Jani-King International review: Franchise is a Scam 62

WOW! Thanks to all who've opened my eyes concerning investing in Jani-King. I will never, never consider this company. I was getting ready to retire and open a franchise with them, now I will stick to investing elsewhere..thanks to all for you true comments of Jani-King!

I was working at Jani-King Austin as inside sales and they are a huge scam operation. Of course they are trying to crawl out of this now. If the franchise knows how much money the company takes compared to what they are getting I bet we will hear a different song and dance.
Example:
I have worked for Jani-King of Austin aka as Stocker management for a little over a year and it is the only company I have ever worked for that actually rips off their employees payroll. Besides our hourly rate we are told as a bonus we get 3% of all the sales listed on the board and once we reach $15, 000 in sales we get a $125 kicker and then additional $125 kicker for every $5, 000 dollars in sales thereafter. This month we put over $80, 000 in sales on the board and now they won’t pay us all of the money earned and have kept $1000 from each of us.
Prior to this month I didn’t keep up with my pay but just trusted them, but now I have to believe if they will do this to their inside sales representatives look out if you’re a franchisee and don’t keep up with your bookkeeping.

This company sucks, unfair to employees, dont always pay on time, bouncing checks, poor equipment!

JANIKING does not pay their workers! I worked over two months for a "franchise owner" and never received a check, when I got in touch with the main office they told me they would talk to the owner and that this was not the first time he had not paid his employees. They told me to come back in 3 weeks and pick up my check. I called back in 3 weeks like she said to get my check and now they are telling me that they are not responsible and I have to contact him... This is outrageous and how can it be legal, just because he is a franchise owner, he is still using the name Janiking. This whole ordeal is absolutely ridiculous, and I'm only one out five others I know of that have not been paid! SCAM!

i work for jeni king, i clean about 5000 square feet, this is big property, i work 7 days, they only pays 4 hours to do the whole building, plus they only pays 950 dollars per month, sometimes the months is 5 weeks i lose money, this property is located in orlando fl, jani king be reasonable with the workers

To DutchGroup Why are fighting with some one who has been there explaining the way things went. It seams he is telling the truth and you guys want to cover it so the other people will not see it. Are you a share holder of Jani-King or the other company? There must some truth in to what 1st Amendment is saying otherwise you guys would not jump on him like you own Jani-King. I was trying to buy an account from Jani-king but checked before I become the next disappointed franchisee and I found there are a lot of unexplained dealings on their record. I thank 1st Amendment for putting his complain on the net because I am not going to buy an account from Jani-King now.
If you want to defend Jani-King's record you will fail because there are a lot of people who are crying fault with their dealings.
Even the uneducated can see their account biding or reselling methods. Do not take me there, or i will keep going on.

To try and answer some of the comments you have made, but lets for just a moment forget that you are involved with either Jani-King, Jan-Pro, McDonalds or any other franchise business, lets look at the situation openly and honestly.
1. No name calling please it just clouds the issues and stops us being able to look at the issues.
2. I beg to offer the opinion that no matter whether law suits go through or not isn't the issue, but rather how many franchise owners jump on the back of the law suit and how many stay on board with the franchisee. As I understand it, with each of the law suits mentioned around 20% of the franchisees (past and present) are looking to jump on board. Isn't that the same as the 20-60-20 rule that everyone understands.
Now when you see that 20% fail is this s surprise? Well yes actually it is, simply because business failure is usually greater than this and in the words of the courts franchising is no more successful than that of a start up business. I can therefore only surmise from your data that they all these business's are a success, certainly not to some individuals but on the whole a success.
3.You ask if it is OK for a franchisor to not give you all the work you wanted or indeed was agreed when signed and started. let me ask you how many that found themselves suffering this were not putting the time in and not delivering what their customers needed, a little bit of a rhetorical question as I know you don't have the answer, but surely some and do you take this into your argument?
4.is it a ponzi scheme? We must of course look at the failures and from this you may say it is, but then you have to look at the success's and say they still have their contracts and these are not being recycled and sold on again so for them it is not.
You also state that a franchisee is not trained to sell, but what puts most people away from purchasing a franchise, the mear fact that they have to sell. Surely you can't have it both ways.
5. On this fact I completely agree with you, but if the franchisee accepts these accounts then he too must be insane. But, as I understand it there is a recourse to a solution if a franchisee can prove this. On this point I may be wrong, but do ask yourself if it is only the franchisees that fail that get these accounts or both failures and success's and how do the latter manage to make them work.
6.I have no knowledge so cannot comment
7.There is no business the size of any of these franchise's that can make this many decisions on an individual franchisee basis. I rather suspect that these decisions are made by individuals within the local region that are simply appling the franchise agreement and or operations manual to their understanding and if there is a mistake these can be challenged. The fact that neither of us know how many challenges were made leaves us wondering who is right and who is wrong.
8. Name calling gets us nothing and isn't something that you can forward as part of a legal argument.
9. I also bought a franchise that didn't work, but I did put myself in a position where I knew what I had done wrong and what they franchisor had done wrong and was able to win my argument.
The problem with arguments put forward here is that you get other people on board and they look atb the argument in the same angry one sided view and this will only ruin their chances of getting the right redress that they deserve.

Another Judge once again rules against the cleaning franchisors this time against Jani-King. They to like coverall will have to pay back there cleaners there franchise fees. The cleaners are ruled to be employees. I'm only posting a small portion of the article to read the whole article you can go to the following link.

http://www.bluemaumau.org/11679/deja_vu_janiking_workers_are_not_franchisees

Posted Wed, 2012/06/20 - 13:23 by Janet Sparks

Deja Vu: Jani-King Workers Are Not Franchisees

BOSTON – A district judge once again has issued an order stating that Jani-King International and other entities misclassified its janitorial workers in Massachusetts by labeling them as franchisees.

