Wedding cupcake mishap AIBU bride wants full refund for me wrecking her big day?

[ilovepombears]

I run a home based cake making business a few months ago I had a request from a bride to make 100 black cupcakes for her wedding. She provided the wrappers and black food colouring paste and also black and white photo toppers of the couple as she asked it this would bring the costs down so I deducted this from the bill.

Today is her wedding day and there seems to be a massive miscommunication somewhere along the lines.
Friday I baked all 100 cupcakes and whilst I was waiting for them to cool I text her and asked if she was sure she wanted them all black buttercream or if she would prefer black and white or black and grey. She texted back and said 50 black 50 grey would be ace. I then had another text asking where the buttercream was going. This should of really set off alarm bells. I told her the buttercream would be going on top of each cupcake. No further response.

As the wedding is out of town she came to collect them yesterday. They looked stunning and really complimented her wedding theme. She seemed a bit off when collecting but said she liked them.

Two hours later I receive a text from her saying how dissapointed she is with the cakes and how they are not as disscused as the cakes are white.

I didn't understand where she was coming from so I tried to call but she didn't answer then text to say I have wrecked her wedding.

After a while of toing and froing it transpires what the bride in her head has ordered is 50 black and 50 grey sponge cupcakes as in no buttercream frosting. Where I was suppose to put the picture toppers is still a mystery.

She has seen hundreds of images of my work and I have never produced a nude cupcake. Always have frosting on them.

She has not given me time to rectify the issue. Not that I would as I am not having my name associated with what she thinks she has ordered. Not would I let black sponges out to be eaten as they will taste horrendous but they have so much colour in them can you imagine the additives.

She is now asking for a full refund as I have "screwed up her order" what do I do? I'm my head she has received what she has ordered.

If you guys ordered a black & grey cupcake how would you interoperate that? What she thinks or what I have made her.

I would have expected a normal sponge colour if it said vanilla, yes I know that is a flavour, but that's how I would have interpreted it.

I don't believe somebody would forget either LyingWitch but then I don't always believe drip feeds either

I would NEVER assume that a customer meant black sponge! That is quite simply absurd.,.you checked her requirements, in Form of an email, and then, she gave her approval to the order when you delivered..that would be more than enough for me to decide that she's being an utter cunt. Do not offer any refund.. And as for her saying you've ruined her day... Well.. I'm speechless.

Well the bride forgot that the Op didn't colour & the OP forgot that the bride said "sponge"

If the bride only wanted sponge, what did the Op think the colouring was for??

It seems like AIBU is suffering from a plethora of 'bollocks threads' that veer so far from reality that they're just little more than figments.

It's a timely reminder to me to go and write a report that I need to get done rather than wasting time here... these types of threads aren't even entertaining, just distracting.

I don't think it's a dripfeed, the OP said she has been checking back through her emails.

FWIW I think black cupcake means the sponge which sounds utterly vile but if you explained to her that you don't colour sponge then that leaves you in the clear I would say.

I would worry though that she might slur you all over town and hurt your business. Did they cost a lot? I mean refunding her even though you may morally be in the right, might be better in the long term for your business.

Well, it wasn't a drip feed was it?

I assumed she just went searching for emails and forgot that existed until now.

Well I know it sounds ridiculous but if you are paying ££££ and have a specific idea of what you want, it is gutting to get something different. If it really didn't matter, people getting married would just order a wedding cake with some vague description and except whatever turned up.

Accept!!!

Oh. Well. That puts a slightly different construction on things.

I would still offer a partial refund as a good will gesture.

Well, then there you have it.

Why it's always important to get everything in writing.

I agree with everyone else though, delete this thread. As a professional, it's easy enough to settle things behind closed doors if you have everything written down, and you've given away some very specific information.

Don't give her a refund, and move on with your business.

