'Pay up': Client refuses to pay catering service, leaving company with $2000 expenses, client demands they cater another event

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    "You're gonna pay, whether you like it or not...'
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    Food allergy charity doesn't want to pay their bills? Enjoy a nutty party.
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    I work in a food catering place which can fulfill allergy free requests. We have the expertise and care not to include allergic food, either as a hidden ingredient or by accidentally sharing contaminated utensils and pans while cooking.
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    In our experience, the 4 most common allergies are peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and milk. Cooking meals without these 4 ingredients will usually satisfy everyone at an event. We had a new client, a food allergy advocacy group. They ordered a large catering last month and didn't pay us since. We were out of pocket
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    $2000 and were considering legal action. This charity had the nerve to place another order with us, but this time a smaller one costing $450. The group asked for the meals to be 'nut-free vegan' instead of 'nut/egg/milk free' as this would ensure them a peanut, tree nut, egg, and milk free event for cheaper. (as
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    they would avoid our additional allergy free preparation fees). This was reckless behaviour from the advocacy group as the party attendees were most likely anaphylactic to milk and egg. Think deadly peanut allergies but for dairy (milk, cheese, cream) and egg products instead.
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    Had we not known they were a food allergy charity, then we would have not taken as much care in ensuring the meals were egg/dairy free and would have just focused on the nut- free angle instead. There was 1 important thing the charity forgot, it's now possible to buy dairy which is made from lab
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    grown milk from yeast, the protein is identical to milk but is technically vegan. We cooked all the meals with this lab-grown dairy and loaded it in the van. Upon arriving to the function hall, we informed the charity organizers that the meals had lab grown dairy in them. The charity owner started
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    blasting off on how it was meant to be dairy free and how they have people deathly allergic to milk in the event. I simply explained that the order was nut-free vegan since we used lab grown milk, and that they had failed to pay us the last order and
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    that this was simply going to be our team Christmas party if they didn't accept the order. The owner went b listic and began pushing me. The rest of us restrained him and the function hall called the police. The owner lied and told the police that we had 'dropped' and assaulted him. The police asked
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    the function hall for the CCTV and then moved us both along. The police did inform us at the commotion that we could head down to the station tonight and provide a witness statement should we wish to press charges. A few moments later, the owner called and begged for an apology
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    and offered to pay us both the original and today's invoices right there and then. I decided to take the apology and the cash. Our team had a nice Pre-Christmas party with the vegan lab-grown dairy meals.
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    RedditAdminAreM ons. 17 hr. ago I don't side-eye charities, but I will always be watching their owners and directors like hawks. They have just as much ability to be arrogant a es as anyone that runs a for- profit business or runs for office.
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    SamuelVimesTrained. 16 hr. ago TIL that there is lab grown milk... Today was a good day.
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    Zoreb1 17 hr. ago Not sure why you catered the second event when they hadn't paid for the first.
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    Agreeable-Key3914 OP. 16 hr. ago We knew they would reject the order and thought to prepare ourselves a little Christmas party.
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    that_one_wierd_guy. 17 hr. ago I would've taken the apology/money, then pressed charges anyway
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    Ampersandbox. 17 hr. ago Strategic move. They were making sure they'd either get paid or the charity would have no catering at all.
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    scarlet_sage 8 hr. ago I had an intro to business course in college. I remember only two things. One was never to extend credit to politicians or preachers. They'll claim not to have money and/or try to guilt you into not
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    charging. So I guess add "charity" to the mix. (The other: when firing someone, have the Office Nice Guy That Everyone Gets Along With help them pack up their office and get them out the door.)
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    3amGreenCoffee · 14 hr. ago nice Pre-Christmas party with the vegan lab-grown dairy meals There's something terribly wrong with that phrase.
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    The-Rog 17 hr. ago Had we not known they were a food allergy charity, then we would have not taken as much care in ensuring the meals were egg/dairy free This one sentence says a lot about you
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    Agreeable-Key3914 OP. 17 hr.ago. edited 16 hr. ago If someone orders a vegan catering, then we would not keep on meticulously washing every single pan and utensil while making their order. Their meal would still be egg/milk free.
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    If someone orders an allergy free catering then we would do all the above, plus more. The catering business works on speed. Edit: Let me elaborate more, we wash all dishes at the end of the day. If someone requests a allergy free meal, then we
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    would not cook multiple orders at the same time. We also look at the ingredient list of store bought items to ensure there is no 'may contain traces of nuts/egg/milk' If someone requests a vegan meal, we may cook
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    multiple meals at the same and would not avoid any 'may contains'. Allergy free requests are only a small portion of our workload, most of the time they just ask for one allergy-free meal while the
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    others are unrestricted, in that case we cook the allergy free meal first and cast it aside. We would not do that for a vegan order.

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