| Friendly Computers |
| Friendly Computers Computer Renaissance, Bryan Ward, Steve Ward, Don Ziegler , Friendly Computers Franchise Scam Internet |
| 6th of Apr, 2011 by User293187 |
This franchise opportunity makes a lot of promises but fails in all promises. I am writing this to hopefully help other avoid this scam. 1) It does not have a proven sales and marketing plan besides using yellow pages. 2) Discussions between the franchisor and franchisees often descends into arguments, threats, and swearing. There is no 'open communication'. I have proof of this. One time Bryan Ward said they would do whatever required to help us stay afloat, over the phone of course they would not want anything in writing, then the very next day called wanting a meeting to talk about things which turned out to just be him and 2 other of his cronies making threats and telling me what I would do. It got so bad between them and myself that I had to literally stop taking calls from them and tell them to put what they had to say in writing otherwise do not contact me. 3) Churning is hidden by hiding failed franchises under the names of other individuals. This is something I found after the fact however their "stats are highly suspect". I remember asking about this when I first started with them however I was met with a fairly bullying answer (should have been a red flag but we all make mistakes right?). Then they just explained it as not everyone reported in which somewhat makes sense however in reality they purposely hid the. 4) Corporate often makes decisions and takes money from the franchisees with little notice. 5) There is no purchasing power within the franchise system. You are told to purchase parts from Tiger Direct and Newegg. I personally had better deals negotiated as a single individual than they had with the 90 some odd stores they claim to have. 6) Technical support is very spotty. To be honest spotty does not even begin to cover it. It is at best the quality of an weekend warrior computer tech. I routinely got blocked from sending outbound email because they did not know how to properly administrate a black list for spam prevention on the mail server. You are essentially on your own. 7) This is a family-owned company. Oftentimes, a family member is given a job even if he isn't the most qualified. 8) Any franchisees who dare question the franchisor openly are subjected to an audit of their personal and business finances. Myself being a former Marine I assert my opinions very quickly and bluntly, once I asserted my opinion of questioning to prove how their methods were working I was immediately audited, and then accused of hiding royalty funds from them, mind you we were still losing thousands of dollars per month at this point and had a 3rd party accountant doing our books. Even after repeated attempts from my accountant requesting proof of the fund hiding it was then just suddenly closed with no proof. It was a pure scare tactic to try to get me to be quite and comply with failing and just giving them money. 9) They monitored/monitor all email coming in to the server without ever telling you they do it. 10) Even after we closed down they still threatened to send their legal council after us for so called damages and said that we owed them 400/month for 10 years. I can back any of this up with documentation and I hope that this will prevent someone else from getting scammed by these crooked individuals. Anthony G.
Sugar Land, Texas
U.S.A. |
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