ATL ALL TUNE & LUBE Franchise Complaint

57 thoughts on “ATL ALL TUNE & LUBE Franchise Complaint”

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• All tune and lube is a huge rip off. I would not encourage anyone to go to any shops for service. I live in Cleveland Ohio, and I had service done on my truck and car and the work is very sub par and I was over charged. I was told that I would receive a coupon on line for the long delay of service at one time..that was 3 months ago..no coupon. A HUGE RIP OFF..DO NOT GO TO ALL TUNE AND LUBE FOR ANY WORK ON YOUR VEHICLES. We know that a lot of business are not very honest, but I think that the auto world is one of the most dishonest..and all tune just proves me right. No wonder our country is in this sluggish, dog eat dog condition, don’t trust any mechanics unless you hear good word of mouth recommendations.

  Walt.

• There is no locaition in Cleveland, Ohio. Also, you can’t blame the franchise, blame the owner. He owns it, not All Tune. Are your sure you don’t mean EconoLube and Tune….they really suck.

• DIDO. I can’t say more but agree 100%. Ever work exacvtly the same from me. I tried to go on 1.5 years and ended up broke and owing about $100K on top of my massive loses I’m still in litigation with suppliers on 2 years later. BTW Jay Wright, do you work for ATL?

• A break rotor job for ( about 100.00 dollars, quote) turned into 702.00. That’s just to replace two front rotors of a 2005 F-150. Rotor cost ..about 256.00 each! And 80.00 labor. I will never learn! Online Brembos cost 160.00, cheaper brands 80.00. I still don’t believe the rotors were not turnable. I will have to get my micrometers on them! They looked like maybe .020 inches less thanf the original unworn part of the rotor.These rotors come with bearings installed and apparently sealed. They are pressed in, to be sure.

  I am a jet engine mechanic… next time buy the parts and have the Econo-Lube-N-tune guys just do the labor if you can’t do it at your place. They really fuck you and me on the parts. Same with the Dealers…Live and learn. Marc

  Condo living kinda sucks if you are a mechanic! Unhappy in Oceanside, CA

• I am so pissed off at the ALL TUNE and LUBE I went to here in Campbell, CA. I Paid $600 to have them put my Clutch, water pump, and some Seals in my car. Less than a month after the work my engine was making noises which I thought to be my motor mounts. I went back to the shop to have them fix the problem and found that they had packed up shop and left within days of my work being completed. How dare they take my money when they knew they were closing up shop. Now my seals are leaking and I’m Filing a complaint with my Credit Card who can research and track the Manager, Dan Alvarez down for my refund. I have to have most of my work redone because of shabby workmanship. Don’t every go to any of the ALL TUNE and LUBE Shops.

  Next I call the Mother Company.

• I was also taken in by the ATL franchise people. They really are exactly as described by Anonymous in Georgia. Once they have fleeced you and you go bankrupt. The only positive thing you feel that you can do afterwards is warn others from making the same mistakes.

  Believe me, you are paying all the money for a few boxes of pre-printed forms and a binder obvious information. If you are a capable enough business person to make it as a francisee, you have several time the chance to make it without them. You have to ask yourself, what are you buying?

  The “experts” in the advertising group don’t have any magic ads.
  The advertising costs through ATL are more than you pay dealing direct.
  There is no name brand recognition. If anything it would be negative.

  The business model completely relies on the upsell. Bring them in on a $12 oil change and try to sell them $300 brake jobs, $100 serpentine belts, $60 air filters and my favorite the brake or power steering fluid flush for $100. You need to work the oil changes up from a $12 oil change order to a $100 on average. That means every order. The mechanics are supposed to get paid only of the upsell work they “find” and the manager “sells” to the customer.

  The parts that are installed are the cheapest parts that can be found anywhere and “sold” to the customer at the highest list price they can find among the suppliers. For example an after market brake rotor might cost $13 to the shop but a list price at a different supplier is $159. The manager tries to charge the “victim customer” $159 or maybe they bundle it up and offer a 20% discount to make the customer close the deal.

