Another week, another issue. This time Western Power sent us a letter informing us that we will not have any power on Saturday December 3rd. From my history with Western Power a letter like it is to me what a red cloth is to a bull….. a sign to charge!!! Panic Button where are you? Not again… not for a second time in 3 months.

Now there is twist to this story. Since my last encounter withWestern Power, something must have happened there. Yes, they now have a system in place that seems to be working. The office in question is , wait for it, “The Planned Outage Coordinator”. These people know their job and are very considered. For a brief moment I almost thought someone cares ….. Regardless, thanks to Chris and his crew I can now get down from the barricades. Chris ensured me our little shopping center will not be effected. Another point I need to make, Western Power sent out the letter about the planned outage much earlier than in the past, which of course works in everyones favour, well done.

Do I start to sound like a bubbling fan? I hope not, but on this occasion credit has to be given where credit is due. Western Power, you have done an excellent job and I am very pleased with the progress that is happening at your organisation.

OK  than, back to work and lets get stuck into the Christmas Orders….keep them coming.  Do you want to save on your order?  Use the coupon code below and get 15% off

pov9L2IMBXR and save 15% on your Christmas Order, (offer valued until December 4th. minimum spend of $ 44.00 applies)

Are you wondering, what on earth am I talking about? It’s easy……..every time you buy anything at the store, just go and SPIN THE WHEEL to win your entire purchase for free. There is no limit what so ever. You spend $3.00 or $300, spin and land on ” Z =  zero ” and you walk away with cakes in hand and money in your pocket.  There is a 1 in 8 chance to pick up a prize.  So next time you are in the store,  don’t be shy, have some fun, spin the wheel and who knows, lady luck may be smiling on you too!

A huge Thank You  to everyone who has supported us in our “battle” with Western Power.

You may have heard to good news by now, Western Power has decided NOT to shut us down on Saturday August 27th. They managed to find a way to carry out the necessary upgrade work without closing the entire shopping center for 6-7 hours on a Saturday. We are looking to celebrate their decision in some form. If you have any ideas, please post your comment on our facebook page. Read more about it here….

Finally a big thank you to the crew of western power, working so hard to keep our shopping center going all day Saturday. I think the generator the team brought along was a bit of overkill, but than again, better too big than too small. Once again, many thanks to the Western Power crew, great job guys!!

Good news everyone….Western Power came to the party and we will not be shut down next Saturday. Apparently the figured out a way to do the job without closing our shopping centre. Please accept my sincere thanks for your thoughts and helpful actions. Many of our customer contacted us, and forwarded my earlier email to the Premier in support. Awesome! I am thinking of a special event we can come up with to raise awareness, that there is something we can do about when we believe the authorities are in the wrong. Please read below:

Dear Premier Barnett!

My sincere thanks to you and your office for the assistance given in our dispute with Western Power. I don’t know what was said but the short story was, Western Power will continue to carry out their scheduled work as planned, but WITHOUT TURNING OFF the power to our shopping centre.

I understand WP (Western Power) has a monster job on it’s hands upgrading and maintaining the vast WA network. WP complied with all legal requirements in dealing with me/us, however a minor switch in thinking as to how various work will effect their customers might make a huge difference. WP’s workers frequent our store regularly while carrying out their duties. So it should be possible to ask a question and then put forward the response to the people in charge. My example shows clearly, that there always is a “plan B” and it makes a world of difference to be considered. Whatever the future will bring, I have no doubt a lot of good will come out of it.

Once again Premier Barnett, your assistance is much appreciated and I wish you and your government all the best in carrying out your work.

Kind Regards

Michael Prinz

Western Power has decided to shut down our shopping center next Saturday. As you can imagine I am “very happy” about that. I sent a letter outlining my position to the premier and EVERY member of parliament. If you feel strongly about the way small business is being treated in WA, you can help be sending the email below to the premiers office and to any/all members of parliament. We have to generate some momentum, it is a utter disgrace the way our state electricity company treats its customer.

Below email sent to Premier Colin Barnett, Saturday August 20. 2011

Dear Premier Barnett!
I am writing to you out of pure frustration about the way I am being treated by our state electricity company, Western Power.
On Friday Aug 19th I received a letter in the mail, that WP (western power) will switch off all power to our shopping centre on Moreing /Davis Road, Attadale on Saturday Aug 27 from 8am until 3pm.  (Doc Ref:  DNAR 96130) In other words WP completely shuts down a local shopping centre on the busiest trading day of the week. I am only 1 of several shopkeepers that find the continuing insults from WP too much take.
I own a bakery/pastisserie/cafe and we depend heavily on the weekend trade to make ends meet.  Now we have effectively been closed down for the weekend! Why? Because nobody at WP has the brains or courtesy to contact the local business to find out when would be the best time to carry out the required work. In addition, why do we, the tax payer, have to pay penalty rates to WP employees for weekend work when the work can be carried out just as well during regular hours?
As for my own personal situation, I am standing to lose several thousand dollars in l revenue, wages, and most of all stock. I may even be forced to close Sunday as a result of WP’s action, because all my milk supply will be spoiled and the last time I checked there were no fresh milk deliveries on a Sunday.
I am taking this unusual step to write to you directly in the hope that you, as our state’s leader,  can talk some sense into the “fat cats” on the WP board. This is not the first time WP has caused us great losses. The last time they turned off our supply, I was not only forced to close my shop and throw away 3 days of stock and production, I even had to refund money for orders we took earlier simply because we had no power!! I surely hope it will never happen to you that your birthday celebrations are completely messed up like it happened to some of our customers.
I will continue to write to you and everybody else I can find in the state government / parliament until I get a response. If I have to send this email 100s or even 1000s of times per day I will do so.
I will seek compensation from WP, for my losses and additional costs through whatever means available to me. It is a disgrace! I don’t yet know how I will accomplish this but with the help of social media I am confident to find someone to help a battling small business, that employs 10 West Australians.
I would greatly appreciate some form of response. Premier Barnett, I am only a small business owner with limited means, but I have had enough of being regarded as an inconvenience to the powers that are.

