I don't want to be completely unfair about 1-800, so I'll say this. There appears to be a good number of locations that are doing good business---especially since going full-bore with the A/C product lines. That seems to have helped margins for many locations. Maybe that's a good sign. Maybe that means Corp finally got their heads straight and realized it's not good for anyone if franchisees are dropping out all over the place. I really hope they have shifted gears into being actual facilitators of profit instead of their usual role as a giant money vacuum. Maybe the expanded product line will be the savior to this mess. It's just unfortunate that so many owners couldn't stay out of bankruptcy long enough to make it to this point.
Of course, the problem is, they're still the same people they've always been. They're still draconian, they're still full of macho-bully puffery, they still lie, and they still squeeze as hard as they can wherever and whenever possible. They STILL don't provide the support structure they promised in the beginning and I doubt they ever will.
A lot of people spent their life savings+ on what, to many of us, has had all of the hallmarks of being a scheme. Lots of unfillfilled 'promises', lots of unilateral ammendments to the contract, lots of $ at the top of the structure and very little at the bottom.
Anyone see Penn & Teller's BS show on Showtime recently that examined MLM? So much of it sounded just like the 1-800 trap.
