Unhappyfranchisee.com has been covering the aggressive tactics of 7-11 Corporation in seizing the assets of its franchisees. The story of the Patels from Riverside, California who lost their store after 19 years of operation, stands out, mostly because of the reaction from the Riverside Community in protesting 7-11 seizure of the Patels 7-11 franchise.
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Dev Patel explains what happened to his parents:
My parents, Dilip and Saroj Patel, invested in and successfully operated the 7-Eleven franchise store at 5958 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, California for over 19 years. They were suddenly forced out by 7-Eleven as part of 7-Eleven’s expansion campaign to take stores away without paying for the goodwill that had been create by the many years the franchise owners spent in promoting the 7-Eleven brand in their community.
7-Eleven called my parents on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 to ask them to come down to the office to meet about financials. When my folks got there they were put into what amounted to an interrogation room by 7-Eleven loss prevention managers and told their store that they have owned for 19 years would be taken from them because they had engaged in “excess couponing.” The loss prevention managers did not permit my parents time to consult with a qualified franchise attorney to protect their rights and, instead, told they had two options:
1) Turn the store over without compensation for their years of good will and pay $100k in damages; or 2) Face 7-Eleven filing a federal court suit seeking $250k in damages and still taking the store. When we asked why this happened, they only ACCUSED my parents, didn’t PROVE, that we were committing coupon fraud. They showed a page of transactions that did not seem to prove anything and a short video clip (one time) to substantiate their claims. When we asked to see the video again because we could not determine that any wrongdoing had occurred, they would not show it to us for a second time.
My parents asked to have 24 hours to think about the situation, 7-Eleven REFUSED.