Mediation is taking place between The Cheesecake Shop and one of its very disgruntled franchisees, Brad Skuse, who’s created a website called cheesecakeshoplies, accusing the dessert franchise of mistreating its franchisees.

According to SmartCompany, Skuse and a number of other Cheesecake Shop franchisees are angered by a number of things, including the franchise continuing on with its store renovations despite franchisee reluctance.

“Last week, they did an Australia-wide survey [about the refurbishment] and pretty much everyone said it was overpriced, there was no return on investment, and it was simply ridiculous to do it in this current economic climate,” Skuse told SmartCompany.

“But our hands are being forced by the franchisor through current franchise agreements.”

The Cheesecake Shop‘s general manager, Ken Rosebury, told Franchising that the comments made on Skuse’s website are false, and that he has been asked to take the site down.

“We believe that the comments that Mr Skuse is making on his website are untruthful, defamatory and offensive. There’s unauthorised use of our trademarks, and we’ve issued him with a formal notice requesting that he take them down and cease the disparaging comments.

“He responded by putting another logo of ours on his website,” said Rosebury.

Mediation is taking place tomorrow between 10am and 4pm, and cheesecakeshoplies has been frozen until then.

To read more about The Cheesecake Shop’s refits, click here.