contact me (mobile phone) herself...

so i suppose what im asking is, given the above info, if you were me, what would you do and AIBU to say no to giving a full refund?

TIA and sorry about the long message on such a petty issue as cake...

OP posts:

GravyAndALumpyMashBaby · 23/03/2012 16:27

Your cake is beautiful and she sounds crazy btw.

Original poster

NoMoreMarbles · 23/03/2012 16:31

soup the pic is quite dark and taken on my phone so not a great pic sorry but it is lilac with some slightly darker lilac areas on the marbling.

I have given her 50% like I originally offered I just wanted to make sure I was right by refusing to give 100%. Looks like I was...

I mainly make cakes for friends and family and this is a girl who is a friend of my sister. I am going to look at updating my food hygiene cert etc as I last did this in 2009 I think but I doubt I'm going to open as an actual business. something to think about though.

OP posts:

GnomeDePlume · 23/03/2012 16:39

I wouldnt refund - these people are not going to be reasonable and are likely to damn you to everyone no matter what you do.

PicaK · 23/03/2012 17:02

Your cake is lovely but very different.

However, it's not up to you to decide if u are a business or not. There are laws about this.

BellaVita · 23/03/2012 17:16

Lovely cake NoMore. On other cakes, I would get the client to come and pick them up rather than you doing more trailing about.

Callisto, the cost of buying ingredients/pastes etc for those cakes does not come cheap.

PuffPants · 23/03/2012 18:19

Are you keeping the cake and half her money OP?

Sounds like a good day's work

worzelswife · 23/03/2012 18:37

Nomore I'd echo what people are saying about being careful. You do from the sounds of it need to register your house as a business premise, have EH around to assess your kitchen and have insurance. The only time you don't need to do any of that is if you are making these things on a 'limited and casual basis' but what you are doing sounds more than that. The only thing that seems to count as limited and casual is the very occasional charity coffee morning/bake sale apparently.

It doesn't matter if you're not making a profit. Lots of businesses make losses and they're still classed as businesses. I just think it's not worth it to not register etc. from the point of view of if something did go wrong (however unlikely) you could be very suddenly in a lot of hot water. The rules are very strict for food businesses for a reason.

How horrible of this girl's father to threaten you though - no one should go through that. I'd refund her half and put it behind you.

NoOnesGoingToEatYourEyes · 23/03/2012 19:27

OP I would have been thrilled to get your cake, especially if I was expecting hers. Yours is beautiful, arty and looks delicious. Hers looks like someone vomited haribo onto a really bad hat.

And, it's a birthday cake. It's not like she wanted a wedding cake iced to match her bridesmaids knickers or anything.

And following the threats I wouldn't have refunded anything, I'd have called the police.

skybluepearl · 23/03/2012 19:43

I think you should refund her and just take it on the nose. What have you learnt from this? Quite a lot i imagine.

wheresthepopcorn · 23/03/2012 19:51

Why don't you properly charge for doing this? Sounds like a real hassle to me. Would love to see her dad sue you for that amount of money by the way (lets see the look of shock on face when he gets bill from his lawyer )

attheendoftheday · 23/03/2012 20:15

I would refund nothing, let her have the cake if she wants it, and contact the police about the threats. Why should you be out of pocket?

You probably need to register as a business though, particularly if you're not just making cakes for mates.

RabidEchidna · 23/03/2012 20:22

Only let her have the cake after you have injected it with laxative lots and lots of laxative

thegreylady · 23/03/2012 20:24

Where is the cake now?Has she got it?If so she doesnt need a refund -if not then she should have if you see what I mean.Has she seen it rather then a photo?What has she done for a birthday cake?fwiw I prefer your version too but its her birthday so her choice.

RabidEchidna · 23/03/2012 20:24

at her cake, looks like something from my big fat gypsy birthday

Original poster

NoMoreMarbles · 23/03/2012 21:19

she decided she didnt want the cake and told me it was horrible i said i will refund her partial amount as i bought things to suit what she had stated she wanted when i asked in feb...she confirmed everything at the beginning of march when i went to buy things and i have left myself out of pocket with a cake made to suit her request sat in my fridge...i said i would deliver the cake to her (before she decided she didnt want it) and with the dad behaving so thuggish im not going out of my way 15miles to get abused...