In doing so, the world’s largest janitorial cleaning service franchisor will have to pay damages to the employees, which will include the franchise fees and additional business fees, as well as all insurance payments made by the workers. The judge also denied the company’s efforts to decertify the class action lawsuit, at this time representing approximately 300 janitorial workers

To Mr. Business,

I have heard the opposite that janiking is actually bidding very low. To the point people are making less than minimum wage. But what is worse they steal peoples accounts.This is Fraud or like a recent Judge said " A Modified Ponzi Scheme" If you go to Bluemaumau.org and read a recent article on cleaning franchisors you can read what Attorney Richard Solomon posted.

Richard Solomon
" an excellent example of a bozo franchise that I have vetted for over a dozen investors. Not one of my clients bought one of these fanchises.

The story of janitorial franchising is that they are sold with a promise of a guaranteed initial inventory of building maintenance contracts so that you start out "making money". Most of the time these deals either don't produce even enough start up revenue to enable you to do the work and also go out and scout up your own additional building maintenance accounts, or if they are good accounts they are soon taken from you and given to another new franchisee.

It is easy to take a building account from a janitorial franchisee. The rep goes to see the account and tells them that they have conducted a follow up inspection of the work you have been doing and have found it to be less than proper. They will happpily replace you with a better operator to assure their total satisfaction with the service. The building manager signs off on your being fired and you are toast in that account and in any other account of that building management organization. These franchiors typically lack sufficient actual on hand accounts to provide a start up customer base for new franchisees signed on. So they just go take buildings away from recently signed franchisees and give them to the newbies.

Even in the best of situations the ability to go get a building janitorial account on your own is nothing like you are told in training or on "discovery day".

You always end up doing toilets yourself because you lack funds to hire help. Often your wife and kids are doing toilets with you to try to get it going.

This is a perfect segment of franchising where competent pre investment vetting by someone who knows the industry can save you from financial ruin.

I owned my own janitorial service for years; and have been viewing the JaniKing system for nearly a week, now.
I can argue both sides of this thing, from my standpoint:
1) The past:
In year one, I made $9, 000 after expenses. I had to work a day job AND clean at night. Many trips to the grocery store included decisions between milk & cereal because we could not afford both.
In year two, I made $16, 500. I still had to work a part-time day job; but we were making it work!
In year three, I landed some substantial one-time contracts (construction clean-up) that gave me room to do mass-mailings, and afforded me the opportunity to quit my day job in order follow up on the mailings with phoning & direct cold calls. These worked, and I was on my way; so, that year, I made nearly $50, 000. It took me being listed in the phone book with a professionally designed ad($2600/yr), doing mass-mailers 2x a year ($6400/yr), handling customer complaints in the morning, doing prospecting in the afternoons, doing supplies in the early evening, cleaning & floor work at night... All 7 days of the week.
In year four, I chopped my profits back to $30, 000 by taking on a manager & a little more growth - but I still averaged 130 hours a week of work.
In year five, despite being at nearly $100, 00 for the year, I gave up my business because it was sucking the life out of my marriage & keeping me away from my kids (and, most days, I'm comfortable with choosing the marriage over the $$$... LOL)

JaniKing:
It is true: I do NOT see JaniKing allowing somebody to rocket to $100, 000/yr in a 5-year period. HOWEVER: Their bids are actually a little above the market. Their system also keeps those who are willing to work, just the same as I did on my own, the chance to NOT work 2 & 3 jobs just to survive those first couple of years- as so many upstarts must - and it does allow for a pattern of growth. As for the lawsuits, it is an unfortunate truth in life that anything that is systematic & has an exchange of monitary value will, eventually, have somebody exploit it; but they seem to have a proper documentation system in place for how you are to do things & what their policies will be.

Do not become a CLIENT or "buy" into a business agreement with ANY Franchise based cleaning company! All will rip you off, they are all the same JanPro, JaniKing, Coverall, Vanguard or any other similar company. I worked for one at the corportate level and had to leave after seeing the lack of ethics displayed throughout the company. DO NOT INVEST YOUR MONEY WITH ANY OF THEM!

I agree with these people-it's a scam.

Coverall LOST ! Franchisor HIT HARD !

Cleaners win !

AWUAH WINS !

BOSTON – Today the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court smacked Coverall janitorial franchise system with a huge bill for labeling its employees as franchisees.

The high court ruled that the franchisor must pay back franchise related fees, including franchise fees, promissory note payments, additional business fees, and payments for insurance.

Experts think the ruling that franchisees can be disguised employees will ripple down to other franchise systems and other states.

Coverall argued that the franchisee should only be allowed to collect fees directly related to the misclassification. Because the additional fees Pius Awuah sought were the result of his contract agreement with the franchisor, Coverall asserted that they should not apply to the damages he sought.

Coverall SJC Decision
U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young ruled (pdf) that the misclassified employees could collect wages, insurance premiums and other employment benefits, but the attorneys for the franchisees weren't satisfied. Shannon Liss-Riordan of Lichten & Liss-Riordon stated that her clients should also be paid all fees. She said, "By requiring companies to fully reimburse employees for all the fees they incurred as a result of misclassification, the court will send a message to employers that wage law violations will not be tolerated."

The judge then certified the Awuah v Coverall case to Massachusetts highest court after determining that state wage laws require employers to cover certain statutory costs of doing business, and that shifting such expenses to a misclassified worker constitutes damages incurred. Because the Supreme Judicial Court had no controlling precedence, Judge Young submitted pertinent questions to give the court the opportunity to set a precedent in defining the damages that should be available to the employees misclassified as independent contractors.

On one pertinent question addressing whether Coverall could deduct franchise fees from the employees' wages, the state's Supreme Court concluded, "No. . . the Wage Act forbids the deduction."

