All Tune And Lube; ATL International Financial Ruin; Deceptive Business Practices Ripoff Millersville Maryland

Everything I have read in your other postings happened to us and more. I wish that I had known of this website at an earlier date.

We opened an All Tune and Lube in February, 1998 and we were out of business in July, 1998. Our attorney said that he had never seen a business go down that quickly.

We gave ATL the $31,000 franchise fee and they got us an $89,000 loan through ATT Credit Corporation that was guaranteed by the SBA. The problem was that we had to use our home as collateral for the loan, which I didn't want to do, but we had nothing else to guarantee the loan. How it was approved, I don't know, as we didn't have that much equity left after refinancing to give them the franchise fee.

Also, the $89,000 loan was not nearly enough to get this business up and running. We were out of money before the doors opened. We didn't even have any operating capital. ATL asked my husband, "Don't you have any credit cards?" He used credit cards to get the rest of the items on ATL's list, and we secured another $20,000 loan for operating capital.

Basically, we were screwed. This business was doomed before the doors even opened. Everything we had been told was a lie and once they had the franchise fee and we had the loan, they didn't care about anything.

We not only lost our business, we had to file personal bankruptcy and our home was foreclosed. My husband couldn't deal with any of this and walked out on our 40 year marriage.

I don't know how a company can repeatedly get away with this. They should be closed down before they ruin any more lives. If there is anything that I can do at this late date, I would like to know.

Pamela
Hudson, Ohio
U.S.A.