Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  05/07/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  4-13-23, placed order for cake and $75 deposit. Provided a picture of the cake I wanted, which was also displayed on her website as a cake she had done in the past. Agreed for pick up time of 1130am on 5-6-23, and explained to her my son's birthday party started at 1230pm and was located about 20 miles away from business. At 1052am, on day of pick up, was told she was running 15-20 minutes behind. Arrived at 1145am and was told the cake was still not ready. Finally at 1215pm, 15 minutes BEFORE my son's party started, she told me the cake was ready. While picking up the cake at her front door, she told me to be careful with it because it was top heavy. The sculpture on the cake was so soft it was falling over. We held the cake on my lap with me holding the box the entire way to my son's birthday. We took the cake inside the venue, placed it on the table, and the cake collapsed. The round cake bottom had collapsed, destroying my son's name on his cake. We had to improvise and use straws to hold it up. After the party on my drive home, I sent ********* (the owner) a text with my disappointment. Her response was, "why didn't you send this 5 hours ago?" I was shocked at her rudeness and disrespect, a simple Im sorry would have been nice. I paid $265 for a cake that fell apart. I posted a review on yelp with the picture of the cake and text messages. She responded and took no responsibility and said the cake appeared to be "smashed". I don't know how she's still in business. Why would I smash the cake, or place anything near the cake that could possibly smash it, after paying that much money. Her response on yelp was if I would have contacted her sooner after the cake collapsed, she would have brought a replacement. She had almost a month to make my son's cake, why would I expect her to bring another cake within an hour. Extremely rude, disrespectful, horrible customer service, and does not take responsibility for her mistakes.

  Business response

  05/15/2023

  When ****** and her friend picked up the cake, we gave them specific handling instructions for transporting a custom cake. We do this with all of our customers to ensure they take the necessary precautions to avoid damage to their cakes. The cake was in perfect condition when they picked it up. ****** texted me 5 hours after picking up her cake stating that it collapsed. My initial response was “why didn’t you contact me sooner”; I never heard back from her, via text. Within minutes of contacting me, she posted a bad review on Yelp about this issue…..complaining that I did not apologize. I responded to her review both publicly and privately. Below, is a copy of my response to her review.
  
   
  
  It is unfortunate that her cake got damaged and that it took her 5 hours to let me know. As stated in my reply to her, we would have been very happy to bring a new bottom cake regardless of how and why it got damaged. Our concern is always to help our customers however we can. When you contact us 5 hours after the fact, there is absolutely nothing we can do. We would have gone above and beyond and could have helped her situation if she would have contacted us in a timely manner.
  
   
  
  Our Policy clearly states that Bake My Day is not responsible for any damage or discrepancies after they pick up the cake and leave our facility. We have no idea how our customers handle and care for their cakes after they pick it up, so this policy is a must for us. During pickup, we educate our customers on the best way to transport and care for their cakes to ensure a safe trip. Because of the time lapse and the type of damage to her cake, It is my professional opinion that the cake was not properly cared for after pickup. We do approximately 30 cakes per week and we did 23 that particular weekend and nobody else had this problem and most of the cakes were larger and with much more custom work. This type of issue has never happened to one of our cakes and would be extremely rare to happen like she suggests, to any cake. Again, in my professional opinion and with 12 years of owning this business and over 20 years of baking experience, it is my opinion that something had to have caused this to happen after picking up the cake, most likely during transport.
  
   
  
  Bake My Day plans to honor our policy and no refund will be considered. As I mentioned to her, we would have been happy help with this issue but she failed to contact us in a reasonable time leaving us no opportunity.
  
   

• Initial Complaint

  06/14/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The owner/baker was very responsive originally. Once she received the $20 non refundable deposit she would not answer my calls and had very delayed responses to my texts. It made me very uncomfortable moving forward with the order. Once i asked to cancel and get the $20 refunded back to me because of the lack of follow through and responses from her she began to respond and was not kind. Her responses were unprofessional and insinuated that i was bothering her. I asked to cancel my order within 48 hours of sending the deposit (2 weeks before my cake order date) and she became very aggressive and insulting me. All i want is my $20 returned and for this complaint to be on record. The text responses are unbelievably curt and aggressive.

  Business response

  06/28/2022

  Good Morning,
  
   
  
  My name is *********, the Owner of Bake My Day and the person ******* ****-***** was texting with. I got your letter on Tuesday, June 21 and here is my response.
  