Prior to the decision the case had brought criticism from the franchisor community. Coverall attorney Michael D. Vhay of Boston's DLA Piper stated that broadening the damages beyond wages and benefits would produce a flood of litigation and drive franchisors from the state because they would be unable to collect fees from franchisees.

Steve Calderia, CEO of the International Franchise Association said, "On behalf of the franchise industry, we urge the court to fully take into account the unique attributes of franchising and the federal regulatory oversight of the franchise business model."

Following the court's decision, Liss-Riordan said, "Today's ruling from the SJC is a long-awaited victory for potentially thousands of cleaning workers throughout Massachusetts. The court determined that Massachusetts wage laws and public policy prohibit employers from selling jobs to employees." Liss-Riordan added that the commercial cleaning industry has been plagued by companies such as Coverall that claim to be franchisors but are really employers who make their money by profiting off of their own workers. She said, "This ruling will allow commercial cleaning to be performed in Massachusetts by legitimate employers who do not charge their workers for their jobs. The ruling will have huge ramifications on the commercial cleaning industry, as well as potentially other industries, and the ruling will likely have ripple effects in other states."

If you are going to buy a franchise make sure you have something in savings to live off for the first year. Also, when the economy is bad, everyone starts a cleaning and lawncare business, so there are a lot of people who will underbid you. With a bad economy businesses will most of the time go with the lowest bidder. With JaniKing all your bids have to go through corporate and they do try to bid in at least a 10% profit, which will not allow any profit the first year due to buying supplies for new accounts, training new employees, background checks, etc. Also do not buy the higher plans up front due to they will offer you bad accounts due to the fact that most salesman have never cleaned any accounts and they bid by square footage and do not take into account how many garbage cans, desks, windows, etc. I was offered one account where I would have lost 12, 000 a year since JaniKing misbid the number of times a week to do 70, 000 square foot of floors and since I accepted the contract before the error was found it counted torward the 10, 000 a month in business they owed me. They do have a moral obligation that helps them extend there obligation to offer you business. I am almost in my second year and they have still not filled my 10, 000 dollars a month due to they have a legal obligation where they will offer you nonprofitable account, but then their moral obligation can go over your allowed time frame they have to give you accounts. The good thing is that they do have managers that check your account and are a second set of eyes and that is a selling point when bidding accounts.
I would recommend buying in at the entry level and then when they offer you accounts you can look at the contract and see if it is profitable and you then have 10 days to turn it back in without any penalties if it is not. If you buy in higher and you turn it in, it counts torward what they owe you. This part has been a nightmare for our franchise, just getting the business they owe us. But remember it is cheaper to find your own business, they do not charge you the 300% of the monthly billing as a finders fee. If they help you bid the account then they get a 150% of the monthly billing as a finders fee.
If you do not need a lot of money to live off of (3, 000 to 4, 000 a month) this is a good business. If you have a young family do your research, you will never be home and it will take a toll on your family life. If you are not a salesman and are not detail oriented you will loose your business the first year. If you think you can buy this business and hire people and not check up on your employees weekly and keep a good working relationship with your account contacts, plese do not buy a franchise.

I think the best thing to do for all people who which to build their own cleaning business is to do just that. I have been in this business 39 years and have had to deal with the franchise companies underbidding. They will come to one of my accounts and bid for half of the going rate. I take the time to educate my customers about "franchise" companies and how they operate. Most do some research and thank me for the info. Some saw the dollar savings and made the change, but then I have them back as a customer after one year. We spend months cleaning up the mess left behind.

I know that everyone running a franchise is not a bad person, but many people get caught because of the actions of the franchise company and they lose their homes and all their work. It states in the Jani-King book that they are "not a janitorial service provider" but a "marketing corporation". The franchise companies will always market all of their buildings for sale to a new franchisee. It's what they do. We looked into their business model years ago, because of the money they were making overall. Needless to say, I like sleeping at night and I take care of the people working for me like family. A few have been with me for over 16 years. That is unheard of in the cleaning industry.

So again I will say, if you want to run your own business, do it. Don't try to buy success, earn it. The man you are buying from is laughing all the way to the bank.

Decide how much is enough. I make 1.5 million a year. More than enough. Because of this blessing (from God) I can share and help others, and still have a happy life.

Good luck to you all!

Im also a ''franchise owner'' I had trouble with one of my customers because they had not paid for 3 months. I asked JK for help with the invoices and calls because I a being ignored by the customer. JK told me to wait until my customer pays their bills but they send the payment by ''boat'' because checks come from overseas...what? That same customer told me about asbestos @ the facility. Jani King never told me what to do, who would help? But as soon as the customer complains about something they just kick you out of the account and bring a new ''slave''

I am a JaniKing franchise victim. I admit I am unsophisticated in business matters. The guy who sold me this thing was really good at his job, unfortunately his job is lying. He promised me the accounts we would get would be close enough to service, a good profit built in, and probably be brand new accounts becauses the sales department was so good. Not one true statement in the bunch. I am still amazed by the sheer disregard of decency in this entire corporation. They are all taught to lie, confuse, decieve, and find some way to blame the franchisee for all the problems that come up. I know Jim Cavanaugh likes to hang around and hobnob with the big boys and enjoy his life. I just cant concieve of someone enjoying himself, knowing how much he has hurt a lot of decent people who were only trying to eke out a living in these hard times. Call me old fashioned, I can only hope that he meets justice, if not in this life, maybe the next

