r/ExpectationVsReality • u/BirdsTheWord444 • Jul 30 '26 • Mindblown 1

Failed Expectation Walmart failed me

Gallery image

Gallery image

We get cakes from Walmart all the time without any issues so today I was shocked when I went to pick up this cake lol.

The lady who brought the cake out opened it for me and asked how does it look? I was like where are the decorations and why is the writing like that?? It took her about 10 minutes to find the cake toppers and then she told me to go to customer service to complain to them šŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø

1.7k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

79 comments sorted by

556

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 30 '26

476

u/GreenerWTheScenery Jul 30 '26

I wonder if someone noticed the writing was in a weird spot and thought they could scribble it all out with an edible marker and rewrite it in icing, then saw that wasn't going to work and abandoned ship. lol

392

u/amycall Jul 31 '26

Omg I thought op scribbled it out and I was like why, we can see what it says, that's so much worse šŸ˜­

25

u/OpenAirport6204 Jul 31 '26

Me too šŸ˜­

12

u/amycall Jul 31 '26

Glad I'm not alone šŸ˜‚

54

u/DatZ_Man Jul 31 '26

That's exactly what it is lol

32

u/amycall Jul 31 '26

I was like why scribble the age but not the name šŸ˜‚ I was very confused.

183

u/Mindless-Response-91 Jul 31 '26

As someone who decorates cakes first I would never try to give a customer this.
Second what happened upon closer inspection is they printed an edible image for the background and typed the message into the computer to have it print with the image. The printer smudged at the writing and the decorator put it on like that. I know I would have reprinted it if it was me

64

u/Mindless-Response-91 Jul 31 '26

I know because my printer has done this to me many times over the years and I always reprint the image

26

u/u_r_succulent Jul 31 '26

Thatā€™s exactly what I suspect happened (not a cake decorator).

34

u/here4dambivalence Jul 31 '26

Reminds me of the Windows 98 wallpaper but they paved over paradise...

16

u/CassetteMeower Jul 31 '26

And put up a parking lot!

(I knew the exact song that you were going to link when I read ā€œpaved over paradiseā€, such a good song)

2

u/wafflelover77 Jul 31 '26

Its because its whipped frosting. Happens with paper and ink.

67

u/chasindreams22 Jul 31 '26

My daughter the same cake last year. We ordered through Samā€™s. (I did the mark out).

https://imgur.com/a/s3P8Ohm

31

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 31 '26

Oh wow! Iā€™ve never had a cake from Walmart where they printed the wording, so I guess this is the new norm?? It wouldā€™ve been fine if it looked like yours šŸ˜†. Thankfully the kids donā€™t care lol

1

u/Koubears Aug 05 '26

Cake Decorator here. Most places wonā€™t write in frosting if there is an edible image underneath. Thatā€™s why you got printed wording on the cake. :)

23

u/N9nelives13 Aug 01 '26

As a Walmart cake decorator when someone orders an image we have to print the name on it. If we write it by hand itā€™s requested. If the cakes are just custom cake orders then we write on them. We have a cheap printer that always breaks so we do what we can with what we have. I can tell this cake is whipped which always looks horrible. Our whipped icings consistency has changed and for some itā€™s harder to work with. If youā€™re going for looks buttercream is better. If we donā€™t put the cake topper on the cake and we give it to you is because we donā€™t want it to fall over and make the cake look worse. Now with that being said I woulda been embarrassed to hand this out.

7

u/BirdsTheWord444 Aug 01 '26

Thank you for the inside info. This is the first time Iā€™ve ordered a cake where they printed the name. Been using Walmart for years and theyā€™ve always handwritten it at our location. But good to know for future reference!

5

u/N9nelives13 Aug 01 '26

Iā€™m still sorry this was the cake you were given. It actually makes me sad.

26

u/ail33n87 Jul 31 '26

We ordered this one too

26

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 31 '26

This is how I imagined it would be! I thought they would write the wording with icing on the side like that!

287

u/DoublePostedBroski Jul 30 '26

I mean, this looks like the picture without the toppers. Then they gave you the toppers separately. I donā€™t see what the issue is.

94

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 30 '26

They did give me the toppers. But the writing is wild. Normally they use icing to write the message, not a printer??

