The blogosphere weighs in:

Franchisee From Hell! Awards: Luke Benjamin, Pizza Time

Lacey, WA Pizza Time owners Luke & Gretchen Benjamin were immediately winners of our prestigious FFH! award, putting them in such distinguished company as Subway’s Cousin Vinny Agnello, Holiday Inn franchisee Charles Morais, and Quiznos’ sex offender and murder suspect Michael Mele.

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Can the Lacey Pizza Time be Saved from Itself? What do you Think?

Pizza Pundits offer their advice for saving the Lacey Pizza Time.  Best idea wins a large Pizza Time pizza.  2nd best wins an extra-large Pizza Time Pizza.

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Dirty Franchising, The Sequel, They Had The (Pizza) Time Of Their Lives

Bizlevity’s Mark Jabo’s idea for saving the Lacey Pizza Time is to turn it into a musical.  Good timing:  Patrick Swayze should have time on his hands once his new TV series debuts this month.

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Leaders From Hell Win Award

Miki Saxon at  Leadership Turn bestows yet another title upon our Heroes, and also makes a good argument for the use of raping and pillaging as employee perks.

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Lacey Pizza Time Feels the Heat but Employees Don’t

Our very own Bizzia channel editor Mary Jo Manzanares and blogger at The Seattle Traveller lives just a pepperoni’s throw from Lacey, WA.  One wonders if her constant travelling is motivated by the quality of the local pizza.

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Boss From Hell? Or Frustrated, Cost-Conscious Employer?

There always has to be a rational, nice person willing to consider both sides who just ruins it for the rest of the mob ;)  Jean Murray at Small Business Boomers invites all comments, pro and con, and has set up a poll.  After the poll results are in… we attack at dawn!

Other links:

King 5 story, Boss of the Year at No-Name247, BuzzFeed,  Pizza Time on The Consumerist

Also check out:  PIZZA HUT: Viral Video Appeals to Racist Moron Demographic

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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Visit FRANBEST’s: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and business opportunities.

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Post from: EveryJoe

PIZZA TIME: News Report Puts Heat on Franchisees, Pizza Chain

Can the Lacey, WA Pizza Time survive its self-induced crisis?  Will the owners realize hypothermia is not an accepted management tool?  Could YOUR advice help these owners get off the road to entrepreneurial self-destruction?  Let’s find out… leave a comment below.

Yesterday I awarded the owners of the Lacey, WA Pizza Time the Franchisee From Hell! Award.  Today I am feeling sorry for them.   After initially shooting themselves in the foot by using threat of frostbite to motivate employees, they immediately reloaded and fired again with remarkable precision.  It’s clear that they simply don’t get it.  Perhaps you can help.

I am also going to ask some of my PR, Marketing, Branding, Accounting & Restaurant Guru colleagues here at Bizzia, the b5 Business Channel, to offer some professional advice to help these poor business owners survive this crisis.  Readers are also invited to post their advice in the comment section below;  the best will be featured in future posts.

Here’s the story:

How not to motivate employees: My initial Pizza Time post recounted how Pizza Time franchise owner Luke Benjamin was so upset that an employee forgot to shut off the furnace one night, he punished the crew by making them work without heat.  He posted a handwritten, motivational note:  “If you don’t want to work here quit, otherwise shut up and do your job. The next person I hear complaining is off for two weeks. We don’t have heat!! You guys screwed up, not us. You want to blame someone, look in the mirror.”

How not to speak to the media: King 5 news caught wind of the story and showed up with a video crew.  Benjamin unashamedly defended his human resource policies on camera and allowed them unlimited access to video the store, including the thermostat showing the 55 degree temperature, the motivational note, and the office space heater to keep his accountant wife (who clearly wears the snow pants in the family) toasty while his nearby employees lose feeling in their extremities.

How not to respond to criticism: The King 5 story snowballed, so to say.  As of this morning, nearly 300 angry comments had been posted against the owners.  Local residents said they’d stop patronizing Pizza Time.  Others called for a boycott not only of the pizza joint, but of the wife’s separate accounting business, Accurate Accounting.  Riots ensued, cars were overturned and lit on fire, and Lacey City Hall was defaced with tomato sauce and molten mozzarella*.

