Following my earlier post on the bakers who make beautiful 3D cakes, I had an encounter with one of them.
I had not mentioned in my post then. What happened was I went down to their Joo Chiat shop on a Wednesday public holiday noon, only to find it closed with a sign saying something like "Out for setup, back at 5pm". My hubby, baby and I hung around the area till 5.10pm, went back to the place, and it was still closed. We left for our early dinner.
That Saturday noon, we headed back there again. This time, it was opened but the lady who was there seemed alittle perplexed i should show up without an appointment. I told her I just want to drop by to look at some designs, and she disappeared backroom only to appear with an invoice book to take my order. I asked her about the designs and was told it's all on the website.
Bottom line is , it wasnt a pleasant experience at all. In fact, I felt i had wasted my time venturing to that part of Singapore just to see if I can get a cake from her. Yes, I probably should have emailed or called or something. I'm the type that likes to get into the action, and I had a few questions on the designs and the serving, so I followed my desire! Well that doesnt always turn out well....
Later that Saturday, I emailed the owner to feedback on the service as I believe she deserves to know if she's putting her time and time on her home business of sorts and letting some young girl squander her business with bad customer service.
Owner's reply was very professional and distant. She nicely asked that I arrange for an appointment between 10am to 7pm from Mon to Thurs. I replied that it would be tough for me to make that timing given my work hours, and at her invitation described some cake concepts (very simple ones actually) that I would like to consider. That on was 25th Nov Monday.
On Fri or Sat, I finally received an email reply from her. It states that she is not available on the date I needed.
I was really quite apalled by the time it took for her to revert on her unavailability. I wrote to say that I'm puzzled why she would need 5 days to check her diary of orders. Her reply - "I replied to your email immediately I read them today, no chance to read my mails for quite as many orders to be completed and things to organize."
??? !!!
Apart from the poor grammar, I am even more appalled that she should think 5 days delay is acceptable if she replies immediately after she reads the emails. It doesnt seem to trouble her that she has read her business email only 5 days after I had sent.
She must be really happy about doing that Mediacorp event and probably plans that to be her strategy for business growth next year.
I'm just glad there are other cheaper, more responsive, and nice creators of 3D cakes beside her. So she's out from my list perpetually.
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