Reschedule / Replacement / Cancellation & Refund Policy

Sometimes the Black Velvet Cakes experience does not go as planned. This policy includes information on:

• Canceling and Rescheduling Orders and related Fees.
• Limitations for Pick-Up Orders
• Damages with delivered orders
• Finalising Enquires and Confirming Orders
• Order Unable to Be Produced
• Unavailability of Product
• Unexpected Order Results
• Processing Refunds

Canceling and Rescheduling Orders and related Fees

We understand that your plans can change last minute and we continue to optimise our service to incorporate changes in our clients' plans, which may include rescheduling or cancelling orders. There are several considerations involved in rescheduling or cancelling an order with us, however we hope this guide simplifies it for you.

Step 1 - Consider Refrigeration before Rescheduling

If your event has been postponed for a few days, before considering cancelling or rescheduling your order, note that if you have room in a fridge or freezer for our cupcake or cake packaging, you can refrigerate most products for 48 hours, or freeze for one week, with limited degradation in quality. This may be a suitable alternative to arranging a reschedule and being exposed to potential rescheduling fees. If you plan to do this, check in with us as there are a limited number of products not suited to long refrigeration or freezing - for example marshmallows, products with sanding sugar, photo images and meringues. We may also be able to hold your order till the rescheduled date, if appropriate.

Step 2 - Communicate with Us

With your BVC order number, please let us know as soon as possible via our 24/7 online chat or by calling us (8am-6pm Anyday excl Public Holidays) that you wish to cancel or reschedule your order. Please note that our email traffic does spike, resulting in days for us to be aware of your request, so please chat or call us. If you are rescheduling, please advise us the date and time you wish to reschedule. Any change in fulfilment location may result in a change to delivery fees applicable to your order.

Step 3 - Understanding Fees

Of course, we value the long term relationship with have with our clients and therefore always try to minimise fees. 

The primary determination of fees, which are taken before any refund or store credit is given, is if your order has commenced production and will be disposed of due to your cancellation or reschedule. Production commences typically 48 hours for cakes before fulfilment, and 12-18 hours before fulfilment of cupcake. Depending on how far your order is in the production process will determine the fee. Order that have commenced production may incur fees of between 20-100% of the order value.

If your order has not commenced production, we charge an administrative fee of $5 for cupcake only orders and $10 for all other orders, to recover costs of our administrative production planning and cancelling/rescheduling your order from the multiple production systems we manage.

Additional Fees relating to cancellation or rescheduling if you have a custom order, which has included special purchases including custom toppers, fresh floral or other items. We need to recover 100% of the cost of sourcing these products, but you're welcome to pick up these products from our Darlinghurst store within 48 hours of your cancellation.

We understand that event changes can be due to unforseen events. Unfortunately with thousands of orders going out weekly, we cannot wear the costs for all unforseen circumstances in our clients' lives - however, we will work to minimise the cost and any wastage in your request for order rescheduling or cancellation.

Limitations for Pick-Up Orders

• Upon Pickup, customers alone are responsible for inspecting the Order when they Pick-Up the items and shall report any issues and/or defects to the staff at the store.
• It is the ordering party’s responsibility to ensure that the correct and complete order is in their hands before leaving the premises. 
• We are not liable for any damages to the order once they are fully transferred to the customer’s hands such as but limited to incorrect/incomplete/damaged items due to the customer’s negligence, balloon deflating or flying away, toppled over cupcakes, icing touching the box or broken cake toppers.
• Refunds are not applicable for failure to pick up due to the ordering party’s unavailability.
• Should the ordering party hire their own delivery service to pick up from the store, Black Velvet Cakes will not be liable for any damages during transit using the ordering party’s courier.
• Where the ordering party cannot pick-up the order before store closure, they can chat online or call us to arrange pick up the next business day, arrange delivery (at the next available slot), arrange an alternate person to pick up, or leave in a nearby location. Black Velvet Cakes cannot guarantee that we can schedule a delivery in place of the failed pick-up same-day, nor be able to leave in an alternate location.