Iam a janiking franchise owner all i can say to anyone who wants to do this..Take the contract that you are supposed to sign to a lawyer they will tell you DO NOT DO IT! wish i had been that smart when i started...They sell you a dream..Iam in texas...There have been franchise owners arrested for going to home office with guns...this is no lie...THey will rip every bit of money you have to give your buisness to new franchise owners...they are promised so much and if they cant get it they take from the old franchise owners and i know this is fact is has nothing to do with cleaning, , , I had been asking for new buildings forever they said with the economy and everything we just cant get them right now...Oh and dont get your own they will take those to...But anyway i went to pick up my check and everyone was so happy ...THey were just laughing and so happy because they got 4 new franchise owners...In my head im thinking how are they going to get them buisness...well in the next week i lost 4 buildings i went from 4000.00 a month to 200.00...was evicted from my home couldnt pay bills nothing...please do not do this...you will be very sorry.. I cleaned a daycare i was the 12th franchise owner to clean it...sucks dont it when you concider every one of us was paying money on them to janiking because when you loose it you still have to pay for it...so you had 11 owners making payments on it and were not even cleaning it...im just stuck you cant sale them..so im getting a lawyer..i had several buisnesses file bankruptcy never seen a dime of that money one building that filed owes me over 5000.00 and i had to clean it 6 months with no pay...BUYER BEWARE

That's true...changing contracts, underpricing contracts, changing the manual operations to his conveniencie

The truth about Jani-King, Jan-Pro, etc...

To be honest they all virtually run the same. Going with one over the other is just a matter of how much more fees you will pay because of their "name brand recognition". The reality is this. They will take almost all of your profits every month (20% of the contract you will be servicing or higher ) and leave you with pennies at the end of the month. Not only that, but they make you purchase a franchise. They actually make you pay thousands of dollars for training & "guaranteed contracts", the more you pay the more business they will provide (allegedly). They should be paying you to take on these awful accounts they give you! Mostly, they prey upon poor families looking to own a piece of the American Dream and trick you into believing it is a good investment. People invest their entire savings into this dream (more often nightmares). But, the only way these franchises can be profitable is if you have slave labor (you will be the slave in most cases). Working 5-7 days (mostly graveyard shifts) a week, with no vacation. Sound like fun? Not to mention what the work actually requires you to do. It is extremly hard, smelly, grotesque work. Not for the wimps that for sure.
Here are some facts:
1) Regardless of the lies you will be told, they are struggling to get new accounts to give new franchise owners. You will be told stupid taglines like "the dirt doesn't stop at the door, businesses need to be cleaned". Although it is true that businesses need to be cleaned, but unfortunately there are more cleaning companies and franchise owners then businesses that need cleaning. Most of the profits that you would like to make are taken away from you in order for them to get the contract in the first place. The margins are so thin that you will be working for minimum wage just to stay "profitable". They don't stop taking in peoples money to buy more franchises just because they don't have business to give them. The reality is that you will most certainly get an old account that is being transferred from another franchise owner. These accounts more often than not have business owners that are ready to terminate the agreement due to poor service, complaints, irrational business owners that are impossible to please. They are so fed up that it is impossible to save the account. They are simply waiting for the contract to expire in most cases (although you will be told if you work hard, you can save the account, which can happen but is not the norm). A lot of time they come from other franchise owners that turn in the accounts because they are unprofitable. Reminds me of a pyramid scheme to be honest.
2) They purposefully offer you accounts that you will not be able to service because it is too far away (by offering you an account which you don't except regardless of your reason, it meets their contractual agreement to offer you an account within their set time frame, once they have offered you an account, they are no longer obligated to get you more business within any set period of time. Meaning they still owe you more accounts, but there is no time frame in which they have to get you the business once they have offered you enough contracts to cover the amount you purchased (if you are promised $3k a month and are offered a $1500 which you can't service for what ever reason, now they only have to get you $1500 within the time frame that was promised. So if you accept another account they offer for $1500, they now have as much time as they like/need to get you the remaining $1500 they still owe you. Which you may never see! So knowing this, they will purposefully offer you accounts hundreds of miles away that they know you will decline just to fulfill their "end of the bargain". Doesn't sound like too good of bargain for the franchise owner though. Not only that, they will offer the same account to as many franchise owners as possible before it finally gets assigned after they receive as many no's as possible. You will be lied to and told that this doesn't happen. This is a fact though, it happens every day.
3) Labor Costs account for 50-70% of the accounts that you will be servicing. Equipment rental/payments account for roughly another 15%. If you have any financing when you purchase your business that will account for another 10-15%. You will always have 20-22% of your contract value going to the company every month (for example, Jani-King is 22%) You will most likely have to pay off your equipment/supplies that you recently purchased that will account for pretty much the rest of the contract leaving you with nothing. It will take you about 20 hours a week (4 hours a day, 5 days a week) to service every $1000 in contracts that they offer you. Meaning that 1 person can do a maximum of $4000 a month. This is assuming you can work a 16 hr grave yard shift everyday. Which usually isn't possible since most businesses are usually open 7am-5pm. They want to show up to a clean facility and don't want cleaning people there during normal business hours. Which means you normally have from about 6pm - 6 am to clean (only 12 hours). There are some exceptions (restaurants, bars, etc..), but this is generally speaking... So the reality is you can probably service about $3k by yourself, then you will need to hire people to help you (costs go up tremendously at this point). You need to buy more equipment, more expenses, more management... Thinner margins. At the end of the day, you will probably see about 10-15% profits if you are an excellent franchise owner. That means if you want to make about $4k a month, you need to be billing about $30k a month. You will need multiple crews with lots of equipment and supplies for each crew. Not to mention, what are they going to be driving? Who pays for fuel, insurance, etc.?
4) New large accounts will not go to a new franchise owner. They do not want to take a chance on losing new accounts, so they will assign them to existing franchise owner with a good work history (or the one that greases the wheel the best). So if you fork out the money to buy a franchise that guarantees you over ten thousands dollars in monthly contracts you will most likely have a bunch of small accounts. They will offer you accounts all over "your territory". Imagine starting a new crew just to service $1000 a month! Or a $500 contract for that matter! In fact, they will give themselves over a year to fulfill their contractual agreement to get you that business. They can offer you contracts that only bill $195 a month. Imagine the logistics in trying to manage 20 of those! They say this will never happen and most the time it wont, but it could. In fact, they might just keep offering you small accounts because they know you will decline them. They will add up and eventually their "contractual agreement" will be fulfilled.
5) The Director of Franchise Sales job is to make this investment sound as great as apple pie. If you work hard you can succeed like all these other franchise owners (most franchise owners are not happy nor have they succeeded. Although there are some!). They will show you Entrepenuer magazine or what ever their highest ranking is and say "look here, see we ranked #7 out of all franchises to own"... We are the best low investment franchise, these people think we are so great.. Blablabla. They will tell you that you will be offered new accounts that are close to your home. "We always try to find the nearest franchise owner to the business. If they don't want it, we offer it to the next closest, etc... Now technically we can offer you business anywhere in our territory." They most likley fail to mention that some territories are hundreds of miles from one end to the other, covering multiple counties (It's in their FDD so that's how they get around it) . If you take traffic into account, you could be several hours from your home. Refer back to my point #2. They do this on purpose because they are lacking new accounts! You will be told that there is plenty of business and you can always bring in new accounts or you can buy more contracts if you want to expand your business (which of course you will be paying 22% to the corporation every month, regardless of if you bring in the business or if they provide you the accounts).
6) You must purchase and operate under an LLC or Corporation. Sounds great right? Well, this is just one more expense. You will pay about $800 a year on top of the money it takes to file the paperwork with your state. Figure another $500. You will have to file separate business taxes which is also an additional expense every year if you use a CPA.

