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Jani-King International

Jani-King International review: Franchise is a Scam 62

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5:25 am EDT
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I purchased a Jani-King Commercial Cleaning Franchise after reading they were a great franchise opportunity in several franchise magazines.
During my initial meeting with the regional director I expressed concern over the 40% they take off the top of what clients are billed. He told me not to worry as they take all their fees into consideration when giving a cleaning quote to a client.
When they started offerring me contracts I would do the math and tell them there was very little profit in some contracts and absolutely none in others. I was told this was a low profit margin industry and I had to learn to work some "break even" contracts for I would get additional business from those same clients ( floor waxing ).
I accepted some of these contracts since they are only required to offer you the amount of cleaning business you purchased (with the franchise cost ). If you don't accept the accounts they are not required to offer you anymore.
Once I started working accounts, the operations director would go by the account every month to evaluate the franchisee's performance. He would always find something negative to write about to justify taking the account away from the franchisee and reselling it to a new franchisee. So the franchisee ends up losing the original franchise fee and whatever fee he paid for the accounts he was working at hardly no profit.
I later learned this type of scam preys on people who have never been in business for themselves - so trust the Franchisor. If anyone is looking into purchasing this type of franchise, do yourself a favor and run a Google or Yahoo search on Jani-King. They have had numerous lawsuits and government complaints. I lost all my savings, but hopefully others can learn from my mistake.

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62 comments
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The Voice of Reason
Vail, US
Mar 26, 2010 11:39 pm EDT
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Actually Jerry (1st Amendment) has already decided that Entrepreneur is on the take. We have been having a rather lively discussion here Jan-Pro — Less than Minimum Wage!. I thought at first that he might be a shyster on the take, but after struggling through his posts, I highly doubt it. I think he is just a disgruntled ex-franchisee who was either too lazy and/or stupid to make it work and now expects the world to bow down to his rants. I have also noted that anyone who disagrees with him is automatically from whatever corporate they mention. You being Jani-King corporate and I Jan-Pro. I am sure he will be squawking around here soon.

Good luck with your franchise and shoot me a message to let me know how things are going. Maybe we can compare notes without violating either of our franchise agreements.

Dave

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Unfortunate Son
, US
Jun 21, 2018 11:32 am EDT

More corporate - mushroom talk

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DutchGroup
Frisco, US
Mar 26, 2010 11:11 pm EDT
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Don't be fooled by Mr. 1st Amendments" screen name. Just because his name suggests Freedom of Speech doesn't mean that speech isn't filled with garbage and even more importantly a hidden agenda.

Mr. "1st Amendment" is not what he seems. He is an attorney or works for a law firm that has decided to go after several commercial cleaning franchisors for a quick pay day. Feel free to check out some of Mr. "1st Amendments" other posts and you will see for yourself that he is not looking out for franchise owners, he is looking out for his own pocket book. His law firm is nothing more then a bunch of ambulance chasers who live off the 40% cut they get from any settlement they can get these big companies to agree to. Thats right, Mr. "1st Amendment" has a pretty big secret agenda! I would love to see Mr. "1st Amendment" actually work in the commercial cleaning industry and earn an honest pay for an honest day of work. Mr. "1st Amendment" has never owned a Jani-King franchise, he has never cleaned a building, or sold a commercial cleaning contract. He couldn't tell you how to strip and wax a floor, or even begin to explain how an account is bid. Everyone needs to make a decision on whether franchising is right for them, based on the facts from credible sources. Mr. "1st Amendment" is as far from credible when it comes to the commercial cleaning industry as one can get.

Lastly, for an attorney I expected more of a response then simply copying and pasting another parties press release. In the spirit of copying and pasting press releases from other sources I offer up my own release. The big difference is that mine is from a national organization that has twice the credibility and history as does your NC non-profit agency, who I might add has there own hidden agenda within that press release. The following relates to the 2010 Entrepreneur Magazines Franchise 500 list. Jani-King must be doing something right if year in and year out it ranks up there with McDonalds and Subway. Please enjoy! What say you now Mr. "1st Amendment."

Jani-King Ranked Among Top-10 Franchises
12/29/2009
Jani-King International, the world’s largest commercial cleaning franchisor, has climbed back into the list of the Top-10 franchise companies. As ranked in Entrepreneur magazine’s January 2010 Franchise 500 issue, Jani-King takes over as the #8 Franchise Company among all franchisors, a notable jump forward from last year’s ranking in the 15th spot.

Even more impressive is Jani-King’s firm hold on the top spot in the commercial cleaning franchise category. For the 23rd year, Jani-King has been rated the #1 Commercial Cleaning Franchise Company by Entrepreneur magazine. Jani-King has also retained its title for 2010 as the #1 Homebased Franchise.

