When Your Franchisor Lets You Down

The Age:

What happens when you become a franchisee and the franchisor really lets you down? Recently, I’ve been dealing with a small business entrepreneur who is a franchisee of a major real estate brand. I’ve been pretty impressed with his service and he runs his franchise with professionalism, efficiency and integrity.

Even though he is connected to a major brand and works under their ‘umbrella’, he’s run his suburban franchise for 9 years, building it up to be a reputable business in the community.

Recently, I asked him for recommendations on some removalists and packers. I’m moving house and I want to hire people to do the job from the packing, moving to the unpacking at the other end.

He proudly pointed me a new function on the real estate brand’s main website. Franchisees don’t have their own individual websites. Instead all traffic is directed to the ‘umbrella’ site, which encourages people to submit queries online and obtain quotes from movers featured on their site.

It’s a great idea and many other businesses use similar tools on their websites. I duly entered my details online and they appear to have disappeared into oblivion. No one’s contacted me either by email or phone with a response, nor has there been any acknowledgement that a query has been made…