The bottom line is that they feed on people coming in with the dream of being business owners. They make it sound great because you can invest as little as $3000 and own your own business (not true by the way). You have to buy equipment, start an LLC, etc... What eventually happens is that people will be offered small accounts. They will start to service them and be offered more accounts (most of which are impossible for them to service since they are so far away). So here they are sitting on a $1000 a month contract that they service every month. Almost $700 a month of which is being taken to pay your fees to the corporation leaving you with about $300 a month. It cost you more in fuel to get to most of the business than you make in cleaning them! You will continue to ask for more accounts which they will never give to you (unless you are very lucky, it does happen from time to time). You will be told to go out and get your own accounts if you are sick of waiting. "We already offered you this account and you turned it down. We met our contractual agreement. Go get your own business!" So you continue struggling to service the small account you are given, most of the time working for less than minimum wage in hopes that one day you will get the additional business that you were promised. Eventually, you tire of waiting for the account and turn in the account you were servicing. Which then gets transfered on to the new sucker and the viscous cycle continues. The fact is, the people that are making money in this business are the ones that take 22% of your blood and sweet every month. They sit in their mansions, yachts and fly around on their Gulfstreams laughing at all the money they are rolling in, as people pour everything they own into this industry to try and put food on their tables. It's really sad if you think about it.
If you still want to invest in this industry knowing the facts, I wish you the best of luck. Not too many people have what it takes to make it. It can be done, but you will need a lot of luck on your side. When all else fails, you may need to bribe someone to get you the extra business you need! :)

Jani-King of Kansas City failed in their contract with my company by not doing any work and still expected full payment. When we cancelled our contract after 60 days of certified mail notifications they refused to return the building keys unless we payed they an additional $1, 728.00. Clearly extortion and strong arm tactics. Stay away from Jani-King. They cleaned our restrooms with water from the toilets and only spent about an hour twice a week to clean a very large two-story building.

well just to chim in, i bought a jan-pro franchise and then sold it two years later, made 6251.00 profit(cause i moved) when i moved back and bought another one from same location, i canceled it, (with the help of a great attorney), i have had a jan-king franchise since "97" did really well dispite going threw 6 reg director's, until i found out the Reg.Office was sending in and getting paid for canceled contracts(from Corp.Office)I back out of my franchise until changes where made, "TOOK YEARS. The problem is Jani-King is really only as good as the office that represents a(n) area. I am a Jani-King franchise owner and i don't accept any contracts from Corp or reg> office(s), unless the math works, i do like what i do, but i get the contracts not them, there for my clients are loyal to me(just make sure you do all the paperwork the right way. on the other side i bought a Jani-King franchise in the same state but another Master franchisor and "HOLLY [censor]". I agreed to take a contract worth $110, 000.00 a month. "THEY TOLD ME WE BUILD IN A 10% PROFIT" there was a start up cost of $250, 000.00, Well in short, I lost $117, 000.23. and with-in 8 days of the contracts start, the client was threating to sue Jani-King because there was things in the contract to do that i wasn't being done because i did not know to do, MORE important the master franchise in which who siged and sold the contract did not know what to do. You all should see the paperwork i have(the inside of Jani-king) and the former employees 8 of them(one being a retired F.B.I. agent.) even they said "Who the hell does this to people." So you see, it does matter about where you buy your office. Every company has skeletons, unfortunally, Jani-King has more than i have ever seem. (and yes, yes my spelling sucks!)

I operate a Janiking franchise here in Southern California and found it to be a scam early. As previously mentioned all they have to do is offer the initial business and they manage to offer contracts that they know you won't take. Also it never seemed as though the office had any concern for their franchisors when it came issues they always sided with the contractor. My advice is do your research and choose better.

we bought a franchise from janni king/janni gimmic and when to there training school, clearwater fl.they teach you very little and blow alot of smoke, for instant they teach you to strpe n wax, but they dont show u how to maintain like barnishing oh they give you 5 cleaning cds 2500.00 .now you can get work when you buy this equitment, 5000.00 then they give you just a enought work to shut u up which isnt enought to pay any one to help you thats why my wife an i did all the work, oh ya 35 years in const. 4 the voice with no reason, I am not scare of work at all 20 years building pools, 10 years doing cleaning 4 new const. plus I had 20 models we kept clean, m these models started at 1 milllion n up now there no const my guess the banks took back all mansions so I ve been doing this janni gimmick 4 almost 3 years Iam still waiting on ther e feild suppper to give some avise lol... any way any building Igot the people where already mad at them so u didnt have a chance onnce u got there, all these complaints i read an part of every complaint happen to us. any 1 res0vpy6@msn.com janni king they really do suc the big one below

If you would have put as much time operating your business as you do finger pointing and writing childish statements on line you might still have a business to operate. I think it is pretty clear to see who the professional is and why you were unsuccessful and probably will continue to be a failure at everything you do. If you failed, move on or tell us something you have been successful at...oh wait, you can't!

