THE UPS STORE: Overview
July 26, 2008
Why are The UPS Store franchisees unhappy?
What is the reason for their lawsuits? What are their allegations?
What do they hope to achieve?
Are only those who converted from Mail Boxes, Etc. (MBE) unhappy?
We are looking for someone to write and submit a short summary to post here.
Share your summary, or other comments about The UPS Store franchise program, below.
I’m a terminated franchisee from another company, but recently met my counterpart from The UPS Store on one of Mr. Kelly’s other websites. I can’t give any other background on her, but I wanted to share a warning from this franchisee victim. I’ll call her Joan of Arc for now.
Joan has essentially the same story that all of us at Unhappy Franchisee share. We were told material lies about the business in question. This means that if we’d just been told the truth, upfront, we never would’ve purchased that franchise. Trust me, if I read the book, The Franchise Fraud, by Robert L. Purvin, Jr., instead of Franchising for Dummies, I would never have gotten involved with any franchisor at all. If you haven’t taken the fatal plunge yet and already signed a contract, please do your due diligence by ordering that book. The title tells the story.
Purvin, an attorney, argues that the entire franchise industry is rife with fraud. He proves his case. What appalled me the most was the fact that the FBI and local law enforcement agencies allow this to continue uninvestigated. But don’t worry, I won’t get on my soap box here.
However, Joan has some astute insights into why franchisors are free to lie, cheat and steal right under the noses of the cops. Hell, you wouldn’t even let used car salesmen get away with that. But franchisors have something like diplomatic immunity. For example, diplomats don’t have to go to jail for DUI. I’ve learned the hard way that franchisors don’t have to go to jail for fraud or racketeering.
Joan told me there are 200 ex-franchisees involved in her law suit against The UPS Store. Fellow ex-franchisees, do the math, here’s two hundred, middle class families, who were smart and successful enough to afford to buy a damn UPS store in the first place, who honestly believe they’ve been defrauded. How many more victims will it take before the FBI takes charge and puts a stop to this blight on the middle class economy?
Purvin explains in his book that the dwindling middle class in America is the primary target for ruthless, franchise racketeers. We had enough money to get involved, but not enough to fight back with civil attorneys. That’s why law enforcement must be pressured to take action. Our taxes pay the FBI investigators and U.S. Attorneys. They don’t charge by the hour. The same goes for local cops and district attorneys.
Purvin warns that many franchisors intentionally “churn” franchisees by taking all their upfront fees, ignoring them until they can’t afford to pay the lease, terminate them for bogus causes, and sell the territory to a new victim. They don’t even try to have a professional product competing in the market place. They make their money by cheating us, not helping us advance their product.
That’s the dirty, not so little, secret of franchising. I think every terminated franchisee should report this fraud to the FBI and local police. You have a civil right to report crime and blow the whistle on fraudulent criminal enterprises. Trust me, you’re crime victims and should be afforded all the rights of any other victim. Look up RICCO or Racketeering on Wikipedia or anywhere else on the internet. This is exactly what the Franchise Fraud amounts to.
The companies I read about at this website, which I want to thank Mr. Sean Kelly for providing, are really counterfeit franchises. They were never real in the first place. They were based on lies and deception by conmen. It doesn’t matter how many times a counterfeit $100 bill gets passed around, it never becomes real. Bogus fraudulent franchises have no intrinsic value in the first place and churning them over and over doesn’t make them legitimate.