Emily has good cakes and in full disclosure, I had a positive experience with her in December, but I may not order from her again due to the hassle. If you are planning to order a cake from her, just keep in mind that the turnaround time of 24-48 hours listed on the website is not confirmed until she responds back to you and finalizes the order. It will be helpful to have this noted on the website and Yelp.
To briefly describe why I rated the business 3-stars:
Pros:
+ Cake is good
+ Turnaround can be prompt during the normal course of business operation
Cons
- Poor communication/ordering process
In brief, the owner was out of town for a week and this was not noted on her website. I had submitted a web order and did not receive any kind of notification that she was out of town at all. So, please check the Yelp page instead of her website - I do not because I don't check Yelp unless it's my first time ordering from somewhere. Also, please use the email/phone functions, as the website is not up-to-date for her availability.
I had put in what I assumed to be an order confirmation through her website on Friday to place an order for the cake to be picked up on Tuesday and I had sent an email confirmation as well to follow up, just in case the web order was not received.
I received an email response on Sunday at 9AM, requesting that I further confirm the order by giving her a call and/or email by 5PM that same day, or else she will be cancelling my order as she is closed on Mondays and will not be receiving any emails or responding to requests. As a customer, there was no possible way for me to know that I needed to keep an eye on my email in order to respond with a final confirmation. More frustratingly, I had also listed my phone number on the form but did not receive any calls from her on Sunday. Given the short turnaround time (8 hours) for me to respond, this whole situation could have been easily avoided had she had just called me or left me a voicemail before cancelling my order.
On a personal level, it just does not feel great to have my order cancelled/not fulfilled because I did not respond to an email within a stipulated timeframe that I had no way of knowing about beforehand.
Emily did also call me on Monday on her day off, which I appreciated. I asked if this was something that is still doable for her, or if I should just go to Whole Foods and pick something up at this point, and she noted that I should go to Whole Foods. This is not a problem - I'm not expecting that she work during her off day to make the cake. But just noting that unlike her comment, I was not under the impression at any time that she was still willing to go through with the order. I would have taken her up on her offer if she had availed it to me. If that was a misunderstanding on my end, I apologize.
I would strongly suggest for Emily to list any unavailability on the website in addition to Yelp, as there is an order inquiry form there and not everyone checks Yelp. Additionally, if such a situation should arise in the future, it's always appreciated to give the customer a call if you need more information for the order, as that is still a much faster way to reach someone. read more