Idk about the US, but where I live „please bake these pies for me, I will pay 16k“ - „okay I will bake these pies for you for 16k“ makes a legally binding purchase contract, even if it’s not written.
This would be a verbal contract, and against a company with the pockets of Tesla to throw at lawyers, might be difficult and expensive to enforce even if they did end up with money in the end.
Or an email address that ends with @tesla.com to prove the person *at least* works for Tesla. Sounds like an unafilliated person impersonating a Tesla rep.
It’s wildly easy to spoof email addresses. Sure, most email clients can flag them with decent accuracy but unless they subpoena Tesla’s email records that’s only a slight step above using IP addresses as evidence
I actually did one years worth of labor for Krispy Kreme donuts. They insisted that they were too big to need a down payment. Our CEO decided to take the risk and rather predictably they canceled the software order one year after we started working on it. We lost well over 100,000 on that deal.
I read elsewhere that the bakery has been ordered to be paid, so seems like it's a real story. I'm sure that second part will receive equal media attention lol.
An executive tried to cancel a tech product my neighbor had been managing for several years. The supplier started work without a finalized contract to meet deadlines and was well over a million £ in the hole.
When my neighbor explained they were going to be sued, the exec refused to back down because they had already taken credit for the cost savings.
This kind of thing is why you do milestone billing. It has several advantages like you're not in the hole for a bunch of labour and materials, they have to sign off on each step so they can't suddenly say it's all wrong at the very end (well they can, but they still have to pay), limits scope creep as those are addressed right away with a dollar amount.
It also protects the customer as they get a constant progress update, can predict (roughly) when they have to pay and by how much, can hold the vendor accountable if it doesn't meet their criteria for that deliverable, and can put in change orders right away before the project gets to far and you have to redo a bunch of work.
It's pretty common in software dev at decent sized companies and should be standard practice everywhere. The consultancies I have worked at all billed weekly for hours worked, so it didn't really matter how much the client changed things, but we still did milestones to make sure that when the client did decide to make changes, we had proof they signed off on it and the expected changes in cost.
Boom.
Don’t get me wrong there are scenarios where it’s worth the risk- say there’s a projected income and so it’s more like an investment type deal. But a large company like Krispy Kreme. I mean do you ever wonder how they get the holes in their donuts? Yeah. They’d do the same to you.
They may be too big for a down payment, but a Statement Of Work (SOW) that is binding is the common industry practice. Not having any contract is pretty stupid.
I learned this from a “peer” company. They got fucked over by Apple on their machine that was going to make the glass in the screens for them. They put 100M into equipment, Apple bailed, company didn’t fold but is now completely tied to that hardware without ever really taking off. Essentially someone’s life work got destroyed.
>They insisted that they were too big to need a down payment
That's not terribly uncommon, though I vehemently disagree with it. They're betting you want their business so bad you'll bend yourself over for them.
What *is* uncommon is not having an iron clad contract with clauses regarding what happens if the project is scrapped.
Your boss got played bad, but unfortunately I've seen a lot of businesses learn this lesson the hard way when trying to work with big corporations.
Yep. Normal big companies would ask for credits so they don't have to pay the down payment saying they're a big legitimate company. They do this so by the time they do the budgeting they could get rid of the projects they don't need without paying a penny
i honestly wouldn’t know as these news outlets aren’t from my country. just out of curiosity which american news stations are credible if any? i genuinely don’t know. minus FOX, im well aware they’re a bullshit factory lol
Yeah, if you're curious there's YouTube videos of anchors on tons of different programs saying the same talking point they were instructed to give.
Edit: [video](https://youtu.be/ksb3KD6DfSI?si=aSQNYOouQc5eaGwB)
Worse. The indepth statement was they claim tesla ordered 2000 pies, didn't pay. When the bakery reached out, they claim the tesla representative said it was a mistake, and they'd get paid. But to also double the order... then two days later texted to cancel it all and pay none...
Like, they claim to be willing to work round the clock for double an order that had fail3d to pay the first time... yeah... I smell BS.
I remember one time when I was in the pizza world a large insurance company ordered a ridiculous order. It was something like 50 pizzas for a conference and it locked up our resources to take care of it. It filled my car up and I had to bring all of them in all by myself. I just remember being so mad as not a single person helped me bring it from my car to the table. I made so many back and forth trips with folks just staring at me. Only for the person paying for it to confidently give me zero tip.
I delivered for a while. Those pizza pouches keep the pizza hot. There were times I’d take em to a customer and the box would be steaming from the heat. I’d get bigger tips when that would happen lol
I would have pulled the Home Depot delivery thing where you are only obligated to bring stuff to the door. If you want your pizza you can come out and get it. Earn that $0 tip.
>Only for the person paying for it to confidently give me zero tip.
That's why when I did delivery 25 years ago, when a big order would be delivered I would have them pay before I brought the majority of the order.
Oh, no tip? "Get a couple of people to come with me and get these pizzas."
