Sugar Benders Bakery — Restaurant in Georgia

My wife had stumbled upon this bakery while seeking out someone to make a custom order fondant cake for her mother's birthday. Her mother is a retired high school history teacher and as such, this established the theme. My wife showed her a variety of photos and a list of details about the cake. The owner requested the photos be provided to her. My wife obliged and also reiterated the list of details in an email.

1. The cake's base was to be two textbooks. This was about the only thing that the bakery got right.

2. The desk was supposed to be made to look solid - as in a wood desk. Not a slab on top of four skinny posts. The pictures provided clearly show this. The desk is almost as tall as the teacher figure. The globe on the desk was not in a mount. Simply a ball made to resemble a globe was plopped onto the table...hard to call it a desk. The picture provided clearly shows the globe with a mount. So, we knew it was possible, assuming the proprietor had the skill and/or desire to do so.

3. The teacher figure: Nowhere close to the size and style that was requested (it was supposed to be bigger). More specifically, my wife had requested that glasses on a rope chain were to be a part of the figure. When we picked the cake up, the owner had indicated she could not make the glasses...well, that was one of several things she couldn't do as it turns out. This was a rather important detail since the glasses were a signature implement for Mrs. Johnson.

4. ABC 123? She was a history high school teacher, not an elementary school teacher. No text was requested for the top of the cake. At the very least, the owner should have called before applying this misappropriated detail. At least my wife would have had the opportunity to suggest something more appropriate.

5. The figure was supposed to be holding a piece of chalk and AT THE BOARD. Not standing in the middle with her hands clasped. A piece of chalk on the chalkboard was also requested. And to top off the chalkboard mishaps, it can clearly be seen that she originally was writing out Betty's name with an "i". That's rather poor to leave evidence of a typo.

This all brings me to the most salient point about all of this. The bakery itself is charming with a nice setting and a good assortment of cafe style food and a decent variety of confectionary sweets and desserts. The owner should stick to that. (Even though she only had one croissant when we had asked for two croissant sandwiches to go. It was approximately 11:00 on a Sunday morning and she doesn't have the vital component to the top menu item?) All things being said, it's clear that she does not have the skillset or an honest understanding of her capabilities. As the reviews can attest, she has a pattern of profoundly missing key points of what customers are asking for. Worse than that, no attempts to make things right with the customer. I see a pattern of almost flippant excuses and odd explanations for why she couldn't deliver. When my wife discussed her vision of the cake, and showed her the pictures, the owner should have told her that she wouldn't be able to execute. The owner needs to realize that in almost every circumstance, these cakes are literally the centerpiece of the celebration and figuratively, profoundly sentimental. In our case, likely the last birthday for my mother-in-law to experience with any semblance of lucidity due to the progression of her dementia. A last hurrah, if you will, to celebrate what she was known for, being a high school history teacher.

So yes, we are profoundly disappointed and I am even more disappointed for my wife who has been tirelessly looking after her mom for several years now and wanted this birthday to be special. That's why you spend $250+ on a cake. There are expectations that go with that. There were assurances by the owner those expectations would be met. The owner fell far short of these expectations and in such a way she had to have known she couldn't have met them. To cite a common internet meme as of...

Beware of this company. From all Yelp, TripAdvisor and other reputable online review websites you can see how people feel about their experience. I made a stupid mistake by just randomly calling and asking for help for a cake order that I want to place for my baby shower - my bad for not reading any reviews. Veronica who I believe the business owner took my phone, we discussed the design of the cake I want. She sent me a text message from a cell number, I said I am interested and this design may work. Then she told me to pay a 50% deposit to hold my place and I can cancel until the end of the day. At this point, she did not direct me to her website or discuss any cancellation policies. She just said "call until the end of the business to cancel, no problem." I called the business at 4:08pm to cancel nobody picked up - I got the voicemail that states their business hours are between 7:30am till 5pm. I called a few more times, no answer. At this point, I also checked their website which also states that the business hours are between 7:30am to 5pm. Then I immediately called the cell number that I received the image of a cake design. A female employee answers and says the business is closed for the day, she is home and she cannot do anything about it, I need to speak to Veronica. So not knowing what else to do I emailed Veronica at 4:21pm. At this point I am still 5 days away from the delivery date that we discussed.

