SpringMasters Canada reviews & complaints
The good, the bad, and the ugly - discover what customers are saying about SpringMasters Canada
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Poor Service/No follow up
AVOID USING THIS COMPANY! SpringMasters (SMC) provided driveway sealing at residence in Central Ottawa on June 11, 2010. Work performed was shoddy with several bare spots left on driveway and asphalt sealer splatters left on foundation and siding. Phoned SMC 4 times in June-Aug to come back and redo bare spots. Promised to return on "priority" basis on each phone call. Never showed up, never phoned to schedule. Company does shoddy work and does not stand behind service. Employees are untrained and overworked, eg arrived to do work at 7:30 PM after at least a 12 hour day.
reading fine print
All companies have written contracts with fine print. The fine print protects the company, not the employee or contractor. Those of you who "tell" us to "read the fine print" before signing a contract are naive because there is NO fine print out there that everyone would agree to, but yet you have to sign the document before you can earn money with that company. If we all read the fine print, none of us would ever agree 100% and none of us would be owning a car, house, obtaining services from accountants, lawyers, etc. etc. There is no fine print for any company/organization that is 100% agreeable to the person (consumer) signing the document to "bind the contract".
So, listen up smart alecks who tell people "not to sign a contract" and to "read the fine print". Are you telling me that your do not have gas or electricity to your home? We ALL must "sign" or enter into a legal binding contract with our utility companies, otherwise how do we heat and cool our homes or have electricity to run the computer on which you are posting these messages? It is not logical and your comments telling that person's son to "read the fine print" before he started working with Springmasters are uncalled for. Why don't you help the situation instead of making the person feel even worse from a company that defrauded him.
A supporter
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
What a horrific waste of a comment.
The term "read the fine print" is just that, a term. It means that the company is not actually offering what it is advertising. Your anger is uncalled for and extremely immature. This company scams lots of people, if you were scammed by one of these people it is your own fault for not doing previous research just as I am doing now. You need to calm down and smarten up.
Staff exploitation
An open letter to Spring Masters:
My son worked for you for 5 days. No solid training or assistance was given, he was left alone in a neighourhood for 10 hours to knock on doors, he had no marketing materials to distribute which was very important given than many people are not at home at 10 in the morning on a weekday. But worse - he was told there were pre-booked appointments from which he could try to obain new business. Once he started, he was told that all the pre-books were done in April - he started May 4. What kind of operation are you running?
On his last day, waiting to be picked up by his manager, 3 managers approached him. They accused him of stealing, called him a criminal, searched his backpack (this is illegal) and took the $20 he had made from one sale, his own ten dollar bill and a looney and left him with nothing. They took his shirt, leaving him in his undershirt, and LEFT HIM IN NIAGARA FALLS TO MAKE HIS OWN WAY HOME. And it took 3 of your bully boys (you call them managers) to intimidate a 19 year old. I guess I should be grateful they didn't rough him up.
Even if the accusation was true, which it was NOT, you have an obligation as an employer and should at least have taken him back in the truck and then fired him. This is appalling way to treat staff.
I have filed complaints of your disgraceful ethics with the Better Business Bureau of Canada, and Employment Standards.
And I will blog this story everywhere I can to warn other students to beware of working with unethical people.
Wearing a safety belt has NOTHING to do with employment or contract - it is the LAW. We do not have 2 sets of safety standards in Canada - wearing a seat belt may save not only the life of the wearer, but others travelling on the roads.
Refusal to ride = no work = no money. This is unconscionable and Ben Stewart has some explaining to do.
I have spoken to teh CEO of the Hamilton office and he has assured me that he will revise his policies so that managers understand business courtesy and professionalism. He agrees that my son should not have been left in Niagara Falls, and has apologised for such an incidence.
Regarding flyers, he was surprise to find that the supply was low - of course if is up to each student to stock up on flyers, but that's difficult when you are given about 15 and told "sorry, we have no more to give you". This is bad business and the CEO will take steps to correct that.
Mr. Stewart may well be ethical, but his atheletic achievements do not guarantee that he is an honest business man. Remember OJ ...?
I was working for Cdn Property Stars as a lawn core aerator (door to door sales). For half the time I was in Nanaimo. Long days 32 days in a row. I was tied to a 360 lb ball and chain. Everytime I locked the machine to a post, I got a stern warning, but I have to use the throne for 15 mins a day. Locked the machine in BMOs precious rock garden one day for exactly 15 mins. Got a $250 fine for "blocking the sidewalk". Lost my temper, threatened a banker and was hauled away in cuffs. Made half min wage anyways and didn't have a life. For a mo. all I did was sleep and work.