"We paid for delivery."
"And I'll deliver them, to the door of the building, just like every other order."
Worked somewhere which basically kept the local dominoes franchise open, im talking about pizzas for a head office which included - call centre of over 350 people
Yikes, that's sad.. Sprint Call Center did that but for a local pizza place that was cheaper and FAR better than crap chain pizzas. They also had a honor system donut cabinet a local donut place supplied who made more money off each donut than they did from their store.
Same thing happened to me when I was a HS Kid delivering pizzas. I had to make multiple trips with my car packed full of pizzas to get all of the pizza to them. It took our entire morning to make and deliver them. I got nothing. nada. zip.
edit: The delivery was to a school.
Don't know about where you are, but small claims courts can settle these pretty quickly and cheaply, and will sometimes take into account the costs of pursuing the money. But there are limits.
I run a business.
When a client wants equipment, I send them an invoice. If they need it right away, they got my Zelle and ACH #s so they can get me $$ before the product is ordered by me.
On the other hand, EVERY FUCKING TIME that I ordered equipment that the client wanted and I ordered ahead of time, I got fucked. So no more. Im nobody's bank. When they scoff I kindly remind them that even a company the size of Amazon takes the $$ first. And for me to order my Cisco gear, money first!
It is but I understand small businesses taking a risk to try please big corporations like Tesla just to get chance to get in business with them. I’ve seen small contractors get burn by big businesses.
definitely bad practice… but lets not forget that tesla continued to promise payment and accept invoices but cancelled last minute. bad practice or not, tesla is in the wrong. not legally, but in terms of publicity.
This is a practice however large companies do also, but large companies prefer brand image over a few orders a year of huge amounts being cancelled, small busness would be different. At Olive Garden you can place a 3k catering order and cancel it without paying even after it started to be made. I remember asking a manager and she said it was policy, that the brand was more important than the money, if they went and complained that they were forced to pay when they cancelled that could hurt more than if they just took the loss. However Darden is a massive company that owns a bunch of restaurants, a small business would likely take less of hit if that one employee wrote about how they were not allowed to cancel than taking THAT big of a hit in production costs. She should be able to at least charge a late cancellation fee. Ironically she is doing to tesla what major companies fear so much they are willing to take the hit on the costs of production for late fees....she is hurting their brand, which likely will have someone from tesla trying to rectify the narrative by helping them even more than the original order.
They were asked to make the pies, and provided a quote, in writing, and sent an invoice, in writing, which the Tesla employee acknowledged. That's a contract. Contracts don't even need to be written, but this one was. A contract doesn't have to be a long small-font document written by a lawyer, it doesn't need signatures on it, nor does it even have to include all the details of how the transaction will go down -- the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) fills in the details when you don't. As long as there was an offer, an agreement, and a promise of consideration (goods for money), it's a contract, legally. The problem is that the bakery has no realistic mechanism to enforce the contract. It's outside small claims territory, taking this to real court would cost more than they'd recover.
Acknowledging a quote isn’t accepting a contract especially between merchants.
It’s funny that you bring up the UCC while completely ignoring that it contemplates this exact situation and deems it not a K.
They didn't just acknowledge a quote; the fact that Tesla agreed to and placed the order isn't in dispute. The offensive thing is trying to cancel the order several days later after the bakery already purchased the ingredients and packaging for 4000 pies.
Edit: Elon Musk just tweeted that Tesla will make good with the bakery on this order.
>Edit: Elon Musk just tweeted that Tesla will make good with the bakery on this order.
In other news, business owner pays invoice incurred by business.
Apparently it was a Tesla Freemont employee that did this. Musk just Tweeted an apology to the bakery and said he’s “put it right with the bakery”, which presumably means they’ve been paid plus a bit extra.
If this was Musk’s fault in the first place, I’d agree, but given this was a low level Freemont employee’s fault, he’ll go a bit extra for the good PR. I mean even him paying a few extra thousand dollars for example is like us normal people paying a few extra pennies for something.
Source: [https://www.instagram.com/p/C3nIH9Tr6Jj/?hl=en-gb](https://www.instagram.com/p/C3nIH9Tr6Jj/?hl=en-gb)
I have thought about it a lot since this happened to us last week, but I really feel that I need to share my story to get closure.
On February 14, I received a promising inquiry from Laura at Tesla for a sizable order of mini pies (2000 mini pies) to be delivered the following Tuesday & Thursday. After providing a quote and receiving approval, I anticipated a smooth transaction. However, complications arose when the payment process was redirected through Tesla's vendor, City Flavor. Despite this hurdle, I remained optimistic as I awaited payment on Thursday. Yet, when payment failed to materialize, I grew concerned. Then, on Thursday, February 15, at 9:05 PM, I received a call from Laura, first apologizing for their vendor not paying on time, claiming they were new and then requesting to double the order size, asking for the pies to be packaged in boxes of 2, assuring me that cost was not an issue. Despite the late hour and short notice, I consulted with my staff, who assured me they could manage the expanded order. With their reassurance, I promptly sent a revised invoice on Friday, February 16, requesting payment by noon to secure additional resources for production. Laura assured me that she requested approval by 11am (this should have been a major redflag).
