Cake maker refusing to make my cake!

[fartoobiled]

Unless I pay £15 more than o originally agreed

I paid a £15 nonrefundable deposit and now she wants another £15 on top of the £50 I was due to pay for the Cake so a total of £80 instead of the £65 I was going to pay in total

Am I being unreasonable to think this is really unfair? She says this is due to the increase in cost of living for example petrol prices and the price of ingredients

Thing is though I paid the £15 which is nonrefundable. So if I don't pay the extra I lose my money

Obviously, don’t do that -then the OP will be in breach of contract.

What a thieving fucker. It's true that prices have gone up, and even in the past two weeks they've increased. So if she couldn't do it at the agreed price, I'd cut her some slack. But no way does she get to keep the deposit. I'd absolutely threaten with small claims court.

Obviously, don’t do that -then the OP will be in breach of contract.

I can see why that would be tempting. After all contracts are apparently just words on a screen which mean nothing to the baker so why would they mean anything to the OP.

Thieving fucker.

Screen shot the conversation and then rinse her on whatever platform she trades on

I mean, stuff definitely has jumped up the last two weeks. I noticed butter up from 1.50 to 1.75 in my Tesco. Petrol is up 15p a litre (it went up 8p here yesterday!). Small businesses are struggling.

I don’t think she’s handled it brilliantly but if your family have been using her for a while and she makes good cakes, I’d just pay it.

She is being very cheeky. I'd insist on the deposit back.

She is a chancer. The price of the cake was agreed so ask for your money back or else you will report her to Trading Standards for unfair business practices.

She’s a piss taker and unprofessional - leave the £15 and thank your lucky stars you haven’t ended up with her shit cake! Any decent baker knows full well the cost of all their ingredients and more importantly the value of happy customers.

The fact that she’d risk a shit review or the loss of repeat orders for £15 shows that she doesn’t value her customers or her work either. Run!

And it doesn’t matter that prices have gone up on the last two weeks - that’s a conversation to have with her next customer, not the ones who’ve already agreed to an order.

You both locked in the price at £65 with the £15 deposit.
The risk of the cost of ingredients rising should be entirely borne by her. On the flip side, if the ingredients had become cheaper also you would have no claim to pay less. That’s the cost of doing business.
How did you pay her the £15? You may be able to raise a dispute through your CC company if you paid by CC, or through PayPal for instance.

id want my money back and tell her you want a refund.

i would not want a cake off her after that! what a cheeky mare!

Exactly.

By that logic we can all have pay rises because prices have increased. It's a silly argument.

God I can't believe that anyone would pay £65 for a cake, and have such a drama over £15!

I would just shrug my shoulders, be very glad I could afford the luxury of a handmade cake and pay up. No good will come of having a strop no matter how unfair you or others think it is. We are not talking hundreds here, get a flippin grip.

I would stand my ground with her. She cannot raise the price two weeks after agreeing on it. If she doesn't refund the deposit I would be posting all over social media warning people not to use her and looking elsewhere for a cake. I'm not in the UK so can't comment on the legality of not refunding you.

She’s in breach of contract.
Tell her you will report her to trading standards if the money isn’t returned. You will also file a small claims court case.

Oh ffs! Do you want the cake or not? £15 is neither here nor there.

She's handled it appallingly given her approach. If she's struggling to make money because she under quoted then there are better ways to deal with it. Ultimately she's been stupid because she'll lose your custom and potentially get bad reviews from you. Even if you got her to back down over the extra £15 I don't think she could be trusted as she's been very unprofessional so far.

This has happened to me this week. I agreed in may with an entertainer the cost would be £80 and now it £95.

Prices going up is irrelevant.

If you are going to put up prices you do it for your future clients not retrospectively.

I would tell her that you expect either written confirmation that te cake will be delivered at the agreed price or a £15 refund for the deposit paid, and that failure to do so will mean you will be pursuing the matter legally.

And I would absolutely leave reviews on any of the platforms she advertises on, also on your local fb group.

katya213 did you pay a deposit?
your entertainer is having a laugh

Are you the baker per chance?

To many people £15 absolutely is a big deal.

Where do you draw the line? “Oh it’s only an extra 20/50/£250? Money is all relative.

If you can afford an extra £15 then good for you. But it’s a principle as much as anything else.

It's the law. It matters.
Consumers need to be able to trust sole traders or they'll stop using us. People like this Baker make more consumers say, "that's the last time I use a one man band."

It matters when people break consumer law.

You've got to love the posters casually assuming an extra £15 is nothing. The amount isn't the issue it's the principle.

This. I’m not a lawyer, but you had an implicit contract with her when you both agreed the price. She’s broken that contract and you have the fb messages to prove it.

Threaten her with small claims and mean it. She has no legal (or moral imo) right to do this. The possibility of costs rising is a risk of business, and one she should have mitigated, it’s not your problem.

What a joke, tell her either she can provide the cake as agreed, or she can refund your deposit plus another 15 pounds for your trouble to pay for the agreed cake at the new prices somewhere else. Plus small claims court fees if you have to raise an action online.
If she can unilaterally change fundamental terms of the agreement afterwards then so can you, which is clearly not the case.

Also, non refundable deposits are a bit dodgy anyway as they should be reasonable costs rather than unfair penalties, although who's going to argue that one through court really.