Complaint Review: BONUS Building Care: Gary and Shelly

In San Antonio....there is a couple of franchisees of BONUS Building CARE (David Nall is the texas vp/master franchisee).  Gary and Shelly run ads on the San Antonio Craigslist advertising for commercial janitorial cleaners.   They tell u the pay runs per contract (from 200-400/mo per contract) and that it is not a full-time job (i understood that perfectly.

Here is the scam they run...and it all sounds good at first, I answered an ad at which time I received a phone call from Shelly, letting me know they would be conducting "group interviews" at a certain place (apparently not their office but at one of the places they clean, which maybe should have been my first major clue) and make it sound really good (a "new and growing franchise" for them in which you may be able to pick up additional contracts as they arise). Well, I was in a situation in which i was homeless, disabled (tho not able to collect disability at this point) and also with a prior criminal record...pretty much excluding me from most jobs.  This was supposed to be cash pay...once a month, that I understood). Oh, and they were supposed to furnish ALL supplies. 

Well on January the 10th, i finally received a call from them to take on a client contract actually two one for Avis at the airport and one for Dealer Source Limited, Avis to be cleaned 3x's week and Dealer Source to be cleaned weekly, with one additional cleaning that week.  I was told that the contracts were opened because they "only had 2 of the group meeting attendees working for them (there were like 20 show up) and that one of the women was not working out (probably should have been my SECOND clue....but I needed money and BAD)

Within two days, they ALSO gave me a third contract (Yazaki North America) to be done as a team (the place is very large with several bathrooms and breakrooms to clean) and to be done every weekday evening.  I found a teammate.  In addition, the mileage from one to another was all the way across town from where I lived and from one another.  So I wound up spending like $150 in gas (when I first let Shelly know I would be having gas money problems, she THEN let me know that I would NOT be getting paid until Feb 16th?? how is that once monthly? and of course she also did not let me know that she actually gets paid herself for the contracts on the tenth of every month), she told me she would rather i let her know if i had problems with gas to get to these jobs as she woul "advance" me the gas money rather than my not being able to make it.  The first week she advanced me $20 (of course that didn't go far) The next week she would only advance me $10.  She also gave me a little electric broom, an extension cord. Also a very small amount of "supplies" (a tiny bit left of a bottle of Fabuloso, and a half empty bottle of windex and like three chamois cloths). 

I borrowed wherever I could to keep in gas money to go to these jobs, and it was not long before I was getting no response on my requests for supply refills either.  I purchased supplies to use out of the money I borrowed.  My teammate and I busted BUTT getting these places cleaned, and had the clients noticing how clean we kept it.   Some days were entire 6-8 hour days, some were a little shorter maybe 4-6.  However one night AFTER we finished the Yazaki at 930 pm, Gary asked us if we wanted another contract (Arrow). A huge office.  Of course we said yes as he promised that we could have two businesses in the same area and that would be alot more money in the paychecks. So he asked us to stay and help him clean (we had arrived around 1045pm and stayed to help him clean until 2 am that next morning)

Right after that (Friday the 25th), I am letting Shelly know that I can no longer borrow gas money from anyone else (sold what I could to keep going to these jobs, and could I pleasehave another small advance for gas please, as I didn't truly have enough to get to the jobs) at which point she berated me via text  stating that it was "unacceptable" to ask for these advances.  She guilted me into going to do jobs on the 28th, and after that I no longer had the gas money needed. Of course that was when she informed me my services would no longer be needed, and could I  meet her halfway acrossed town to give her supplies back?  I didn't even have gas money for that!!!  I told her i didn't have gas money til I got paid by her and since she "didn't need me anymore that means I should get paid for the work i did pretty much right away"  She argued the point, giving lots of excuses as to why it would NOT be until the 16th of Feb.    So...the very next thing I know, Shelly asks me to call her at 2pm the next day....and her cellphone number is turned off!!! (she had previously told me that if this were to happen she would let me know the new number...she did NOT until after I called David Nall the "master franchisee" in austin.  Even David Nall would not tell me of Gary/Shelly's last names, however he knew them and would speak to them to have them give me a call and he asked me to try to work an arrangement with them.  All I do know about Gary and Shelly is that they have a really big family from St. Louis, Missouri, they say a child or two in the military in the San Antonio area and they live somewhere on Hunt Lane close to Lackland Air Force Base)  

Gary and Shelly gave me a call after I spoke to David Nall to let me know their new numbers.  Again Shelly insisted that I WOULD get paid on the 16th, however hemmed and hawed and danced around the question as to exactly HOW much I would be getting paid for the work i did but that she thought it would be somewhere around $300 and since I had customers ask where I was Gary was "thinking about adding another $100"  okay so then I sit and wait patiently.

On the 16th I contact her several times to arrange a meeting place to exchange her electric broom, extension cord, and the supply cage key to Yazaki for a paycheck.We get the meeting place and wait about an additional 45 minutes to an hour for her to arrive (all the while she is telling me she is right there and will be at the meeting place in just a minute)...And she has her husband and her son is standing there in a posture like a body guard there for a display of muscle.  Shelly sits in the car for several minutes, then writes me a handwritten "receipt" for the supplies i returned (I didn't want to keep any of her supplies) and her son hands me $150 cash!!! To this she says is our pay for our work from the 10th to the 25th of Jan.   Even adding the $30 advances (to a grand total of $180) that makes it so that myself and my cleaning partner got paid $7.50 per day!!!! WOW I used $150 of BORROWED money for gas and supplies in addition to the $30 "advance" i got from her so apparently we worked for FREE???


Now i am seeing why she could not keep people working for her....ALL SCAM and I am putting my story out here so that others (especially those in desperation to earn ANY money who can LEAST afford it) do not get scammed by these same people.