To think a birthday cake should only be substituted with another birthday cake

[Tillow4ever]

And of the same type of cake?

It's my birthday later in the week and my son is home from uni this weekend, going back today. It was a bit of a last minute decision, so I decided to put a birthday cake on the Tesco home shop for us to have before he goes back.

I've just seen that they've substituted a white chocolate birthday cake (vanilla cake with raspberry jam and a white chocolate frosting) with 3 chocolate bombes instead. Not exactly sure what they are til they arrive, but they don't sound like any form of birthday cake, they don't sound like vanilla sponge (which is my favourite and why I picked that cake) and they aren't even white chocolate, which might have been more understandable had that been the sub.

Obviously I'll send them back and get a refund later in the week, but my local Tesco is a small one and doesn't stock that cake, and I haven't got time to nip out to buy one as I'm cooking a big roast dinner to try to get served up before the shopping gets delivered! There won't be time after the delivery as my son is due to leave not long after (depending on the time of the delivery of course).

Not exactly the biggest of problems in the world, but I never usually bother to do anything to celebrate my birthday, no one ever thinks to sort a cake out for me (I organise for everyone else's birthday in the house to make sure there's a cake they like) and I've not been having a great time lately so this has just really disappointed me.

Is it really too much to expect that if you order a birthday cake, if the shop is substituting it, another birthday cake should be selected? And it should be the same type/flavour of sponge that you were originally ordering, even if the decoration has to be different?

Sorry for the moan - please cheer me up with stories of your shitty home shopping substitutes or just general home shopping failures!

Completely understand, my last job at the supermarket before leaving was pricing and ticketing. Two of us on a 12 hour overnight shift, changing thousands of price tickets, all advertising and then going back and scanning each ticket and product that was altered, that wasn’t even all that was expected. The store manager would then breeze in when morning broke like fucking princess Margaret and pass judgment on what we hadn’t managed to do, was a bully as well, hated me. All this for minimum wage. People honestly have no idea how awfuly supermarket staff are treated and that it’s not as easy as just retraining and getting another job.

Apologies for ranting and derailing the thread a bit there, I’ve just been triggered with bad memories 😂😂😂😂

I think it differs by supermarket as my delivery driver was saying one time that it's ridiculous and that they can override the machine if there's something more suitable!

Thank you for all the happy birthday messages!

To the posters who have clarified about the time constraints I have thanked the first person that explained it and apologised saying I didn't realise how little time they had and that maybe it was a newer person picking who hasn't got the experience yet. It doesn't sound like a fun job and I in no way thought they were ambling about slowly for sure - I just hadn't realised it was so specific on time, even for newer employees.

I have now eaten a roast dinner (and rare clear plates all round suggest it was worth the extra effort for me putting on a few extras with it) and just had a piece of cake. It wasn't amazing.... but it was cake that I didn't have to make or buy, so it might as well be the best cake in the world! I am also looking at the remaining cake wondering how many dress sizes I can gain this week finishing it all off!

Thanks for the stories about the random subs as well - some are so ridiculous it's laughable, others are so bad they're almost dangerous.

@Tillow4ever white chocolate the one!! Dark chocolate is awful. Too sour! Lol x

Right there with you! I hate dark chocolate, but am a sucker for white chocolate (very, very sweet tooth). I'm not good with bitter things though, I don't like coffee either!

@Tillow4ever I always think I don't have a sweet tooth, but I adore coca cola and white chocolate, and really sour fizzy sweets! My dentist loves me..lol. 🤣

It's funny, my teeth have always been perfect (well until I got to 39 and had to have my first filling when a tooth broke) but generally they are in good condition yet I'm terrible for the sweet things - Diet Coke/Diet Pepsi, chocolate, sweets, cake.... no idea how I'm not diabetic either now I list it! Luckily it's not my total diet I guess!

@Tillow4ever haha. You're lucky. My teeth were fucking dreadful. I had to spend 4k on them just to get them dentally acceptable. My dentist keeps giving me whitening syringes for free. Lol. Then I don't use them cos they hurt!
But I'm down to a couple cans of coke a week.
Maybe we should start a coca cola addicts thread? Lol 🤣

So did you return the bombs or eat them?? And if you ate them what on earth were they???

Just to say (as a lot of people don't like subs!) That it can be worth having them on. I once ordered a medium chicken, and they subbed it with a large one! They're not allowed to charge more for subs, so I only paid the price of the medium. I do, however, turn them off on certain items, like formula or nappies. I agree that in this case, it was a silly sub! Happy birthday, and I hope you get your cake!

The thing is, it’s not the pickers causing the problem really. It’s the impossible targets they’re set by managers. My DS worked as a dot com picker at Tesco and says it was the worst job he ever did. He hated it, huge pressure to get it done in time, absolutely no support and says he felt like a number not a person. With that kind of atmosphere it’s no wonder they don’t give a shit if you get the things you ordered, they get the order picked and out on time and don’t get a bollocking.

The blame and shame is on the managers, not the pickers themselves who are just working with the system and the workplace culture they’re handed.

I used to get irate about these things until DS did this job and now I’m much more understanding about the conditions that lead to stupid subs, I’m sure many of them are just whatever is closest to hand as they’re quickly passing to the next item hence swede for deodorant etc!

ah that’s very interesting, thank you

I've worked as a picker for Asda and Morrisons.

Asda you could use your common sense, Morrisons it told you what to substitute - they're suggestions were absolutely ridiculous.

That’s interesting. In Morrisons, when you were told what to use as a substitute item, did you or did you use your common sense and override the system?

It's a very rich chocolate sponge-based dessert.

You shouldn't have to ask! Maybe just ask them to surprise you and do something for your birthday next year.

Just something that acknowledges it but doesn't make you feel uncomfortable. Make it clear you do expect something. Hopefully they'll do good.

Fixodent instead of toothpaste

I returned them - they looked like a chocolate sponge with a liquid chocolate centre. Not really what I was after!

Brilliant 😂😂

I got a punnet of strawberries to replace the strawberry hand sanitiser…

A lavender scented 'relaxing eye mask' instead of a pack of 3 kitchen knives 😂

Strange that you mention this as I was looking for a birthday cake in our local Tesco (small ) last week and they had absolutely none. Where they usually are was taken up with Christmas puddings and the likes. I thought it was very strange.

I’ve found with my other half he defo does better if I just say what I’d like, as he’s a very to the point person 😅 tried it with my 30th birthday, specified I wanted to do something super dressed up with friends and wanted balloons and left him to it. He organised an amazing rooftop bar with 20 people etc! So now I always give him some guidance for my own sake

Your Tesco local (or local shop) will have a plain vanilla cake with raspberry filling. Then cover in a white chocolate ganache (it's just any white chocolate and cream. Use about a 3:1 ratio. Break up the chocolate in a glass bowl, heat the cream up seperately in the microwave then simply pour the just boiled cream over the chocolate and beat. Let it cool then use). Get your son to do it. Happy Birthday.

My birthdays been and gone now, and my son went back to uni on Sunday evening. But my husband went out and got 3 different cakes in the end so we definitely don’t need anymore! I’m all caked out.