   
  
  On June 9th a woman contacted me via text message for a cake needed for June 28th at 2PM for 25 people. I gave pricing for two separate cakes, deposit and policy information and our address to that person but never heard back from her. On June 10th at 8:11pm, (after I was closed, I close at 6pm and I am closed all day on Sundays) I received another text message from a different phone number with the same exact picture from the woman on the 9th but no explanation. Then on June 11th at 6:48am (before I am even open), I received another text from the second woman (who I now know is *******) stating her assistant contacted me for a quote on a cake needed for the 28thand she would like to move forward in placing the order. I now gave ******* the same deposit and policy information and our address. Since 99% of my business in conducted via text, I ask ******* what her assistant’s number was so I could refer back to  my text conversation with the assistant because I never got the assistants name and never heard back from her. I responded to her text message after I opened at 10am. I let her know that I was not able to discuss the details at that time because I am extremely busy on Saturdays (it is the busiest day of the week for us because that is when everyone usually has their parties). Nevertheless, I got back with her at 4:36pm that day giving her all the information she needed to move forward. On Monday, at 4:56pm, she advised me that sent her $20 deposit. At 1:15pm, I asked her what name and app she used to make the deposit, in which she responded at 2:55pm with her name and what app she used. At 4:56, she wanted me to confirm if I got the deposit. At 6:02pm (a little over an hour later) that same day I replied and let her know I received her deposit and explained to her that I get very busy during the day and I return all texts and calls at the end of the day. She said she totally understands and asked me to let her know if I needed anything else from her. At that time, I had all the information I needed in order to get the order placed and confirmed. At that time, I did not need any further information from her. On Tuesday, June 14th at 3:57PM she requested to cancel the order and wanted her $20 non-refundable deposit back. I called her twice to see why but she never answered so I texted her to reiterate that deposits are non-refundable and sent her back a screenshot of the original text that I sent to her and her assistant stating that deposits are non-refundable. She was very aware of our policy before she sent her deposit.
  
   
  
  I have held up to every part of my obligation as a business owner, my process and policies are posted on my website and I also make it a point to inform all my customers before they order. I have done nothing illegal or unethical and I definitely was not curt or unprofessional. She knew the process before she made the deposit and I was very responsive to her during the entire process. I never gave off any vibe that I was not going to respond to her after she made her deposit and that is a terrible assumption on her part. I actually had several text message conversations after that. What she is saying is not accurate and she made inaccurate assumptions as well. I am not a storefront business with multiple employees, so a little patience is greatly appreciated at certain times. I never insinuated that she was bothering me, she assumed she was. Yes, I am very busy and it may take me an hour or maybe a day to respond to a question from a customer but that is not unreasonable, especially when the order isn’t due for 2 weeks. I ALWAYS get back to my customers but sometimes I need a little time. Cancellations are very rare and usually because of circumstances out of the customers’ control for reasons like if I make a mistake, If I ever had to cancel, medical emergencies, COVID related cancellations, etc. I have even kept deposits on file for future use if a customer had to cancel but wants a cake in the future. I haven’t stayed in business for 10 years by ignoring my customers after they make a deposit like she is suggesting. She changed her mind after she drove by my home and business which does not fall within our refund exceptions. If ordering from a certified home business is something she is not comfortable with, that is fine but this could have been avoided if she and/or her assistant did research before ordering. Especially since many people work from home these days. I have been in business since 2012 and have had the same process and policies with no complaints or customer concerns. I am licensed through the San Bernardino County Health Department and the City of Rancho Cucamonga. I am not conducting business in a dishonest or illegal manner.
  
   
  
  $20 is not a lot of money these days (barely hourly minimum wage) and I spent about 1 hour, collectively, working up a quote, communicating back and forth with her and her “assistant” for 5 days via several text messages and phone calls, I prepared the order form and added her order to my schedule. She did apologized a couple of times for contacting me with questions. I appreciate her apologies, however, it is very normal for customers to ask many questions and I also need certain information from them….so that doesn’t bother me at all…it’s the nature of this business. However, I feel she really doesn’t respect my time at all, otherwise she would have been respectful enough to contact me during business hours and also realize I invested time communicating back and forth with them and scheduling everything. That is part of the reason why I collect a non-refundable deposit. She contacted me 2 hours after I was closed one day and 1 ½ hours before I was open on another day (it shows the time in the screenshots I am sending you). My schedule is booked 2-3 weeks in advance and I could have filled her space with another order. Once my schedule is booked, I can no longer take orders. It is standard business practice to collect a non-refundable deposit at any other bakery in this area, and probably everywhere, for similar businesses. If she placed an order anywhere else, storefront or not, and then decided to cancel the order 2 days later because of insecurity reasons, I’m fairly certain she would get the same outcome as mine.
  
   
  
  I am sending you the screenshots of our entire conversation for you to see that I was not curt or unprofessional with her. I gave her detailed information on everything except the pickup time, pickup is normally discussed when it gets closer to the date and her assistant already told me they wanted it at 2pm. When I told her the deposit is non-refundable and stuck to it, I felt she was trying to bully me with statements like, “The choice is yours on next steps” and “It’s your business and your legacy” and “it’s the right and fair thing to do”.  She reconfirmed my feeling about feeling bullied by contacting the BBB with a complaint about it. She is trying to make me feel bad and make me out to be something I am not. I run a very thriving home business with a huge customer base and many return regular customers who appreciate my business ethics, processes and cakes. I have a 4.75 rating on Yelp and I’ve earned that by providing consistent great customer service for 10 years. I do my very best to maintain that reputation and treat every customer with the same respect and consideration.
  
   
  
  Here are screenshots of our entire conversation, we never spoke over the phone, only text messages. The messages in the green squares are from me and the grey squares are from *******. I feel she is being overly sensitive and unreasonable.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