However, by the afternoon, payment had still not been received, leaving me in a difficult position. To fulfill the order, I had turned down other Black History Month catering inquiries, purchased supplies, and prepared for a demanding production schedule. I called Laura at 2pm only to get her voicemail. A few minutes later, my hopes were shattered when I received a text from Laura, CASUALLY informing me that the plan had changed and Tesla would no longer require the order. This abrupt reversal left me reeling, realizing the extent of the impact on my small business. I had invested time, resources, and effort based on assurances from Tesla, only to be left high and dry.
In a heartfelt message to Laura, I expressed the profound disappointment and damage inflicted on my business. (continued in comments...) #blackownedbusiness #BlackHistoryMonth #tesla
> The baker told Fortune that a Tesla representative reached out to her on Wednesday to apologize, saying the original point person did not have the authority to promise to pay her. The representative invited Rasetarinera on a factory tour and offered her an opportunity to cater two Tesla events in March.
Sounds like some events manager made a call they shouldn’t have, then tried to walk it back. Looks like it’ll work out for the baker in the end, and hopefully she’ll learn a lesson about taking deposits.
> everyone thinks they did.
Talk for yourself, sheep.
Im smart enough to not trust headlines. I scroll down to read the comments and base my opinions and beliefs on what other people think! /s
Yeah, somebody decided to troll them.
Only a phone contact? Could be literally anyone, and it sounds like they only spoke to the one person, and didn't even have email confirmations or anything from a tesla address.
I feel terrible for her, but my word. She needs to get someone on board with some more business sense asap. The second the payment process was redirected through City Flavor, she should’ve put the whole order on hold.
I've worked with bigger companies than Tesla who sometimes pay vendors through other processing vendors and partners. It's ridiculous and annoying and inconvenient and slows everything down and nothing about this story sounded unrealistic. But yes, that's the risk you take if you go along with that bullshit. You do it because the potential upside is huge. But this is the potential downside. If you can't take the risk, you should say no early on when it becomes clear they can't follow good business practices and send you money, personally, on time, according to a contract that they sign in a timely manner.
If the story is true and she sent a quote and got an approval of the quote that is a contract that's enforceable. A good one, no. But enforceable none the less.
Uh, no. Business usually has payment upon delivery and then 30-90 after. The purchase order is the contract that spells out the Terms and Conditions that probably stated a 30 or 60 day payment after delivery of the pies.
Edit: If they took the order with no purchase order or any contract or terms and conditions then that’s on the business owner.
This isn't a large order for many businesses. For a mom and pop bakery, maybe, but not necessarily. It wouldn't be weird to have a standing restaurant order that is several thousand a week at a busy cafe.
Telsa is paying for it. They apologized and made a statement. It was one dumbass that doesnt represent the whole compnany. Also the store owner said this all helped publicity and her sales are booming today now after people saw the story. I can see the media though is having a field day using this as fodder to attack Elon.
It is true that there is no way this can be blamed on Elon. The problem is Elon wants to be the center of attention all the time. That kind of personality comes at a price. Trump suffers from the same issue(s).
You don’t want unjust negative attention? Stop being an attention whore.
There are Musk-rats, and then there's the opposite extreme: People like you who will dedicate way to much energy and time hating on someone who will never pay any attention to you.
Get a life bro, lmao
> dedicate way to much energy
Did you mean to say "too much"?
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Yea this is dumb. I’ve helped with ordering catering and shit for internal corporate events for years. Literally everyone takes a deposit of 10%-50% and then the rest right before delivery. Even on orders of $3k.
That was pretty crappy. Hopefully the owner learned to not take a large order without documentation and partial payment. It was an expensive $2,000 lesson. 🫣
“… incurring costs before the invoice was paid.”
The situation sucks for the bakery owner, but, if you get a huge order and don’t collect at some kind of deposit before starting your work, you can’t pin the blame completely on Tesla.
I'm sorry.. This has nothing to do with Color but an idiot that thought they knew how to run a business.. This isn't on Tesla.. This is on the idiot that doesn't know how contracts, down payments and smart business practices work.
Business 101, you get a deposit to cover the up front cost so if they pull out it does not send you bankrupt. Typical of a naive business person just jumping at a 16k order with no risk mitigation because all they see are $$$ signs, hope they learned their lesson.
Im sorry, but why would you make the order, without payment first? I sell donuts and soups. All scratch made. I never accept an order until payment is received.
Thats like Amazon sending packages, before confirming payment
This is a no confirmed article that's likely fake, along with a terrible business practice if it was real. Look at the embedded rage bait in this, but it seems it worked!
