A catering contract to celebrate Black Heritage Month turned into a tough lesson for a Black-owned bakery in the South Bay earlier this month.
What started as a $16,000 deal ended up costing the small business owner thousands of dollars instead.
On Valentine’s Day, the owner of The Giving Pies in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood received a pretty sweet call from a representative with Tesla: a catering job for thousands of mini-pies for a Black History Month event.
Owner Voahangy Rasetarinera, who started the business out of her home in 2017, says both sides agreed on a quote and exchanged an invoice for 4,000 pies for delivery this week. Because of the tight turnaround, Rasetarinera asked staff to work extra hours, she bought ingredients and packaging supplies and declined at least three other catering jobs.
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But two days after taking the Tesla job, the bakery owner got a simple text message canceling the order.
“It felt like we didn’t matter,” Rasetarinera said. “It felt like, ‘OK, it’s no big deal, it’s just a business transaction that didn’t pan out.’ But it’s not like that. I had to tell my staff change your plans.”
Rasetarinera says she’s done similar big jobs in the past with no trouble, from weddings and companies like Google, Apple and Adobe.
She has a cancellation policy, but because Tesla hadn’t paid her yet, there was no way to recoup expenses.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Tesla to ask about what went wrong with the catering deal and whether or not the company will compensate the bakery in any way for its time and expenses.
A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to the specific questions but told NBC Bay Area they’ve been in touch with Rasetarinera.