MEINEKE Meineke NOT REFUNDING MY $30,000 DEPOSITE FEE charlotte, North Carolina

Sorry to hear about your predicament. I have been considering opening a Meineke shop myself, but am put off by the fact that I have to first invest $30K for "market research and training".

As to your comments, while I have little doubt that Meineke stresses "upselling" in its training course, I don't agree that this is necessarily "ripping off" the customer.  Upselling is sort of the nature of the beast with this kind of business...one which lowballs the customer with a $49.95 muffler special or $99.95 brake job.  Unfortunately the public is conditioned to respond to bottom price only, and does not understand just how quickly repair bills can go up from there.  Imagine how difficult it would be to attract people into your shop if you advertisement went something like this:  We might be able to fix your brakes for 100 dollars, but that's only if we can get away with replacing pads only.  If you drove your car until the brakes were metal on metal then we'll need new rotors too. Did the calipers get damaged in the process? How about the wheel bearings.

Unfortunately, most repairs can't be bid up front without first doing inspection and diagnosis, and many customers don't want to pay for this.

Personally, I'm not ready to shell out 30k with no gaurentee that I'll ever be able to open a shop.

If I were to go ahead and sign the contract and plunk down the funds, it would be with both eyes open and well aware of the risk involved.  I think you are SOL, but let me know how it works out.