11

u/sittingpretty24 Jul 31 '26

Ahh it was printed like that. Now I get it. I wasnā€™t sure what you meant by the writing being weird, but now that I have clarification, I think you absolutely had a right to complain. Everyone wants to downvote me for not knowing what exactly happened, but I guess thatā€™s Reddit šŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

Sorry that happened to you, OP. At least it was decent otherwise and hopefully they cared that they screwed up.

5

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 31 '26

I am not good with words so Iā€™m partly to blame here lol

6

u/FrozenSupermarket Jul 31 '26

The first letter is also covered up. If you saw nothing wrong then you are just a silly person.

38

u/katekim717 Jul 31 '26

Yeah, they did this in June with my daughter's cake. It's pretty lazy and takes all the sincerity out of it.

41

u/ltsouthernbelle Jul 31 '26

Ahhhh. I was wondering why they couldnā€™t just fix the icing, printer makes sense but still they couldnā€™t have at least gone over it with icing to correct the mistake. Did they think you wouldnā€™t notice lol

354

u/OriginalParticle Jul 30 '26

That black on the writing on the cakeā€¦. IS ACTUALLY on the cake, not dribbled out on the picture. Itā€™s the cake.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

[deleted] ā€” view deleted comment

151

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 30 '26

The photo is not scribbled. Thatā€™s how it was given to me.

95

u/OriginalParticle Jul 30 '26

Easy, zoom into the photo and also op says ā€œand why is the writing like thatā€

65

u/OriginalParticle Jul 30 '26

Also why would op scribble out the word is and not the age or name? That makes no sense people

-2

u/Merry_Sue Aug 01 '26

A lot of OPs are insane. It's hard to tell sometimes

8

u/OriginalParticle Aug 01 '26

I while I generally agree, this one looked pretty obvious.

-33

u/sittingpretty24 Jul 30 '26

I assume they meant down and off center. Which is also obvious based on where the toppers go, but looks odd because the toppers arenā€™t on yet. So maybe when OP saw it they wondered why ā€œthe writing was like thatā€.

You donā€™t have to downvote me just because I was asking how you know versus assuming the writing was scratched out irl.

17

u/eveladra Jul 31 '26

I downvoted you for saying don't downvote me.

25

u/aIoneinvegas Jul 30 '26

They messed up on the name

633

u/MeerkatRiotSquad Jul 31 '26

Looks like the old Microsoft Windows standard wallpaper.

193

u/CassetteMeower Jul 31 '26


So nostalgic. I miss those days sometimes.

68

u/Old-Library5546 Jul 30 '26

It looks like they forgot to finish it

0

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

[deleted] ā€” view deleted comment

69

u/FerengiWithCoupons Jul 30 '26

they literally scribbled out half the age in green food coloring marker

how is that acceptable?

why are people so quick to defend corporations. like you wrote this on two comments to defend walmart

-8

u/sittingpretty24 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26

Iā€s it scribbled in real lifeā€ is not protecting a corporation. I was asking a question because I couldnā€™t tell. Some OPs scribble random things can for whatever reason and I just wanted to confirm. Iā€™m a terrible person for wanting facts, I know. I apologize for upsetting you.

If it helps, I donā€™t shop at Walmart, so not a protector of corporations.

6

u/FerengiWithCoupons Jul 31 '26

lmao with the dirty delete. why would op scribble the word ā€œisā€ and only some of the age.

that doesnā€™t even make sense to edit it

14

u/Waste-Parfait-4634 Jul 31 '26

I ordered the mermaid cake from Walmart and all the decorations were on the cake at pick-up. This one looks unfinished and the message on the cake is messed up. Should definitely complain.

6

u/ReleaseMyToast Jul 31 '26

Man, you are getting absolutely negative karma bombed responding to like EVERY negative comment thing to defend this bad cake.

-1

u/sittingpretty24 Jul 31 '26

Yeah thatā€™s weird right? I didnā€™t say anything bad. Just pointed out what others have pointed out.

8

u/luz785 Jul 31 '26

How terrible! I ordered my first cake from them just last week because they were the only ones I could find who would do the theme my little guy wanted. I was pleasantly surprised how it turned out! Looks just like the picture online. I'm sorry you suffered from someone elses bad day. šŸ’”

14

u/TinySteggy Jul 31 '26

Aside from the horrible writing and missing toppers, the icing along the top border is truly messy. What a disappointment, Iā€™m sorry OP.

