Coverall review: Getting your money 59

Insurance probably has nothing to do with that company. Don't you HAVE to have insurance to do this business? I am guessing the 15% has something to do with Franchise Fees. ALL companies that are Franchises have fees. McDonald's included.

I heard about the same thing with another cleaning lady. Not only that, but they say everything you want to hear so that they get you to go on contract. In my case, I didn't want to be committed to a contract and I happened to stress that to the sales rep numerous times. He agreed that I only had to give them a courteous 15 days to cancel the service. It so happens that when I tried to cancell, they came up with a totally different story. So now, we have to be stuck with the service or pay the full year in contract. This company sucks and they are total hypocrits! Wouldn't recommend them, not becuase of the cleaning, but because they are sneaky to get money in their pockets!

I totally agree with the complains. I am a franchise owner myself. they are totally liers. I made a contract for $20k, I gave $14.000 downpayment and we agree that I was going to pay the rest each month /deducted from my paycheck. I though I was going to get my acconts (offices to clean) in one month. But, they made me wait about a year, plus I was making $9 dollars per hour (fast and hard work) and I did not had any money to hired an employee to help me. How much I was supposed to pay if I hire one? 1 dollar? THEY ARE SCAMMERS. Yes, they are in the forbes magazine, of course because they make money but franchises dont. they will take you money and make you work like crazy. they also charge for administration but you are the one who has to comfront the office owners if something is wrong or if you want them to increase your payment because you are working extra hours. DONT MAKE ANY CONTRACT WITH THEM, They are not good, this business is not worth it at all. I am totally dissapointed :(

Know what Franchise stand for before you buy a Franchise. If you don’t understand how the system work s than don‘t buy it. All Franchise Company charge a Royalty and Management fee in your case it is 15%. If you don’t want to pay the fee, do it yourself from your garage. Buying a Franchise is buying a Business that you must take care of it on yourself and not point finger at some else for your failure. It looks like you want a J.O.B not a Business. Take responsibility for you own action if you ever want to be successful in anything.

I own a cleaning franchise and I did my homework on all the major ones before I brought into one of them. If you own a business you have to be prepared for sucess and failure. It is not up to the company you brought your franchise from to make you sucessful it's up to the franchise owner to make him or herself sucessful. You can't count on the company to help you out! You have to act like you are the only one that is in charge of your destiny. When I started out I didn't wait for them to get me a contract I went out on my own and started advertising my business myself, and I was able to get two contracts on my own without there help. The best advise I can give is to work your business as hard as you can and stop depending on the company to help you. You should be willing to do whatever you need to do to make yourself a sucess.

JANITORIAL FRANCHISES ARE A SCAM! It might work for some but I guarantee it doesn't work for the majority. This is how they work:

_You pay them a package, for example you pay about $16K for a $4k monthly income
_They'll get you the accounts.
_Although they say you can choose to accept or not a specific account, it' not true. They will turn around and say they satisfied the agreement of providing your accounts and if you didn't take, they won't give you more accounts.
_They underbid contracts to compete with everyone else, since they are NOT the ones doing the work..they don't care. They get the accounts due the low price and you're stuck working hard for few hundred dollars a month. You would be better off working for McDonalds getting $8 an hr. DO THE MATH!
_NOW This is the worst of ALL...once they have too many franchisees and can't find enough accounts, they will find anything wrong in some buildings as a missed trash can and ask the company if they want another person to clean...since it doesn't make a difference for them, they will say yes. Then the Franchise call you and say your customer requested to get another contractor because he's not happy with your job. Now they sale that account to the newer franchisees so they honor the agreement to get accounts. THAT'S STEALING!

WITH A CLEANING FRANCHISE, IN REALITY YOU NEVER OWN YOUR OWN BUSINESS! If you owned the accounts you should be able to walk away with them after a period of time..right? NO..YOU CAN'T BECAUSE THE CONTRACT IS ON THE FRANCHISE NAMER...NOT YOURS!

I just hope that a Federal Court one of these days force all cleaning franchises to get the accounts on the franchisees' names...not theirs. Create a money back guarantee and protect the little guys..the franchisees...I can't believe in this age Cleaning Franchises are able to get away with this scam.

I was also a Franchise owner through coverall in cincinnati OH. They are complete scam artists. I wasted 6 years with them, trying to get something started and they did not hold up to their end of the bargain. I agree with what you guys are saying. Buyer beware!