I am a Jani King franchise owner who is being abused on daily basis by Jani King regional office. My advice is " NEVER TRUST THEM" PERIOD.

I Posted a coment about Jani King few years ago expecting people to learn from me but in vain.
I am one of JANI KING VICTIMS. I can't beleive that the Feds can't put an end to this scam.

As a whole, Jani-King is a good Organization. If you follow the program it works. There are always exceptions to the rule and it is based on who is in charge in any given Region (City). The only negative thing I can currently comment on is how poorly run the Jani-King of Nashville Region is. The owners are very greedy and racist. I would not recommend doing business with them as a future franchise owner or as a cleaning services customer.

Ok people wake up... All these Franchise based cleaning company’s promise you the world in the beginnings until that get your money. After that they still get a percentage of what you make a month( Jani King takes 22, 25 % from your monthly billing) In today’s economy clients that actually hire those Franchise companies are misinformed and they don’t do their homework. If you are a potential customer or a perspective franchise just think for a second..The people cleaning your building are hired by a franchise owner, who pays dues to a local region, who pays dues to a corporate in Dallas, TX. Even more the franchise has to pay for taxes and equipment and supplies. If you are in talking from someone from your local office from Jani King ask them to see the last accounts they have sign that month and how the franchise owners that invested thier money in the last 2 years are doing and get thier numbers and call them>i garantee 95 % of them have lost their money>do your homework people and dont blame anyone if you buy a franchisee and get to clean a restaurant at 3 am for $ 40 a night. That is the true story behind the scenes

You should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commision. www.FTC.Gov
Ph [protected]

You should also file complaints with your district attorney and attorrney general.

You can also ask the following Law Firms for help.

www.LLRLAW.com

www.Dadygarner.com

www.Goldlawgroup.com

www.Talamantes.org

i work for thos thifs for aolmos 9 months for free i put a lot money in and those guys have the way to rip u out some times if go to the office the treat me like im no body and they shuld be gratyfull to me beacause to my free labor those guys have a chek in there packed and im not and im the one who do the hard workthose are been riping people oll the time i wonder if we can get some help from the goverment to stop this scams and riping u oll ur money. lets get thoger and stop thos comp to stolling oll ur money and and ur soul beacause make work for free. oll the time. they dont even trweat u as a franchase they treat u as a slave o worst.and when u complaing to them they ust laufing looks like they can break the labor ruals u dont evang get pay the minument wage some times i dont even got pay 1$ and hour those contract are totally a big scams to reap u off.u put gas energy labor supleas money for free and they are the who take evrething . i loos a lot my house oll my savings from years they scruup my life totaly.and they dont give a dime for u i hope some body can change this ripoff.

I found this at TRLA

February 22, 2010
San Antonio Worker Sues for Unpaid Wages and Retaliation
Posted by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid under Client Resources, Labor & Employment, Press Release
Leave a Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sarah Donaldson, Attorney
Office: [protected]
sdonaldson@trla.org

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – February 22, 2010 – A San Antonio worker has sued Dallas-based Jani-King International, Inc. and local Jani-King employers Ramiro and Elizabeth Bernal for violating minimum wage and overtime laws and for unlawful retaliation.

Represented by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (TRLA) and the Equal Justice Center (EJC), Gabriela Monsivaiz alleges that she was not paid minimum wage and overtime for the janitorial work she performed for Jani-King between 2007 and 2009. The lawsuit also alleges that Ms. Monsivaiz was terminated when she asked to be paid properly.

“The complaint alleges that our client was fired because she stood up for her rights to minimum and overtime wages, ”said Sarah Donaldson, a TRLA attorney representing Monsivaiz.

The lawsuit alleges that Jani-King and its local operators violated the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Texas Minimum Wage Act. According to these laws, employees must be paid at least $7.25 per hour of work. Under the FLSA, an employer must also pay overtime of 1.5 times an employee’s hourly rate for each hour worked beyond 40 in a given week. The FLSA prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee for asserting her rights under the FLSA. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Antonio.

Monsivaiz’s case comes as part of a new San Antonio-based wage recovery project aimed at helping low-income workers recover when they are unpaid or underpaid for their work. TRLA and the EJC, two non-profit law firms with experience advocating for low-income workers, are collaborating on this project to address the growing problem of workers’ rights violations in San Antonio. Workers who are interested in learning more about their rights can contact the project at [protected].

According to Donaldson, the problem is wide-spread. “We have heard many complaints from janitorial workers who, like our client, say they were not paid correctly for their work cleaning the businesses, schools and restaurants we all use.”

Established in 1970, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. (TRLA) is a nonprofit organization that provides free civil legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients in a 68-county service area. TRLA’s mission is to promote the dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and stability of low-income Texas residents by providing high-quality civil legal assistance and related educational services. The Equal Justice Center (EJC) is an employment justice and civil rights organization which empowers low-income families, individuals and communities to achieve systemic reforms that improve their lives. For more information on these organizations visit www.equaljusticecenter.org or www.trla.org.

To [censored]

1. Here we go again first thing you do is start calling me names. In your last post you called me a communist, a hater, a liar and an idiot. You said I fell from a wagon and then you finish it by saying that You have no brain cells. LOL. Anybody looking to buy a Jani-king or jan-pro franchise this is the kind of people you will deal with so beware.