  Believe me if you have the fortitude to win at that all the time, you definitely don’t need the ATL franchisers back in the home office. They want 7% of the gross sales right off the top.

  They are crooks. Please due your due diligence before buying their BS franchise. They are selling you a dream. Believe it or not somehow they get $50,000 out of you easier than you can get $100 out of a customer with a $12.90 oil change coupon in their hand.

• THE ATL HAS BEEN VERY VERY FAIR , BARRY IS A NICE GUY AND SEEMS HONEST TO ME

• I was taken in by ATL also. They are nothing more than very good scammers. They sell you a dream and assure you they are going to work with you to make you successful. What you get is a whole lot of broken promises and an empty pocketbook.
  Everything said already about the franchise is true. The only advise I can give is to stay away from them if you are looking to invest your money in your future. If you have already begun the process of opening of a business STOP NOW! No matter how much you have currently invested it will be less than what you loose when you go broke.

• I was a franchisee for ATL for 10 months and I had close down. Not only they gave me false promises they did nothing to develop my business. A shop which should have rented out for $1500 they bargained for $4500 and thought that was great. They promptly took out royalties and advertising fees every week whether I had any business or not. Their marketing people were horrible.They had no clue what they were doing.

  Here is a request to all the people who have been screwed. Please contact me. I would like to file a class action suit and try to bring some closure.

• I will NEVER go back to ATL. They are absolutely positively the WORST franchise. Unfortunately, I found out after I had the horrible work done to my car which by the way I AM STILL WORKING ON GETTING IT FIXED!!!

  I had my right and left axle replaced and guess what? several weeks later they are leaking and the ATL I went to has gone out of business. Now, it’s been several MONTHS!! I have contacted home office hoping someone would be able to help me. Spoke to Dan who said he would get back to me and guess what? HAVEN’T HEARD FROM HIM. I just left ANOTHER message.

  There sign should read “ATL-we take your money and run”

• I also fell victim to alltune and lube, atl scam. They caused me to go banckrupt. What I can’t understand is how are they allowed to continue to do business. Of all the owers that purchased this franchise (whom I went throught the training with) none that i know of are in business today. I lasted a year (only because I stopped paying royalty and advertising fees) if not I would have only lasted about 7 months. The others whom I have spoken to lasted less.
  These heartless people are in the business of selling franchises milking you out of your money than moving on to the next business. they have no sense of running a business if they did their failure rate wouldn’t be so high. Save yourself and do not buy into their lies!

• Atl did the same with my dreams and money. It’s all a scam! I’m force to close my shop have over priced equipment and suppplies that they sold me. We need to stop atl from doing this to others. We have to go after the company. If anyone spoke to a lawyer please contact me.

• We managed to stay in business for a few years. We never made a cent and just barely stayed open. The only way we were able to stay in business was by working for free. In all the years we were open, we never collected a paycheck. The sad thing about it was we were often listed as one of their top performing franchises.

  Here are some of the promises they made:

  Promise – They would send someone out to help us get staffed and started and would stay with us until we were up and running can could handle it ourselves.
  Reality – Some guy came out, stayed three days, spent his time surfing porn on our computer.

  Promise – if our business was not performing, they would send someone out to help us run the business right and make sure we were doing well.
  Reality – It never happened. we asked for help and they told us to read the manual.

  Promise – Their advertising model would bring in business.
  Reality – The only thing it did was cost us a ton of money every week that they withdrew directly from our account, even when we begged them to stop.

  Promise – they would find us employees
  Reality – we never got a single resume from them.

  Promise – they would be available to answer business questions, help us with tough diagnostics with their “team of professionals,” and be there for us “24/7.”
  Reality – they wouldn’t take our calls. Nobody was ever available to help us. Literally the only time we heard from them was when there was a delay in our payments to them. They sent people out once or twice a year, but only to go over our books to make sure they were getting every penny they could from us. Mostly they just looked at porn on our computers.

