Pennington's Cakes — Restaurant in San Marcos

I live in Illinois and I ordered an 8” double layer round cake and 100 cupcakes for a wedding taking place in Kyle, Tx. Steve (at Pennington’s) was very accommodating (hence the one star) considering I was ordering approximately 2 weeks before the wedding. I sent an email with photos specifying what I wanted and included a photo of the actual wedding color. We spoke on the phone and after our exchange of emails and phone conversation I felt confident and reassured I would be in good shape. He even suggested an option for the cupcakes which significantly raised the price but I accepted because this was my gift to the bride and groom and I wanted it to be really special. I paid a total of $500, and for that price just knew everything would be beautiful.

Upon my arrival to the bakery, a woman opened the box with the round cake in it stating “here’s your cake” and I thought she was joking. It was indeed a two-layer round cake, however, it was plain white (with the exception of a little piping at the very bottom of the cake). PLAIN white!!!! When I questioned her about it, stating it was supposed to be decorated, she looked at the ticket and responded “well it sure is”. She told me “that’s an easy fix” and went to the back and proceeded to plop some quickly made roses on the top of the cake. No reference to the photo I had sent, no question about how I would like it decorated, and then she added green leaves which were not a part of what I had sent. No apologies for the mishap, I would’ve thought someone might have thought this was a big deal but their actions were just the opposite. And what am I supposed to do?? The wedding was the same day so I was stuck.

In the email I received, Steve had quoted a higher price for having a full rose piped on each cupcake. When the woman showed me a few of the cupcakes, aside from being tiny, they also were not decorated with roses, they were the same simple generic swirl pattern you would get from a grocery store or Walmart bakery cupcake. I again questioned this and she said “I did this off the photo that was sent” (which by the way was a rose pattern and not simple swirl). I explained to her I was told a more expensive option with a rose being piped on each cupcake, and at this point she went to speak to a man (Steve??) sitting less than 10’ away (the place is tiny) and I overhear her say “is there something we can do for her?” And he yells to me “I’ll call you later”. Ummmm they close at noon, it’s about 10am at this point, none of my $500 order has been right and no one at this place seems to care.

I left the bakery very upset and crying. I delivered the cake and cupcakes to the venue (only to discover the cupcakes weren’t the right color either, some darker purple, some lavender, some white/purple mix, when I had specified white/lavender....I was told later “the bakery likes to do this...we don’t like to make them uniform....” Tip: you should make them the way the paying customer orders them, just saying.

Being from out of state, I returned to the bakery at about 11:45 so I could resolve this matter. I walked in and the workers looked up at me and continued working. I said “so, since I’m from out of state, I thought I should come back and get this taken care of” and the man (Steve???? Again, I have no idea because he never told me who he was) hesitantly came to the counter and asks, “what seems to be the problem?”...are you kidding me??

Long story short, I got credited back $125 to make up the difference from the cupcake decor he had quoted me. Fine, better than nothing. But what a poor way of doing business and such a poor way to treat a customer. I was so disappointed. The wedding was beautiful, and yes, there was a cake and cupcakes, but for what I received, I could’ve saved LOTS of money and gotten the same thing at a grocery...

After using Pennington for the past 9 years for all special occasions I finally had to tell myself as much as I love the final product and as much as I love the quality of the cakes I have to let yall go. For 9 years I have never been givin an ounce of respect as a customer. The owners are just flat out rude ! for the pass 3 years i had still been ordering here but had family members pick up the cakes to avoide the hostile environment here. Ive been yelled at and belittled by the owners on numerous occasions and being non confentational person I just took it an let them while I kept my mouth shut. It came to the point where they started charging me crazy prices for cakes when in the past they had made me similar cakes for 400$ less that what they were asking, almost as if they just wanted to not serve me but instead of refusing service they would upcharge me like crazy. That was the last straw w me and I did bring that problem to their attention and the woman owner just laughed in my face like hahaha yea so you don't want the cake right. It's sad all these years I've supported their buisness hoping that maybe they were just having bad days when I'd call or go in to order but it's been 9 years and in come to the conclusion they're just ugly to certain people. As per the buisness reply you can literally feel.the hostility . It's a family business regardless the owner and his family works here and they feel entitled and will treat you unfair. This is to rate my over all 9 years of experience with this bakery I have many more cakes I can upload I did state the quality was always up to par that's why I waited so long to post I just had had it with their ugly customer service as you can see from...

PLEASE NOTE: This review is only about a single customer service experience. From what I have heard, the cakes are very good from this location. I'm sorry I had to fill out Quality and Appeal section, as I would have liked to have left them blank.

I called to arrange an appointment for a cake testing. My family lives in Houston right now, and we are getting married in San Marcos. I was very appreciative when the woman on the phone gave me a 3pm appointment on Saturday, which is outside their operating hours. When we arrived at the store, after three hours of driving, the store was closed up and nobody was inside. Apparently, I had been told 3pm and 10am had been written down and cleared with management. I left a message hoping that somebody was late, but was called today by a manager. He apologized that there was a mistake, but refused to admit that the woman I had talked to had made the mistake, even after being told I had thanked her and confirmed that they would be staying open after operating hours. He even invented a story about me actually coming down to the store in person to arrange the appointment, which makes no sense given this whole situation was caused by my distance from the store. I had to cut the call short as I was in a meeting with my boss, and told him that I would like to hear from him after 4pm (I'm a teacher) and would like him to consider refunding my wasted gasoline. Overall, I felt a little insulted that he would call me during my work hours only to waste my time, then not call back when I was free to talk.

If you can't even trust a store to arrange a cake tasting, I don't think I want to put something bigger in...