2. No [censored] I think you forgot to do your homework. You thought you had me didn’t you. Not! The Lawsuit in Minnesota didn’t go through because of some technical issues. Federal class actions are very technical. However it’s nothing to worry about. The franchisees now can file there own Lawsuits. Just Imagine if 30, 40, or 50 of them all go and file independent Lawsuits. That is going to be one very crowded courthouse. Imagine what the next jani-king Fdd is going to look like with 52 lawsuits plus another 40 or 50 added to it for a total of maybe 100. Half the Fdd will be Lawsuit disclosures!

I also like the way that somehow you forgot to mention a few things or maybe they just slipped through your brain. Oh I’m sorry I forgot that you have no brain cells. You forgot to mention that the judge in the California lawsuit simply said to comeback and amend the lawsuit because he wanted to see more details. I would hate to see it not get class certification and have 995 independent lawsuits. Imagine the next time a person walks into a jani-king office looking into buying a franchise and sees 995 lawsuits on the Fdd. I can see that person flying out of there like a Bat from hell.

You also forgot to mention that the Jani-king Lawsuit in Massachusetts got Class Action Certification and the Trial starts in May.

3. So somehow you try and suggest that it’s ok for jan-pro to not give you all of your accounts and that you should get them yourself. What would you have done if you would have bought one of there biggest packages and they only gave you one very small account that paid less than minimum wage and a whole year passes by and you never hear from them again. You are forgetting that they don’t teach you how to acquire accounts infact they don‘t teach you much except command you where and at what times to clean like an employee. There is no support, the training is a joke, and they have a bad name.

Infact on a website www.Bluemaumau.com reporter Corbin Williston stated “Janitorial franchises have long been a source of embarecement for the franchise industry”

He also stated that “A 2001 report by the GAO on FTC Enforcement of the franchise rule found that from [protected] jani-king violations affected 900 investors”.

4. Again you start with your Deceit and try using mumbo jumbo to change things around. Basically all they do is tell you when and were to clean. They don’t teach you sales, or marketing, or nothing, nothing at all. They sell franchises, steal franchises away and sell them again and steal them again and sell them again. It’s a Racket. A Ponzi Scheme. It’s Fraud and the stealing of accounts to sale to another. The money that these franchisors have made from this scam is in the Millions. They are not in the business of cleaning. Your business never grows instead they steal your accounts to sale to another new franchisee. Did your brain cells get it this time?

5. You said something about give and take. These cleaning franchisors only TAKE. You said that I shouldn’t expect to make a Million Dollars. I don’t expect that, but I didn’t expect to be given accounts that pay less than a third world countries minimum wage! Would you take accounts that paid $5.00 Dollars an hour?

6. You said you turned in accounts after 10 days. Why? Your brain cells couldn’t handle it? Did you get a callous in your hand? Was there no air condition in the place you had to clean or you couldn’t find someone to rip-off that would do the work for $4.00 an hour. By the way this reminds me of the latest Lawsuit against janiking in San Antonio, Texas were a worker is suing for unpaid wages? Yes, add another lawsuit to there litigation and Fdd. How many Lawsuits is it now? Is it 30, 40, 50, Did I loose count? oh wait it’s up to 53 Lawsuits.

7. All the decisions come from headquarters. The decisions come from the Top.

8. I thought that you were so smart that you could bid and get any account and now your excuse is that you couldn’t get a bond. Sounds like excuses to me. You should have done like your buddy “voice of lies” says and went to some website and figured it out. [censored] you didn’t take your buddy’s advice. You should have gone to his website that he talks about. He is going to be disappointed in you. Lastly [censored] I don’t believe you, No body believes you or your bag of lies. I think your full of brain snot.

“I went and bought a fake franchise with jan-pro, two long months later when they gave me my first paycheck, I looked at it and said what the Fock!”

1st Amendment

Thank you Mr. 1st Amendment for once again showing us how good your copy and paste skills are. You are nothing more then a disgruntled former franchisee that wants to blame someone else for your inability to successfuly run a company.

The ironic part about your FTC post above is that it has nothing to do with the ability to run a successful commercial cleaning franchise. You admitted earlier that you, or even an attorney, would have a hard time understanding everything in an FDD, so why would it matter if the FTC is fining Jani-King because of it failed to disclose all of its litigation, or it left a few names off the current franchise list, or made earnings claims it didn't have all the information for.

Is that really what you are going to hang your hat on? Because Jani-King didn't dot its "i" or cross its "t." Even if Jani-King or Jan-Pro did all of the things that the FTC alleges you still would have bought a franchise and you still would have FAILED at it. Give me a break! The FTC complaint makes no mention of Jani-King breaking any laws with regards to its current franchisees.

It is literally comical to watch you try and get people all hyped for your cause, even though its appears you have at least two of us who are franchisees that strongly disagreed with you. You have two successful franchisees on here and one failed franchisee (you).

Lastly, it appears that the courts are beginning to see it our way. I refer you to Mass. District Court CCase Number 07 CA 10066 RCL in which all claims were dismissed by the courts except for a employment classification claim.

Let me also refer you and your ambulance chasing attorney to, Case Number 08 CV 4942 ADM/JSM, In the United States District Court, District of Minnesota. In this case the court completely dismissed the class action status that was being sought by idiots like you!

Ok I promise this is the last case I will refer to. I hate making people like so bad on here. Case Number CV-09-3495 in the United States District Court, Northern District of California. On October 5, 2009, the court granted Defendants’ motion to dismiss with respect to Plaintiffs’ causes of actions related to fraud, Plaintiffs’ contract claim, and Plaintiffs’ claim under California Labor Code section 2810.3

You know what happened to the boy that cried wolf?

Actually Jerry, it is you who cannot handle the truth. If you are any example of what your fellow named plaintiffs are like, your case has about as much chance as a tissue paper dog chasing an asbestos cat through hell. But, of course, that is only my opinion.

