Verizon Franchises Say Company Stores Are Invading Their Space

Orlando Sentinel:

It’s a business owner’s nightmare: a competitor who controls a chunk of your business and has access to your sales figures, marketing plans, and even your customers’ addresses.

For Roop Roopnarine, a Wireless Zone franchisee in Clermont, that nightmare became reality after a company-owned Verizon Communications store opened down the street from where he sells Verizon Wireless phone plans.

“I can stand in front of my store and look across the road and see the building they put up,” said Roopnarine, who was contacted by the Orlando Sentinel. “To do a small person such a wrong deed, it’s not right.”

Roopnarine’s franchise agreement to sell Verizon phone plans is not with Verizon but with a third-party company - Automotive Technologies Inc., the Middletown, Conn.-based parent company of the Wireless Zone chain.

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