I was just about to enter into a franchise agreement with Coverall, but after reading these comments regarding dissatisfied clients and possible misrepresentation, I will do more research and take my time, indeed I might just continue to use my garage, I am not doing too bad.

Does anyone have any info on the Michigan based Coverall?

con-artist coverall gaarbage bs run fast as you can, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This is for Anonymous from NJ, if you are a customer of Coverall, I suggest you get out your contract, you can cancel at anytime by giving 30 days written notice, if you decide to try and cancel for poor service (even if the service is good this is the #1 reason people site for cancelling), it will actually take you 45 days to cancel service. You must give a 15 day cure period to fix the "poor service" followed by a 3o day cancellation notice.

Once you have given that written 3o day cancellation notice you will not be liable for the rest of the contract, just till the end of that 30 day period. If you do not have a contract, the job should not have been started by coverall, it is against their policy.

Former Coverall Operations Manager.

How do you suggest I succeed with Coverall? I met with a sales rep for Coverall last year and have not taken the next step just yet.

I suggest that if you are thinking of opening a commercial cleaning company that you go to the Small Business Administration they will give you all the help you need and its all free. This Coverall health cleani9ng system company probably did get most of there experience from looking on the internet and the other part of it hired some wise guys from New Jersey. When it comes to handling someone 10000.00 to show you how you should do something unless they are a credited school then I don't think you or anyone else should get involved with these people. On the other hand I can teach you how to make diamonds just send me 1000.00 dollars to start and I will provide you with everything you need. I will have to charge you royalty fees weather you make money or not get it. The internet is a wonderful thing even here in the U.SD. we are loaded with Nigerian Kings needing help from you to save all there millions. Don't be a fool.

Please read the following article It's about a lady who got ripped-off by coverall. It came out on the New York Times "In seach of work but at what price" By David Segal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/your-money/27haggler.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=in%20search%20of%20work%20but%20at%20what%20cost&st=cse

I AM ALSO A FORMER COVERALL CLEANING CONCEPTS FRANCHISE OWNER. CALL [protected], LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE THEN CALL ME DIRECTLY. THIS IS SO MUCH EASIER, NO EMPLOYEES, NO LABOR, AND BEST OF ALL YOUR STILL YOUR OWN BOSS.
[protected] JIM BLUE

I invested into coverall in 1996. Being very young and ambicious my ex hubby and saved up all our savings and invested in coverall of southern africa.
We packed up all our goddies in the netherlands an moed to south africa.
We had done an enormous amount of research looking into the back ground of coverall. And we couldnt fid anything bad about the company.
We invested an enormous amount. The regional owner at that stage started of OBVIOUSLY very nice. After signing the contract he started acting up and charging us for the funniest thing. Eventually we wanted our money back ... A long court case etc . We lost everthing ! had to move back to the netherlands with our last money and borrowing from folks we knew. They are still a dodgy business!
And Charles if I ever see you again ... I will spit in your face ( Sorry that man robbed us, he was the regional manager back then)

Kermit do not leave any messages on this board you are a former coverall franchise manager, get it a former that means that you are no longer employed there. That is typical of coverall they normally change their employees as often as they go to the bathroom. I was a former franchise owner that blew about 200, 000.00 on buying accounts and where am i now struggling to find accounts on my own. everything that is said negative about them is totally true. I have enough invoices and billing information to drop a law suit on them out of this world i just need a few people along with me to do it. they are criminals and theives and you too mr Kermit who no longer is employed by them let that be a lesson to you as to what they will do to their employees and their franchise owners. They are also located in south fl and they are the biggest set of crooks. Warning do not buy into their bull*****

I read the following article at Bluemaumau.org

Federal Judge: Franchising Sounds Like Ponzi Scheme

Posted Thu, 2010/04/01 - 19:12 by Corbin Williston

Is franchising "a modified Ponzi scheme?" Last week, a federal judge said it might be.

Janitorial franchises have long been a source of embarrassment for the franchise industry, and frequently attract purchasers with few assets and poor command of English.

A 2001 report by the GAO on FTC enforcement of the Franchise Rule found that from [protected], Coverall violations had affected 2591 investors, and JaniKing violations affected 900 investors.
A 2005 news article in the NY Times noted complaints by Brazilian immigrant franchisees of Coverall in Boston, and a settlement of Coverall litigation in Los Angeles in which franchisees alleged fraud.
An August 2009 interview with Franchise Times quoted Coverall making this claim:
Jacqueline Vlaming, Coverall’s general counsel, said, “Every franchise owner who runs it like a business can make money.”

