* This post was written at the end of August, and I forgot about it, so it never actually got posted until now. Whoopsie.
I have been trying to get this baking business off the ground for quite some time now, however halfheartedly. I printed up some "business cards" from Dollarama but couldn't figure out how to set the margins properly so they are all misaligned. I placed an add on Kijiji in June and never really followed up on it. Set up a Facebook group, but didn't spend too much time promoting it. You know, try to make things happen in the way that I do. So imagine my surprise when the Kijiji add actually worked.
This woman named Shelly called me on Wednesday and asked me if I could bake 3 dozen cupcakes and 5 dozen sugar cookies for Saturday. She apologized for it being last minute, but her original baker canceled on her. Of course I agreed to do it. My first big job!
I spent hours getting this all ready. Sugar cookies take a long time, what with all the rolling out and decorating with royal icing. Not to mention that it's August and neither Tynna nor I have air conditioning. I went over to Tynna's Thursday after work, and she helped me bake the cookies. Brady helped too. After three hours of sweaty baking, the cookies were done. I went home, baked the cupcakes and felt ahead of the game. Friday night, I spent another three hours decorating the cookies. I felt a little panicked, but they all turned out.
I had to work on Saturday, but Chris was ready for Shelly to come pick the baking up. Poor guy had to wait all day for her to arrive, even though she was supposed to be there around 3 or 4. About five o'clock, I called home. She hadn't come to get them yet. I called her, and she said her daughter was on the way. I get home at six. She hadn't come to get them yet. I called her, no answer.
Many messages were left, many minutes spent reserve-directorying her number, trying to get her address. She's unlisted. She had not paid me yet! For a few days I tried to get ahold of her, but she didn't call back or pick up the phone. I was heartbroken. I felt so taken advantage of. Shame on her. I kept thinking. How could someone do something so cruel? I'm a home-based business. I'm not a grocery store, I can't put all this baking on the reduced rack, I was stuck with it. I brought the cupcakes to a party that night, and they were gobbled up. I brought the cookies to work and the girls ate them. At least they didn't go to waste.
The moral of the story is this: While most people are generally good, there are still a lot of arseholes out there who will do things like this to people. As much as I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt, chances are she's just a jerk who decided to buy her cupcakes from the grocery store at a cheaper price. Fine and dandy, but it would have been nice if she had called me cancel so I didn't waste three days of my time.
I now know that I always have to ask for a deposit before I even crack an egg. I wish I didn't have to, it would be nice to trust people and believe that they'll pay up, but I learned the hard way that wont always happen.
All well, live and learn.
Oh no, that sounds terrible! Its hard to keep faith in people when a small minority does things like this! You'll have so many customers in the future that pay up and sing your praises that hopefully this one will be forgotten!
ReplyDeleteoh dear, that is terrible. My guess it was a teenager playing a prank. I feel bad for you. i was toying with the idea of doing some private baking, but didn't go through with it but there was so much tension involved with other peoples expectations and reality, I couldn't go through with it.
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