Complaint Review: All Tune And Lube - Millersville Maryland

We gave ATL International $38K last June. They were supposed to assist us in proper site selection and financing. They would not allow us to use a local realtor and as a result, the site they said was "perfect" ended up being on a neighborhood street out of view of the main road. They said this was "fine" as they would do amazing advertising. We were encouraged to locate there, which ended up being in (to be nice) one of the lowest-income sections of town. They told us that we did not want to be in a rich section of town, so the demographics were great for this spot.

Between the inability to be seen from the road and the neighborhood we were in, we were never able to meet our "break even" point more than a few weeks during the eight months we were open. We had some customers, but since they were all so poor, they couldn't buy anything, or wrote us bad checks, or had us fix cars they never picked up.

The first bank we attempted to get an SBA loan from turned us down because of our low-rent location. The second one (one week before opening) turned us down because of the SBA's report of ATL's 55% failure rate. We had already borrowed all they money we could as we were hoping to get the promised financing. As a result, we have lost our $45K 401K account(access to this was obtained at a high attorney's fee from Benetrends and Mr. Fischer), $30K in cash, and $88K in personal loans. John Kelly told us that franchisees were getting SBA loans "every day," but could not give us the name of even one bank.

We opened in October 2004 and lost several thousand dollars each month. In January 2005, we were forced to refinance our purchased equipment to get cash to remain open. We are now in default on the equipment lease, as well as all our loans. We will also be having a problem with our 401K and the IRS, as we can't afford $800 a year to pay Benetrends to oversee our account.

ATL also did not inform us that two other franchisees had already gone broke in our town (twice in the same location!). We found out about one franchise failure before we opened, but were told they had failed due to a "violent" manager. We had to fight both of these bad reputations.

Only one field rep they sent was competent. The others were useless in helping us. They always put the blame on the franchisees, saying that we were not following "their proven procedures." Corporate was never concerned about the low revenues (which they saw each week), and when we had to stop making franchise royalties to meet payroll, they sent me a form offering to abate four weeks worth of franchise royalties. Fortunately, I sent it to my lawyer, who said it was like killing a fly with a bazooka, in that the form basically said by signing the form, we would forever give up our right to sue them.

They stress that no experience in the auto repair industry is necessary for success, but they are wrong. You cannot possibly price jobs correctly without knowing anything about auto repairs, and as a result, lose money on jobs. Their pricing schedule is far, far below the competetion for the same repairs, and if you want to raise prices, they tell you that no one will come to your shop if you do.

They have ruined our lives, our credit, and our reputations. It will take us years to recover. Stay as far away from ATL International as you can. They just want your money, not your success.

Craig

Greer, South Carolina
U.S.A.