In the most recent lawsuit, Pius Awuah and 10 other franchisees relate similar stories:

1.They paid Coverall North America a "franchise fee" in exchange for which
2.They were promised a minimum dollar amount of client accounts to service each month.
3.Coverall entered into the contract with the clients and billed the clients.
4.Coverall assigned the franchisees to clean the client premises, and
5.Coverall would remit money to the franchisees after deducting various charges.
The franchisees alleged in their Complaint that they were never given the amount of business they had been promised, and that the degree of control which Coverall exercised over them meant that as a matter of Massachusetts law that they were really employees of Coverall.

After filing suit, the franchisee attorneys uncovered damaging information and Coverall moved to seal court documents. In an interlocutory appeal, a 3 judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals said in October 2009:

Coverall has been charged--it has not been found liable in this case--with activities that could be viewed as highly unattractive[cite omitted]

It is not necessarily the disclosure to competitors that makes the district court's order a matter of concern. Others, including enforcement agencies and potential plaintiffs, may find the disclosures of interest in ways that would not serve Coverall's interests. [emphasis underlined in original]

The lawsuit continued and on March 23, 2010 the District Court ruled in favor of the "franchisee" plaintiffs, holding that they are in fact employees.

What has attracted attention within the franchise community is the Judge's comments about Coverall's assertion that its business was actually the sale of franchises. Traditionally industry trade groups such as the IFA have maintained that franchising is not an industry but rather a business model (although the IFA has on other occasions defined franchising as an industry).

Judge Young stated:

Describing franchising as a business in itself, as Coverall seeks to do, sounds vaguely like a description for a modified Ponzi scheme – a company that does not earn money from the sale of goods and services, but from taking in more money from unwitting franchisees to make payments to previous franchisees.

The Judge went on to say that he believed that in fact Coverall was in the business of janitorial services and that under Massachusetts law the "franchisees" were really employees of Coverall. But the use of the term "Ponzi scheme" and the interlocutory ruling have caused this case to gain wide attention.

An interesting issue raised by franchise law firm Nixon Peabody is the impact of the Massachusetts statute and case law on post-term non-compete clauses.

The IFA issued a press release criticizing the ruling as a threat to franchising in Massachusetts. As far back as 1998, the IFA took the (then) unheard-of step and filed an amicus brief opposing a janitor who filed for unemployment after being fired from his job at West Sanitation Services. (Matter of Francis, 688 N.Y.S.2d 55)

A bigger threat to Coverall might be the bad publicity which has caused it to lose contracts with Boston-area clients such as Legal Sea Foods and Cheescake Factory (NASDAQ: CAKE). Both restaurants paid Coverall, but the mostly Hispanic cleaning staff did not get paid.

Coverall said it had properly sent money to the Boston "franchisee" and that it bore no responsibility for seeing that the workers were paid. After media reports, Coverall paid the wages. Legal Sea Foods terminated Coverall due to concerns about worker mistreatment, Cheescake Factory terminated Coverall due to a number of concerns, and the Massachusetts Attorney General is investigating the janitorial industry, according to the Boston Globe.

This statement below is Wrong and misleading, because you do not as a franchisee own the contract so the head office can come up with any concocted story such as the customer is not happy with the service therefore you are losing the account. Whether they resell it to another person is hard to determine but i have had high rating in my accounts and still lost them. My advice to anyone who want to get into the cleaning business is do it on there own all these franchisees are SCAM Artists who are only interested in new Franchisees who pay x6 and not the older franchisees who pay less.Finally to let everyone who reads know the Company only guarantees the contract for ONE YEAR and are not responsible if they feel its not cleaned properly which is subjective.There is alot of information online Do you Research carefully.. Good luck

Franchisee's is DO YOUR MONTHLY INSPECTIONS, if you do and you follow the agreement, you will be covered by the replacement of business, you will not have any reason for the company to take the account away from you, and you will not have any service issues, because you will have direct contact with your customer.

I am a current Coverall franchisee in FL. My marriage to Coverall Health-Based Cleaning System has not been as harsh as others. With Coverall in particular, your initial package includes start-up supplies, contracts up to the specific monetary value of the package purchased and hands on training. Additionally, when I have any questions, I have access to the adminstrative side of the house as well as other franchise owners in my area.

As the saying goes, "it cost to be the boss!" I believe many people confuse being a business owner with being an employee. As a franchise business owner, one should automatically prepare their self to pay royalties & management, insurance, workers compensation, Coverall loan paybacks and additional business purchases to name a few. As an employee, one just picks up their paycheck on payday. Anyone notice the difference?

