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Confirmed User
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 973
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Quiznos. Ever thought of opening one, or a similar major franchise?
I guess having one of the fastest growing franchise names backing you is no sure path to success... Read these horror stories, I found it very eye-opening.
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DEAR CHRIS,
I FOUND OUT ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE FROM ANOTHER DISGRUNTLED FRANCHISEE. I LOGGED ON WITH GREAT INTEREST & WAS RELIEVED TO FIND I WAS NOT ALONE IN THE " HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ME " WORLD OF QUIZNOS FRANCHISEES.
I TOO LOST EVERYTHING, HOUSE, SAVINGS, RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS AND AN ADDITIONAL STRAIN ON AN ALREADY TROUBLED MARRIAGE THAT FINALLY LED TO DIVORCE. NOT TO MENTION THE EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL STRAIN PUT ON ME PERSONALLY.
WHEN I CALLED QUIZNOS TO INFORM THAM OF MY INTENSION TO CLOSE MY STORE BEING THAT I HAD NO FUNDING LEFT TO STAY OPEN & WAIT FOR A SALE, THE RESPONSE WAS " WELL, YOU'D BETTER NOT BECAUSE WE'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO SUE YOU". BUT EVEN BEFORE THAT WHEN I CALLED MY A.D., THERE WAS NO ATTEMPT TO HELP OR WHAT CAN WE DO TYPE ATTITUDE JUST " HERES THE NUMBER AT QUIZNOS YOU'LL NEED TO CALL. THE GUY AT CORPORATE ALSO SAID " BY THE WAY, HALF THE STORES IN JACKSONVILLE ARE FOR SALE AND NOBODY WANTS THEM".
SO I CLOSED THE STORE AND WALKED AWAY. THEN A LETTER COMES SAYING I OWE DAMAGES OF UNPAID ROYALTIES OF $277K. GREAT, IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER. I'LL BE LUCKY TO EARN THAT MUCH IN THE REMAINDER OF MY LIFETIME BEING I'M JUST NOT THAT YOUG ANYMORE.
PLEASE E-MAIL ME BACK WITH INFO ON HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE TSFA. CAN I BE A MEMBER IF I NO LONGER OWN A FRANCHISE OR OPERATE A STORE? I'D LIKE TO PUT IN MY TWO CENTS WORTH.
THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS.
SINCERELY,
GLENN E. POYER.....#9189
(904) 620-****
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Quote:
Chris,
This is a hard letter to write. I have been an advocate for this lawsuit for so long, not being a part of it takes prayer on my part. But after the 3 hour deposition that my husband was put through on Saturday, we are so upset with what the trustee is doing to us, we don't want to put another penny in their hands. I am going to share this with you because you have walked this story with us for over a year.
As you know, we went bankrupt and lost the note that we held on our first store ($131,000). Well, because the bankruptcy trustee has that, they are trying to soak up as much in legal fees as possible. So they are trying to say we are the criminals. That we hid money and didn't bother to report everything to them. The fact that we lost everything doesn?t seem to mean anything, The fact that Quiznos lied to us from the beginning, is truly a ?Buyers beware? scenario.
The trustee is also in the process of suing my brother - in - law in California, because my husband and I shared the estate funds from his mother's death with his brother (before the stores where opened). And after we sold a rental property, because it had gone into foreclosure due to the money we had to use to keep the stores open, btw after we declared bankruptcy. We were told not to put the money under our name because the Quiznos supplier had sued us for $5,000. (of which we didn't owe) and was trying to take money out of our bank account. So we put $4800 in our bank account. We have submitted receipts on how that money was spent, but they are still going after her (she is 26) for the repayment of the money. The legal fees for all this is stacking up (we are up to about $3000, we already spent $3200). They are even making noises about reversing our bankruptcy discharge (that won't happen, they are just being pricks). Essentially, they are giving us hell over less than 3% of what we lost and less than 2% of what we owe.
There are several other issues that are weighing in on this, tax refunds not received, tax deposits, sales tax issues from the store, missing restaurant equipment, landlord keeping equipment and changing the locks... They even came into our home to inventory all our possessions to see if you bought anything with the money we used to bring up the two stores, so they could sell it. We hadn?t brought anything, even carpeting, in 8 years, just because we were using all our resources to buy into a business. All of which are directly because we were stupid enough to believe the Quiznos hype.
So needless to say, we don't want to put another penny in the trustees pocket. Especially, since we will not see a dime of the remedies from Quiznos, no matter what or how much they agree to. From what our attorney says, any money will first go to the trustee then to the creditors. They asked us about the lawsuit, my husband told them that we would not be involved since it would cost us, and we wouldn't get any relief from it.
We have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, all of our savings, our house (that is a whole nother story, but it has also gone into foreclosure.) What is amazing to us is that of the $489,000 we spent to get into this business, we are more than $800,000 in the hole and close to retirement age and have to start over from nothing. It took us 20+ years to save the $300,000 in cash that we dived into this business, and in less than 2 years we lost it all.
Our story needs to be told, but we won't get a chance, and nobody really cares that we were victims except you guys, and we can't help you with the suit directly.
Karen
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Taken from here: http://toastedsubs.blogspot.com/
which is the blog for these unhappy franchise owners: http://www.toastedsubs.info/
Some interesting reading. |