do what you gotta do ... don't contact me again.

i posted this note on facebook earlier in the week. it was my first note to ever post, and i can't believe the response it got.

Is there no such thing as good customer service anymore???? We ordered a cake from the Little Cake Co. in Muskogee for my sister's very special Sweet 16 Birthday party this past weekend. We provided a picture of a cake that we wanted to mimic as well as the colors we needed: pink, white, and black as the party was a pink, white, and black party. The picture we provided used these same colors as well. We asked that the cake not look like a child's cake; that it have two tiers with the top of the cake left blank for our own topper; that one tier be chocolate and the other white. When my brother and sister picked up the cake, it was pink and royal blue(!!!) with big puffy flowers (the cake we asked for had black stripes, white polka dots, and black swirls on different tiers). There was a plastic crown smooshed into the cake that a two or three year old child would wear to play dress up. It had three tiers instead of the requested two, which would have been nice had it not been added on simply because neither of the bottom two layers were chocolate. This top tier was *covered* with multiple decorations. On top of that the cake was "painted." Instead of having pink icing all the way through, there was white icing with pink spray on the top. This became very evident when our cake BEGAN TO FALL APART while it was sitting on the table waiting for the birthday girl to arrive!!! The top tier sank into the second tier and the front of the second tier just fell off onto the table!!! When we called the shop to explain what was happening with the cake, no one answered, so we left a message. This was on the 19th. We didn't get a response until the 22nd telling us to bring back the unused cake for a portion of our money back. We explained that the party had been primarily cake and ice cream, so we had to serve the cake. There was nothing else we could do by that time. Guests were beginning to arrive. The cake was served. The next response we got from the Little Cake Company after we explained that the cake had to be served: "Do what you gotta do. Do not contact me again." Close to $100 was spent on this cake. One would expect to spend this amount of money on a custom, specialty cake. One would not expect to spend that much money on a cake that is not made to order and falls apart before the party begins. One would especially not expect to be treated in the manner in which we were. I can assure you that we will never, nor will any of our family and friends, use the Little Cake Company of Muskogee again.

i wanted so badly to email the lady the note and all of the comments it was receiving. i wanted to tell her, "just thought you should know what people are saying about your business ..." but then i was afraid that she would retaliate by attacking notably noted or something. i couldn't risk that ... especially since i've never even worked with the woman through notably noted. my dream came true yesterday, though, when andrea emailed me and asked if she could do the very thing i'd been wanting to do. i told her to go for it! she put together an email with all of the information and sent it to the woman telling her that we have a wide network of friends and she had definitely harmed future business.

i still just can't believe the lack of customer service in today's business world. my parents and i were talking and we just don't see how people get away with it or get anything accomplished. our businesses would certainly not run if we treated people in the same manner.