I cannot speak on the matter of things I do not know but what I do know is that WARJON, INC dba Coverall of North Florida is one of the BEST franchising territories. After purchasing my franchise, my country sent me to serve beyond its borders. Meanwhile, Coverall paused my training, payments... basically halted my entire process until I returned. I wasn't asked to make any payment of any sort while I was absent. In fact, my first deductions weren't until I received my first FULL Franchisee Statement after returning.

As with any business, honesty is not on everyones agenda but with my territorial office there is a great relationship between Coverall and its Franchisee's. Is everyday good? No, not at all. Does the good outweigh the bad? Certainly. As a franchisee, all that's asked of us is to complete our monthly inspections, clean to the standard of Coverall provided training and promote your business. If your business doesn't grow, then Coverall doesn't grow and vice versa. So, PLEASE stop blaming COVERALL for the mistakes of a particular territory.

SIDE NOTE: Coverall has a certain amount of days upon completion of training to fill initial packages. My business owned package was filled within 2 wks of completing training AND I purchased additional business within one month. I have employees and franchise obligations to pay but not all is lost. Rome wasn't built in a day. It's NOT all of Coverall that has fell short of the bar and left bad taste in the mouths of many. Unfortuantely, it still a branch of Coverall but as a solution one should lodge their complaints at a specific territory.

BE BLESSED,
THANKS!

cover north america is full of crooks we all need to file a clash action suit. lets get started

We hope no one else has to endure the horrible experiences described on this site from a cleaning franchise! For a business opportunity for honest hard working entrepreneurs, visit: www.cleanteamunlimited.com - no B.S.- no broken! promises! Innovation for the cleaning industry! www.cleanteamunlimited.com

i know about coverall and there evil garbage...

You can read the following article on the coverall scam by going to the following link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/your-money/27haggler.html?_r=1

The HagglerIn Search of Work,
but at What Cost?
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: December 26, 2009

STILL in holiday peace-and-goodwill mode? Aww. How sweet!

Just a quick bit of advice: Read something else.

Seriously, beat it, O.K.? Because Christmas is so two days ago, and in this episode we are going to dive into the dark heart of the janitorial franchise world — which turns out to be really, really dark.

Q. I am writing on behalf of my housekeeper, Jagoda Walczak, a Polish immigrant who has been cleaning homes for years. She thought she could find new clients by investing in a franchise called Coverall Cleaning.

She borrowed $17, 600 from her brother and friends to cover the franchise fee, and Coverall guaranteed that it would send her $5, 000 worth of commercial cleaning business — basically janitorial services for offices — every month. They assure people that they can make $18 to $20 an hour with these accounts. More than three months later, she had been offered less than $2, 500 worth of business, and the monthly payments for these jobs were so low that, calculated at an hourly rate, they were minimum wage.

She tried to get her money back, but Coverall will not send her a refund. Is there any way the Haggler can help?

Channa Steinberg

New York City

A. The commercial cleaning franchise world is a new one to the Haggler, but it’s been around since the mid-1970s, and Coverall is just one of several national players.

It works like this: You give Coverall a big fat check and it provides training, some start-up supplies and initial leads to companies in need of cleaning service. The goal is steady income from cleaning gigs that are serviced, ideally, with your own employees.

In theory, it’s not a bad idea, and the company, which is based in Boca Raton, Fla., says it has 8, 000 franchisees servicing 50, 000 customers in the United States. It also has a pretty lengthy record of settling lawsuits brought by former Coverall franchisees — more than two dozen suits since 1998, according to its 2008 franchise disclosure document, with one settlement as high as $450, 000. In every instance, the company denies wrongdoing.

Read through a summary of the complaints, and themes emerge. Again and again, franchisees allege that Coverall presented them with a job at a set fee that required so much time and/or additional employees that the income, per hour, was a pittance.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer in Boston who has filed a class-action lawsuit against Coverall, says that this is standard operating procedure.

“Companies like Coverall are competing for commercial cleaning contracts against regular janitorial companies that pay their workers as employees, which means they pay worker’s compensation and have to abide by minimum-wage laws, ” she says. “Using the independent contractor model, Coverall doesn’t have to worry about any of that, so they underbid for contracts and obviously the person who gets hurt is the worker.”