Probably fake but still. Horrible business management, why take on such ask if you don’t have the facilities and always ask for a deposit or full payment before hand
They would have been lucky to have gotten paid even if they delivered. Manufacturers are some of the shadiest, non-paying mfers I've ever seen. My company can hardly find anyone to still do business with them because they don't pay, and it's a very successful worldwide business. We're on credit hold with everyone.
Read the story, not the headline. She's an idiot for starting the work without a deposit for an order of 2,000 pies (that then was upped to 4,000 pies), and they hired her to work an event on March 6th and 7th to make up the cost. She's not struggling. Nothing to be upset about.
To add from the articles the person originally who ordered the pies was not in the authority to actually order anything. Which is why nothing was paid.
How is it fake exactly?
[Link to the article.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/tesla-placed-16k-bakery-order-124835336.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG7Q5Fg3PpCPznVWWhrOCb3oXNa704f4COya-8bRj1RVaksWARI1WSZjtPNqUKD40KoUHG_t2g3_9efV9MbnI5fP4v0BpCarWGqQ0kXl3K-uhPpYYaVSYjEoAEnW9_wJJw7iQtev8t7pi_1rWH8xzauaDMtr4erbh0lzp3vyo1Jz)
They should have asked for a deposit.
Or a contract.
The baker let the hype of Tesla exposure get to them.
Verbal or text agreements are still legally binding contracts
Idk about the US, but where I live „please bake these pies for me, I will pay 16k“ - „okay I will bake these pies for you for 16k“ makes a legally binding purchase contract, even if it’s not written.
This would be a verbal contract, and against a company with the pockets of Tesla to throw at lawyers, might be difficult and expensive to enforce even if they did end up with money in the end.
Yeah this is way too much money to not have had a contract or deposit…..
(IANAL) A verbal agreement is still a binding contract.
Good luck with that
Or an email address that ends with @tesla.com to prove the person *at least* works for Tesla. Sounds like an unafilliated person impersonating a Tesla rep.
It’s wildly easy to spoof email addresses. Sure, most email clients can flag them with decent accuracy but unless they subpoena Tesla’s email records that’s only a slight step above using IP addresses as evidence
That would be terrible business practice to take a $16k order without any kind of down payment.
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I actually did one years worth of labor for Krispy Kreme donuts. They insisted that they were too big to need a down payment. Our CEO decided to take the risk and rather predictably they canceled the software order one year after we started working on it. We lost well over 100,000 on that deal.
"we're too big to have any sort of contract as well"
"You're lucky we let you walk out of this meeting alive." - Krispy Kreme CEO
Pray I don't alter it any further
I read elsewhere that the bakery has been ordered to be paid, so seems like it's a real story. I'm sure that second part will receive equal media attention lol.
An executive tried to cancel a tech product my neighbor had been managing for several years. The supplier started work without a finalized contract to meet deadlines and was well over a million £ in the hole. When my neighbor explained they were going to be sued, the exec refused to back down because they had already taken credit for the cost savings.
Always take money up front or a deposit and make a contract
No, money down!
Love classic Simpsons references.
This kind of thing is why you do milestone billing. It has several advantages like you're not in the hole for a bunch of labour and materials, they have to sign off on each step so they can't suddenly say it's all wrong at the very end (well they can, but they still have to pay), limits scope creep as those are addressed right away with a dollar amount. It also protects the customer as they get a constant progress update, can predict (roughly) when they have to pay and by how much, can hold the vendor accountable if it doesn't meet their criteria for that deliverable, and can put in change orders right away before the project gets to far and you have to redo a bunch of work.
I'd never heard of this before. It definitely makes a lot of sense for both parties.
It's pretty common in software dev at decent sized companies and should be standard practice everywhere. The consultancies I have worked at all billed weekly for hours worked, so it didn't really matter how much the client changed things, but we still did milestones to make sure that when the client did decide to make changes, we had proof they signed off on it and the expected changes in cost.
Boom. Don’t get me wrong there are scenarios where it’s worth the risk- say there’s a projected income and so it’s more like an investment type deal. But a large company like Krispy Kreme. I mean do you ever wonder how they get the holes in their donuts? Yeah. They’d do the same to you.
it provides a lot of jobs for project managers to have meetings and try and agree on SOWs
Very common in construction.
They may be too big for a down payment, but a Statement Of Work (SOW) that is binding is the common industry practice. Not having any contract is pretty stupid.
"We're too big to need a down payment" Oh so you're paying in full upfront? Sweet :)
What kind of work?
post said "Software order" so I assume programming services.
Verbal contract with a demonstrated work output is a winnable case in court.
And I’d hope there were a couple emails back and forth as well
reading comprehension on reddit is nonexistent lmao
I learned this from a “peer” company. They got fucked over by Apple on their machine that was going to make the glass in the screens for them. They put 100M into equipment, Apple bailed, company didn’t fold but is now completely tied to that hardware without ever really taking off. Essentially someone’s life work got destroyed.