I'm not happy they are finding kids in the mall to solicit them. Then they call continuously. I just had to
ask them to stop calling my daughter and her friend or I would report them. I'm in the Bay Area, California.
This company should be investigated for exploiting children. From all the reviews on several sites I would be
afraid for my daughter. Very unfortunate.
This is actually the saddest job out there. Whenever one of these "independent contractors" comes to my door I tell him to go out there and get a real job (nicely though) and that they should do anything but this. I'm pretty sure that all of Ottawa South is aware of the scam that is SM or the new name they go by now HAHAHA! (sued much?). Not surprising that all their ads in bus stops are being vandalized with words such as "SCAM" and "DON't DO it". I have personally seen teenagers rip these posters off bus shelters while nobody waiting seems to care. Hence, no more ads in the South! No more manipulating students do do hard labour for almost no reward.
First off I want to say that I really enjoyed reading the story by mike_barbarelli on the first page of the thread, the $10 for the shirt made me lol.
I also want to say that I own and operate a driveway sealing business, being a student all I can say is that its phenomenal money to be made during the summer months. And if anyone even remotely has a chance of investing some change into an operation like that its well worth it, and yea you get to keep all the money :) I personally can tell the [censored]'s that bad mouth people like me for using an inferior product and that its no match to what spring masters/property starts uses, to learn some facts before spreading questionable knowledge. 2 years ago, when Spring Masters were still Spring Masters and not Property Stars, they used acrylic sealant, stuff that washes away after a few months, stuff that costs literally a fraction of the price of oil based product which is long lasting and does not cause your driveway to crack up!
Anyways, being in the business myself and having a few employees of my own I always wondered what kind of tactics the SM managers and speakers use to zombify these poor kids. Sometimes I see them working the same street as myself, and at times, purely motivated by curiosity I try to strike up a conversation with them. I can tell that these kids are working extra long hours, they look exhausted and beat up. So I ask them, how their pay is and what it works out to be. Some give honest sounding numbers, some don't, probably to try and intimidate me, the competition. Knowing for a fact that my guys make waaaaaaaaaay more money working waaaaay less hours, with breaks, with lunch, pick up whenever for washroom breaks etc. Granted, the guys who I work with are my friends, some though are people who I found through Kijiji and so fourth. Some are good at sales, some are not. But I treat everyone with respect and dignity.
I just for fun offer the Spring Master kids the same job, better conditions, more money, less working hours and all of the above... As soon as they hear my spiel, some literally run away from me like the plague, some tell me (after my spiel) "Sir, I am at work right now and I cannot be bothered" Wtf is that? Im not actually trying to steal SM minions, im not planning on making some sort of a huge business out of my little operation, im happy the way things are for now while im a student. I just want to know why they don't even process this kind of stuff logically, it only makes sense (well to me at least). Anyways if someone could enlighten me on whats going on here I would be more than happy to hear from them.
Thanks for reading! And good luck to anyone who does door to door sales, its hard work, you have to set your self up to completely disregard the amount of no's and slammed doors! So folks, if a kid comes to your door, SM or some other company please don't be rude, we are people too, trying to make a dollar.
I was a formal employee with Spring Masters Canada... Now I'm not going to say which location I worked at and or my name just for the sake of argument. I saw a comment up above that said kids are too dumb that they jump for a job like this. I beg to differ. I heard an add on the radio, now of course I am going to jump and apply for something that says I can make up to $500.00 to $1000.00 dollars a week! Now I was just about to start college in september so who wouldn't want to do that!? Now when I got the call to go in for the training it lasted 2 hours. Didn't learn how to start the machine, didn't learn how to spray the driveways properly and had to sign a contract that says I cannot work with an other company that goes door to door for 6 years! Now I didn't care AT THE TIME because if I was gonna make that much money why would I wanna leave, I was new to the company I didn't know any better. Now when I started on the first monday (a day after the so called training) I got picked up at 7am from the "free shuttle service" they provide. It was discusting the way the staff was treated. The seats were ripped on the inside and or ducked tap everywhere. So my doubts started to kick in. Now when we actually went out to the street we had "pre books" to go by. And after we done that we would of had to link off of those driveways. Now I'm gonna skip ahead so I won't bore you guys. If you wanted a lunch brake you had to call and ask permission to go to the plaza across the street or you get fired. If they see you taking a break the managers get pissed and may fire you. It was like your a prisoner with no life. Now I did the whole week just to see how much money I would make because the add says $500.00 to $1000.00 a week. I did a total of 32 driveways that one week. Worked everyday from 7am and didn't make it home till 1am and didn't break over $200.00. This whole company is a scam and uses the workers. This is one company that doesnt help students at all. More like uses them. I hope someone can bring down this company :)