Ms. Walczak says she was offered a job cleaning a Vidal Sassoon salon — six nights a week — for just over $1, 300 a month. A Coverall manager gave her a tour of the premises and said the whole job should take two and a half hours an evening. It took five hours, minimum, Ms. Walczak said she discovered. After three weeks, she told Coverall that the job was financially unfeasible.

When she demanded her money back, Coverall refused and suggested that she sell her franchise. Ultimately, she was paid less than $700 for all of her Coverall-related work, including the three weeks at that Sassoon salon.

A spokeswoman for Coverall, Jacqueline Vlaming, sent a lengthy e-mail message in response to the Haggler’s inquiries about Ms. Walczak. In it, Ms. Vlaming says that the company doesn’t guarantee $5, 000 worth of cleaning jobs a month, but instead promises an initial set of jobs worth that sum of money, after which you’re basically on your own.

She also said that Ms. Walczak declined nine perfectly good cleaning gigs — worth $7, 000, altogether — and that the Sassoon salon is now serviced by another Coverall franchisee for the same fee that Ms. Walczak found inadequate.

“Ms. Walczak was difficult to work with from the outset, ” Ms. Vlaming wrote. “We tried repeatedly to explain to her the methodology inherent in bidding commercial accounts. She simply did not want to hear it.”

For a competing perspective, we turn to Steven Cumbow, a former chief financial officer at Coverall who has left the company and was recently deposed by Ms. Liss-Riordan as part of her class-action lawsuit.

“Coverall has built its business around charging individuals — many of whom are non-English speakers — thousands of dollars in exchange for a promise that it will provide paid cleaning work, ” a court document says, paraphrasing Mr. Cumbow’s deposition. “Instead of supplying this business, however, Coverall utilizes a ‘churning’ model whereby it offers business to workers who, Coverall knows, will be unable to accept or to adequately service the account, or revokes business for pretextual reasons.”

Ms. Vlaming called Mr. Cumbow a “disgruntled terminated employee with a grudge.”

The Haggler spoke to Ms. Walczak last week, and she described her struggles to make a living and provide for two teenage children. “I called the company and I just cried, ” she said. “I told them: ‘You lied to me. You said I could make money and I can’t and now I’m borrowing money and I’m in a worse situation than before.’”

See? The Haggler warned you that this is not a feel-good story. But in the e-mail message, Ms. Vlaming said Coverall would be willing to discuss Ms. Walczak’s situation with her and to “work toward a solution.” The Haggler will follow those discussions and report on their outcome in a forthcoming column.

E-mail: haggler@nytimes.com. Keep it brief and family-friendly, and go easy on the caps-lock key. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

Do anyone have any complaints about Coverall Health Based Cleaning Systems of the Dallas Fort Worth Texas area, or good things to say about them I am looking into being a Franchisee and I understand all the bad issues former Franchisees have had, but these people are still selling Franchises so theres got to be some good about them and to my understanding all Commercial Cleaning Franchises all operate the same so I would like to know who has the best system, could anyone say something good about any of these Franchises because people are not just having bad experiences with these Franchises if they are still operating. Could someone please post a comment or e mail me @ micheal.harris10@yahoo.com with pros, cons, good, and bad experiences.

Coverall is full of lies. I own a franchise in Houston Tx and it works exactly the same as others have said, they're liars, unprofessionals, treat you like an employee and don't care about you. I'm hoping to get FOs that want to sue them as well. I'm tired of their scams!

To first amendment, you are a negative person there is not one cleaning franchise you have not bad mouthed on one site or another. Also you seem to have owned each one of them also so if you are so rich you can buy a new business each year, fail at it and try a new one the next, do your self a favor and go to collage and take business management . You have to work hard to start a franchise and yes they can fail and as for your mouth dialect about immigrants failing at this if they are illegal as you state how do they pass the background check. And ps anyone can cut and paste articles penned by others with a mind of their own so try originality and get a real job try McDonald's not much smarts needed there .

WOW! I was going to sign on with cover all. So glad I found this site before I acted on anything! They can shove their contract!

To cleanerpaallday I guees you spend all your time following me around or are you someone from corporate trying to stop the truth from coming out. What hapened you Can't handle the truth ?
1. Awnser this why does coverall have so many lawsuits last time I conted I think I saw over 30 lawsuits ? Maybe I should post them here.
2. Why did a judge recently say that coverall was like a Ponzi Scheeme?
3. Why did a court rule a cleaner not a franchisee business owner but an employee who ended up geting uneployment?
Finally why are you so afraid of me or anyone else posting articles that have come out in the New york Times, Franchisetimes.com, Television or any other place? . Is it that all you can do to defend your coverall company is get mad and attack me on posting something? Are you trying to shut me up and take away my 1st Amendment Rights. Tough luck because I will keep sharing these articles when I see them.

