The Girl on the Swing - Chartwell — Restaurant in Hamilton

I ordered a huge 10'' cake from here for my 21st, 1 week in advance. I didn't receive a confirmation for my order so a couple days later, I rang into make sure that my order had been processed, which they confirmed it had.

The closing times published on their website (screenshot attached below) says that the store closes at 5.30 pm Tuesday to Friday.

I went into the store a day before my birthday, to pay half the price of the cake as a deposit and to make sure it was going to be ready for me to pick up between 3 pm - 5 pm, the next day (this was the day of my 21st).

On the day of my 21st, I rang in around 4.40 to let them know I was coming in to pick the cake up. No reply. We went into the cake shop and they were closed. Pushed the after hours bell on the door. No reply. They knew my birthday was that night, and hadn't rang me before closing the store early to let me know my cake was ready. Just before 5 pm, 1 hour before my 21st, I had no cake and was standing in front of a closed cake shop. I made numerous calls and even left a voice message. No reply.

The next day, I went into to complain to the manager. The manager was unbelievably rude and showed no sympathy whatsoever. She said the website closing times were outdated, from 2 years ago (as if this is common knowledge a customer should know). Their current closing time is 3.30 on Thursdays (how am I meant to know this?). She was outrageously inconsiderate, brutally insensitive and spoke harshly. She said I could have my deposit back but she would throw the cake out and was reluctant to even let me take a photo of my cake.

I have never seen or experienced such terrible customer service. I left the store feeling absolutely shattered.

I wanted to make this complaint not merely for my sake but because I would hate for this to happen to anyone else. I get that miscommunication between staff members happens, but it was the managers response to my situation that I found most horrendous. Customer service like that is straight up unacceptable.

The receptionist and one other lady from the kitchen however were professional and they took the time to apologise nicely (which is all we needed and wanted) whilst the manager went into her office.

To the manager, if you read this review - I hope you reflect on how you treated me that day and use this as a learning experience to improve how your business does things better.

Update your website closing hours. Have a system in place to call people to let them know their cake is ready if you're gonna close 2 hrs earlier and you know they need it that night.

And if you do stuff up and make a mistake, own it and talk to customers with respect and take steps to rectify those mistakes. I am never going back, and would not recommend you to anyone.

In all honestly, she probably just saw 3 small Indian girls come in and didn't care to take our case seriously. On the day we came to complain, we didn't even want the cake - we just wanted a sincere apology - which you...

Update The team has been in contact and apologised again for the mistake. They offered to make some cupcakes for free and do the next cake I needed for an event for free as well which is incredibly generous. They have also refunded me in full. I asked if they would make the cake I had initially ordered but smaller so my girlfriend could still enjoy her dream cake and they accommodated my request. I picked up the cake last week and it was beautiful and delicious and we really enjoyed it! Such a shame it couldn’t be enjoyed by everyone at her party, but s**t happens and people are human. I’m appreciative of how the team handled this situation despite how disappointing and stressful the mishap was initially.

ORIGINAL: I had organised a custom cake for my girlfriend’s 30th birthday a couple of weeks prior to her party (cake was based on a cake from her favourite show-she was super excited!) and called the day of pickup (1/3) to confirm pick up time. I was told the cake wasn’t out on the board to make that day and it hadn’t been made. The gentleman who answered the phone (Cam?) was apologetic and asked me to call back while they find my order details. I called back and they didn’t have anyone who could pipe the cake so he was trying to organise someone to do it for me. An hour or so later I got a call back and they were still trying to organise someone. Later on I got a text that the cake wouldn’t be able to be done at all. I was absolutely gutted. The cake was supposed to be the centrepiece and my girlfriend and I were really excited about it. By this time it was too late to organise a replacement (especially because it was gluten free) so there was no cake at her birthday party. I understand this was an accident and I know the gentleman I spoke to tried his best to get it organised for me which I’m very thankful for, and up until then the service and email communication between Izzy and I was great and they were very accommodating to my requests but it was a complete disaster on the day. I was extremely stressed and embarrassed that there was no cake and it was really disappointing. Still no refund as of today (4/3)....

I would not recommend buying a cake from this place. The manager is unprofessional and has no sense of customer service. We had bought a cake for a 21st birthday, as the place was highly appraised by a friend. But the experience we received was unacceptable, they had told us no pick up time just that the cake was ready at 3pm. On the day we did not receive a single phone call that our cake was ready for pick up. We got there just before 5pm and the store was closed, we called multiple times before 5pm to tell them we are running late and got no answer, completely ruining my friend's birthday. The next day we confronted the manager telling her what happened, and she was extremely rude, could not talk to us face on and showed no sympathy. She acted like we should have known that the store closes at 5pm as it has for the past 2 years, and yet their website says 5.30pm. When asked what she was going to do with the cake she laughed in our faces and said that she was going to throw it out. I have never had an experience of a manager who is disrespectful to customers, has no idea how to act professional nor to represent her business in a positive manner. It was nice to have some empathy from the bakers as they also recognised their fault while the manager did not. As someone who works in customer service I would never act like this to ruin the reputation of the business and I did not expect to be treated this way. I do not recommend buying a cake from this place and will never be returning to the store. After reading several other reviews this seems to be a common theme and yet the business has...