Delays / Damages with delivered orders

Black Velvet Cakes is one of the few celebration cake companies producing large fragile cakes for delivery in Sydney. In delivering your product, drivers may be exposed to poor roads, unexpected hazards from other drivers, heavy traffic, road closures and poor weather. In ordering delivery with us, you agree that there are many delivery factors outside the control of Black Velvet Cakes and the delivery services we use and will not hold us liable for any costs, damages or other, as a result late deliveries from unexpected events.

Furthermore, the prior given reasons, in rare cases, may result in damage to your order. Damages during transit must be reported in writing with photographic evidence no later than 30 minutes after receipt of the order to info@blackvelvetcakes.com.au with a follow up call or online chat. Our skilled team can review the damage and advise fixes, we ask for your assistance helping our team fix your order.

In determining any refund, Black Velvet Cakes will consider the willingness and cooperation of the recipent in attempts to perform simple repairs over the phone, availability to redelivery another order/or suitable alternative, or a decorator to attend to repair the order. 

Finalising Enquires and Confirming Orders

Any outstanding enquiries clients may have should be followed up nearing the fulfilment date. Unless an order placed via enquiry is paid for at least 36 hours before fulfilment, we cannot guarantee production.

All orders require full payment at the time. Failure to make full payment will result in your order not being scheduled for production.

If an order cannot be fulfilled by Black Velvet Cakes upon placement of an order, or a suitable alternative cannot be agreed upon, then a full refund will be issued by Black Velvet Cakes.

Order Unable to Be Produced

If you place an order with us with special requests, we may cancel and refubd your order if we believe we cannot meet your requirements. If possible, we will take reasonable steps to contact you to seek clarification or discuss alternatives before canceling your order. We will notify of the cancellation by email, text message and/or phone. More information can be found in our policies.

Unavailability of Product

Black Velvet Cakes maintains thousands of decorations, which makes inventory management challenging, especially when our suppliers stock levels are unreliable. We always endeavour to ensure we have supply of decorations for products that can be purchased online. However in very rare scenarios, specific decorations may not be available for your order. In these rare cases, we will contact you to let you know what we can substitute.

For same-day cupcake deliveries, in the event that a cupcake flavour is unavailable upon payment, Black Velvet Cakes reserves the right to arrange an alternative replacement for the order. As soon as the order is paid, it is looked at in great detail by decorators and if there is an unlikely chance of ANY issue, Black Velvet Cakes will endeavour to contact the Billing Party. The store also reserves the right to change the flavour or adjust the sizing of cake and/or cupcakes if we cannot get in touch with the customer after repeated attempts. The store cannot guarantee the availability of all products at the time the same-day order was made online. To avoid disappointment, Black Velvet Cakes recommends confirming orders with payment at least 24 hours before an order is to be fulfilled.

Black Velvet Cakes does not guarantee that all the product lines used in the construction of the cakes and cupcakes shown on its website and all of its social media channels will be available at the time of making. For example, when a supplier de-lists an item such as a particular lollipop used as a cake topper, etc, the store will endeavor to use a very close substitute to reflect the spirit of the original design as closely as possible.

While specific decorations may be requested, these are still subject to Black Velvet Cakes’s approval and confirmation. Black Velvet Cakes reserves the right to replace these items with items of equal or better quality without consultation. The store reserves the right to make alterations to the design, appearance and technical specifications of the products on the website without notice.

Unexpected Order Results

Black Velvet Cakes are award winning and have been guided by judges in the Cake Guild of NSW. We make firm butter cake sponges to support the heavy decorations on our cake and use custom cream cheese buttercream icing. While customers' taste vary, our standard recipes remain constant, so we therefore do not refund for dissatisfaction with taste or texture of our products.

We try to specify our products and orders as clearly and as detailed as reasonably possible. The order you receive may appear different to your expectation based on the display settings of the device you viewed our products on. We also do our best to match colours and patterns to custom requests, however due to display setting variations and decorating tools available, small differences may appear.

Should the customer ask for a custom design be made by Black Velvet Cakes, they should understand that all customised cakes are handmade and intricately crafted, capturing the likeness based on photos provided. The cakes will not be a 100% copy or replica of the image. Cake colour may also be subject to slight variations from actual product due to possible discrepancies in the photo or screen resolution. Therefore image quality and colour matching are variable and cannot be used as grounds for refunds.

Processing Refunds

Refunds may take 1-7 business days to process depending on the circumstances and methods used to pay and requested refunds.