My brother and I both worked for Spring Masters and He was a signifigantly better sales person that I was, he made at least a hundred dollars the days he worked while I scraped by with about $30-$50. the hours are horrid. Whoever said 10 hours is kidding themselves its more like 13 hours of pushing around aerators that tend to break at the worst times. Plus the hours waiting in lines for your pay and being barraged by overbearing enthusiastic managers that get to drive around all day. On my first day of work we went to Quebec (I must admit it is my fault for not being biligual) I was droped off in the wrong neighborhood and not being about to ask someone for a phone I walked, pushing the heavy brute of a machine and then began working. Many times I received 'prebooked' jobs where the homeowners said they had never sighned up for areation. Ther were a few people I worked with who after a horrible tiring 13 hour day of pushing around the aerator and knocking on peoples door and probably getting treated like every other unwanted door to door salesmen made no money and had to pay the $10 for "renting" the aerator for the day. My brother went on to do driveway sealing and came home every day covered in tar needing help to clean it off, i was extremely scared he was going to get sick from so much exposure to it. I'm juust glad neithre of us work there anymore. I only worked there a few months and only on the weekend because I'm a high school student but I'm glad that I got one of the nice managers (to make up for the mistake on my first day he picked me for his team every day I worked). Its too bad after I quit I heard he left as well (not sure if fired or quit). Definately never going back there and if anyone even considers working there stick to the first week, its all downhill from there.
So you're saying they make you pay them somehow?
In order to achieve a position as a "contractor" within Springmasters, you have to attend the information seminar, wherein if you can't tell it's a ponzi-scheme; you kind of deserve what you got.
The basis of the company is continual "investments" of YOUR earned finances for doing work, which is used to pay off previous, more "energetic investors."
Springmasters is the definition of a ponzi-scheme.
noun /ˈpänzē/
Ponzi schemes, plural
A form of fraud in which belief in the success of a nonexistent enterprise is fostered by the payment of quick returns to the first investors from money invested by later investors
There's no excuse for college/university kids to be tied into this, I can understand high school kids who are eager to work to buy their fangled iPods and junk; but come on. You are supposed to be our future. If you don't recognize a ponzi-scheme when you see one, the next generation will doom humanity for the rest of us. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
If he's threatening you, call the cops. The fat pig will be brought up on charges of uttering (death) threats and probably spend at least a few nights in the clink. Better yet, those ### will get off your route and you won't have to deal with them ever again.
I have done driveway sealing sales for 2 years now for a small private company. I had an encounter with Spring Masters for the first time today. I thought it was pretty funny actually because as soon as they saw me selling on the street they came over with all their guys and told me to get off their "route". Apparently they own this area of the city... Hahaha. Oh well I thought it was pretty funny and actually stole quite a few of their jobs because they were pricing them at like $200.00 for a standard double. I mean common... Their prices are insane... Anyways, I hopped in the truck with my partner and we took off to another area where they eventually found me again and this time it was some big fat dude in a van who followed me down the street (I was walking and he was driving slowly beside me) the whole time cracking jokes about my mom and how he was gonna kick my ### if I didn't get off his route. Anyways... Just so you potential Spring Master employees know, I make %35 commission on every job I sell for the company I work for and I don't have to do the work. The profit in sealing is very high, as in a double driveway costs about $30.00 in sealer. That being said if you like sales and driveway sealing find a real company that will pay you right.
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I worked for this company I worked all day I took a shuttle bus the had up there and was sent around working I got up at 6 started working at 7 got back to the shop at 11 told the only shuttle to my area was going to be leaving closer to 1/2AM got my parents to pick and got home by 11:30 I made a total of $40 for the day though I did sleep well that night I missed dinner I had a small lunch and I couldn't eat breakfast even after waking up at 5:30 being told I need to be there for 6 am I had a 15 minute walk to my shuttle I sat down for lunch in a nice park with a bench and what not but the supervisor came around and said though you are your own contractor you cant be taking breaks like that. It was my only break I had that day and it lasted 10 minutes they say there are part time opportunities but I wouldn't trust such as that any body that goes back is defiantly questionable I felt wierd sitting there for first orientation I was surrond by a bunch of imports from other countries. I had to carry a 300lb machine up and down stairs and ramps and hills
Yes, that is how they work. They send a bunch of unqualified kids around a neighborhood pushing around a container tank and canvassing door-to-door. The material they use is sub-par and the quality of the work will depend on the experience of the sealer (usually very little). They will hire anyone off the street, including criminals and other questionable types. Not only that, but their prices are criminally inflated, they're start price for a regular 2-car driveway is close to $200, it can be easily done for $60.