A former Camille’s Sidewalk Café franchise owner has retracted the comment he/she posted at UnhappyFranchisee.com after receiving a threatening letter from an attorney representing Beautiful Brands Inc., franchisor of Camille’s Sidewalk Café, Freshberry, Rex’s Chicken and the now-defunct Coney Beach.
The comment that the franchisee has now retracted read:
As a former Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe franchisee, we can speak from a painful experience that there is no support from the franchisor.
There continues to be a great deal of deception as well in alluding to the so-called ‘development’ of several hundred franchises world wide!!
We were the only cafe in Michigan despite being told there were several in development in the Detroit area. The food service company , US Foods, was a nightmare to deal with since they struggled to service our one store. With delayed deliveries, missing items, and poor service, we were continuously forced to buy food at retail prices to compensate for missing items.
The only marketing plan Camille’s ever suggested was to give your food away free with bogo offers and free wrap nights.
Of even greater disapointment was the lack of professional support / training when we first opened the store. We were sent a 19 year old that was an hourly employee in a Camille’s restaurant who ended up going out with our female employees! We did have one other corporate staff person who tried to offer support.
Last but not least, there was absolutely NO field staff overseeing restaurant operations. Consequently, when we would visit other Camille’s cafes in other states, we would find a total lack of adherence to operational policies and procedures that were supposed to be governed by the franchisor. This total lack of consistency among franchisees hurt all of us that tried to maintain high standards and strong operations.
Camille and David collect their franchise fees, including the required additional development fees, when there is no possibility for development, no support staff, and no enforcement of operational standards. With all of these major problems causing a high rate of restaurant closures, they continue to turn their heads, once they have their money, and move on to other concepts, leaving the franchisee on his/her own to survive with a total lack of support.
UnhappyFranchisee.com does not remove comments, even when requested by the comment author.
We will, however, post a commenter’s retraction.
We also invite companies and individuals to provide rebuttals, clarifications, explanations, contrary viewpoints or corporate statements.
The franchisee who retracted the comment claims Beautiful Brands’ law firm asserted that the comment contained “false, misleading and defamatory statements” that were doing irreparable harm to Beautiful Brands and its Chairman & CEO David Rutkauskas.
UnhappyFranchisee.com invites Beautiful Brands and its Chairman & CEO David Rutkauskas to clarify which of the statements were false, which were misleading, and which were defamatory.
Our website is meant as a discussion forum that gives both sides a chance to state their views.
As David Rutkauskas writes on his blog, “I want to remain as real as I can…as transparent as I can…”
We invite Mr. Rutkauskas to achieve his goal of transparency by joining our conversation and responding to our posts, rather than trying to use legal threats to stifle his franchisees’ 1st Amendment right to Freedom of Speech.
Also read: BEAUTIFUL BRANDS Franchise Complaints
CAMILLE’S SIDEWALK CAFE Franchise Complaints
WORST FRANCHISES IN AMERICA (by SBA loan defaults)
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