OP posts:

GnomeDePlume · 23/03/2012 21:47

Just a thought Marbles, was the photo you sent to the girl the one you posted here? Probably no use for this situation but in future do make sure that any pictures you send do accurately show the cake. Remember the marketing maxim:

'No one ever lost money underestimating the public'

I think you have got caught in a twilight world between hobby and business. £10 per cake is selling yourself very short. The problem is that by not being business-like you are leaving yourself vulnerable to the unscrupulous people like this girl and her father who will always find excuses for not paying.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 23/03/2012 22:05

Good point Gnome. If you sent a picture with such bad lighting that the colour of it looks completely different to reality, that could explain why she has freaked out.

helenthemadex · 23/03/2012 22:08

Hers looks like someone vomited haribo onto a really bad hat. I totally agree

is she by any chance having a dress like this

Original poster

NoMoreMarbles · 23/03/2012 22:27

the photo was not the one i uploaded but a similar one...its a large file and i cant email it to myself from my phone it wont let me but i sent it MMS to her.

she looks a bit like the one on the right on that pic

OP posts:

Pandemoniaa · 24/03/2012 00:23

Your cake looks absolutely fab.The ghastly creation that your customer wanted looks abominable.

However, I fear you have been a victim of your own creativity and may well have to refund her money since I have to say (albeit reluctantly) that what you have supplied does not bear much resemblance to what was ordered, even allowing for variations in light and exposure between the photographs. I'd have been delighted with your version but if your customer honestly wanted a replica of the vile object she sent a picture of then she might well not appreciate your improved version.

misspedantic · 24/03/2012 08:29

Unless you have all the messages and photos of the cakes she wanted, you don't have a leg to stand on.

I think you need to refund her the full amount and next time keep a record of what the customer has asked for... every message. Chalk this one up to a learning curve and be happy that you will not make the same mistake again. It would be also beneficial to email some sort of contract, so the customer knows exactly what they are getting and once a design has be agreed no refund is possible. You can't keep her money if she's unhappy with the cake.

midori1999 · 24/03/2012 09:58

I agree completely that your cake is lovely and the cake in the photo is hideous.

However, I make cakes as a hobby, but have also run my own business (not cake making) and sometimes you do just have to either make something you hate because that is what the client wants or turn down the 'commission'. If it is not what the client wanted or expected then it won't matter how great it is, they are very unlikely to like it.

I think cakes where the person it is for has shown you a picture of what they want are the hardest tbh. Obviously you don't want to just copy someone else's design, but it does mean the 'client' usually has a very definite idea of what they want. I usually just say to people that I will make it very similar, but certain things may be slightly different and what those things are depending on what the cake is like.

Also, FWIW, I accept the ingredients are expensive, but I suspect if you use a different supplier, order online etc then you could have made this cake more cheaply. I usually charge to cover most of the ingredients I use, I accept that most hobby's cost money, so I do absorb some of my own costs myself. This also means I don't need to worry about the tax man etc. My local environmental health were extremely helpful but were very specific in saying that if I was just making for family and friends or friends of friends then they would not require my kitchen to be registered. If I was setting up a website/advertising/selling to the general public, then I would do, so maybe the Facebook page makes it a grey area? It does vary from council to council though, but I'd suggest phoning and asking. Mine were extremely helpful.

PooPooInMyToes · 24/03/2012 10:10

Have you already refunded her? I wouldn't.

Whatever you do though i would get the threat from the dad on file with the police.

Clytaemnestra · 24/03/2012 10:12

If I'd sent pic one, and wanted pic one, and received pic two, I would be cross too actually and feel that I hadn't got what I paid for. It's not the same, and it's not really for you to decide that what she wanted was bad taste and you knew better.

It really doesn't look pale purple, it looks bluey purple.

pixiestix · 24/03/2012 10:22

I'm afraid I'm with Clytaemnestra on this one. Although your cake looks really nice I would be gutted to receive it if I had set my heart on the cake in picture one.

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