Business ProfileforKarolina Sweet Pastries

On 1/29 I reached out to Kourtney at Karolina Sweet Pastries to order a cake. I was referred to her by another baker who trusted her work. I sent her an exact picture of the cake I wanted asking can she make that particular cake and her response was "yes I can design this for you" and for me to fill out the request form on her website where I stated the date I wanted the cake for and to feed 20-25 people (nothing else was mentioned far as if there would be a BIG difference in the cake).The cake was a ********* designed cake with an full edible ********* mold cup on top of the cake that was made of chocolate and cake with icing on top (as the whip cream would be on an real ********* drink).The cake itself and the mold cup itself had an edible ********* logo on the front. On the board of the cake had an edible mold ribbon where it read "Happy Birthday" On February 6th she asked me which flavor cake I wanted and what would I like the ribbon to say. I responded saying Flavor vanilla and Happy 10th birthday "daughters name". She then sent me an invoice which had my daughter name incorrect so I responded her of the error and she corrected it right away. Next I asked her did she require a deposit or pay in full. She stated" I prefer all orders under $200 to be paid in full unless otherwise needed. Two days later I told her I could pay in full the following week and that at that moment I could at least pay $95 to hold my spot. She agreed to that, made the changes to the invoice so I paid the half. A week and a half later on 2/22 I reached out to pay the remainder which was $90 (paid in full $185) and we discussed the pickup location. On 2/24 she reached out to me asking will around 1pm be a good time to meet for the following day 2/25.That morning around 11am I advised her yes we can meet at 1 and she stated " ok awesome see you then!!

I messaged her at 12:36pm advising her I am heading to the pick up location she responded back at 12:52pm saying "Ok see you there I maybe just a few minutes behind you". At 1:06pm she messaged me saying "at the light…" along with a picture of the cake. As I was attempting to respond right back seeing the picture she was already pulling up next to my car. She gets out saying "everything ok with the cake I seen bubbles going you were typing back" I got out saying "you used an actual cup I was expecting and edible cup like the picture I sent and the sizing looks off how many people will this feed" she stated " I can send you a cake cutting guide that will allow you to feed 25 people and that she did the cup different but its filled with icing that my daughter can scoop out of" she seen I was not pleased and said" you ok with that" I said "No but I really don’t have a choice". She said ok thank you and got in her car and left. I wrote her at 4pm expressing to her in a nice way that I was not satisfied with the cake at the price I paid due to the actual plastic cup she used (I was expecting and edible cup), it did not read happy 10th birthday "my daughter name" (something we discussed), on the ********* logo it read "Happy birthday coffee", the logo was also NOT edible she made the logo out of cardstock (something that was not pictured in the picture I sent to her) and I also advised her the cake cutting guide she sent me was not sufficient enough (it was showing me that I could cut the cake into square cubes ) which I could not do at a kids birthday party feeding kids mini/small small pieces of cake. None of this was mentioned or discussed with me on the changes and big difference the cake would have been.

After I made her aware of why I was dissatisfied she responded saying she apologized for the miscommunication, she cant always copy an exact design, they have different ways of creating cakes from other bakers. She also stated I did not relay to her that I wanted an edible cup (pictured in the picture I sent her), that I didn’t relay I wanted an edible logo (pictured in the picture I sent), and she stated pictures are only needed for reference and ideas and that her policy states this and she ended the message with saying "I truly do apologize the birthday banner wasn’t added to the board as requested". I then responded saying how she should have told me all of this from the start on what a big difference the cake would have been from the picture and the method she would have been using to create the cake. I also pointed out how she choose to send me a picture of the cake while she was literally pulling up to me which was also unusual for someone to do. She then responded again apologizing for not adding the birthday banner and stated "thank you for your consideration you all have a great weekend". I responded back shocked and applaud with her response and mentioned a remake a partial refund is what she should be offering and etc. From this point the baker/kourtney stopped responding. The next day comes (party day) as we begin to sing happy birthday I realized the cup plastic cup she used was NOT even filled with icing as she stated at pick up. The cup was an actual ********* cup from ********* with the lid upside down that had the icing ony in the lid and the inside of the cup was line with chocolate, no filling. I then called her upon noticing this, she did not answer then blocked me from messaging her and calling her on ********. I also called her number listed on the business page and sent a text but no response. I was left dissatisfied, over charge due to false advertisement by this business that has been in business for many years.

As of 3/3/2023 this business owner still has not reached out or attempt to correct her actions or issue a partial refund. I also had multiple people that were customers of hers from the past reach out to me telling me how they had a similar issue with her and that she did them the same way by blocking them. When she blocks people from her page on ******** this allows all of her negative/bad reviews to also get blocked out if someone tries to research her work prior to booking. This is bad business and I do not recommend due to false advertisement, and over charging