High-end wedding cake vendor intimidates and annoys potential customers
The hopeful customers: my daughter and me. She’s been planning a modest (well, maybe not austere, but hopefully not luxury-priced) wedding and is researching, of course, on the internet, since she’s in California but is marrying here in North Carolina. Well, she’ll need a beautiful delicious wedding cake, right?
Anyway, she came across a high-class (apparently) cake baker and sent me a link to his site. We agree – his site is so arrogant and annoying we won’t consider contacting him.
What’s not to like? Check out this language from his website:
We invite you and one (1) guest to one complimentary cake tasting/consultation, by appointment, to sample our cakes and review our portfolio. We also request that the person who will make the final decision for your wedding cake be present at the tasting. Additional tastings are limited to weekdays, for a fee, and are subject to availability.As a courtesy, we request a minimum of 48 hours notice should you need to cancel your appointment. If notice of an appointment cancellation or an appointment reschedule is not confirmed within 48 hours, and a revised appointment is requested, then a $25.00 tasting charge will be incurred.
At the conclusion of your consultation, we will provide you with an estimate of projected costs.
Consultations last for approximately one (1) hour and can be scheduled Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Prior to our meeting, we request that you have an event site, caterer and florist secured with deposits, as well as preliminary floral and theme decisions. We also strongly recommend that you determine your overall budget for your wedding cake prior to consultation. If your cake budget is undetermined, please contact us prior to consultation to evaluate our predetermined pricing packages. This collaboration will determine and promote a complimentary and successful understanding of any budget requirements and/or restrictions and ultimately determine if the consultation and tasting appointment should resume as scheduled.
If you desire to purchase a full-color rendering with 3-Dimensional details of your designed wedding cake prior to construction and the contract stage, please provide a check for $185.00 at the tasting/consultation appointment. After completion of the color board , you will be invited in for approval before advancing to the creative construction stage.
Maybe I’m naive, but especially in this economy I don’t think wedding merchants can afford to alienate potential customers. If my daughter and I wanted to bring her groom (well, fiance) to the cake testing, actually one of us would have to stay home?
My comment when I saw this site: “I bet we’d have to take out a second mortgage on the house to afford this cake.” And, as an experience old mom, I say life is too short to spend it dealing with irritable artisanal cake creators who assume you are not worthy of their artistic creations.
If you plan to separate the mother of the bride from a whole lot of money, you better be at least a little bit friendly and welcoming.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:15 am
As a Mom & regular person, I totally agree that this sounds intimidating & presumptious, and would definately turn me off. As a retail store owner, I can understand what probably prompted such a listing of endless rules & regulations…groups of folks who came in wanting to sample some free fancy cake when they knew they had no intention of buying. Unfortunately, the country is full of people who love to get something for nothing (check out Sam’s Club on a Saturday) & will take advantage of vendors.
I do agree that it’s important to have in mind exactly what you want, what you can afford before you go talk cake w/ anyone. I’ve seen some very awful wedding cakes, leave nothing to chance. I actually like his strict rules, but probably wouldn’t be able to afford one of his cakes.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Welcome, Lucy! I know, it’s hard as a vendor, dealing with customers – remember that old saying: “You can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live without ‘em.” But if you’re too mean to them, because previous ones have been bad to you – that’s not a good karmic direction. I hope this cake guy realizes that eventually…