Good Eats Boutique ; Rudeness and Inferior Products Portland, Maine
My family and I were very excited at first to find a location close to home where we thought we could receive a professional quality cake that would make a big-bang at my little sister's 21st Birthday. When we first walked into the bakery the owner Jill was extremely helpful and friendly, obviously trying to get our business. The cake had in mind she told us was impossible to do with the amount of notice we were giving her. So we went with plan 2.
We paid in advance for our cake and leaving the bakery the entire family was very excited to see what the cake was going to look like for the party. When my fiance went to pick up the cake the day of the party they were finishing the decorations, in my opinion the cake should have already been completed expecting our arrival. My fiance noticed that it was slanted...top heavy. He however didn't know what we had asked for with the cake and brought it home for me to inspect. When I first saw it I was baffled with dissatisfaction, there were globs of random frosting, the cake was literally falling off of the bottom half, the frosting was cracked, and the writing had been smeared across the bottom. I had decided that it would be better off if we were late to the party and had a 'fixed' cake rather than show up with this monstrosity.
We took the cake back to the bakery and Jill was extremely rude to both my fiance and I. Because she had received payment before we picked up the cake you could tell that she was uninterested with our complaints. When they were trying to 'fix' the cake (with little effort) Jill had accused my fiance of ruining the cake! The cake we spent half a fortune on, he ruined...just because. In order to fix the cake, their solution was to stab a few extra dowels through the top, which they did not fix the frosting for, and shove a piece of cardboard completely through the bottom half.
Now this cake did not only have smeared and cracked frosting, a lopsided figure and duct tape on it, but it now has a giant hole on the top where they put the dowels and a piece of cardboard sticking out of it. I was so frustrated and we were going to be late to the party, I just left with the cake. The amount of disrespect and rudeness from Jill and her workers was incomprehensible!
When we arrived at the party my grandmother saw the cake she had paid for and cried. Following which she called them up to complain and was also surprised by their rude attitude! They told her that they inspected every cake before they sent them out, however; they were just finishing the cake when my fiance picked it up, how could they have inspected it? I was looking for a bakery close by to get my wedding cake from but now I know not to hire these people ever again. Thank goodness we took pictures of the cake so there is clear evidence of their inferior product. They are extremely rude and once they get your money your product no longer matters.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Lori S.
Portland,Maine,
United States of America
Do you want help with this or not?
#4UPDATE Employee
Sat, August 11, 2012
Well you may be allowed to speak your mind as this is a public site, but so am I. Why have a 'rebuttal' button, if I am not allowed to defend my side of the case?
You can express your opinions all you want, I'm not here to stop you. All I wanted was more information on your order so that I would be able to help you. It's obvious that you are upset. And from what it sounds like, you don't want to bother giving me any further information so that I can be of any further assistance.
Because I knew nothing about the order, including cake size, even what day the order was, I couldn't get my hands on any other information. I was only stating that there are many reasons that a cake can have issues. Most commonly with tiered cakes, the issues lie in the transportation, it's simply a fact. I was not trying to say " It's all your fault ". Not at all.
And I thank you for the images included because they do help a lot. I see the tilted slant of the top tier, and I can see the blue scotch tape. Was that taped used on the back of something? Looks like a cardboard cutout? It's hard to tell from the images...I also see the bulging in the middle of the bottom tier. By any chance do you have images of the cake directly after you got it from the bakery? Before you did your 'touch ups?' Because these pictures look like they were taken at the party, after a presumably long transport.
By the sounds of it, you don't want to work this out, instead you wish to slander us---but it is a free country so do as you wish. If you do change your mind, I can dig up your order form and go over detail by detail to investigate further into what happened with your cake. Now that I know what the cake looks like, I may be able to find it.
jamlee089
Gorham,Maine,
United States of America
Provided Proof
#4Author of original report
Sat, August 11, 2012
I will be uploading just a few pictures where you can see the blue tape used, the glob of frosting behind the sugar stick outs, and the lopsided figure.
I read your re-buttle against my case, but all I have to say is that this is a free site where I can speak my mind about my personal experiences with this store. Though repeatedly you said "I'm not trying to start a fight" I don't see the purpose of giving you more information. When we came back to get it fixed we were given attitude. When we called that same day to complain again, we were given attitude. I see your re-buttle as a last ditch effort to keep others from realizing that the quality and customer service given at Good Eats Boutique is inferior to even Wal-Mart brand.
The fact that throughout your re-buttle you place blame on the consumer to me seems silly from the perspective of a potential customer even. I hope these pictures can show that my 'exaggeration' was fact. And let me set the record straight 'We' did not do anything to fix the cake. We brought it back into the bakery to have it fixed and it was then destroyed by the workers at the bakery. On another note we were told that because of our location the 'delivery service' offered was out of question, the destination being so far away. I never do this, complain about businesses, to me it's a mean thing to do in this economy, but in this case I have made an exception.
To the writer of the re-buttle of my article; you may not have been involved and 'I'm not trying to point fingers here' but the experiences I had with Good Eats Boutique were horrible and I need to let other know so they don't have to go through it. Because of the outrageous behavior from the workers there and the poor overpriced product I will continue to state my case to keep other families form suffering the same disappointment mine did. Consumer beware.
Lori S.
Portland,Maine,
United States of America
I need more information...
#4UPDATE Employee
Fri, August 10, 2012
Greetings unhappy customer,
I am an employee of GoodEats Boutique and I feel it is my duty to respond to this complaint. With out knowing exactly what order you are talking about, it is difficult for me to have specific feed back for you.
I have not spoken with you on the phone ( I'm sure I would remember that ), and I don't believe I even worked on your cake...but, I DO want to help you, and I do want to set this record straight. Because in my honest opinion, GoodEats Boutique is a wonderful place with wonderful people and wonderful cakes.
...and I highly doubt that duck tape was actually used on the cake itself. I think that part you must admit was a little exaggerated. I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just sayin'.
There may be many reasons that the cake had transportation issues. But like I said, I need to know more first. Though our policy is strict: Once the cake is out of our door, it is up to the customer to transport it safely. However with our delivery service (which you could have purchased but chose not to), we guarantee the cake will arrive on time, and in the same condition as it left our bakery. If the cake was so important, you should have used our transportation service to ensure that the cake made it safely to it's destination.
If your cake was a larger cake, we almost always suggest that we deliver. The handling and transportation of large or tiered cakes must be taken with great care and caution. Not only do you have to keep them 100% FLAT in your car, but also, the temperature of the interior must not exceed 75 degrees. They must always be lifted from the bottom center and never from the sides, and they must remain flat when transported both into your car and out of it. You must take caution and 'stop and go' very gently, and you need to avoid large hills or railroad crossings. Slamming on your breaks suddenly will undoubtedly result in a cake with tiers sliding off and breaking apart.
From my experience cakes tend to crack in heat and humidity, or when placed in direct sunlight. And the sliding could easily be a result of poor temperature control OR a heavy foot on the breaks.
I am happy to work with you and discuss this further if you would kindly offer some more detail on the cake, the design, and what exactly happened to it. Also, you said that the colors were not to your liking? Please elaborate. What exactly did you do to it to 'fix' it? Do you have any pictures?
I'm not here to start a fight. I want to set the record straight, but more importantly, I want you the customer to feel like this issue was resolved. I'm not here to point fingers, but I do want to find out why the cake went so horribly wrong.
Thanks ahead of time!