Let me preface this by saying that I do not have any bad feelings toward the individuals that bought these NR/TS franchises. I believe them to be reasonable, honest hard working people.
Also, I am an HVAC contractor that has been in business for 20 years in the greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. I have a good reputation and believe in the satisfaction of my customers. I make mistakes like all people do and I believe in giving someone the benefit of doubt.
Additionally, in construction and contracting, you can have any two of the following; you can have it fast, you can have it cheap, you can have it quality. YOU CAN NOT HAVE ALL THREE.
Having said the above, I will never be involved in a Noble Roman's Tuscano's subs ever again. I have told every supplier, every general contractor, and every subcontractor that I know to avoid these projects like the plague. I lost over $15,000 due to a combination of misdirection, incorrect NR/TS supplied equipment, poor design, incorrect design, misapplication of building codes, back-stabbing, and people not standing up for what they agreed to.
I was involved in two projects after bidding on a total of (5) NR/TS restaurants. For two jobs of similar construction requirements, in the same metropolitan area, to have such massive problems, cost over-runs, delays, and delivery mistakes is not a coincidence!
My personal observations are (and the reason I walked away from the money owed me) that these franchisees are buying smoke and mirrors. The start-up costs are understated. The design package for their space is full of errors. The equipment that is sent to them is incorrect (but they keep getting billed for it), I do not believe they are being reviewed properly to make sure they are properly capitalized.
I was there for the first grand opening weekend of the Cold Spring store. I saw the corporate staff, which I'm sure were there at the franchisee's expense, who were supposed to know how to operate the restaurant and they still ran out of inventory, had long customer waits, and unhappy customers.
I could not believe it. I wouldn't have believed had I not seen with my own eyes the franchisee apologizing profusely to a customer who had been waiting 35 minutes for a pizza. My heart sank for him.
Where was one of the corporate people? Oh, they were bungling the orders, making them two and three times. How do I know this because I was waiting in line for 25 minutes, only to be told that my daughter and niece had to settle for the last two wheat breads, that's all they had ready. They were out of the other doughs and what was baking would be another 20 minutes (I could hear the groaning of the customers behind me).
Being a small businessman, I could not help but feel sorry for the franchisee and his family working frantically to get everything right.
My witness of the inept corporate staff sent to "get them started on the right track" supports why the construction was so difficult and why I lost so much money, NR/TS is about one thing—their own money and the heck with everyone else!
In the end, Noble Roman's is held accountable for nothing. Any problems are the result of everyone else BUT Noble Roman's.
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