  I could go on and on about these people. If you have the money to buy into this franchise, you may as well flush it down the toilet. Better yet, if you really want to run a shop, go find yourself somebody in your area who has spent 20 years running a successful shop and offer to pay them $20,00 consulting fee to get you started. You’ll actually get something from them and you won’t have the All Tune crooks withdrawing money from your account every week in payment for doing nothing.

  Truly, these people are bad news. The only reason they are still in business is because the people they take advantage of are too poor to sue them. DO NOT DO IT. DO NOT BE PRESSURED INTO IT BY THEIR SALES PEOPLE. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MONEY AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN OTHER THAN HEARTBREAK.

• My vehicle was taken to ATL in North Richland Hills, TX and let me tell you; for a supposed ASE certified mechanic I was appalled at not only how long it took to get my vehicle back but the lack of job knowledge Al R. Not only has this “gentlemen” taken well over a week to get my car back but in the process he lost my keys and lied to me about a few things regarding the maintenance of my vehicle. I am a prior military service vehicle mechanic so I am rather knowledgable and so I let him ramble on and on about what is happening under my hood. Upon his claiming that the sensor that he was to replace was faulty he told me that the only way to test said sensor was to put it on the car and just go from there….well I know perfectly well that a REAL mechanic knows that it can be tested by using an Ohm meter. But to add insult to injury, my fiance had to miss four days of work and in trying to make himself look like a decent human being Al offered to loan his personal vehicle to my fiance so that he would be able to make it to work. The plan was to meet Al at the shop at 6:30 a.m. and when 6:40 a.m. came around and still no Al, my fiance and I went home. Due to the lack of integrity, honesty and knowledge my fiance lost his job. THANKS ALL TUNE AND LUBE and especially THANK YOU AL!!!!!!!

  Oh and another tid-bit…the sensor wasn’t what the vehicle even went in for…Al claims it was already broken when he received the vehicle but I have enough experience to know that it was broken while under the care of Al because if the sensor was already broken the vehicle wouldn’t have ran in the first place.

• My wife and I are experienced auto dealership people. We are close to locking in a franchise with them. We visited one in NJ that was closed. We have doubts and would like feedback. We want total control which hey are agreeable to. The rep we speak to tells us what qwe want to hear. We are in downstate New York with a tremendous market. We are told all we need to hear but do not see it. They want us to go to their location for us to see their people. If they screw their own neighbors what about us. We are ready to walk away and have spent nothing. Your thoughts are appreciated.

• James:

  Remember that it doesn’t matter what they say to you or what they promise – all that counts once you sign is what’s in that franchise agreement. Have an experienced franchise attorney tear it apart and explain to you the ramifications of what you’re signing and agreeing to.

  There’re a lot of warnings and complaints going around about ATL, so the worst case scenario is probably realistic.

  If you’re experienced, why not do it on your own?

• James Bergin,

  Please ask yourself, what are you really buying for 20-40k? And if you are buying their system, why should they get 7-10% of the gross? All you are doing is paying their overhead for people to continually rape your operating business. It is the same as paying the salary of an IRS person to hound you for taxes owed. Would you do that?

  I can perfectly respect buying an established brand name and paying royalties for it. McD’s, fast food, chain restaurants, etc. There you are really buying something that they have developed into a brand name.

  ATL is not a well recognized name; except for the unlikely hundreds or maybe even over a thousand of franchise victims. You are buying nothing and paying top $$ for it. Keep saying that to yourself. What am I really buying? What are you really buying? Call people at random and ask them if they know what All tune and lube is?

  Consider the cars today. The car repair industry has changed too much. People are leasing these cars and never putting any real money in them. Every time the economy goes down the car makers and government incentivise getting a new car. Not enough people are going to take their luxury car to you. The others are bottom feeders looking for loss leader oil changes. You will get some air filters and tire rotations and brake jobs but do you need ATL to get those? Are you going to be able to upsell the $15 oil change into a $600 tune up or scheduled maintenance? And if you can do that you sure as hell aren’t getting that skill from ATL, you were born with it. They are skilled only at upselling you on the franchise with the financing package, Motor mate and transmissions. Transmissions are money makers. You do not need ATL for transmissions though. they add no value.