In addition, Jani-King is rated as one of the 10 Greatest Franchises Under $20, 000 as well as ranked #2 in the Low-Cost Investment category.

“These rankings further validate the efforts put forth every day by our regional offices and franchisees, ” said Jerry Crawford, President of Jani-King. “To be recognized as the #1 Commercial Cleaning Franchise Company for the 23rd year is a remarkable testament to Jani-King’s program and the commitment of our corporate headquarters and regional offices to support our franchisees.”

The Franchise 500, which is promoted as the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking, is published in the January issue of Entrepreneur magazine each year. Entrepreneur judges all companies by the same criteria; objective, quantifiable measures of a franchise operation. The most important factors include financial strength and stability, growth rate and size of the system.

For 2010, Entrepreneur magazine has ranked Jani-King as the;

#1 Commercial Cleaning Franchise (23 out of last 24 years)
#1 Homebased Franchise
#2 Low-Cost Franchise
#5 Franchise Under $20, 000
#8 Overall Franchise
#7 Global Franchise

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1st Amendment
Bloomington, US
Mar 26, 2010 7:51 pm EDT

The following is an article that I copied and pasted from the website www.prlog.org

Jani King Janitorial Is New Slave Labor Franchise
Jani King franchise owners claim that Jani King will never tell them what their net income is going to be.

North Carolina Consumer News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 01, 2009 – Jani King Considered Worse Franchise To Invest In By Previous Investors

Jani-King makes some amazing promises to prospective franchise buyers,
but as many Jani-King Franchise buyers are now finding out the hard way,
“all that glitters is not gold.”

Jani-King has made major profits in the janitorial industry, by deceiving hard working
people, that are looking to invest in a franchise opportunity, or business opportunity that offers them a good return on their investment, and as a result of Jani-King’s deceptive
and unethical business practices, both present and past Jani-King franchise owners are now
making their complaints publicly known, after many past and present Jani-King franchise owners feel that they were deceived by the many false promises of high returns, made to them by Jani-king representatives.

Jani-King is gaining a national reputation for becoming
the new slavery franchise, that takes 20% of each franchise owner’s profit up front before the franchise owner get a penny, and to make matters worse, the franchise owner has to worry about labor cost, taxes, payroll preparation, cleaning product costs, and equipment cost.

Jani King franchise owners claim that Jani King will never tell them what their net income is going to be.
If these claims are true of Jani-King, then Jani-King has become another corporate franchise that is not much better that Pre Paid Legal and its deceptive business practices, that yielded a federal investigation, class action lawsuits, and a decline in its once trusted reputation.

Jani-King now faces lawsuits filed recently in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and California against Jani-King, contending that Jani-King misrepresented their offerings, because they do not have sufficient customers to guarantee each franchisee the amount of monthly cleaning business they purchase. Instead, the lawsuits allege, they breach their contracts by underbidding the amount of time and staffing required for each job, refusing to allow franchisees to inspect cleaning jobs or bid sheets before accepting or rejecting a job, offering geographically inconvenient jobs and unjustly taking jobs from one franchisee to re-sell them to others.

Jani-King has now been put on the North Carolina Consumer News alert watch for its deceptive business practices, and NC Consumer News will be following complaints and lawsuits being filed against Jani-King very closely.

To read detailed legal complaints against Jani-King, follow the web site links below:
http://www.eeoc.gov/press/5-21-09a.html

For further updates on companies with negative business practices, or to file a consumer complaint against, or report a scam please visit our web site at:
http://ncconsumernews.webs.com

©2009 this article is the sole property of NC Consumer News and shall not be reproduced or reprinted without owners permission

# # #

NC Consumer News is the eyes, ears, and voice for North Carolina consumers and consumers nationwide.

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helmet01
reno, US
Mar 26, 2010 4:14 pm EDT

i dont have a jani king franchise but i do work with one of them and im sorry the people in charge and area managers like the one in Reno nevada do not help the franchise owners at all complaints are never heard by the owners . montly they harrass costomers and drop ideas to get rid of the person or franchisors doing the account and in fact have a family member take over the account who works for the so called presedent of the company.most franchise owners are not even properly trained by so called trainers for the corporation. This company will work for you if your as dishonest as the heads of them are. if you think they should of not done the franchise tell that to the ones who were employees at one time and pushed into it.jani king of reno has lost several accounts mainly because of the owner not the franchise itself. and now all a sudden getting close to the payoff of the franchise accounts are dropping like flies go figure. I have to wonder to my self what set of book this one will be on huh Vaughn.