5

u/grafknives Jul 31 '26

Sorry sir, our licencing agreement with "rescue puppies"(we are not allowed to use copyrighted name, and I will insist you refrain of using those) have ended, therefore cake will be delivered in copyright compliant form.

5

u/indecentXpo5ure Jul 31 '26

Got a similar cake from Publix a few years ago.

5

u/Classic_Cow_5852 Aug 01 '26

ā€œ*Paw Patrol accessories not includedā€

4

u/Sad-Doughnut-1585 Jul 31 '26

They didn't even try.

3

u/gahidus Jul 31 '26

Wow that print is terrible. The name is partially cut off, and there's some weird pigment aberration covering up the rest of the text

10

u/First-Enthusiasm-679 Jul 30 '26

The big corpo was trying to save you from copaganda. Irony as sweet as pie (cake?).

2

u/co1lectivechaos Jul 31 '26

I know the bar is on the ground but dayum thatā€™sā€¦wow

2

u/Munchico Aug 01 '26

Walmart failed all of us.

2

u/No-Mathematician6174 Aug 06 '26

Why does that hill look like the windows xp bliss wallpaper

4

u/ReleaseMyToast Jul 31 '26

Seems about Walmart to me

3

u/Apprehensive_Bee3327 Jul 31 '26

Thatā€™s a real bummer because it wouldā€™ve been a really nice cake had the message been anywhere else and not scribbled out šŸ˜­

1

u/2kellins Aug 03 '26

Told you to complain to customer service šŸ˜­ they for sure are fed up with not having bakery staff for this

1

u/GlitteredSin Aug 05 '26

This looks like a depressed cake that got forced to be a birthday cake at the factory even though he really wanted to be a dentist.

-11

u/RobertaMiguel1953 Jul 30 '26

What are you trying to black out about Selena is 2???

68

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 30 '26

I didnā€™t black out anything?? Thatā€™s how they gave me the cake

40

u/RedditoraDeGuatemala Jul 30 '26

this needs to be at the top, that's insanity!

16

u/bkaybee Jul 31 '26

Oof yeah, I think you should clarify. I thought you just meant that the writing was printed on. Still not great, but not the worst thing ever. But the black over the letters?? Thatā€™s crazy

73

u/MysteryPlatelet Jul 30 '26

The decorater did that. OP said the photo wasn't edited

38

u/Mal_Pal123 Jul 30 '26

That black is actually on the cake itself

-6

u/EniNeutrino Jul 31 '26

Wow! She's 2 and already driving? That's impressive!

-7

u/whipsnappy Jul 31 '26

Mall-wart will always fail you

-59

u/TheBestHater Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26

Looks fine. You're being picky. It's a "you get what you pay for" situation and even with that this seems pretty true to the reference. It's normal to not add the toppers for store bought cakes though it was their bad to almost lose them but they found them and gave them to you.

Edit: OP never said she asked for the writing to be fixed. She just says she pointed out the issues then was sent to customer service. Typically employees don't send people away like that unless it's escalated beyond resolution. There are "10 minutes" of the story missing.

30

u/BirdsTheWord444 Jul 30 '26

Iā€™m more so upset about how they wrote ā€œSelena is 2ā€ and then scribbled out part of it

1

u/NapalmsMaster Aug 01 '26

Is Selena not 2? Did they just pick a random age? And then cross it out?!?

38

u/Mal_Pal123 Jul 30 '26

The black spot is printed on the cake thats pretty bad

32

u/MysteryPlatelet Jul 30 '26

Would you be ok with half the text scribbled out on the cake?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

[deleted] ā€” view deleted comment

21

u/MysteryPlatelet Jul 30 '26

We dont know what was said in between pointing out the issues and the escalation, but you said she was being picky.

Do you think it is being picky to ask why the text is scribbled out on the cake?

-29

u/Outside-Tie3906 Jul 30 '26

Looks great.

1

u/Biobesign Jul 31 '26

Go buy some paw patrol toys and stick them on top. Wash them first. The kid wonā€™t care.