Jani-King International review: Franchise is a Scam 62

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.

VERY DISCOURAGING

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...

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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)

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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!)

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.

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! :)

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

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

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

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 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!

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.