The following I saw at The Federal Trade Commissions website.

Jani-King International Agrees To Pay $100, 000 Civil Penalty To Settle FTC Charges Over Franchise Operations

Dallas, Texas-based Jani-King International, Inc. has agreed to pay a $100, 000 civil penalty as part of a settlement of Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to provide poten- tial purchasers of its commercial cleaning services franchises with key information. The FTC alleged that Jani-King did not provide documentation to support its contract-based earnings claims, or information about the franchise's litigation history and current franchisees. These would be violations of the FTC's Franchise Rule, and the settlement also would require Jani-King to comply with the rule.

The FTC's Franchise Rule requires franchise sellers to give potential buyers a detailed disclosure document containing 20 categories of key information at least 10 days before the buyer legally commits to the purchase. The document includes informa- tion about the terms and conditions under which the franchise operates, audited financial information, the litigation history of the franchisor and its principals, and information about existing franchisees and the circumstances surrounding the termination of any franchisees. Further, if a franchisor makes earnings claims, it must provide franchisees with a disclosure document containing the substantiation for those claims.

Jani-King sells its commercial cleaning franchises through- out the United States, advertising in general circulation news- papers and distributing promotional material at franchise and business opportunity shows, according to the FTC complaint detailing the charges in this case. The fees for Jani-King's franchises range from $6, 500 to $16, 750, and Jani-King promises potential franchisees significant assistance in operating their businesses, including providing them with cleaning contracts that have specified levels of initial gross monthly billings.

The complaint alleges that Jani-King made earning claims but failed to provide the required substantiation for those claims. In addition, the FTC alleged that in numerous instances, Jani- King failed to provide prospective franchisees with information required by the Franchise Rule, including:

* a complete and accurate disclosure of the franchisor's litigation history including any violations of franchise law, fraud or misrepresentation during the previous seven fiscal years; and

* a disclosure of the names, addresses and telephone numbers of other existing franchisees.

The proposed consent judgment to settle these charges would require Jani-King to pay the $100, 000 civil penalty within 10 days after the court enters the judgment. The settlement also would permanently prohibit the defendant from violating the Franchise Rule, and contains various reporting provisions designed to assist the FTC in monitoring Jani-King's compliance.

At the request of the FTC, the Department of Justice filed the complaint and proposed consent judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, in Dallas, on July 20. The Commission vote to authorize filing was 5-0.

NOTE: This consent judgment is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. Consent judgments have the force of law when signed by a judge. The FTC has developed a free fact sheet for anyone interested in purchasing a franchise. The fact sheet, titled "Franchise and Business Opportunities, " describes the requirements of the Franchise Rule and suggests questions to ask before deciding to invest

Copies of the fact sheet, the complaint and the proposed consent judgment are available from the FTC's Public Reference Branch, Room 130, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; [protected]; TTY for the hearing impaired [protected]. To find out the latest FTC news as it happens, call the FTCþs NewsPhone at [protected]. FTC news releases, fact sheets and other information also are on the Internet at the FTCþs World Wide Web site at http://www.ftc.gov

(FTC File No. 932 3067)
(Civil Action No. 3-95-CV-1492-G)

To the voice of lies,

I'm laughing at your last snot nose post.

1.You called me a shyster on the take. Then you said that I was strugling through my post. You have really got to be kidding me. I tell you the Truth and you get mad so you resort to calling me names.

2. Then you said I was a stupid disgruntled x franchisee. That is really funny. Yes I'am mad that jan-pro riped me off, I'm also mad that jan-pro has riped-off so many people from around the country and Canada. I don't like the fact that jan-pro is Deceitful and comiting Fraud. Wouldn't it bother you that they are ripping of single Moms, Families and Veterans. It must have botherred you because you called me so many dirty names. I have talked to over 80 people who have been riped-off by jan-pro and janiking and there stories are trully heartbreacking. Some people lost there life savings.

3. Then you said that I expect the world to listen to my rants. I'm simply telling the Truth and I can tell that it bothers you. You just can't handle the Truth.

To Dusche group,

1. Jan-pro tried very hard to take my 1st Amendment Rights and now I see that you to are trying to take my 1st Amendment Rights. I know of Jan-pros scare tactics. Are you trying to do the same?
What hapened You Can't Handle the Truth! You are mad because I posted my attorneys website. Ok fine on the next post I will post the Federal Trade Commisions website so that people who get riped-off by janiking can file a complaint. Infact I will post it right now. WWW.FTC.GOV . You should also go visit your District Attorney.

2. You are really funny trying to sugest that I'm an Attorney, I'm not an attorney. I'm just your average American trying to make a decent living. I'm not an Attorney. I'm an American that Loves his Country and hates to see companies like jan-pro and janiking rip-off hard working people. I have talked to veterans who were riped-off by janiking. Things like that make me mad. That just isn't right. It's not American.

3. You said a another Big Fat Lie. You said that I have never worked in the cleaning industry. For your information I used to work for jan-pro. I used to Bust My ### and Sweat my ###. I used to clean dirty disgusting toilets and mop for hours while jan-pro executives got rich from my hard sweat. So quit telling lies Dusche bag.

4. What, now your mad because I posted some information that is the truth. Well now you are really going to be mad because I'm posting some more information from the Federal Trade Commision. Now you are really going to start be mad you can start jumping up and down now. Just wait for my next post.

5. The diference is you pay Entrepeneur magazine Hundreds of Thousands of DOLLARS. There not going to say anything bad about janiking because you pay them for advertising. While we don't. The press that we get is real. We don't pay courthousenews.com or Franchisetimes.com or Telemundo or The New York Times or The Federal Trade Commision. Ask yourself how many Hundred of Thousands of Dollars has janiking paid to advertice on entrepeneur?