Instead of defusing the situation, the Benjamins responded by suspending the whistleblower employees Daniel Baxter & John Francis, and posting personal attacks against them at King 5.  Here’s an excerpt:

We hired Dan when we bought the store in 2006 and John a year or so ago….
Dan…who drove for you and gave you all the tips and commission when you got your DUI and lost your license?

…Everyone is singing Dan & John praises but they know nothing about Dan or John. Trust me…NO ONE ELSE WILL HIRE THEM WHEN THEY LOOK INTO THEIR BACKGROUNDS….

We are great boses!!! …We are not making anyone work here… Sure its cold in the store, It has always has been cold… being cold is nothing new to Dan or John… the HVAC system ineffective and very costly to run. In these tough economic times, we have to do everything we can to save money…

Hello Dan and John…you wouldn’t believe how many people have stopped by to pick up applications and want your jobs.

Can a small business survive this ill will? Just two years into their ownership of the Lacey Pizza Time, the Benjamins have managed to raise the ire of an entire community.  Personally, I wouldn’t want to have a Pizza Time box sticking out of my trash can with the torch-carrying crowds roaming the streets.

With the competitive nature of the pizza industry, can they undo the fiercely negative image they’ve created?

What lessons should they learn, and what steps should they take to survive this crisis?

* OK, I may have imagined this part

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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Visit FRANBEST’s: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on 400 franchise and business opportunities.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Can the Lacey Pizza Time be Saved from Itself? What do you Think?

Sometimes that trust is severely misplaced, and the franchisor gets its very own Franchisee From Hell! By definition, the aggravation, bad press and brand-damage of a Franchisee From Hell! wreaks on a franchise system clearly outweighs and franchise fees, royalties or ad contributions the FFH! could ever contribute.

Of course, Franchisees From Hell! are much appreciated by the blogosphere, for they feed its insatiable appetite for stories of dysfunction ranging from clownish (like Subway Franchisee From Hell! Cousin Vinny Agnello) to the inexplicable (like Holiday Inn franchisee Charles Morais) to the tragically bizarre (like Quiznos’ sex offender and murder suspect Michael Mele).

Hypothermia Time Pizza… Now Hiring!

Today’s Franchisee From Hell! Award winner comes to us from Richard Chemiel’s hilarious No-Name247 whose blog post states  “…Luke Benjamin, franchise owner of Pizza Time in Lacey WA, got upset when his employees left the furnace on all night. So Benjamin shut off the heat, and point blank told employees that if they don’t like working there, to find another job.”

Luke Benjamin, who obviously knows how to keep them good-fer-nothing employees in line, posted the following note:

“If you don’t want to work here quit, otherwise shut up and do your job. The next person I hear complaining is off for two weeks. We don’t have heat!! You guys screwed up, not us. You want to blame someone, look in the mirror.”

It’s All About the Benjamin’s, Baby…

Benjamin is a well-rounded Franchisee From Hell! in that his Human Resource skills are surpassed only by his Public Relations savvy.  He not only unashamedly agreed to be interviewed by King 5 news, but gave the camera crew full run of the Ice Station Zebra:

The temperature was 55 degrees when we went in on Friday, but we saw something else. There’s a space heater in the office where Benjamin’s wife – the real boss – runs her accounting business.

Then we get to the real truth of the matter.

“It doesn’t look good, but she’s my wife and my boss and she tells me what she’s going to do and I’m not going to argue with her,” said Benjamin.

When asked about the chilly treatment of his workers, Pizza Time Franchisee From Hell! stated “If they can’t deal with it then there are plenty of other jobs out there.”

Unfortunately for both Benjamin and Pizza Time, there are plenty of other places to order pizza, too.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?  SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.

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Visit FRANBEST’s: Unbiased franchise information, franchise interviews and detailed, searchable information on the best franchise and business opportunities.

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Post from: EveryJoe

Franchisee From Hell! Awards: Luke Benjamin, Pizza Time