Bullied Victim
London,#2Author of original report
Wed, May 11, 2011
Identity is withheld due to the franchisors attitude to the contract, he threatens franchisees with the letter of the contract on a daily basis, and even post termination there are still clauses that necessitate anonymity (or expenses could be severe) . in other words the Franchisor does not want the truth out in the public arena.
FEW franchisees take on extra territories, sure some have, most of these have picked up exiting franchisees territories at basement bargain prices) and many of these then go on to fail !!
Proud to have franchisees as part of management team? These 2 franchisees obtained 2 territories from exiting franchisees (as described above) they were (are?) 2 single men (no families, mortgages, normal life expenses etc.) they also run (ran?) another franchise (which worked!) so they had income from this, and I have it on record that they earned nothing in first 3 years (despite spending 12+ hours per day on the business) and less than 25K in year 4, I strongly suspect they were brought in from the fold and given a position in head office with a salary to keep them sweet so they could be held up as the Glory Boys who made a success of the franchise, (there are not many other franchisees who could be held up as successful!!) they confided in me that the franchise was not a success (financially) for them at all. IF you are prepared to put in much effort, do it for yourself NOT for Tony Bowman is my advice.
As for the Franchise Owners association, these are as the name implies franchise owners! When I went to them to discuss the situation, I had Tony Bowman back onto me threatening legal proceedings, that is NO WAY to run a self policing system!
But lets not get too carried away in answering Tony Bowmans points in rebuke to my original comments, just note (and this is the tactic he uses all the time, which makes owning one of his franchises such a pain) he does not answer any of my pertinent points about 5% taken off being a surprise to ALL franchisees as this is cleverly not broached pre sign up which is tantamount to (not sure of the legal term) but is closing on theft! , turnover, profitability, you know, the important issues!
Customer service
Cambridge,#3REBUTTAL Individual responds
Fri, May 06, 2011
The person who posted the adverse comments did not have sufficient confidence in the accuracy of their report to state their name. However the comments about charging the franchisee for repairs to a Customer's wheels that they had damaged and for flowers that we sent as an apology to Customers is very illuminating.
This franchisee was Terminated for persistent failure to comply with our safety procedures and for bad service to our Customers.We have only ever Terminated a franchise agreement after persistent breaches of our safety policy. By doing this we protect not only our business but the businesses of all our other Franchise Owners. Also, most importantly, we are protecting the safety of our Customers.
Just for the record, our very first Franchise Owners, who joined us in 1996, are still trading profitably. If this was a bad franchise they would have failed long ago.I am sure that hard facts are more convincing than wild accusations that are made anonymously.
Customer service
Cambridge,#4REBUTTAL Individual responds
Fri, April 08, 2011
It is difficult to respond in detail because the identity of the writer has been witheld. However it is a fact that our company has been involved in franchising since 1996 and our first franchisees are still with us and continuing to trade successfully. The same applies to dozens of other who have been with us for over ten years. Many of our franchisees take on, and pay for, additional Territories. If they were not not happy with the business and their relationship with the management of the company they would obviously not do that.
We are proud to have Franchise Owners as part of our management team. This policy is specifically endorsed by The British Franchise Association, of which we are Full Members. We also encourage all our Franchise Owners to join the Association.
The last part of the accusation probably holds the key to understanding the true position. In any franchised business there will inevitably be someone who the business is not suitable for. This may not just be lazyness on the part of the franchisee, as the writer suggests. It can be a variety of reasons that are outside everyone's control. But the reason that there is not very much inter-reaction between our Franchise Owners is because they are too busy!