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DutchGroup
Frisco, US
Mar 26, 2010 8:53 am EDT
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That is great to hear, "The Voice of Reason." I am glad you found a company that works for you! THere are a number of commercial cleaning franchises out there, and each person has to find what works for them.

I visited with Jan-Pro as well and was very impressed. However, Jani-King seems to use the advertising fee that we pay far more effectively then there competitors. As the Official Cleaning Company of the PGA Tour, I was given the opportunity to clean a TPC course clubhouse, as well as clean the annual PGA event that is held at the golf course. I also was able to personally sell a $15, 000 a month account partially due to the fact that I could offer the contact VIP suite tickets courtesy of Jani-King to our local NFL team.

Regardless of what franchise you actually purchase, it all comes down to hard work, and commitment. THe only criticism I can say about commercial cleaning franchisors is that sometimes they need to be more selective with who they allow to a buy franchise. Half of the problems they currently have are a result of them selling franchises to people that had no business being a business owner. I have met some of these people and most of the the time I walked away thinking, "How in the heck did these guys make enough money to buy a franchise, they can't even tie there own shoe lace."

Most of the people that complain about Jani-King and other franchisors had no business buying a business in the first place. If you can't make money in this industry then you are obviously doing something wrong or just not working!

I feel bad for these people!

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The Voice of Reason
Vail, US
Mar 26, 2010 12:54 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I have a Jani-King FDD. It is one of the companies I looked at seriously. However, Jan-Pro has a better fee schedule and a better business model, so I opted to go that direction.

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DutchGroup
Frisco, US
Mar 25, 2010 2:27 pm EDT
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Actually, I am just one of many satisfied franchise owners that had a proper business plan together when I started several years ago. I also thoroughly reviewed the FDD that was provided to me and understood exactly what I was getting in to.

I did review the lawsuits that Jani-King has had over the previous 10 years and I even compared them to McDonalds, Subway, and several other franchisors and found that Jani-King has far less of them then some of the other very successful franchisors. The reality of our society is that anyone can sue anyone for any reason. That doesn't mean that the lawsuit is valid and just because a company settles a lawsuit it doesn't mean they are guilty. The only people that truly get rich in these suits are the lawyers. The reason most of them end up being settled is because it will cost the corporation sometimes as much as 10 times the amount in question to defend themselves, while these franchisee has to pay nothing to sue the company because there lawyer will agree to represent them for FREE only to take up to 40% of the settlement or judgement down the road. This is the norm for most suits filed against large corporations and is typically the reason most companies choose to settle.

I am sorry that you have had a bad experience with Jani-King and it sounds like you are terribly bitter about the experience. I can only speak from my experience with Jani-King and a number of other franchisees that I associate with. Through my successful operation of my franchise I have been able to buy a house, car, and send my only daughter to college which makes me very happy.

The facts remain that 80% of all small businesses fail in the first 2 years of operation. Even if Jani-King through its franchise program helps to reduce that to 25%. You are still going to have 1 in 4 franchise owners who do not have the work ethic, dedication or commitment to operate a business and thus fail. We live in a society where it is easier to blame others through lawsuits for our own failings. Not everyone is cut out to be a business owner.

My advice to others considering Jani-King is to put together a business plan, understand the FDD, and put together a 3-year financial plan. I have successfully been able to grow my Jani-King franchise but it was not without hard work and the ability to overcome obstacles that come on up when owning a business.

Good Luck, and god bless

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Unfortunate Son
, US
Jun 21, 2018 11:26 am EDT
Replying to comment of DutchGroup

Number One, you speak corporatee not franchisee. Good luck to you too, no wait you are perfect so no luck needed. right?

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brushes
Chagrin Falls, US
Mar 25, 2010 1:27 pm EDT

19 years and I lost everything now I am old and have no job. take take take thats all operations do, say that thay are here to help, my heart is broken. if any one feels the same please comment.

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1st Amendment
Bloomington, US
Mar 20, 2010 2:48 pm EDT

To Dutchgroup. We can easily tell that you are someone from corporate at jani-king and that is desperately trying to stop us from speaking the truth.

1. You lied about your statement that the goverment has ruled that it wasn't janikings fault. When infact janiking has lost many cases.

A. Did you forget to tell people about the $100, 000 DOLLAR FINE that janiking got a few years ago from the Federal Trade Commision!

B. Janiking at the moment has Lawsuits in Minesotta, Massachusetts, Pensylvania and California.

C. What about all the complaints you have in the UK. Go to www.able2know.com looks like you are also riping of alot of people in the UK. There is over 100 post and over 17 Pages of complaints there.

