A dispute over an $84 birthday cake has sparked viral outrage on social media, with the baker being slammed by ‘fake’ customers who are leaving angry reviews in what she says is an attempt to ruin her business.
Kylie Allen, who owns her own company, Kylie Kakes in Princeton, West Virginia, took to TikTok to detail the ‘worst client experience’ she’s ever had, explaining how she was furiously criticized by a customer after baking a rainbow sprinkle cake for her.
In the video, which garnered over 4.9 million views, the baker revealed that the customer, Ashleigh Freeman, bought a cake for her mom’s birthday in April.
Ashleigh paid $84 for the dessert, however, she was less than satisfied and following Kylie’s video, she decided to share her own version of the story on TikTok.
Kylie Allen , who runs Kylie Kakes in Princeton, West Virginia, took to TikTok to share her the ‘worst client experience’ she’s ever had, sparking a viral dispute on social media
A dispute over an $84 birthday cake that Kylie made (pictured) has sparked viral outrage on social media, with the baker being slammed by ‘fake’ customers who are leaving angry reviews
In the video, which garnered over 4.9 million views, the baker revealed that the customer, Ashleigh Freeman (pictured), bought a cake for her mom’s birthday in April
Initially, Ashleigh complained about the cake during a phone call with Kylie, then she unleashed further criticism in a private message.
Finally, she went on Facebook to criticize Kylie, who decided to open up about the interactions is her own video on TikTok.
And while she originally thought the video would be shared to a few of her close friends, family and customers, the clip garnered viral attention, causing a whole frenzy of drama on the video-sharing app.
‘Today I had one of the worst client experiences I’ve ever had since opening the storefront,’ Kylie said in the video.
She said that the customer – whom she did not initially name – reached out via Facebook and wanted to order an eight-inch, six-layer rainbow cake with vanilla buttercream and the words ‘Happy Birthday Trilby’ on top.
Kylie noted that she has been making this kind of cake ‘for a really long time’, having started baking the rainbow creations when she was still ‘a home baker’, adding that she has developed a ‘signature style’ for the cakes that include six rainbow layers and the buttercream icing.
But while the baker feels confident in her abilities, her client was less than impressed with the results.
‘Upon arrival, she seemed to be really surprised the cake was covered in sprinkles, Kylie went on. ‘We explained to her that all of our signature rainbow cakes are decorated this way and covered in sprinkles.’
Initially, Ashleigh complained about the cake both in a phone call and private message before taking to Facebook to criticize the cake
The baker described the customer as ‘super defensive and very rude’ before adding, ‘She even bashed us and put us on her Facebook page’
She explained that while she wasn’t at the store when Ashleigh picked up her cake, her husband was there and received a complaint about 30 minutes after the customer left
She continued: ‘She then got super defensive and very rude about the price of the cake… She even bashed us and put us on her Facebook page.’
Kylie concluded the video by noting that she doesn’t place each sprinkle onto the cake individually, so the final results can differ from those in the photos posted on her website.
After Kylie’s clip garnered viral success, Ashleigh decided to share her own version of the story, with pictures of the cake that she said looked like ‘s***.’
Ashleigh said the cake was not worth the hefty price tag, and many social media users agreed with her, claiming the writing and sprinkles brought the quality of the cake down.
Shortly after, Ashleigh decided to delete the video so that Kylie didn’t get harassed online. She asked Kylie to do the same, however Kylie chose to keep her clip up, sparking Ashleigh to re-upload her video.
Speaking to Insider, Kylie explained she could have never anticipated the amount of attention she has received.
‘I wasn’t expecting it to be quite honest with you,’ she told the outlet.
She explained that while she wasn’t at the store when Ashleigh picked up her cake, her husband was there and received a complaint about 30 minutes after the customer left.
Paraphrasing what her husband told her, Kylie said: ‘She said that she wasn’t aware that it was covered in sprinkles and that her family didn’t like sprinkles. Nothing was mentioned about the writing that was on top.’
However, Ashleigh said that the sprinkles were ‘obviously not the issue,’ adding that ‘it was not a quality cake for $84’
Ashleigh shared screenshots of messages exchanged between the two, where she shares a picture of the cake and says, ‘Look at it. That’s the problem’
Ashleigh ended up making her own version of the birthday cake, which many users said looked better than the original
However, Ashleigh said that the sprinkles were ‘obviously not the issue,’ adding that ‘it was not a quality cake for $84.’
Ashleigh shared screenshots of messages exchanged between the two, where she shares a picture of the cake and says, ‘Look at it. That’s the problem.’
Kylie explained that the cake looked the same way ‘all of our standard rainbow cakes look like,’ before branding her ‘disrespectful.’
Ashleigh responded: ‘It’s not disrespectful to expect quality. It’s disrespectful to serve your reliable customers something like this. Good luck. You’re going to need it.’
Shortly after, Ashleigh tried to call for a truce, claiming that the cake was ‘very tasty.’
However, Kylie refused to back down, prompting the fiery feud to get even worse.
In another series of text messages shared with Insider, Ashleigh said she hoped Kylie would ‘go outta business’ and said Princeton deserved between than a ‘subpar boxed cake from an unprofessional, dirty finger nailed “baker.”‘
Ashleigh told the outlet she let her anger get the best of her and said ‘something mean’ after Kylie refused to accept the truce.
Now, Ashleigh has begun branding herself ‘Petty Crocker’ and has remade the birthday cake herself.
And strangers on the video-sharing platform aren’t about to let Kylie off the hook either.
Kylie said that both her shop’s Facebook and Google have been flooded with negative reviews by people she has never even made cakes for. Eventually, she was forced to turn off the review function.
In the past week, the shop has received dozens of negative reviews, prompting Yelp to ‘monitor’ it.
Many people have also taken to TikTok to slam the baker.
Many people have also taken to TikTok to slam the baker and said they could make better cakes
One person said: ‘I wouldn’t pay $20 for that.’
‘”Look at it”, honestly though, I’d be so embarrassed to claim that work,’ commented another person, while someone else simply stated that the cake was ‘ugly’.
Another user said: ‘That literally looks like the lettering from Hagrid on Harry’s cake.’
‘It’s worse than I thought,’ one person wrote.
‘As a business owner I am shocked by this! It’s super important to admit when you’re wrong!’ said another person.
One person said: ‘I could’ve done a better job than that and for $20.’
Another person said: ‘I’ve bought $40 cakes that look 1000x better.’
Kylie told Insider the viral dispute isn’t affecting her business and she has ‘thick skin’ and is ‘over it.’
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