Kind Regards
Michael Prinz

click here to get all member of parliament email addresses

click here to get copy of letter to forward to Mr.Colin Barnett’s  office

I am posting an email I received from one of our customers. We were lucky enough to be invited to support the new initiative to get  a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) up and running in the not too distant future. As a father of a son with cerebral palsy I only know too well how important it will be for his future. Please support our most vulnerable people in the community.

Thanks Michael for a delightfully light, super yummy specialty cake, the Truffle.  No wonder it’s one of your signature cakes! We really appreciated how well you decorated it with the “Everybody Australian Counts” and “NDIS” logos.  Everyone commented on how delicious it was. We were happy because we wanted a special cake for a special morning tea.  Our DisabiliTea at Or Lady of Mt Carmel School Hilton was a great success.  There were over 900 DisabiliTeas held across Australia, but we’re sure with our Prinz of Vienna cake that ours had the best cake!    We encourage all Australians to sign up their support for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) at www.everyaustraliancounts.org.au as soon as possible.  We need 55,000 more signatures Australia wide by the end of August when the Federal Government responds to the Productivity Commission’s recommendations to revolutionise the disability system for all Australians.  The NDIS would create a consistent pool of funds from which support for people with disabilities, their families and carers could be drawn.  This would mean a nationally consistent, fair, efficient and effective system of support for people who have a disability that significantly impacts on their daily life.

We never know when disability will touch us or our loves ones.

Please sign up now and spread the word amongst your networks.  Thanks so much, Eamon (15, who has profound multiple disabilities) and his Mum, Julie.

www.everyaustraliancounts.org.au

Thanks again for a great specialty cake!

Eamon and Julie Guilfoile

We listend to our customers and their feedback has been: “Get everyone to sample your Chocolate-Raspberry Cake, its awesome!”

Bittersweet dark chocolate cream ,  chocolate sponge, all centered around a Grand Marnier soaked vanilla sponge and tangy raspberries. yummmm!!

 You can save up to $ 10.00 during August and September 2011 on our cake of the month,  Simply  by liking    us on facebook and pick up our special facebook code.

So click on the image below and place your order now!

We launched our joint venture promotion with Cudo on July 21st. Please check out our terms and conditions below. Thanks to everybody for waiting so patiently in the shop over the weekend. It was just an awesome sight to see so many happy faces. We certainly enjoyed having you visit us. Hopefully you enjoyed our products. Let us know if you did, or even if you didn’t. We always aim to do better.  OK conditions below. Any questions give us a buzz.

1. Voucher Expires 21^st January 2012
2. ONE Voucher per customer, per transaction, per visit/order
3. If you have more than ONE voucher in the same name, you can use TWO vouchers for one order/transaction
4. If your redeem the voucher for less than the total face value, you will not be entitled to receive any credit or cash for the difference between the face value and the amount you redeemed.
5. You must inform the staff prior to ordering that you will be using a voucher (makes a huge different when it comes to reducing wait time)
6. BREAKFAST:  Available ONLY with advance booking.  Reservation must be received by Friday 5pm.  Reservations can be made via phone or online.
7. BREAD: Only ONE LOAF and/or 5 bread rolls per voucher without pre-order. Larger bread orders are available with ONE WEEK advance notice.
8. Voucher cannot be used together with any other in store promotions, specials and/or discounts.

For the cold winter months we have created a true heart warmer.  Come in and try our latest addition to the menu:

LUMBERJACK SLICE – made from fresh apples, dates and brown sugar,  finished off  with our heartwarming butter coconut topping. Warm it up and enjoy it hot with a good helping of brandy custard ….yummm,  Come in and try one today! For only $ 3.90 I promise you will not have any regrets. Also, if you buy 3 slices, I will give you a another one FREE! Check out our website for more great deals. This new slice will be available for online orders right now. Use Coupon Code “LUMBER22″ to get your winter treat for only $ 2.50 (save $ 1.40 each, minimum order 4 pcs)

It’s Michael here. Thanks to all our new visitors over the weekend.  I saw many happy faces in the store. I hope it was us that put a smile on your face and not a joke you just heard on the radio.

Anyway, we are keen to know what you thought about our products. Did you like the selection we have available? Hopefully you didn’t have to wait to long to get served, but as you remember, it was quite busy.  So please feel free to post your comments below and let us know what else we can do to make us the best patisserie in Perth/WA.  I did mention we have a surprise for visitor to our blog.  Here it is:  use the following code  BLOG07 on your next visit to our online store and save $7.00 on every 24cm cake ordered!

Also, mention  BLOG07 to our sales staff on your next visit and you will receive a FREE COFFEE with your purchase.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to see you at the shop again soon.