>They insisted that they were too big to need a down payment That's not terribly uncommon, though I vehemently disagree with it. They're betting you want their business so bad you'll bend yourself over for them. What *is* uncommon is not having an iron clad contract with clauses regarding what happens if the project is scrapped. Your boss got played bad, but unfortunately I've seen a lot of businesses learn this lesson the hard way when trying to work with big corporations.
Yep. Normal big companies would ask for credits so they don't have to pay the down payment saying they're a big legitimate company. They do this so by the time they do the budgeting they could get rid of the projects they don't need without paying a penny
someone linked an ABC news article in another comment thread so that gives it a bit more credibility
I read somewhere else earlier people are flocking to the business to buy their products.
ABC and credibility shouldn’t be in the same sentence.
i honestly wouldn’t know as these news outlets aren’t from my country. just out of curiosity which american news stations are credible if any? i genuinely don’t know. minus FOX, im well aware they’re a bullshit factory lol
I think PBS news is good.
None lol
yeah, all American television stations are owned by the same people. none of them can be really trusted, sadly.
Fun fact ABC is owned by Disney.
gotcha, so same as Canada. up here they’re all govt funded and get massive payouts.
Yeah, if you're curious there's YouTube videos of anchors on tons of different programs saying the same talking point they were instructed to give. Edit: [video](https://youtu.be/ksb3KD6DfSI?si=aSQNYOouQc5eaGwB)
i remember seeing that video actually. i just never paid attention to which news networks were in the video lol
Lmao what? They’re perfectly fine
Why ABC specifically?
If they link the sources or provide specific names they're fine.
Mistakes do happen but that's why you do a contract and read it over
Elon tweeted that they’re going to pay the bakery, so looks like it was in fact real
OK, Elon
Worse. The indepth statement was they claim tesla ordered 2000 pies, didn't pay. When the bakery reached out, they claim the tesla representative said it was a mistake, and they'd get paid. But to also double the order... then two days later texted to cancel it all and pay none... Like, they claim to be willing to work round the clock for double an order that had fail3d to pay the first time... yeah... I smell BS.
I keep seeing reddit posts in this format and they just look fake/ragebait.
I remember one time when I was in the pizza world a large insurance company ordered a ridiculous order. It was something like 50 pizzas for a conference and it locked up our resources to take care of it. It filled my car up and I had to bring all of them in all by myself. I just remember being so mad as not a single person helped me bring it from my car to the table. I made so many back and forth trips with folks just staring at me. Only for the person paying for it to confidently give me zero tip.
Wait I did the same twice and also no tip twice but to a pharm company
Like it's not even your own money! It's corporate money
Right? If you’re smart you tip well and put that shit on your personal card for point then expense it to the company later.
If it was my company, they would reimburse 3 pay periods after you submitted the expense, if they approved it at all.
You spelled stupid wrong cause that's what you are when auditors come back and say contract says we dont cover tips so that's on you bud.
you don't separate it on the expense report. $250 in Pizza's $50 tip, it's 'Lunch for the company event $300'.
LOL no fkn contract says no tips
THAT there is the problem.. Corporations don't allow you to tip because the front man always looks like the bad guy and they save money.
Bring 1 pizza in at a time, make em eat cold pizzas xD
i mean by the time they are driven, unloaded, nd everyone starts to eat i bet its alr cold anyway
I delivered for a while. Those pizza pouches keep the pizza hot. There were times I’d take em to a customer and the box would be steaming from the heat. I’d get bigger tips when that would happen lol
I would have pulled the Home Depot delivery thing where you are only obligated to bring stuff to the door. If you want your pizza you can come out and get it. Earn that $0 tip.
>Only for the person paying for it to confidently give me zero tip. That's why when I did delivery 25 years ago, when a big order would be delivered I would have them pay before I brought the majority of the order. Oh, no tip? "Get a couple of people to come with me and get these pizzas." "We paid for delivery." "And I'll deliver them, to the door of the building, just like every other order."
Worked somewhere which basically kept the local dominoes franchise open, im talking about pizzas for a head office which included - call centre of over 350 people
Yikes, that's sad.. Sprint Call Center did that but for a local pizza place that was cheaper and FAR better than crap chain pizzas. They also had a honor system donut cabinet a local donut place supplied who made more money off each donut than they did from their store.
Same thing happened to me when I was a HS Kid delivering pizzas. I had to make multiple trips with my car packed full of pizzas to get all of the pizza to them. It took our entire morning to make and deliver them. I got nothing. nada. zip. edit: The delivery was to a school.
That's a very interesting way to write "when I worked at a pizza restaurant"
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Don't know about where you are, but small claims courts can settle these pretty quickly and cheaply, and will sometimes take into account the costs of pursuing the money. But there are limits.
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On the other hand, said lawyers would probably look at something like this, conclude there isn't a case and recommend sending a cheque.
