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)?

imagine you’ve been running a cake business for the last 15 years and this is exactly how you feel.

I haven't made that out at all.

You booked her to make your cake so she allocated her time for that, time which she could have used for other orders. The fact that she put the cake in the freezer is immaterial, she still used ingredients, her time and gas/electricity.

Did you agree to her freezing the cake in writing?
if so then you should be provided with a frozen sponge of the specifications of the cake you paid for

she has been incredibly unbusiness like - I can’t imagine you would want to rock the boat when you live in a small village but you probably have case for small claims court!

try and take emotion out of it - and send her a brief message summing up exactly what she offered to do for you most recently- and put ball in her court asking how she suggests you go from here because you are £200 down and you have no cake. Also you did not give permission for the cake you paid for to be given away

i think sometimes people get confused when there are lots of details in the first post!

And see what she says perhaps you could polyask her if she would like you to review the cake she offered to bake you on social media

A lot of you are saying that if people cancel stuff with my workplace they wouldn't get the appointment back for free. Except I work in the NHS and that is exactly what happens. People can cancel ten appointments and they'll still be offered a new one. The time slot is wasted and many other sick people could have been seen, and I've still gone to work and sometimes had a wasted journey of a 2-hour roundtrip for which I won't receive money back. So I very much do understand.

The baker hasn’t actually said that though, OP doesn’t no if/what she’s going to charge yet

have you read through all your messages with her? Because that will form the contract - try messaging her again - she charged professional prices so she should honour what you most recently agreed to.

yeah, her comment about putting it in the freezer was ambiguous and because you intended to book her again, you assumed she meant she would re-use it in cake number 2...

Only you don't know whether she meant that at all

The fact she casually mentioned she'd given the sponge away to her neighbour indicates she'd previously and erroneously decided the sponge was hers and not paid for by you.

She didn't sort of owe you a cake up until she acted like it was her property and stupidly gave it away.

She owes you a sponge and delivery

I’m not suggesting SHE said otherwise. I’m saying it would have been iced the day before.

This did actually happen to me once (flooded shop) and I was OK with being sent home, although as some colleagues grumbled, we ended up being paid for one hour as travel time.

But if the cake maker had no other prospective bookings for that Saturday, isn’t it more like your boss ringing up with a change to the rota. “Sorry, we’re having to close the shop this Saturday, so we won’t need you then after all. Would you like to work next Saturday instead?”

People think a change of date doesn't mean the vendor loses out, but they do, every time. She could have got another booking for the date you now want. You've taken two slots but only want to pay for one.

Yeah. And no way would a pro leave all that to the morning of the party. It doesn’t add up.

i dont think it matters about whether she should charge more for her time to give the Op a cake for another day

the cake maker should be clear about her terms

if she can’t give a cake on a date in the future she should say no and provide the op with the cake as per the original agreement

if she can’t freeze the cake for what ever reason then it’s a quick message to the op to see what can be done

it’s mad to give it away before giving op a chance to collect the cake!

Yes, it would have been, just hadn't been at the time I had contacted her.

So are you saying that as an employee of the NHS, if you are being paid a salary to work eg 8-5, and a patient cancels their 2pm hour long appointment the day before, that you will no longer be paid for that hour? As that is the equivalent, not the customer, but the person doing the job role.

But you still get paid for going to work that day, right?

I'd agree if it was a massage or a hair appointment but the "slot" created a physical product and that should have been given/offered to the OP.

She didn't leave it until the morning of the party. Nowhere does it say that. She would have been icing it within 24 hours of the party. I contacted her the morning of the day before the party, and she hadn't yet started icing it.
I'm confused as to why you're inferring I'm lying.

I'm self employed, although not a cake maker.

I think she should have :

Frozen the sponge for your new date
If icing takes (say) 3 hours, and her hourly rate is £25, charge you £75 for the time slot she would have been icing it, because it would be too late to sell that time slot to anyone else.

Regards materials, if they last for months and can be used for the next time, then no extra charge, but if anything was perishable I would charge you for that too.

That seems fair all round.

Yes absolutely, just like those employed in a salon.

It’s not even just about slots tbh. They calculate their prices based on an hourly (@ skilled) rate they charge out, plus ingredients, plus overheads, plus any toppers and additional decorations they will have ordered way in advance, plus cost of the cake board and box. They factor in the time required, then book out their time for the order. So, as you say, this time could have gone elsewhere.

In scenarios such as a sick child impacting the occasion date, the pro baker would normally at such late notice make the cake available as contracted to the customer at the date contracted. The customer can then take it away to keep it chilled for a couple of days or freeze it.

I’ve personally never known a pro baker effectively bin/give away casually a cake they’ve made in these circumstances.

Yes, I guess the ops and others expectations are like zero hours contracts, but zero hours contracts work both ways. If you’re on zero hours, you can also say no at the last moment. I’m not sure how happy the op would have been had the cake maker called her the day before and said ‘I can’t make your cake any more’.

I’m not inferring you’re lying. As somebody with knowledge of the profession, I’m saying it doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

So if you describe the design as closely as possible (you don’t have to be specific re theme), I.e. flavours, type of icing, filling, toppers, fondant figures etc, that should explain everything to my logical brain.

It is wild and I'm slightly in shock. I sort of took it to mean that they'll be replacing it for free given that she'd just given it to a new home.