Doreen Duvall, on the Microbakery Connection page, asked about Bakery gift cards. I’m sure this will be no help whatsoever but it reminded me of a situation I once faced.
A few years back when I was baking for sale I ran individual two-day courses for people who wanted to learn sourdough. Particularly in the run-up to Christmas I used to advertise Bread Course Vouchers – you paid your money and I sent out a voucher with the beneficiary’s name on it and in the New Year they phoned to arrange dates.
Some time into the following year my partner took a call from a woman we knew as a bread customer wanting to sort out dates for the course her husband had generously bought her for Christmas. Puzzled – I wasn’t expecting any more students – I checked all my records. Nothing.
Called her back, she consulted her husband.
It transpired that he had forgotten to buy her a Christmas present, had the bright idea of scamming the mock-up of a course voucher from my website and pasting her name on to it. Then, Christmas present sorted, he forgot all about it again.
After she confronted him I received payment within about 10 minutes. Don’t know what the atmosphere at home was like but the course went really well …
The PArtisan Baker 