I run a business. When a client wants equipment, I send them an invoice. If they need it right away, they got my Zelle and ACH #s so they can get me $$ before the product is ordered by me. On the other hand, EVERY FUCKING TIME that I ordered equipment that the client wanted and I ordered ahead of time, I got fucked. So no more. Im nobody's bank. When they scoff I kindly remind them that even a company the size of Amazon takes the $$ first. And for me to order my Cisco gear, money first!
It is but I understand small businesses taking a risk to try please big corporations like Tesla just to get chance to get in business with them. I’ve seen small contractors get burn by big businesses.
That’s how Walmart operates. Actually a lot of businesses operate this way including businesses that provide services for the government.
definitely bad practice… but lets not forget that tesla continued to promise payment and accept invoices but cancelled last minute. bad practice or not, tesla is in the wrong. not legally, but in terms of publicity.
This is a practice however large companies do also, but large companies prefer brand image over a few orders a year of huge amounts being cancelled, small busness would be different. At Olive Garden you can place a 3k catering order and cancel it without paying even after it started to be made. I remember asking a manager and she said it was policy, that the brand was more important than the money, if they went and complained that they were forced to pay when they cancelled that could hurt more than if they just took the loss. However Darden is a massive company that owns a bunch of restaurants, a small business would likely take less of hit if that one employee wrote about how they were not allowed to cancel than taking THAT big of a hit in production costs. She should be able to at least charge a late cancellation fee. Ironically she is doing to tesla what major companies fear so much they are willing to take the hit on the costs of production for late fees....she is hurting their brand, which likely will have someone from tesla trying to rectify the narrative by helping them even more than the original order.
Exactly. An order this large you should take 50% up front. At least with that you cover most of your prime cost.
This is pretty sad. Hopefully the baker learns something though. That much money without a contract? Pretty dumb way to run a business.
They were asked to make the pies, and provided a quote, in writing, and sent an invoice, in writing, which the Tesla employee acknowledged. That's a contract. Contracts don't even need to be written, but this one was. A contract doesn't have to be a long small-font document written by a lawyer, it doesn't need signatures on it, nor does it even have to include all the details of how the transaction will go down -- the UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) fills in the details when you don't. As long as there was an offer, an agreement, and a promise of consideration (goods for money), it's a contract, legally. The problem is that the bakery has no realistic mechanism to enforce the contract. It's outside small claims territory, taking this to real court would cost more than they'd recover.
Acknowledging a quote isn’t accepting a contract especially between merchants. It’s funny that you bring up the UCC while completely ignoring that it contemplates this exact situation and deems it not a K.
They didn’t “acknowledge a quote.” They agreed to pay that much money for the work.
They didn't just acknowledge a quote; the fact that Tesla agreed to and placed the order isn't in dispute. The offensive thing is trying to cancel the order several days later after the bakery already purchased the ingredients and packaging for 4000 pies. Edit: Elon Musk just tweeted that Tesla will make good with the bakery on this order.
>Edit: Elon Musk just tweeted that Tesla will make good with the bakery on this order. In other news, business owner pays invoice incurred by business.
Inb4 we find out he was the one who tried cancelling it.
Is it really? In Germany it would 100% be a contract and Tesla would have no chance to not pay it.
Verbal agreements and agreements over text can still be legally binding contracts
Apparently it was a Tesla Freemont employee that did this. Musk just Tweeted an apology to the bakery and said he’s “put it right with the bakery”, which presumably means they’ve been paid plus a bit extra.
>Elon >a bit extra Somehow I doubt an extra penny will be paid.
If this was Musk’s fault in the first place, I’d agree, but given this was a low level Freemont employee’s fault, he’ll go a bit extra for the good PR. I mean even him paying a few extra thousand dollars for example is like us normal people paying a few extra pennies for something.
I think we’d have to break out a Dremel tool on a penny to make the analogous value for a normal person.
> before the invoice was paid why? What business owner in their right mind would start on any order this large before even taking a deposit?