  How many people are putting a new engine in a car these days? The cars are lasting far too long and require much less maintenance.

  There “system” is 3 binders, a bunch of preprinted forms and canned ads that you could easily obtain a copy of from any already unhappy franchisee or even happy franchisee; if you can find one.

  The advertising is easily accomplished on your own. ATL is getting kickbacks from some of these ad companies because the negotiated rates are higher than what you can get directly. Val pak is a waste. Advertising does work; I firmly believe that, especially for starting up.

  Is your 20-30k better spent on your own advertising or buying their three binders.

  Talk to more franchisees. 85-90% is the failure rate. Audit 100% of the franchises sold versus the ones that are still operating. Do not give them anything until that happen.

  Contact the Maryland attorney general’s office. Inquire as to how many complaints have been filed against ATL.

  They are a con. Plain and simple.

  Their equipment financing deal they try to “provide” is another kickback scheme. I had their financing in place then when I wanted to select my own local equipment supplier who was 25% less expensive on all the equipment, the financing was no longer available unless I puchased “their” equipment at full retail price.

  ATL will try to milk you dry and leave your remain in the heap of past marks.

  Please just walk away from ATL. Hopefully my time spend here has saved you financially. I was not able to pursue them beyond my franchise failure.

  If you want have you own shop then start small and grow it organically. You do not need them. They are a cause of your failure not a reason for your success.

• Thanks for the advice. We did question them considerably regarding those same issues. We were planning on cold calling their shops on our way to vacation, we already mapped it out. We smelled something fishy the more they spoke, with all their canned answers. We felt that there was no way to break even and when we told them what we thought the monthly expenses would be before any profit they thought we were crazy. Well, from all that is written here from the unfortunate ones who dumped all their savings, we suspected the same. We met with our accountant who agred with our concerns and we were going to meet with a lawyer, but now it is not necessary. We thought that a fresh establishment in this market on the ground floor would be a great start. Their plan and daily withdrawals from our account caused immediate concern. Having many business contacts for equiptment and advertising, I suggested I can cut that expense but their name is not on the sign for nothing. We are done with them, as I told the salesman Friday, who also had no idea of the site. I told him in the future it makes smart sense to google their name regularly and see what the feedback is from franchisees to store customers. Thanks again as this site was a deal breaker.

• I have been reading the various complaints from the so-called aggrieved former All Tune and Lube, Inc. (ATL) franchisees and I am perplexed by their assertions.
  If you were so clearly aggrieved and the facts that you have presented are all true, why then did you not get all of your money back?
  The facts appear to be on your side. Why did you not pay the nominal fee and take All Tune and Lube, Inc. to arbitration? The cost is minimal and based on your assertions the arbitration panel would have found in your favor and forced ATL to refund all of your monies.
  Seems pretty clear to me …
  As long as the facts were as you represented you would have won easily.
  Instead you chose not to. Why?
  My guess is the facts are not as you have stated and, as such, you would not have prevailed.
  As a former ATL employee, let’s examine your position more carefully.
  You say that ATL took your initial franchise fees of $32,000 and provided little if anything for it. You got no support or direction and what little direction they gave you was bad? Essentially it was all a scam and done with malice, correct? Moreover, your contention is that ATL is doing this to all franchisees and is demonstrated by their 85-90% (Incorrect) failure rate.
  What does ATL have to gain by acting in the manner you describe?
  The $32,000 you send in goes to offset your real estate support search, your training and accommodations and the proprietary information you are given.
  Where ATL makes its big money is off of continuing royalties. They like making that royalty money as it provides consistent cash flow to the company.
  The last thing ATL wants to do is shrink or diminish the royalty stream as that is their bread and butter.
  As such, ATL wants you to be a healthy franchisee so that you can continue to feed their royalty stream.
  By the way, this is the motivation of practically all Franchisors worldwide.
  ATL’s success is predicated upon your success.
  That is why ATL helps you find a good location, trains you extensively before you open, helps you secure all of your equipment and inventory, helps you secure employees, helps set up your advertising and, most importantly, provides an infrastructure of support for after you open so that you always know what to do.
  ATL does not do these things to be altruistic. They perform these services because it makes them a lot of money.

