Complaint Review: Sir Speedy Printing Services

I was employed by a South Florida Sir Speedy franchisee in May 2000 as the sole salesman for the company. The terms of my hiring were that I would receive a base salary of $400/week and a 5% commission (to be paid in perpetuity) on all the work I brought in. The owner assured me that it would be virtually impossible not to get credited with work coming in through my efforts.

The company was stagnant at an income of $375,000/year and my target was set at $500,000/year*. I was given a 100 square mile territory, containing thousands of small to medium businesses. It would often take months to get back to make the next visit, so I called and e-mailed to keep contact with customers and prospects.

This, of course, was basically a one-way street. I was kept out of the shop and on the road or confined to an upstairs office to make calls. I joined several business organizations and promoted his business several nights per week.

As it turned out the owner was fraudulently converting my customers and giving me false sales reports, cheating me out of my commissions. There is sufficient evidence that over $50,000 was stolen from me during my three years there. And he has never paid any of the promised residuals.

He would undermine sales efforts by private meetings with my customers and in one instance went to a remote location and substituted his business cards for mine, when mine brought in a new client.

My largest client, a marketing company in Davie Florida awarded us all their work, which meant a raise for me and I was finally allowed to take time off. He used my vacation time to tell my clients that I had resigned And fired me upon my return. He also refused to pay four weeks of accrued vacation pay after pressuring me to keep working instead of taking the time off.

For the past three years his mean spirited efforts have also been interfering with my employment, in an industry I have served honorably for thirty years. His machinations have caused me horrific financial damage.

*An estimate, by an expert in the printing business, shows that I brought the business to just over the $1,000,000 mark in three years.

Thom
Hollywood, Florida
U.S.A.