Scamming customer, what would you do in this instance?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A local bakery owner faces their first mold complaint after delivering over 10,000 cakes. The customer claims mold appeared overnight in the fridge, which the owner disputes based on:

Key Facts:

  • Cakes typically last 5+ days refrigerated without preservatives
  • Testing shows mold takes ~2 weeks to develop at proper fridge temperatures
  • Customer cannot provide photographic evidence
  • No refund has been requested yet

Community Advice:

  • Don’t let one complaint threaten the business with a 99.99% positive track record
  • Respond professionally with facts about proper storage and product longevity
  • How you handle negative reviews can serve as marketing to potential customers
  • Consider creating formal terms of service covering product care and liability
  • Options include: explaining the situation factually (risking bad review) or issuing refund (customer may still leave negative review)

Status: The owner hasn’t responded yet and is seeking guidance on how to proceed while protecting their solo business reputation.

Summarized with AI on October 25. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

Hey guys,

I run a local bakery and my cakes are made to order. I delivered a cake yesterday and the customer put it in the fridge for the next day to enjoy. My cakes use no preservatives but is good in the fridge up to 5 days depending how cold the fridge is.

The customer message me saying there’s mould on the cake the next day after delivery. I am calling MASSIVE BS… I have sold over 10k cakes and even customers saying the cakes are still good on the 4th, 5th and 6th day and this is the first time someone saying there’s mould the next day…

I have even tested the mould process of my cakes, I don’t use preservatives but in a 2-4 degrees celcius fridge, mould will appear roughly at the 2 week or so mark.

Furthermore, mould can’t grow on a cake overnight in a fridge…

Also, when I delivered her cake, her house in and out was a complete mess, it was disgusting… it was like a hoarder lived there. Alot of empty old boxes out on the porch from deliveries, disgusting, not clean, had to walk over dirty toys to her door. Even when she opened the door, I can smell vomit and just dirty.

I had a bad feeling about this customer cause the demographic is mostly where the complainers are from previous complaints

I asked for pics, and she said she cannot provide any, she hasn’t asked for a refund or any solution on her end.

I haven’t responded to that email as it’s 11pm now.

I am a solo business, I do everything myself so even 1 complaint can break my business a bit.

What would you do?

2

Hi @onyx_au

Welcome to the world of scammers. There are more and more of them, and people become more lazy and try to use their brains to make some plots and how to get some money without honest work.

That said, you should not think that one complaint can break your business. You have sold 10K cakes so that is like 99.99% are positive orders. That sounds unreal number. So think about that. When I am reading reviews of some store/service, I do hope to come upon some bad reviews and 1-star reviews. On those, I look at how the owner responds. There are a lot of different kinds of people, and you can not please everyone, but if you respond in calm way, give facts about your products, that is like extra marketing. So even if it was 1-star review, a response can bring more customers. So like you did in the good part of this post. I did not like how you described the customer’s house, even if true, you should keep that to yourself. Also, “demographic is mostly where the complainers are from previous complaints” , did you had similar complaints before, or is it just a bad neighborhood? Still, there could be a dicent people there, not sure if you should generalize like that.

In this case, you can do a few things. Explain that it is not your fault, that cake, if taken care in a proper environment, could last up to 5 days, and that it never happened. That could lead to a bad review, but like I said, you can explain and use that. The second option is to issue a refund and hope that it is. Note that in that case customer could still leave bad review. You can not control that. Then put the customer on black list if they try to order again.

Also, if you do not have a terms of service or delivery page, make one and cover yourself so if someone else tries that, send them the link.

Good luck, I know it is tough to be a solo business, but you should not fear complaints.

3

You make an incredibly good point here @Laza_Binaery . Most scammers look to trade a one-star review – “I’m blackmailing you, give me something for free”.

I think it’s important for @onyx_au to remember 99% are positive orders. That’s a great thing to keep in mind when making a reply. Because, in my experience I agree that it is definitely better to make a professional response and take the higher ground! Remember, the response can contain some of the facts that you’ve outlined in your original post

It does highlight an issue with review platforms in general however….