  If ATL behaved in the manner you assert they would have been out of business over 20 years ago. The Federal Trade Commission would have shut them down.
  Is ATL perfect?
  No.
  Their model of doing business however, is sound.
  They have franchisees that are very successful and, of course, those that fail.
  All franchises have successes and failures.
  There is a direct correlation between the franchisees that closely follow the franchise system and success and those that do not closely follow the system and fail.
  It ultimately comes down to you the franchisee.
  We can only lead you to water …
  Finally, I would ask that you do some honest introspection about how you have portrayed ATL.
  Did you truly follow the system closely?
  Did you honestly divulge your true financial situation?
  Did you advertise as instructed?
  Did you follow the advice of your Field and Corporate Operations Managers?
  Or did you cut corners?
  Did you abandon the franchise system in favor of doing things your way?
  Again, why would ATL not want you to succeed?
  Your assertions do not add up intellectually.
  The truth is not on your side.
  Best of luck in the future …
  W.

• We are done. You can speak to the mountaintops but the failures speak for themselves. I have 38 years is the auto business and smell a rat. I realize that if you do not put into the business what is needed it will not succeed. But the failure to support leaves me no alternative based on the tremendous expenses in this area. They need success stories to support their position, not failure after failure on the web. A shame, we were up for it. DONE!!!!!!!!!!

• James,
  I know I am speaking for some of the other ATL franchise victims when I say I am grateful that we were able to provide enough influence so that you avoided being a victim.

  As for Walt (9/15/2010); If you believe in the system and organization then by all means please pursue it, buy a franchise, buy the options for second and third additional sites at the discount and succeed. Your success will serve as the monument of our incorrectness. I’ll bring my 2010 Toyota in for the $12.99 oil change. Unless you have walked the walk, please don’t pollute our fact board with your ATL corporate sell sheet. You are entitled to your opinions but they only become facts when you have lived it as a franchisee.

  One reason that ATL is still in business if that it is very difficult to legally sue a franchisor on a tort basis. The lawyers do not want to take the case on contingency and by the time the business has failed you are financially and emotionally broke and just want it to end.

  Of course they want you to succeed and pay the royalties but they are in a win-win scenario. If you succeed then win, if you fail they still win as long as they churn enough players through the mill; much like a taxi driver that drives passengers for only one block, it can be very profitable because the meter starts with $5 on it. and then goes up gradually, if you can drive 30 people an hour that one block each then it is a six figure job.
  If their primary motive was to have franchisees succeed then there would be very little upfront costs and a royalties structure that kicked progressively as a franchisee made it over the hump. The fact is they know the failure rate is high and they want to make as much on the front end as possible. They also know how well insulated they are legally. The franchise agreement is iron clad and a class action is not likely because there are not enough unified victims. There is probably also very few assets to go after. They would just dissolve one corporation and re-emerge under a different corporate veil. If there was some real cheddar to go for, finding a lawyer would not be difficult.

• These heartless people are in the business of selling you the franchise and not running a business, if they did, their failure rate wouldn’t be so high(almost 80%).
  they know that their business model is a fake and a phony one.that is why they get $32000 up front and $1200 fixed amount per week for royalty and advertizement, even if you are losing money.
  Here is my advise to you, stay away from them no matter how much you have invested. stop it right now before you lose every thing you have.
  These people must be stopped. so Here is a request to all the people who have been screwed. Please contact me at korsandi@yahoo.com. I would like to file a class action suit and try to bring some closure.

• I am now looking into and speaking with a man about the ATL franchise, Have’nt signed any contracts yet. were just in the talking stages. I liked the concept of all that they had to offer in the way of car care and franchise support. I was also talking with NAPA auto parts franchise, Does anybody have any feed back on NAPA franchises ? Or Mighty Auto parts ? It pays to research

• I was recently offered a manager’s position with a new ATL franchisee (not opened yet) and promised $50 to $60K with salary and sales commissions. After reading these posts, I’m concerned about this job offer and whether I will be managing a business built on scamming customers and being scammed by ATL corporate. I specifically inquired as to whether the stores are actually owned and ran by the franchisee, but if I understand the previous posts correctly, ATL corporate has access to the franchisee’s bank account for withdrawals. That does not sound like a sound business practice for a home-owned business., Any input would be greatly appreciated.