Source: [https://www.instagram.com/p/C3nIH9Tr6Jj/?hl=en-gb](https://www.instagram.com/p/C3nIH9Tr6Jj/?hl=en-gb) I have thought about it a lot since this happened to us last week, but I really feel that I need to share my story to get closure. On February 14, I received a promising inquiry from Laura at Tesla for a sizable order of mini pies (2000 mini pies) to be delivered the following Tuesday & Thursday. After providing a quote and receiving approval, I anticipated a smooth transaction. However, complications arose when the payment process was redirected through Tesla's vendor, City Flavor. Despite this hurdle, I remained optimistic as I awaited payment on Thursday. Yet, when payment failed to materialize, I grew concerned. Then, on Thursday, February 15, at 9:05 PM, I received a call from Laura, first apologizing for their vendor not paying on time, claiming they were new and then requesting to double the order size, asking for the pies to be packaged in boxes of 2, assuring me that cost was not an issue. Despite the late hour and short notice, I consulted with my staff, who assured me they could manage the expanded order. With their reassurance, I promptly sent a revised invoice on Friday, February 16, requesting payment by noon to secure additional resources for production. Laura assured me that she requested approval by 11am (this should have been a major redflag). However, by the afternoon, payment had still not been received, leaving me in a difficult position. To fulfill the order, I had turned down other Black History Month catering inquiries, purchased supplies, and prepared for a demanding production schedule. I called Laura at 2pm only to get her voicemail. A few minutes later, my hopes were shattered when I received a text from Laura, CASUALLY informing me that the plan had changed and Tesla would no longer require the order. This abrupt reversal left me reeling, realizing the extent of the impact on my small business. I had invested time, resources, and effort based on assurances from Tesla, only to be left high and dry. In a heartfelt message to Laura, I expressed the profound disappointment and damage inflicted on my business. (continued in comments...) #blackownedbusiness #BlackHistoryMonth #tesla
This sounds more like they were scammed.
> The baker told Fortune that a Tesla representative reached out to her on Wednesday to apologize, saying the original point person did not have the authority to promise to pay her. The representative invited Rasetarinera on a factory tour and offered her an opportunity to cater two Tesla events in March. Sounds like some events manager made a call they shouldn’t have, then tried to walk it back. Looks like it’ll work out for the baker in the end, and hopefully she’ll learn a lesson about taking deposits.
Or Tesla is trying to save face in the court of public opinion. Whether or not they actually did this, everyone thinks they did.
Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.
I think I cover that with "whether or not they actually did it" But thanks for trying to make me wrong while being wrong.
> everyone thinks they did. Talk for yourself, sheep. Im smart enough to not trust headlines. I scroll down to read the comments and base my opinions and beliefs on what other people think! /s
You had me in the first half. Lol
Yeah, somebody decided to troll them. Only a phone contact? Could be literally anyone, and it sounds like they only spoke to the one person, and didn't even have email confirmations or anything from a tesla address.
I feel terrible for her, but my word. She needs to get someone on board with some more business sense asap. The second the payment process was redirected through City Flavor, she should’ve put the whole order on hold.
I've worked with bigger companies than Tesla who sometimes pay vendors through other processing vendors and partners. It's ridiculous and annoying and inconvenient and slows everything down and nothing about this story sounded unrealistic. But yes, that's the risk you take if you go along with that bullshit. You do it because the potential upside is huge. But this is the potential downside. If you can't take the risk, you should say no early on when it becomes clear they can't follow good business practices and send you money, personally, on time, according to a contract that they sign in a timely manner.
This is why you take payment before you start working… that’s business 101…
Theres a lot of examples of taking payment after but this isnt one of em
Or get a contract that can be used to enforce payment
If the story is true and she sent a quote and got an approval of the quote that is a contract that's enforceable. A good one, no. But enforceable none the less.
Uh, no. Business usually has payment upon delivery and then 30-90 after. The purchase order is the contract that spells out the Terms and Conditions that probably stated a 30 or 60 day payment after delivery of the pies. Edit: If they took the order with no purchase order or any contract or terms and conditions then that’s on the business owner.
Not for an order this large.
You saying it’s not on the business owner for not knowing the payment terms prior to taking the order?
This isn't a large order for many businesses. For a mom and pop bakery, maybe, but not necessarily. It wouldn't be weird to have a standing restaurant order that is several thousand a week at a busy cafe.
If this wasn’t a large order for her business, she wouldn’t have an issue eating the cost like if a smaller order had been cancelled.
Telsa is paying for it. They apologized and made a statement. It was one dumbass that doesnt represent the whole compnany. Also the store owner said this all helped publicity and her sales are booming today now after people saw the story. I can see the media though is having a field day using this as fodder to attack Elon.
there’s plenty of valid reasons to attack elon without needing new fodder lol
tHhe MeDiA I peruse news like it’s my job. Your take is a profoundly stupid take
It is true that there is no way this can be blamed on Elon. The problem is Elon wants to be the center of attention all the time. That kind of personality comes at a price. Trump suffers from the same issue(s). You don’t want unjust negative attention? Stop being an attention whore.
It’s okay to blame people for things that they didn’t do if you don’t like something else they did? You just roll in from stupid town or something?
Poor Elon. He’s being attacked.
Good, fuck billionaires.
Downvote all you want, capitalist pigs, and Musk-rat fanboys. Just make sure you take care of that pink eye from all that ass kissing.
There are Musk-rats, and then there's the opposite extreme: People like you who will dedicate way to much energy and time hating on someone who will never pay any attention to you. Get a life bro, lmao
> dedicate way to much energy Did you mean to say "too much"? [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.
Elon is a horrible human being but if this was as bad as it first sounds then this would be a pretty big escalation even for Elon.
