The day we lost a customer ...

For a start, it is not our business mission to piss off customer. Else we will already be out of business by now. And more often than not, we will try to accommodate customers' requests as best we can. Our regular customers will probably attest to this. However, we are also quite the stickler when comes to business policy. The imposition of an admin fee for change requests after an order is made is one example. We do know of cake shops that will absolutely not entertain changes or cancellations once the order is placed. For us, all change requests within 24 hours after an order is placed will be made without charge. An admin charge of $10.70 will apply for all such requests made after the 24 hour period. Our policy is clearly communicated on the main page of our website, i.e. prior to customer placing an order. The policy is also reflected on the order confirmation that customer will receive after an order is placed. However, we can only do so much in terms of communication. Whether the customer actually read the policy statement is beyond our control.

On our Order Confirmation

Then again, we are not a heartless bunch and do make exceptions when they are warranted. We do have customers who had to make changes due to medical reasons or varying Covid-19 limitations on social gathering. In such cases, we will not hesitate to make changes to their orders without penalty. But we have found that our admin fee is most effective when comes to weeding out the "really need to change" from the "just want to change". The former will typically have no qualms about paying the admin fee. But the later, when told about the admin charge, will suddenly have no need to make the change anymore.

On the main page of our website

And then there is the third kind of customer much like the one we encountered today: when told that an admin fee will apply if he wished to change the delivery date of his order, vowed that this will be the first and last time he be ordering from us. Which is fine. We do respect his (differing) opinion about our admin fee. Then again, we also seek customers' respect on our rights to implement certain business policy (in this case, the admin fee), of which is communicated clearly to our customers before and after an order is placed. We will continue to treat all customers fairly and with respect. But we will rather not continue to trade with those who are unable to agree with our business policy.