• If you are thinking of an auto repair franchise… stop do not ! If your an experienced auto repair manager or write up person you do not need a franchise to milk profits
  from your store!
  *If you are inexperienced and still want a repair business…save your money and offer to work or just hang around an auto repair business for free! You can learn just as much or more than attending a franchised training center for 6 weeks!
  *The coupon scam is just what it is a scam…you can negotiate a better deal locally and change it weekly if you see fit ! I sold my franchise after 2 months and purchased an independent and have never looked back! Best and only way to go!

• I ran an ATL here in SW Florida. By far the absolute worst company I eve ever dealt with. The owner was an immigrant from Brazil who pouted his heart, soul, and life savings into this business. He was a great man. The local rep (Stephan) couldnt run a profitable business if Hos life depended on it. Myself and the owner ran the business their way and lost money Hand over fist. Eventually we decided to do it our way. Cut off their advertising fees, did our own advertising, bought our own parts and supplies, and made our pwn pricing. We stated making more money, and our customers were happier. Main Office got wind of it and threatened to close us down. Eventually we went out of business. The owner lost his house, and in a quarter of a million dollars of debt. His life and view of the American Dream were ruined.
  Also, out if the 4business ATL’s in our area, we were open the longest. All others closed in a year. We were ope for two.
  I am now looking at opening my own shop, possibly a franchise. And after running multiple very successful shop for 2 of the big 3 yellow Tire companies here in florida(both successful in regards to customer satisfaction and profitability), I can say without a doubt in my mind, I will in no way work for or open another ATL as long as I live.
  Btw this was from a phone so I apologize for any typing or grammar errors.

• There is a reason for only 3 ATL stores here in Michigan! Independent shop is the only way to go..no franchise fees or advertising fees! ATL even tried to access me for national advertising! Which consisted of running newspaper ads looking for prospective franchisees…what a joke! I never let them have access to my accounts! The funds were mailed on the due date they hated it…

• Do not buy a franchise at any cost! If you want an auto repair business buy an independent shop, if you don’t know how to run it, have the owner stay a couple months with you, it will be the best money spent!! Run your own adds locally it will cost you less than half of what alltune charges you! Just remember, what you will pay each and every week for franchise fees min of 250. per week and advertising min. 685 per week you could hire a good shop manager!

• They are scum and I hope more people read these comments. They have an F BBB rating in their own state. That set our ears up. If they cannot succed in their own home state of Maryland where do we stand?

• Thank God I came upon this place with all the comments. I was about to sink a lot of money to start an ATL franchise in South Florida until I read your posts.

• Hello, thank you for your comments. I am very upset to read about your loss. I am just a regular guy like you trying to sep up a business. There is a customer service rep. from ATL franchise selling me the world.

• Hello,

  I’m glad to see your comments !
  I was about to open a franchise with ATL…. and I will stop the process right now, because I don’t want to lose money !!!

  Thanks for your comments.
  Burny

• Thanks for the all the input from everyone. I was speaking with kevin for the last 3 weeks about buying one. I’m not now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks you for saving my money.