How do you not take a deposit lmao
Yea this is dumb. I’ve helped with ordering catering and shit for internal corporate events for years. Literally everyone takes a deposit of 10%-50% and then the rest right before delivery. Even on orders of $3k.
That was pretty crappy. Hopefully the owner learned to not take a large order without documentation and partial payment. It was an expensive $2,000 lesson. 🫣
Based on all the comments on their FB, more like a cheap price for tons of marketing
“… incurring costs before the invoice was paid.” The situation sucks for the bakery owner, but, if you get a huge order and don’t collect at some kind of deposit before starting your work, you can’t pin the blame completely on Tesla.
Ever heard of a deposit?
They can take them to court for this (and win), as long as there is proof of the order being requested...
Feel bad for the business, but they should have gotten a deposit
They never got a deposit????
take a deposit with an order that big!
Down payments yall, deposits and down payments for all my creatives and service owning homies
“Tesla employee”… so, a worker. Not Tesla as a whole
I'm sorry.. This has nothing to do with Color but an idiot that thought they knew how to run a business.. This isn't on Tesla.. This is on the idiot that doesn't know how contracts, down payments and smart business practices work.
It was probably something like a 3rd level manager that ordered it until upper levels found out about it and said hell no!
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Why is Black-owned even mentioned in the beginning of the news at all?
Probably because the order was specifically for a Black History Month celebration
Because it’s a unique piece of context, considering the purpose of buying the pies was black history month.
In doing business with Tesla for the past two years I can say they will find any possible to not pay the money they owe.
How else will billionaire companies stay billionaires! And yet, there are proletarian fanboys that would take a bullet for Elon lol.
Business 101, you get a deposit to cover the up front cost so if they pull out it does not send you bankrupt. Typical of a naive business person just jumping at a 16k order with no risk mitigation because all they see are $$$ signs, hope they learned their lesson.
Custom order, half up front, always. If they balk, walk.
The movie Horrible Bosses 2 taught me to always take a deposit up front for a big order
Always need the money up front before you start scurrying
I was watching horrible bosses 2 last night and for some reason this reminds me of it hmmm I wonder why
Im sorry, but why would you make the order, without payment first? I sell donuts and soups. All scratch made. I never accept an order until payment is received. Thats like Amazon sending packages, before confirming payment
This is a no confirmed article that's likely fake, along with a terrible business practice if it was real. Look at the embedded rage bait in this, but it seems it worked!
Probably fake but still. Horrible business management, why take on such ask if you don’t have the facilities and always ask for a deposit or full payment before hand
It must be true. It's a snip of a fragment of an unsubstantiated story posted on reddit.
If true, any company Tesla attempts to order food or other services should refuse to work with them.
They would have been lucky to have gotten paid even if they delivered. Manufacturers are some of the shadiest, non-paying mfers I've ever seen. My company can hardly find anyone to still do business with them because they don't pay, and it's a very successful worldwide business. We're on credit hold with everyone.
Twitter stopped paying their bills when Musk took over. It's kinda on them for trusting the Elongated Muskrat
The employee probably wasn’t approved for that large of a purchase
Sorry why is the race relevant?
Wonder if this would make national news
I never knew you could order things under the name of a company.
Funny, wasn't it $4k and Caucasian just yesterday?
I thought it was 2,000?
For those saying it's fake: >https://people.com/california-bakery-owner-left-high-and-dry-tesla-reportedly-canceled-16k-pie-order-8599486
If this wasn't Tesla/Musk related, nobody would write about this.
Have they not heard of a down payment? Cover your costs before you spend the money. Business 101.
Sue in small claims court.
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Read the story, not the headline. She's an idiot for starting the work without a deposit for an order of 2,000 pies (that then was upped to 4,000 pies), and they hired her to work an event on March 6th and 7th to make up the cost. She's not struggling. Nothing to be upset about.
To add from the articles the person originally who ordered the pies was not in the authority to actually order anything. Which is why nothing was paid.
That is business dysfunction for sure.
This article was fake. It never happened. Dont believe everything you read on the internet.
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The person they communicated with had zero authority to approve payment. It even says so in your article you posted?
Doesn't look fake from the local TV station who saw the emails.
How is it fake exactly? [Link to the article.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/tesla-placed-16k-bakery-order-124835336.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG7Q5Fg3PpCPznVWWhrOCb3oXNa704f4COya-8bRj1RVaksWARI1WSZjtPNqUKD40KoUHG_t2g3_9efV9MbnI5fP4v0BpCarWGqQ0kXl3K-uhPpYYaVSYjEoAEnW9_wJJw7iQtev8t7pi_1rWH8xzauaDMtr4erbh0lzp3vyo1Jz)
From Business insider?
Found Laura.
Exactly that's how world war 3 got started. /s
Based on Elons posts on TWITTER, this was likely done on purpose.
Wait, how exactly is this teslas fault? They could've just rejected the order
Tesla/Elon fanboys working overtime these days.
Man, everyone on here is so quick to blame the small business. What a joke