There is no way you are a business owner as Coverall says if you do not own your customers. They are just selling you a job. In this country you should not have to pay to get a minimum wage or lower job.

There is a Class Action filed against them in Ca. If anyone wants to talk about filing in another State you should call the attorneys for the "Franchisees" in Ca. Maybe they would go after Coverall for you too.

Has Anyone bought a Building from Coverall to clean, than a year waiter was told not to return because they don't want you there?
I live in Ca. and a year ago after working a building for a year, was told that my work was not good enough. Just today was told I lost another office, never complain, never wrote ANYTHING down, and all of sudden was told not to clean it anymore.
Has anyone ever retrun to the building that they were cleaning to see you had replaced you?

about 7 month ago I owned a franchise from Coveral, I just filled my backage less than 3 month after calling 100s for times. Now, I lost my account. They never paid me on time. By the way I am in Australia and they are doing the same thing in here as well. I am planning to take them to the court but I want people to join me to strength position. I am sure they scamed many in Australia as well.

The feelings of stress, headache & nightmare 'd start once you've bought a package from this company "Coverall"

Mina Essa: In VIC you're not alone, there're many (Coverall) franchisee encountered the same or even worse unreasonable treatment as you are, there're considering taking legal action against Coverall, & now they fomed as a group. It's easy for you to join them, how to contect you?

Coverall LOST ! Hit HARD By The Supreme Court !

The Supreme court on wednesday August 31, 2011 SMACKS Coverall !

Awuah WINS !

Cleaners Win !

Here is the link

http://www.bluemaumau.org/10644/franchisor_hit_hard_pretending_employees_are_franchisees

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 have worked for coverall in California in the past or are working for them right now please give me a call as soon as possible.

Jerry
[protected]

Took an outside sales job at Coveralls Detroit office a few years ago. The regional director was sniffing every woman hard. At the training in Boca the company President Ted Elliot was hanging in the back looking like he'd been on a week long bender. He surprised the lead trainer by interrupting him and asking him pointed questions leaving everybody scratching their heads. That trainer was fired that day. I was leading the office sales board after only my second month in the field. I had noticed many people in my traing class of 75 had been terminated by that time. My mannish new woman boss told me to stop by Monday morning. Heck, I thought she was gonna congratulate my performance. Nope, she said I was fired because of a business decision. Told her it was a bad idea to fire the guy leading the sales board, DUH! They had fired a huge portion of my training class quickly as I assumed the company is/was in financial trouble. I be been doing outside sales since with a major security company very successfully since. Coverall people were idiots.

I agree about the complaint against Coverall. I have been a franchisee for just over a year now. 1st of all the starter equipment they supply is a joke, with the first 2 months I had to replace the toilet brush, the mop bucket, and the extender duster. I stopped using the vacuum cleaner supplied and went with my home vacuum cleaner because it worked so much better.The cost to start plus the monthly fees they charge are outrageous, I started at one of the mid-levels and I just got enough accounts to satisfy my contract. Cover with the fees and loan repayments being deducted, they are taking about 45% of the profits. With the time and travel to my accounts, I am making about $15 dollars and hour. My advise to anyone thinking about Coverall is talk to them and get as much information as you can and then go out and do it yourself. Just price every job you bid on at about $30 - $40 dollars and hour.

I am a Coverall Franchise owner and have mixed dealings with this company. People keep saying that people are acting like an employee instead of a business owner, but Coverall treats you like an employee. They underbid jobs--way underbid them just so they get their money, and they will feel fine giving you a bunch of small accounts that you work hard at but make no money. They even charged me a finder's fee on an account I found. It took me 4 months to get it straightened out and they did not refund my back money. I clean one account 7 times a month and the contract is for $150 dollars, its a three hour hour job, that they said should take 1 hour. That's 7.14 an hour, so I can't afford to pay an employee, I have to do it myself. They also took an account away from me that they said the customer complained. I accepted the loss, and later saw my contact person at the store and she told me she was disappointed when our crew left because the other crew was not as good or friendly. She was told I was moving to Wisconsin and would no longer be cleaning. I'm sure they took that account (my biggest one) and put it in a new franchise package. Maybe not all Coverall's work this way, but it seems like a majority of them do.