After a bakery owner in California says she was left reeling and her small business “left high and dry” after Tesla “abruptly” canceled a 4,000-pie order worth $16,000, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he plans to “make good” with the Black-owned bakery.
Voahangy Rasetarinera, who runs The Giving Pies in San Jose, wrote a Facebook post on Feb. 21 titled “How Tesla’s actions hurt my small Black women-owned business.”
The post detailed her experience working with a Tesla employee named Laura to coordinate an initial order of 2,000 mini pies to be delivered last Tuesday and Thursday.
Rasetarinera, who is originally from France, said she’d turned down other Black History Month catering inquiries to accommodate the potential business opportunity that she described as a “promising exchange” on the Facebook post.
The bakery owner wrote that she first heard from Laura on Feb. 14, received an approval of her quote and expected “a smooth transaction” from there – but she encountered a hurdle in receiving her money “when the payment process was redirected through Tesla’s vendor, City Flavor,” she wrote.
“Despite this hurdle, I remained optimistic as I awaited payment … yet, when payment failed to materialize, I grew concerned,” Rasetarinera said.
She received a call from the Tesla employee on Thursday night apologizing for the delayed payment of the vendor, who Laura claimed was a new vendor for the company. Laura requested to double the order size from 2,000 to 4,000 pies, according to Rasetarinera.
“Despite the late hour and short notice, I consulted with my staff, who assured me they could manage the expanded order,” the bakery owner wrote.
She said she sent a revised invoice the next day, Feb. 16, requesting payment by noon “to secure additional resources for production.”
Laura told Rasetarinera that “she requested approval by 11 a.m.,” something Rasetarinera said should have alerted…
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