Hey, RoBo, tell this franchisee to be happy like you. Here's the complaint he filed with the BBB:
10/10/2019
Reis and Irvy's (R&I) has taken my money and has not provided the products and services stated in the contract. I purchased a franchise from there a total of 4 robotic frozen yogurt vending machines. One was delivered (past the date required by the contract). The machine that was delivered did not function properly. The machine was in an "out of order" state the vast majority of the time. The machine was sold to me as an unattended vending robot. The machine required multiple resets a day to clear the error multiple errors. The machine would only function for a few minutes after a reset before returning to an “out of order” condition. R&I promised to fix this machine and made a couple of attempts to do so. The technicians that attempted to repair the machine (two different technicians arrived in person) express that the machines (all of them) are “just junk”. There were numerous attempts that I made to repair the machine using the R&I’s technical help line that ended in no change to the machine operating condition of only a very temporary improvement. I provided ample opportunity (months in fact) to R&I to remedy the situation by repair or replacement. R&I ignored the problem for three weeks after their service desk told me that they would send another technician to repair the machine. From Oct 2018 to Feb 2018 the machine only operated as long as there was someone (me) there to reset it. This was promised to operate completely unattended and be a “part time” effort for me (the franchisee). The location manager that I placed the machine in (Ft. ****** PX food court) demanded that the machine be removed due to the fact that it did not function the vast majority of the time and in many cases did not dispense product to paying customers. I contacted R&I and requested the removal of the machine and they did comply with the request with minimal follow-up by me. After the machine was removed however R&I did not contact me or offer a replacement or solution. I contacted them several days after the remove and requested a refund of my entire investment of $163,000.00. R&I a few days later offed to return $133,000.00 over monthly installments over the next year. I paid for the franchise in full in two payments the first to hold the franchise the second payment was required prior delivery of the first of the four machines that I purchased. I expected to receive better terms and requested an attorney to negotiate with R&I to increases the amount and reduce the time to refund my money. The attorney that I hired continually told me that the R&I attorney she was negotiating with would not or infrequently return call and rarely respond to emails. My attorney told me to accept the offer and be happy to receive anything back from my investment, I did that. R&I took this concessions to mean that I would accept different terms now. The payments they offered then were be far less spread out over years. This is unacceptable.