D. Most of the 52 pieces of Litigation janiking has had in the past 10 years ended in setlements. Now ask yourself how many more did janiking settle that were kept underwraps and never got to court.

E. However this lawsuit really Tops it. Did you all know that janiking tried to sue the Goverment and the Attorney General! Yes thats right. No [protected]-cv Janiking vs Comptroller of public accounts and the attorney General of the State of Texas. Janiking lost that lawsuit. The court granted states motion for Summary Judgement and held Janiking Liable.

F. Hey Dutchie it looks like your 90% is looking like dirty toilet water. I think you just got caught in another lie.

You called us idiots. Atleast I'm not a member of your Dusche Group "Dusche Bags" and atleast I can sleep well at night with a clean concius.

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LVALDES
Naples, US
Mar 14, 2010 5:59 pm EDT

WOW JANI KING REALLY SUCKS AND THE PERSON WHO HAS HIS BUSINESS GO F%$# YOURSELF. YOU NEED TO DO YOUR HOME WORK BEFORE YOU CRITICIZE ANYONE...

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DutchGroup
Frisco, US
Mar 09, 2010 4:21 pm EST
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Just another bunch of failed business owners who need someone to blame for their inability to successfully manage their business. Its the American way to blame someone else so why not jump on the band wagon, right?

The reason that Jani-King is still in business, is because time and again the government and the courts have ruled that it wasn't Jani-King's fault that your business failed! Feel free to look up virtually every suit and you will find that 90% of them were because the franchise owner did not follow the Jani-King system or did not invest the time required to operate a successful business.

This is not a get quick rich scheme, which you obviously were looking for. This is a real business that takes hard work, no vacations, and little financial benefits for the first few years.

I have successfully operated and sold 6 businesses in my life time and now run a successful multi-million dollar consulting firm. In all my years as a business owner I never made a single penny a profit in my first year of operation. In my second year I began to only make a small profit. WAKE UP! If you thought you were going to buy a franchise and be a millionaire in the first few years, then the real idiot is YOU!

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Steve 6363
, US
Dec 23, 2016 9:57 am EST
Replying to comment of DutchGroup

Dude stfu you're a Jani King employee gtfoh.

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Unfortunate Son
, US
Jun 21, 2018 11:22 am EDT
Replying to comment of DutchGroup

Since you have never had a JK Franch then who are you to talk. I do and they do manipulate you. Small guy cant afford an attny so the faults go unanswered. They count on that. Based on your note here, you probably did the same as them do and that is why you are sticking up for them. Goes around, comes around. I can only hope...

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joeyzz
Ames, US
Feb 16, 2010 5:45 pm EST

http://www.llrlaw.com/

click on class action!

join the lawsuit

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OliverHappy
, US
Jan 18, 2019 7:02 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of joeyzz

Franchise owner
Is there a class action lawsuit against Jani-King

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ruffin
, US
Jan 09, 2010 10:15 am EST

VERY DISCOURAGING

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Rickety Rabbit
Winchester, US
Nov 10, 2009 7:40 am EST

Almost the same thing happend to me in Boston. I bought a Jani King franchise in 2006. I paid $15, 000 for $4000 per month in business. Minus the 22% Jani- King takes off the top. With what is left I pay for labor, chemicals, and equipment. Jani King has it so they do not have to provide you with the $4000 per month in business, they only need OFFER it to you. If you refuse it, that’s it. They don’t owe it to you any longer. You had your chance. But here is what they do. They underbid the account by hundreds of dollars. They make false promises to the business owner, and do not tell the franchise owner about it. When the business owner cancels because the promises are not met, the franchise owner is left to make a decision. Take care of the promises never mentioned to you ( such as delivering the newspaper ever morning, or a free strip and wax every month) both are actual cases, and both would have put me in the negative for profit. So I was forced to give it up. No fault of mine. Also the account is not supposed to cancel before one year. If they do Jani King promises to file suit with a killer legal team. Which they must have because they are still in business. However they only use it to defend itself from angry franchise owners. They purposely offer you accounts that are way underbid, or too far away. When you deny them, they no longer owe you the account. If I could do it all over again I would invest in real estate on Venus before having to deal with this again. One last thing. I placed over 40 calls per month to the district manager for four months straight. Not one call answered not one call returned. I had to buy an existing franchise that was already working with history in order to pay the bills while waiting for my $4000 in business. Now I am about to lose those accounts to under bidders. Can you believe that? In this economy there are those worse then Jani King that UNDERBID them. Sorry. Very sorry.

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