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

A breach of contract on her part. The deposit must be returned to you.
What a horrible way to treat a regular customer, especially when your family also uses her!

Just tell her if she's not keeping to them agreed price she's breaking the contract

Your hands aren't tied and you'll put them to good use telling people not to trust her quotes

Prices have risen dramatically, but they have been rising for weeks and she should still honour the price she gave you originally and any new quotes would be the higher rate.

I am a lawyer. She can't have her cake and eat it. 🕶

Either you agree to the increase in price or she returns your deposit. Those are the only options.

I'd hate to see how excited people would be about a situation where the price went up by 1k. Imagine the drama!

If you can afford a £65 cake you are not worried about eating or heating. But the cake maker may be. Pay up and stop whining, all of you, it is ridiculous the antics going on for £15. Really, but some think they are showing off their legal/consumer law knowledge I suppose, can't help themselves.

She's mad and a CF trying this on now.
Say you'll lose the deposit it and you will post regularly on FB/Insta (wherever she advertises) screenshots of her messages holding your cake/deposit hostage.

I'd threaten to copy and paste the whole conversation on her FB page and any other platform she advertises on.

Tell her you'll title it: This trader ups the price after the deposit has been paid - Be Warned.

She shouldn’t change the price, once it’s been agreed upon, especially £15. I’ve noticed how much local cake makers have risen their prices recently, I was going to have one made for DD but couldn’t justify spending the money when the cake will be demolished in a matter of 20 minutes, so I’ve decided to make one myself.

I wouldn't argue about it, don't want her to spit in the cake batter. I would insist on the deposit back but wouldn't insist she made it after the conflict.

Well this just about takes the cake!

Send her this link along with a request for your £15 deposit back

www.hants.gov.uk/business/tradingstandards/consumeradvice/goodsandservices/pricinglaw

exactly this! If there'd been a sale on and she'd manage to get the ingredients dirt cheap no way would she be charging you less!

I know it sounds ott but this would piss me off so much that I'd give her the option of either refunding the £15 within the next 24hours or you will make a court claim (btw it hasn't been called small claims court for years but the principle is the same), refer to trading standards, tell everyone you know and comment on all her social media profiles, google reviews etc., and does she really want to risk all that for the sake of £15?

I wouldn't agree to her making it for £65 now because I'd be worried she'd spit in the mixture or make it inedible!

Those big luxurious cakes will be the first thing to go now more and more of us are feeling the pinch. Sad for the bakers, I'm sure they don't want to raise their prices either but cake making can be an expensive business.

I’d suck up the deposit loss and leave reviews on this business EVERYWHERE. Certainly wouldn’t be giving more of my money to them,.

Key point here

If she doesn’t agree to reason, I agree with PPs that she should be shamed on the local fb page or her advertising platform, but if you do threaten that, make sure you get the deposit back rather than accept the cake at original price as it may well have added undesirable ingredients.

Are you thick?

Consumers know when they go into a supermarket or any shop that the price is the price on the ticket. They buy it there and then for that price or it may be an item they order and the price is still set. It wont change.

If they go to a sole trader and place and order with a deposit then need to have the same reassurances. A contract is agreed and they can trust they wont be charged more when they come to collect.

If sole traders break consumer law then consumers will stop using them. Consumers want guarantees and peace of mind. When a sole trader demands more money to complete an order, that consumer probably wont go back to an independent again.

It makes business harder for the rest of us sole traders. It makes consumer more anxious.

Everyone needs to follow consumer law. There is literally zero reason for the OP to pay this extra.

If you don't understand this then you're just being bloody stupid.

She can't do that. You agreed a price. She has now put the price up by 23%. Totally unacceptable.
Prices for groceries have been going up for a while now and it's obvious they are going to go up more. Therefore she should have thought about this two weeks ago and quoted you a price which would mean she could make a profit.
Or if she's suddenly realized that she needs to put prices up due to increasing costs to her, she should make sure that she charges enough for all customers from now on, not retrospectively trying to force people to pay more than she quoted.
It's just not on at all.

It’s all very odd, had a long text conversation with her, no mention of deposit and she said pay her cash on the day which is this Saturday. Then last week she sends me a WhatsApp asking me where her £30 deposit is and to pay her the £ 65 at the venue.

I’d probably kindly tell her you don’t expect her to make a loss, so you’ve no problem with her cancelling the order, but she will need to refund the £15.

I too would be nervous about how the cake might turn out if you proceed now !

I don't think buying a £65 for potentially a very significant event means the OP is not concerned about their finances. I also don't think the cake maker putting up their prices after agreement is obviously a sign they're having problems financially.

The cake maker is the one in the wrong here. No where is it acceptable to agree on a price, take a deposit then 14 days later change your mind on that price and refuse to return the deposit. The actual cost increase isn't the issue, it's the fact that the goalposts have changed and the deposit and cake is essentially being held to ransom unless the OP agrees to pay more. You should honour the price you agreed upon.

What if this was a hair cut and the stylist decided to change their prices after taking a deposit but refused to return it if you decided to go elsewhere? Clearly £15 doesn't seem to mean a lot to you but it's what that £15 represents in terms of their agreement.

Would you say the same if you were bought a top advertised as x price and were charged £15 quid more? Or if you were out for a meal and charged £15 extra? Or your boss decided to reduce your pay by a quarter?

I assume you, like everyone else, are affected by the price of petrol at the moment - how would you feel if you filled up your car at 1.81 but by the time you came to pay, the price had increased to 2.20 and you either had to pay or leave your car there? I'm sure you would just pay up without complaint, right, because after all you can afford petrol so you're hardly on the breadline...

There are lots of things I could afford to buy for x amount, but not for x plus 23%!
It doesn't matter what the purchase is or whether it's a luxury in the eyes of internet strangers, the agreed price is the agreed price!

If it’s so inconsequential then the baker doesn’t need it, surely

She committed to providing you with the agreed cake for 65. If she doesn't you could sue her not only for the 15 quid deposit you've already given her (and potentially for any other losses you suffer from her failure to fulfil the contract - such as higher costs to get someone else to bake the cake in time). It wouldn't be worth it, but that's what the law would normally provide for.

Not sure what you can do about though, other than slate her all over social media.

Your mum and sister are idiots.

she is contracted to make a cake at 65 at the end of the day. If she cant do it she is well within her rights to end the contract and refund the deposit because she is breaking the contract not you. she either takes the loss and just ups the price in the future or she refunds. I would be bad reviewing her everywhere either way