Heitzman Bakery — Restaurant in Louisville

I’ll start with a direct quote from the owner, “Our shop has never given cash refunds and it never will.” After driving across town to buy cakes here for 8 years, I will never go back again. The owner is extremely rude and does not know how to provide good customer service. I’ll try to condense this as much as possible but it’s a bit of a long story. You'll find my conversation with the owner in the last two paragraphs.

I ordered a cake to use to tell our families we were moving back to our hometown (Owensboro). It was scheduled to be ready at 9am. When I arrived at 11am the cake was not ready. Once they finished it I realized the cake was lopsided, the icing looked horrible, and they had misspelled Owensboro. I asked if I could just get a refund and go elsewhere but was told they do not give refunds. I asked to talk to the owner and was told they had no way to contact her because she was out on medical leave.

After being in the bakery for about an hour we agreed that they would make a new cake and deliver it to my house later that day. The man who delivered it reeked of cigarette smoke. Once I brought the cake inside and opened the box I realized that Owensboro was spelled incorrectly again and that the box itself smelled like smoke. Since the box smelled like smoke I’m thinking there is a high likelihood the cake was exposed to smoke as well (since the box is not air tight). The box was also covered in icing fingerprints.

I called and the manager (Beverly) apologized. She said she would have them bring a third cake and asked me to call her when it arrived. She thanked me for my patience and said she appreciated that I had been “so sweet and understanding”. I want to emphasize that I was polite to everyone I talked to, including the owner. They knew I wasn't happy but I did not yell and wasn't hostile. I just wanted the cake I had paid for.

The name on the third cake was spelled correctly but this cake was lopsided just like the first one. At this point, I had run out of time so a lopsided cake would have to do. I called Beverly and after ringing for awhile, a different lady answered. She said the call was forwarded to her since no one at the bakery had answered.

It turns out I was speaking with the owner (who had supposedly been unreachable since she was on medical leave). She already knew about the cake situation. I told her the third cake was lopsided but that I was just going to use it anyway. She said, “Honey, that’s what we call a homemade cake. These are mixed and poured by hand so there are going to be imperfections. If you want a perfect cake you would need to go to Kroger or Walmart where they aren’t homemade.” I explained I had never received a lopsided cake from Heitzman before. (Plus, I do not expect a $35 cake from a supposedly professional bakery to be lopsided.)

When I asked why she didn’t offer refunds she said, “Our shop has never given cash refunds and it never will.” She said they had "jumped through hoops" to make me three cakes. I explained they didn’t make three cakes to do me a favor. They made three cakes because they messed the cakes up and I still didn’t end up with the cake I had paid for. I told her it didn’t matter because I would not be returning to their bakery. She said in a sarcastically cheerful voice, “Good! Because you seem like a Kroger or a Walmart type of girl anyway!” At this point I hung up on her to keep myself from saying some choice words. The funny thing is if she had just given me a refund in the first place she would not have had to make three cakes and two delivery trips. She not only cost herself more money by not giving me a refund but she also lost a long time customer and earned herself a bad review. **Edit: I think the owner's response to my original review speaks for itself. The other manager I worked with thanked me for being "sweet and understanding." Apparently wanting a cake that isn't lopsided and doesn't smell like cigarette smoke is being a difficult customer. They have been in business for 127 years because she hasn't owned it...

This situation upset me so much that I've waited a week to write this.

I have been getting my family's birthday cakes from Heitzman's Bakery for years and I will NEVER step foot in there again!

I always call in a few days before the cake is needed (they always say give them 24hrs notice), they ask for a picture of an image if I want something particular, I email them the image, they confirm they received my email, and then I proceed to pay, and pick up at the designated time. This is how it's gone for at least the past 3 years for my family's birthday cakes.

This time was different.

I called on the 17th, placed my order with the lady with the glasses that has been working there all the years I've been buying cakes. We talked about the design and she suggested a few things and we agreed that it would be a picture of my son in his football uniform, a red and white boarder, footballs on the corners, and it would say "Happy 14th Birthday Carson". It would be ready for pick up at 10am on the 19th of October.

Before I proceeded to pay, she asked Tony, the manager, if he received my email of my picture and he said yes. I paid for my son's cake, no policy was discussed, and that was the end of the call.

Saturday, I got to the Bakery at 12:30pm. I was running behind, due to my son's football game lasting longer than expected. The party ended at 1:30pm and the venue was 15mins away from the Bakery, so I was crunched for time.

I walked in, waited behind a family picking out their $1 donuts, and then I was greeted by the same lady who took my order over the phone. She brought the cake from behind her and when I looked at the cake I was shocked.

The cake originally was decorated with a red, white, and blue, picture of some football player whom which you could only see his silhouette. He had a number 12 on his jersey. I immediately asked who in the world is this person because that was not the picture I sent them. The boarder of the cake had red white and blue sprinkles, and blue was NEVER supposed to be on the cake.

She asked Tony to come to the front and I explained that although that was a nice cake, that was not what I asked for and he apologized and said he would fix it and it would only take 10mins which I didn't think was possible, but this has never happened before so I wanted to give him a break.

I left, went across the street to the dollar tree, came back OVER 10mins later, and Tony was NOT DONE. I let both of them know that I was going to miss my son's whole birthday party and that I needed to leave. I asked to just get my money back and he brought the cake to the front and told me that there was a sign on the door that there were no refunds.

I ordered over the phone, so how would I see a sign on the door?! That policy was not told to me prior to them getting my card number and placing the charge on my card.

He told me to just take the cake he made. I refused because it looked terrible and on the back side where you can't see, there were still red white and blue sprinkles. The cake said "Happy 14 Birthday Carson", and that looked shaky as well as the boarder.

I asked him did that really look like a $60 cake to him, he hesitated, and then said yes. That is a lie, this cake was terrible. I've never ordered a cake this ill put together.

He then said to me, "Just take the cake, because where are you going to get a cake this short notice". I told him ANY grocery store and the cake would look better than that, then he said, not with the image on there and I let him know that the image is the least of my worries at this point. He was getting loud and talking over me most of the time. VERY disrespectful. He kept saying he fixed the cake and I told him it was not fixed and even in his eyes, if it were fixed it still was almost 3hrs after the pickup time, making me late to my son's event.

I told him I needed to leave and he could keep the cake and I left it there with him on the counter AND I missed my son's birthday party.

I miss the lady owner with the pink hair. I'll...

I just wanted my money back! I call them in the middle of the month maybe even earlier then that. Because I knew the cake I wanted was going take a few days to make. It was for a birthday party /Family gathering. I had almost 30 people coming over. When I called the first they told to email a picture of the cake. And they would call me back. So I did and never got a call back. So the next day I called. The Woman told me she didn’t know how to price the cake. To call back on Tuesday. So I did again they ask me to email picture. So I sent a other one. Again the lady did not know how to price the cake. Then told me I would get a call back. I waited for a few hours then called them back! Finally I got a price! The woman told me what the picture had said on it and everything. Just to make sure that’s what I wanted. Then said it would be 208.99 ok. So they took the money off my card. It was scheduled For me to pick up at noon the 30th. I came in and they didn’t even make my cake. Tried to tell me I never email them. When I showed that I did, they told me to send them a other one! What point would that be if I have to have the cake now! So sent one again! That’s three now! The lady was going try and make me a flat cake that’s not what I paid for! So then I asked for my money back! They wasn’t even going try and give me that! They call the owner three time and couldn’t get ahold of her. That made me even more mad because nobody knew what they was doing! Finally I got my money back. And got back in my car a cried! I don’t have time for problems like this! I’m in school and work two jobs! I’m soooo...