The next day Veronica emails me saying, it is too late to cancel because I called after business hours which is not true as it can be seen in the attached images so she cannot refund the full amount to me and I should have read their policies on their website. Unfortunate on Veronica's side, Veronica did not direct me to the policies on her website or volunteer any information about cancellation policies while on the phone with me. She assured me that cancellation is no issue. After further communications with her and understanding how Sugar Bender Bakery business is run, now I personally believe she purposefully did not inform me of her policies or she did not direct me to her website before taking a deposit from me. Any good, ethical company would inform you before doing that. Instead she immediately proceeded with asking my credit card information to hold my place.

After back and forth for 3 days, she emails me this note: "Your deposit was $75.00, due to cancellation 50% of your deposit is forfeited($37.50) as well as a $25 consultation fee, that puts you at $62.50, so $75 minus $62.50 would give you a $12.50 refund."

The charge on my credit card is $79.50 not $75. Her website states "Cancelled more than 4 days scheduled before pickup/delivery - $25 fee, Cancelled 4 or 3 days days before scheduled pickup/delivery - 50% of your deposit". Due to her irresponsibility for not getting back to me and closing her business early that day, she is now charging me not only the $25.00 but also another 50%.

What can I say, my first big mistake is not reading reviews for this company before I called. My second mistake is just taking her word on being able to cancel the order by end of the day.

My final comments are, please please please talk to other bakeries in the area before giving your credit card information to this company. You will quickly realize that others have a more upfront, honest approach as they are consulting you and they are much more open and clear about what it means to pay a deposit and what cancellation looks like (as opposed to Veronica just saying oh yeah call by the end of the day and you can cancel). Do your homework, read reviews, understand this business. Other bakeries that I called mentioned they have heard similar complaints from other clients. AGAIN BEWARE of...

Please consider looking elsewhere. Reviews made this place sound amazing, however I received a cake with the incorrect design. To make matters worse the customer service is non-existent.

I ordered a cake to celebrate a family member’s 80TH birthday and did not feel good about the purchase at all. First, when placing the order I asked if I could receive confirmation of the design I requested and was told, “We don’t do that here.” in a condescending tone. That should’ve been my first sign considering I had no idea what the cake was going to look like, yet they required a 50% deposit.

Next, when I went to pick up the cake, I was beyond disappointed. The design was no where near what I requested. I received a flower design instead of the music notes and microphone that I asked for. The happy birthday banner looked like it was written by a twelve year old. There were also cracks in the frosting. I attempted to resolve the matter by reaching out to the bakery. They told me they would have to call me back so they could look into the matter further. I called back to follow-up since it’d been over an hour with no call and they were closing soon. An employee rudely told me, “We don’t have a manager but the owner will get back to you at some point. She’s at home with her kids.” The lack of professionalism was amazing! You would think that small business such as this would be a little more grateful and appreciative of the business they receive. Especially considering COVID has likely reduced their business a little.

I was left with the wrong cake the same day of the birthday celebration, with no time to find a replacement. I thought surely the taste would make up for the cake’s sad appearance. Wrong! The frosting was insanely sweet with absolutely no flavor and incredibly gritty. How do you make a cake with terrible frosting?!

Although they were trying to be polite about it, I could tell my guests didn’t really enjoy the cake. How embarrassing is that?! I was left with practically an entire cake left over and the feeling of wasting a ridiculous amount of money. If I wanted a bogus cake I could’ve went to Walmart and honestly I may have been better off.

The manager, Aleira (not sure of spelling), refused to resolve the situation even after admitting getting the order completely wrong. Her only offer was to give me $50 to come back. Why would I want to come back after a horrible experience?! At this point I’m left believing the manager is illiterate, considering she read the email I sent back to me which confirmed my design choice. I’ve even attempted to speak with the owner, but apparently she’s never in the shop. I’m guessing she just leaves her horribly trained employees to run her business...