My fiance and I own a franchise and are currently trying to negotiate an exit fee in order to become independent. We were referred to Mr Townsend and upon our first initial consultation gave him consent to draft and send a letter on behalf of our store. We were never given a schedule of fees to outline what he would be charging, never signed an agreement but he still took it upon himself to act without our consent after that first letter. Mind you, always dilly dallying after the fact, subtly explaining what he'd like to do, but unbeknownst to us already acted upon. Very manipulative behaviour and conduct. All the while obnoxiously crossing his legs on the table so we were trying to discuss our livelihood with a pair of shoes in our face. When the franchisor responded with an amount to release us from the franchise agreement, the firm withheld this information and I had to email his secretary in order to view this important lead. I was charged for sending this email, as they had to "peruse" my request to view the correspondence that they should have forwarded to us in the first place. Mr Townsend also breached our privacy as he discussed our sensitive situation with a peer of his involved in insolvency and we had no intention of declaring bankruptcy. This person served no relevance to us. Mr Townsend anticipated that he would need to see us for another 6 months and together with this "insolvency" expert draft a plan. All this without asking for our consent promising things like "we'll make an appointment with this guy, he won't charge you... " Yet after receiving his bill, only then did we learn of this "experts" name (who we didn't even ask Mr Townsend to bring into the picture) and found that he also charged us $35 to ring the man up!! We weren't even aware of this call. His bill is ridiculously dishonest and most of the "fees" are disputable. We plan to take this further. He charged us as individuals although we represent the one store. During one consultation he sent us off to have coffee and come back and that was to charge us twice that day. Not once did we progress, each time we dealt with Mr Townsend it was of no value to us, he would give us a spiel and send us on our way. Even the Franchisor grew despondent with Mr Townsend's lack of response and in fact were still waiting for a response as they were keen to negotiate with us but of course that didn't serve his purpose of keeping us as clients for the next 6 months. He would also ask to meet at inconvenient times for example 8am as it suited him, but for those of us in business running a store 12hrs a day and getting home late it was of great inconvenience but our time was never a priority for him. The rudeness of this firm extends to his staff also. There is parking behind the premises but even as a client you are not allowed to park there and his secretary will rudely let you know, even chase you up at the nearest cafe to get you to move your car as they "rent" these parking spots out. This is a clear example that the firm values the $ over respecting the client who utilises their services albiet of non-value.