I don't think it's fair to call it a drip feed when the OP is only just finding contracts and emails. She didn't have that info to hand earlier in the thread

Did you email or put anything In writing? When I planned my wedding I spoke to people in person then followed it up with confirmation by email, it's her day surely the impetus is on her to make sure her suppliers are giving her what she wants!! I cannot believe anyone on the planet would order a cupcake and want it without icing??? That's the best bit!! Sounds like a bit of Bridezilla! There's no way you should refund!

Pointless now you've found the email but when I read your first post I thought that 'black cupcakes' meant exactly that, the cake part would be black.

I do think that, as the professional, part of your job is to check, check, and check again.

You seem to be covered with the emails you have found but as the bride she will have had a million and one other things on her mind as well, so perhaps she did forget your comment about not colouring your sponge, or maybe she thought that you had said you don't do rainbow colours but hadn't realised that included black.

And I agree with everyone else, get this thread deleted because it hasn't really presented either of you very well. It's full of identifying details and quite a lot of criticism about her, so not putting you in the best professional light either.

I asked the people I was with today and all said they would have assumed black decoration not the cake which no one would have eaten. I used to make cakes for friends/ family and if someone said to me they wanted a red cake, I'd have assumed they meant red icing - amazingly I was right! I have never asked someone about the colour of the cake because I'd have expected someone to tell me if they don't want the cake in the colour it naturally comes in.

OP hasn't actually quoted that the bride said "I want black cake" she's paraphrased months of conversation and that's how people have taken it.

I think this is a drip feed you can get away with because you've gone through your emails since the OP.

^allegedly

I'd expect black sponge if I had ordered a 'black cake' - otherwise I'd have said 'black icing' instead. I agree it would taste bad and be full of colourings, though!

BTW If I am making coloured sponge cup cakes I make use a 'white' sponge recipe. It doesn't have egg yolk in as it's the egg yolk that gives the sponge a yellows colour. I also use lurpak butter as its whiter than most butters. If you use a white sponge recipe then you don't need so much food colouring.

I've never had an issue with the sponge tasting funny and I've made some garish very brightly coloured cupcakes.

Black cake means the cake is black throughout (goth, witches, funeral weird) and black icing would have meant just black icing.

Anyway the law is usually that he who owes the money does not get paid in practice as she's unlikely to take it to court so I would say to her you made it clear what she was getting, you are sorry she is unhappy but a refund is out of the question. I doubt she will then rush off to the small claims court.

I think it's an error on both sides here. In your shoes I would offer a significant refund tbh posting about it on here looks really unprofessional and as it's a fairly specific cake order it wouldn't be hard for the bride to be recognised.

Tbh with something as important and expensive as a wedding cake I would have imagined you would have looked at images of similar designs together so you both knew exactly what the end product would be.

I have an aquaintance who runs a cake business from home she often puts rants on facebook about difficult customers. Even when the customer has clearly been an arse I still think she makes herself look really bad by posting about it.

Truly sounds like she's having a try at getting her money back. I would block her from my social media and tell her you will give her a refund for what she provided but that's that.

Tbh with something as important and expensive as a wedding cake I would have imagined you would have looked at images of similar designs together so you both knew exactly what the end product would be.

Agreed. And it doesn't look good, for your business, posting here about this, in my opinion.

I'd offer a 50% refund on the basis that you should have been more careful about ensuring she was getting what she wanted. I would do it as a good will offer.

I don't think the old email is much help. If you had forgotten about it then you can't be suprised that she had. I think it was up to you to make sure there was no possibility of any confusion.

Even if she does criticise your cakes, her friends will be at the wedding and will see for themselves how pretty they are

I'd take it as a lesson learnt. From experience people have their heads in the clouds, they don't always read everything, they don't always understand everything, they often have completely different interpretations of the same words.

I'd offer her a refund or partial refund this time and from now on be very clear. Samples, sketches, photos off Pinterest. It doesn't take long and really saves these sorts of misunderstandings.