Legal Question in Business Law in California

I would think that if they were as delinquent as you suggest and true professionals, they would have offered that. As I see it, you had a contract. Under general contact law, you have to give some time to cure defects. In your case, the timing of delivery of the cakes is crucial. If they come too late, there will no longer be any use for them. I can see giving them some latitude here, but there is a big difference between 1pm and 5:50pm. Now in their defense, if you still received the product and people still ate it, took some home, etc. then they have a right to be paid for it. For example, when you go out to eat there is a reasonable expectation regards to how long you should be waiting for your meal. Let's say in this case it takes them 2.5 hours to get your dinner out. If you get up and leave and say "sorry this is taking too long and is unacceptable" they have no right to charge you. But if you eat the meal, you cannot afterwards say "I don't want to pay because it took too long." it would have been better for your legal claim to not have accepted the cakes as they were just too late to be useful. But by accepting them, you "accepted non-conforming goods" and in a legal sense forgave their error. Does that make sense?

I would probably just let them know that if they were real professionals they should not be charging you full price when they messed up so badly and in such a material way. I would also let them know that you have a right to express your opinion about their service (you just can't lie about things). If the cakes were inevitably consumed by you and your guests, etc. I just don't think you have much of a case here.

Best regards,

Frank

Natoli-Lapin, LLC