• User rating:

"Very poor customer service, lack of communication & too many excuses"
Diana Cano
Fort Worth, Texas
June 8, 2011

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We needed a bridal cake and groom's cake for my daughter's wedding on June 5th and only had a short window of time to select a bakery. When we met with Monica, we explained the bridal cake damask design in detail and showed her a picture of a 3-D dragon cake that we wanted for the groom's cake. We were very specific on the bridal cake and that we wanted the damask design to extend over all the edges of each layer so there would be no blank spots on top of the bottom 3 layers. This did not happen. We also wanted every other layer to be either checker board or swirl chocolate/white cake. It looked like it was suppose to be swirl cake, but it wasn't really swirled and tasted like spice cake. We showed her a picture of a 3-D dragon cake to see if it was something she could do. She told us she wasn't sure, so she said she could make some practice cakes and then send us some pictures so we could make an informed decision. Monica assured us this was not a problem because she could put the practice cakes out for sell in her bakery. After visiting several bakeries, we decided to go with Creative Cakes by Monica because we liked her cake samples, liked the pictures of her work, and believed what she told us. On, or about May 4th, I sent Monica an email, asking her to send us a quote. She said I would have it Thursday, May 5th. It didn't come, so I sent her another email on Friday, May 6th. On Monday, May 9th, I finally got her official quote, apologizing for responding late because of Mother's Day and Graduation events. This was the beginning of a plethera of excuses. My initial request for bids on Decidio was for $3-$4 per serving for a fondant bridal cake. I'm not sure why Monica placed a bid, because she mainly does her cakes in buttercream icing and not fondant. Therefore, once we re-iterated that we wanted fondant icing, her charge went to $4.50 per serving. I was willing to not address the upcharge because I trusted she would do a quality job. We also requested cream cheese icing under the fondant on both cakes, but got butter cream instead. We did not want butter cream because it was way too sweet. (Monica said it didn't taste like cream cheese icing because she probably didn't add enough cream cheese to bring out the flavor. There was not a hint of cream cheese on either cake. It was pure butter cream, way too sweet, so not many people ate any. Not sure why she didn't taste test it first.) On May 18th, I sent an email to Monica to see if she had been able to do any 3-D example cakes. She said she "had an employee leave her the prior Tuesday, and was extremely swamped and should have a start on the molded part of our cake by mid week, the next week" which would have been May 25th. On May 25th at 8:45 am, I sent Monica a follow up email regarding status of a practice cake and to discuss final payment because we didn't want to pay for the groom's cake if it wasn't going to be acceptable. On May 25th at 3:58 pm, I sent another email because I had not heard from her, explaining that we were in a panic because it was 11 days from the wedding and we haven't seen any examples of her 3-D work yet. On May 25th at 4:28 pm, Monica responded, saying she had a family member in the hospital but that she had "one of her girls working on it". On May 26th at 12:37 pm, Monica emailed a picture of a partial head of the dragon, nothing else. Although that partial piece looked okay, it was not enough to make an informed decision. On June 1st at 9:49 am, I emailed Monica, asking if she had any more pictures. No response. On June 2nd at 10:43 am, I emailed her again, asking where we stood with the cakes. She responded at 11:01 am, saying she had sent me an email the prior day, but it came back to her as "delayed". I never received that email. She also said she had "5 weddings this weekend, plus numerous other cakes, so she had to allot the time in order of cake delivery. She would have to work on the rest of the dragon Friday and Saturday when they start to ice the cakes". I replied at 11:16 am, reminding her of our consultation where she said she would be able to do some example cakes so we could see the progress and work quality before we paid for the cake. As of this time, we had only seen one picture of a partial head and we had already paid both cakes in full. I explained to her it was troublesome that she was not going to do any other work on the dragon until Friday or Saturday, and Sunday was the wedding, which did not allow us to view her final work or make a decision. Monica was well aware of the short window of time we had, but had not done what she promised. I also explained to her that I was off the next day (Friday) for wedding preparation and to send any pictures to my personal email. I immediately followed up with a second email, requesting rental of a cake stand and to let me know as soon as possible if she had one available. I did not hear from Monica after that until she delivered the cakes on Sunday. She had not read my email request for a cake stand, so we were stuck with a tacky piece of cardboard that the cake was delivered on. It was very evident that Monica had overbooked herself and could not deliver what she promised. She had many opportunities to let us know that the dragon cake was not possible and we could have gone to another baker or requested a less difficult cake, but she did not allow us that decision. Instead, she delivered both cakes on Sunday, assuming they were both acceptable. Although the bridal cake wasn't exactly what we wanted in regard to the damask design, it appeared acceptable. However, the bottom layer was not fully cooked, the icing was not cream cheese and I am not sure if we had swirl cake or spice cake. The dragon cake looked sort of okay, but I would not have accepted it, if she had sent pictures as promised because the snout of the dragon was too big and the neck was crooked. Unfortunately, it was at the reception and I did not want to say anything in front of my daughter that might upset her. This was not fair nor professional on Monica's part. I emailed Monica on June 7th, to let her know how disappointed I was with her services. She was "shocked" and praised herself for doing a fantastic job, said our communication was "cordial" and said I should have said something when the cakes were delivered. Unfortunately, it was too late at that time to get another groom's cake. I do not recommend Creative Cakes by Monica because her customer service is substandard and her communication skills are lacking. It was very evident that Monica was not concerned about our concerns. We paid her $920 for two cakes, but I feel we only got about $500 worth of what was promised.

Vendor response: As you can see, we have a very "particular" customer here. When the cakes were delivered, the bride's mother and father, as well as other family members were amazed at the cakes. They praised them for the entire time I took to set them up. I would be happy to show anyone the finished products, they are on my website, and I have had many requests to recreate the cakes. I think some certain customers like to complain in order to request a refund on perfectly completed orders.

This is the subjective opinion of an independent reviewer and not of Decidio, Inc.