• 6 YRS AGO IN THE WILMINGTON DE AREA 3 ATL S OPENED. NONE ARE STILL IN BUSINESS. AS A AUTO TECH I CAN SAY THEY DONT PAY SHIT FOR WHAT THEY EXPECT FROM YOU, AND MOST OF THESE MORONS THAT GET A ATL HAVE MONEY AND NO AUTO EXPERIENCE AND EXPECT YOU TO COME IN AND SHOW THEM HOW TO RUN A SHOP. AS FAR ATL ITSELF THEY GET 17% OFF THE TOP, AND WANT YOU TO GIVE THE SHIT AWAY FOR FREE. NO T.V. ADS LIKE MIENEKE, OR MIDAS. JUST SOME CHEAP ASS COUPONS. SO WHEN YOU GO THERE EXPECT UNDER PAID EMPLOYEES, AN OWNER THAT DOESNT KNOW HIS ASS FROM A HOLE IN THE GROUND, ATL TELLS THEM TO START TECHS AT 500/WK GROSS NOT A PENNY MORE. SO DONT EXPECT A MASTER TECHNICAN TO WORK ON YOUR CAR GOOD LUCK YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR SO DONT BE CHEAP FIND A GOOD REPAIR SHOP , ASK TO SEE THE OLD PARTS WITH A EXPLANATION OF THE PROBLEM ANY COMPETENT OWNER WILL BE HAPPY TOO. IF NOT GO SOMEWHERE ELSE . HAPPY MOTORING. TONY P ASE MASTER TECH 43 YRS EXP.

• I was in the process of cashing in my 401k to by in to ATL. I want to thank everyone for the useful information provided above. I do want to ask everyone if you know of a better franchise modeled company forward the information to my email. Thank you again.

• In sheer desperation, I had applied as a mechanic to ATL in Denver Co about 8 years ago. I have to say, as a veteran, master tech, I found the experience very amusing.

  First, the idiot manager opened the hood of a random car, and started pointing to items under the hood (alternator, ignition coil packs, etc), and ask if I could identify these items (PLAAAZZZEEE). I identified the items, and the interview had gone into small talk, because shortly after I arrived, for my scheduled interview, the owner jumped in his truck, and disappeared for some time.

  The phone rang, and when the manager answered the phone, he told the customer that they had the problem narrowed down to 1 of 3 things (Sorry… that answer is incorrect… The correct answer should have been, my tech is still looking at it, and performing diagnostic tests, but I will call you back immediately once he draws a conclusion). Anyway, as this idiot was on the phone with the victim (oops..I mean customer), I went and engaged the obviously stymied Lead mechanic. He asked me what I thought, I told him “”don’t know. I haven’t looked at the car”. He then opened his seriously generic tool box, and with great pride, pulled out, and showed me this piece of junk code reader, which he called his scanner (Scanner= highly informative, and useful interface device to communicate with the computers on the vehicle).

  I nearly laughed at him. So about an hour, and 15 minutes after I initially walked into this dump, I was pretty sure that I was not gonna waste the money I would need to spend on a uhaul to move my tool box over to this shop, and I needed to keep looking. The owner still had not shown up, and if he had any interest in speaking with me he should have stuck around for a few minutes.

  A couple of days later, the phone rang, and it was the manager. He said they decided that they were gonna hire me, and told me the hours per week (minimum), and the “salary”. Salary??? unheard of in the real automotive repair world. I was sitting in front of my computer, and I pulled up the calculator, did the calculations, and said, “Are you aware you just offered me $8.60 and hour?” He said no I didn’t” I said “actually you’re right. I forgot to factor in time, and a half for over 40.”

  Anyway, I literally laughed at him and hung up the phone. Anyway folks, can I ask? Would you want a “mechanic” who is making less that minimum wage (all things considered) to be working on your vehicle? I know I sure wouldn’t. Any mechanic willing to work for $8.65 straight time is no mechanic.

  So keep that in mind.

  Thank you for your time.

• I’m currently speaking with ATL about buying a franchise but after reading these reviews. I will not be investing in ATL. Thank You………….

• After reading various comments from different individuals, am now convinced that ATL franchise is not meant for me. but, if there is any reliable & affordable franchise that you guys are sure of, kindly let me know by sending the information to [redacted].

• This all sounds quite bizarre. Does anyone have recommendations for good franchises?

• All tune and lube is awesome!!!!.. The staff is very cordial and honest…this is the place to go…they are very reasonable, for certain and quick mechanics…Awesome Job y’all!!!!All tune and lube is all me!!! Everyone must go you will not be disappointed….

