AIBU to expect the birthday cake booking date changed without extra charge?

[JavSurge]

We had to cancel DD's birthday party the day before due to her having S&D. We'd have gone through with it if it was a runny nose but not S&D, as much for our guests as well as her.

Anyway, most of the vendors (hall, entertainment etc) have honoured bookings in changing the date without charge given the circumstances.

As for the cake, she wants to charge us again. Now, for context, she had not finished the cake, had not started icing or decorating it. What's more, once I informed her the party couldn't go ahead, she said she'd pop the sponge in the freezer to be used for another time.

Now we have a new date arranged I have contacted her (2 days later) and asked if the sponge will last (Google says it will) until the party in a couple of weeks and if she's available to decorate it and deliver it on that date.

She's come back saying she didn't freeze it in the end and instead gave it to her neighbour, and now expects us to pay again for a new cake?!
If she'd iced it and it was ready to go then I would completely understand. However, given that it's just a change of date, am I being unreasonable to have expected her to just to use the sponge for us, or even used the sponge for another customer and then made it fresh. Either way to me seems reasonable as she'd not be using extra resources or time.
I can of course understand she might have got an extra customer (money) on the later date but it wouldn't have caused her extra costs.

Am I being being completely unreasonable?
If the cake was decorated I'd have never asked her to redo the whole thing for free but given that she said she was freezing the sponge surely it would be reasonable for her to do it free of charge (or a nominal fee if anything extra is needed)?

She saved the time but the time was pencilmarked for you, she wasn't able to monetize it in any other way.

Maybe she might take any non-perishible resources off the new price/delivery fee?
You can try asking about partial price.

One hand side, you are lucky that everyone else moved the date free of charge.

The other hand side, if you understood the cost implications, you might had got the cake at the original date as well (and treat your street/donate it to charity/play cake battlw with it), as you paid for it in full.

Yeah you're probably right, I do feel grateful the others have sorted it.

One of my children has an allergy so it can be slightly more awkward to find supermarket cakes as it has to be vegan and then I usually decorate it myself but wanted to have a year where we just went all out.

I agree with you, if you’ve paid £200 for a cake then you should have had that cake. By saying she would freeze the sponge would imply to me that she was on board with letting you change the collection date.

If she specifically told you that you wouldn’t be getting the cake and you would also have to pay full price for any new ones in the future then I’d have made sure I got the cake.

I offered to change the party day from a Saturday to a Sunday so that they wouldn't have missed out on a Saturday booking. The Sunday tends not to have much going on apart from the occasional fitness class so the hall would be open but empty.
For what it's worth, they did actually offer me a new Saturday.

She should have delivered the cake, if she was charging full price for the cake plus delivery. You paid for it and it wasn't hers to decide to give away.

I wonder what you have in correspondence that could be used in Small Claims, should she not agree a discount on a replacement.

Yes it’s crazy she just gave the cake away so casually.

I don't think so I'm afraid.

She would have booked that time out for you, even if you ultimately didn't need it.

She could roll over the delivery fee to the next cake (if you wanted to pay for a new cake).

It’s pretty normal so lose the money at such a last minute job especially involving food.

She will of turned down other customers and purchased all the ingredients and used the ones that were for the sponge plus the time involved and utilities upto that point.

But she should have offered you the cake in its current state or offered to finish and still delivery for the money.

Fine if she wasn’t able to refund the order but she should have made it very clear to OP before she cancelled the order. She should have just made the cake and given it to her IMO.

but not if she couldnt rebook for another cake that weekend.

if she's trying to charge you for a new cake she should have given you the old sponge.

Also how exactly did you word the cancelling.

Sorry to be a pain but we don’t need the cake anymore vs hey daughter’s sick is there any chance the cake be changed to another date?

and then her response.

Yes, that's a fair point, the baker should have been clear and said the cake is available, take it or leave it.

Thanks yes exactly, I thought there was a chance if I told her quickly that she'd be using the OG sponge or could at the very least be repurposed.

I'm absolutely gutted about the whole thing anyway, for DD, for us, for all the prep and the excitement for our other DC too, plus having to tell family they couldn't visit when they were about to travel. We have always had very low key celebrations for birthdays, baby showers etc.
It's always a risk with kids. I know some people would have just gone ahead with it and I suppose that's what the suppliers have been easy-going about it because they are grateful for the honesty.

I was all set set to say Yabu but if she charged you, suggested the cake was still usable at a later date, but then gave it away without offering it to you then YAnbu. That was your cake, albeit undecorated, and she should have delivered it to you just like if it was the actual cake (or at least asked if you wanted that) if full price was going to be charged.

Its a tricky one. I can see both sides, as she has already used up her time and ingredients to bake the sponges, and raw ingredients are not cheap. If she was not willing to rearrange without charging you, or not willing to freeze it (her preference) then I would have told her to finish the cake as planned.

In your scneario I would have picked up a cheap supermarket cake for the rearranged party. I know it isn't quite the same., but i don't like wasting money.

I think she was wrong to give the sponge to her neighbour though.

It’s fair enough that she’s charging you again, she wouldn’t have been able to take on another booking at such short notice. Although some discount would be nice I don’t think you can expect it.

I said unfortunately we've had to cancel the party as DD has S&D, and asked how far along with the cake was (it was just over 24 hours before the party). She came back and said sponge was done but hadn't yet started with the decoration. She said I can freeze the sponge as I've not yet iced it.
Neither of us mentioned rebooking or anything else. I took it to mean she was either freezing it for me for a later date or to be used for someone else. She didn't offer me the sponge.

To be fair if it was the day before she wouldn’t get a new booking BUT she would have started the cake at that stage so I don’t see why she didn’t deliver the cake to you. Im also seriously impressed you managed to move the date for everything else.

We live in a village and they're unlikely to get new bookings in the diary on quieter days :) its a church/community hall so a registered charity so not for profit.

I would definitely tell her that she should have given you the option of still having the cake completed.

Cake maker here. There are a lot of factors at play here. For me personally if the sponge could be used for another order or I had room in my freezer to store I would do just that. If I had availability for your new date I would probably charge a very nominal fee for the short notice. But if you requested to cancel NOT rearrange at such short notice (the day before) I would probably not refund as I have already booked out my time and supplies for you (especially if I have turned down other orders for you) so I would offer to deliver your cake as arranged but I would not offer a refund. Although I do understand your bakers stance in that she may have turned down orders for your cake so has lost money if you expect her to block out more time for you for ‘free’ effectively. But she definitely should have discussed all this with you at the time you cancelled.

Yes, but. In that case she shouldn't sound like offering to freeze the sponge (implying potential future usage) and should had been clear about not transfering any part of the price, so the OP could decide to get her paid-for cake on the original date.

Well that changes things slightly, but only slightly. You should have made it clear you were wanting the date of pick up delayed to the new party date. If she couldn’t do that, then she should have 1000% offered you the cake for pick up on the original date if the date wasn’t able to be moved. I’d be very angry that I paid £200 for a cake I didn’t even get.

Thank you - I wouldn't dream of asking for a refund when she's already paid for stuff and her time in some capacity.
It was her suggestion that she would put the sponge in her freezer so I'd take that to mean she had the space. I was slightly shocked that she said she's given it to her neighbour, presumably for free, but wants me to pay again 😬 so I've effectively bought her neighbour a cake 😂

The problem is, you are booking out 2 sets of her time.

I find it surprising and unusual that all the others are honouring bookings as they too have lost what they could have got for the second slot.