Woman refuses to pay for gender reveal cupcakes ruined by dog. AITA?

Running a small business is hard, and people often try to take advantage. Is this one of those situations?

A customer wasn't satisfied with her order (for understandable reasons, I assure you), but the merchant demanded payment anyway. She said no, but now she's unsure. So, she came to Reddit to ask:

AITA (Am I the a-hole) for refusing to pay for my gender reveal cupcakes?"

u/AITACupcakesRuined writes:

I (F22) found out last week my first baby’s gender, and it’s a little girl. My family are excited about I decided to do a small gender reveal over the Easter weekend. I had this planned for Saturday, so a few days before, I asked a small local business if she could please make 12 cupcakes with pink and blue icing on top, and pink icing in the middle.

She agreed and said they would be ready to collect Friday evening. The plan was to pick the cakes up friday, invite friends and family over saturday and give some guests a cupcake which would reveal the gender. I only invited a few guests, just something cute and fun, plus, everyone loves cupcakes.

So Friday evening came, the small business owner (Claire) gave me her address to collect the cakes from and said they are ready to collect whenever. She greeted me there with the box of cupcakes and they looked amazing. They were exactly how I imagined them and thanked her for them.

She gave me the box, but just as she did, her large pet dog came running up to me, barking, and jumped at me, knocking the box of cupcakes all over the floor.

Claire apologised and shut the dog inside he was still barking and jumping at the door. She said it’s because he gets excited when people come and visit, but he wouldn’t have hurt me as he’s friendly.

At this point I didn’t know the damage to the cupcakes as the box landed upside down, I picked it up and the cakes were ruined. The icing had smashed all over the box and some cakes had spilled out onto the ground.

Claire looked horrified as I understand she spent a few hours making them for me, she apologised and said she could remake them for free, but they wouldn’t be ready until Sunday. I said unfortunately im expecting my guests tomorrow and sunday is no good, as I already had other plans.

I explained I wouldn’t be paying for these cupcakes as they were inedible and ruined by her dog. We agreed payment upon receiving the goods, and since I never received them, I wouldn’t be paying.

She said that I should still pay as she had to buy ingredients for the cakes and the costs of eggs has gone up meaning she would be out of pocket. I said if she had control of her dog, then they wouldn’t of been dropped and I'm sorry but again, I wouldn't be paying.

I got in my car and left without the cupcakes. I still had guests attend on Saturday, I announced the gender in person, rather than with some cupcakes, but it was still nice spending time with my friends and family.

My family were all happy, but my sister in law said I should of still paid for the cupcakes as she accepted it was her fault, and offered to remake them for me.

I personally don’t think I should of had to pay for them, but now I'm feeling slightly guilty as I understand it’s a small business and a loss of profit would affect her a lot harder than a larger business. AITA?

What do you think? Should OP at least pay something, due to it being a complete accident? Or is Claire the one at fault for letting her dog get out of hand?

Reddit was team OP and ruled NTA (not the a-hole).

workphoneguy says:

NTA why on earth would you need to pay for something you didn’t receive? I know it would be nice to help out Claire a little bit if you guys were friends, but if this is just some lady then no.

idkanan writes:

Don't get me wrong I love every. single. dog, but I'd be a little icked that the cakes were prepared in a residence with an overexcitable dog that's apparently big enough to reach the cupcakes to knock them down. It's secondary to the real issue of no cakes=no payment, but I would be wondering how much fur my guests would be eating.

Quick-Store2989 comments:

NTA. If she has a big dog and knows it likes to jump on people when excited she should have put the dog away before opening the door. She took that gamble and lost. What if you would have fallen and gotten hurt she put a huge liability on herself not securing her animal before clientele arrived.

avocadosdontbite shares:

She is a business owner. She needs to act like a professional. Having a wild, uncontrollable dog jumping all over your customers and knocking your product out of their hands as they're trying to pick it up is not acting like a professional.

This has nothing to do with the cost of eggs. She knows her dog doesn't behave and therefore should crate it or lock it in another room when she is meeting customers.

No way should you pay a dime for those cupcakes you couldn't use. If she could have remade them for you that day and delivered them to your house, sure. But you had no use for them a week later. Her fault so she eats the cost.

DavidANaida says something that's clearly been on their mind:

NTA. Dog people need to understand that their pet 'just getting excited sometimes' can have actual consequences.

And that's how the cupcakes fall!

Sorry Claire, but you're in the doghouse on this one.