• My partner and I lost roughly $ 100,000 from investing with these thieves. All of what was described by anonymous in GA. Is all too real. This includes the names of L.Dignan, Jack Ray, Dan Sparby and many others whose names I can’t remember. They were soaking for $900.00 a few week for advertising as well as franchise fees. Their little secret s for success were to line their administrative pockets leaving franchisees struggling to make ends meet. I also ended up filing bankruptcy in the long run. A class action suit should force them to repay all franchisees they have ripped off.

• Some more goodies about ATL. The advertising wonder prior to Lisa Dignan was named Susan Warner and along with another one of their con artists named John whose last name i don’t recall set up all of their equipment and parts whse programs from which they got kickbacks. We payed for that equipment 50 times over. Bottom line is that these jerks are no good deceptive crooked and DO NOT have franchisees interests at heart.

• I am on NYC, they almost got me. After i gave them a check for 10K, the guy i was working started to change some of the narrative. I was luck the check was not cleared by that time. I called the bank and stopped the check. They are not in business to help entrepreneurs, they are in it to help themselves. It is a business they create to help customers and their own pocket. The franchisees will always lose.

• I am in AZ, I am looking into opening an auto shop. I was almost one of their victims as well. I was getting ready to sign the agreement but i decided to do a little research and thanks to all the comments above I have a clear understanding of what this is all about.

  To the people that have been scammed:
  I know its hard to get back up after you have invested most of your lifetime savings. If you guys had to do this all over again, how would you start up your new auto shop?

  thanks,
  Francisco

• There is NO benefit to one of these franchises. If you want an auto repair business purchase an independent shop. You can buy your own ads for less than a third of what they charge.
  The weekly franchise fees, the work orders, and book keeping forms they MAKE you purchase from them are nothing more another monkey on your back. DON’T DO IT!

  You will be far better off by yourself and will have a better chance of success without a franchise!

• My extended family had three franchise locations in Baltimore MD from 1987 till 1992 – one of which was mine. Lost our collective ass. Reading this is like living a bad dream all over again. My do over is an independent shop named “Joe’s Garage”. Don’t tell anyone I am the owner – just the manager. Take referrals only for customers and make my own reputation. I would love to share more stories but would be sued for my effort. I would love to be able to say publicly what was said to me in private. Save the “Franchise Fees” and “Advertising” premium for the lean times – I would still be in business.
  The longer you are on the hook the longer you will bleed.

• I made the mistake of signing up with ATL. I too was fed the line about how they had a team on the ground and would help me find a location in the area I was interested in. I actually lived out of state from where we wanted to start our shop. After months of ATl sending me pictures of dumps in the wrong cities. I told them this was not going to work. I asked for some of my money back and got a call from Dan the top guy in the company saying hang on a little longer they had new realtors working on it. Dan lied to me and said if they did not find something soon he would work something out with me. After a few more months they had not found anything good that was reasonably priced and most places presented to me were not in the area I asked for. I actually came down and stayed over a week twice and looked at the locations they found. One of the places presented to me you had to buy another franchise close it down and reopen with 10k a month rent.
  I contacted Dan and everyone at ATL I had previously spoken too. They just quit returning my calls and emails and kept all the money they took from me. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt if they were honest and returned a reasonable part of my funds. Run from this group of thieves as fast as you can. I am glad they did not find a location and I got to see their true colors before I ended up like most of the others who have been franchisees. There is a special place for dishonest people and I am not the judge but see this whole team being their together some day.
  Stay away there are good business opportunities out there but not this one.

• Keep your money. These guys are the biggest scam artists I have ever seen. The all tune people are crooks.

• I almost got screwed , the president said he wanted me to help me, by lowering the fee from 25,000.00 to 7,500.00 to get started something didn,t seemed right, I started checking out forbes list of franchises, they stated the alt was one of the worst.. I thank the lord I start checking on them, they need to be stoped and taken to jail asap, punch of dirt bags son of bitches, they will get what did to others, that I read about, they will reap their wrong doing in due time, what goes around,comes around, please keep away from these magnets, if you want to go into the automotive business like myself, do it on your own be independent, so you wouldn,t have to answer to nobody, or give them anything.