- Report: #1218606
Complaint Review: A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections - Pompano Beach Florida
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A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections
351 South Cypress Road Pompano Beach, 33060 Florida, USA
Phone:
1 877 377 8626
Web:
abuyerschoice.com
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A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections Mike Smith Bill Redfern Sold us a home inspection franchise. Misrepresentation and non-disclosure of lawsuits, failure rate. Revoked our franchise, no refund. Sued us for breach of contract and defamation. Pompano Beach Florida
In June of 2011 my wife (Joan) and I, invested ($35,000) to purchase and market an A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections (ABC) franchise.
We did so after reviewing the documentation supplied by the ABC Regional Owner, Mike Smith, who now resides in Shanty Bay, Oro-Medonte, Ontario Canada.
In the 12 months after the purchase, we gradually realized that the information provided in the original disclosure documentation, was misleading and false.
The documentation provided by Mike Smith did not disclose past, ongoing and pending lawsuits.
The documentation indicated that approximately 4 to 6% of franchises failed. In truth, the average failure rate was closer to 60%. The 5 year old franchise failure rate was over 95%.
Mike Smith personally signed our documentation declaring the information to be true and accurate.
The support "system" developed and promoted by corporate ABC was and is serverely lacking. The ABC advertising campaign is littered with false and exaggerated claims.
In May 2012, we consulted with several other franchisees, both existing and former and shared information. We were subsequently accused of slandering the company after questioning Mike Smith.
In July of 2012, we filed a Notice of Rescission (quit) to both Mike Smith and the CEO of ABC, Bill Redfern.
Mike Smith then re-sold our area, (Belleville) for what turned out to be the 3rd time in less than 4 yrs.
We published a website called "abuyerschoicethinktwice.com" to share information/blog between franchisees and forewarn those in the general public.
Our sevice provider eventually shut the site down due to, what we understood as threats/pressure of legal action.
In Nov 2012, Mike Smith sued us for Breach of Contract ($100,000). A defence and counterclaim was filed. In April 2013, Mike Smith & Bill Redfern sued us for defamation ($1.7 million).
To date (March 2015) the Plaintiffs have done nothing to proceed with their respective actions.
The Plaintiffs will not participate in arbitration and refused mediation services offered by the CFA (Canadian Franchise Association).
Invitations to participate in discovery and examination of documents in the Toronto, Ontario courts have been ignored.
A Buyer's Choice Home Inspection franchises continue to be sold, primarily throughout Canada and the U.S. by what we consider fraudulant means. Little regard is shown for provincial and state franchise disclosure regulations and licencing.
***CEO Bill Redfern has recently initiated a new franchising venture (icare), from his base in Pompano Beach, Florida. icare targets seniors. Icare markets itself as a franchised in-home service.***
Over the past two and a half (2 1/2) years we have heard and shared many, many similar personal stories from ABC franchisees that have given up and walked away in despair. The number of Former Unit and Regional Franchisees that had been duped into the ABC franchising scam exceeded 150 by 2014. (Canada & U.S).
ABC uses the proceeds of franchise sales and royalties collected from franchisees to harass and finance legal costs fighting former franchisees.
We have an agenda to get our day in court. Our success will expose these individuals and benefit many others.
Sincerely,
Greg Kelly
*** Scheduled for Facebook and Twitter posting March 20th,2015
5 Updates & Rebuttals
Putting Things into Proper Perspective
#2Author of original report
Tue, April 14, 2015
(April 7th email to Mike Smith ,Colin Pendrith (legal representation Cassels Brock - Toronto) and Sue Vanditelli (Ombudsman's Office - Canadian Franchise Association)
Good morning Mike,
Just a quick note to possibly put things into perspective.
Visiting the ABC website various impressive claims of "explosive growth...largest in North America, largest in Canada, in 14 countries, approaching 200 franchises in Canada and the U.S. etc. etc.. brings a person to question their validity.
The FDD you issued to Joan & I in May of 2012 was marked as the ABCHI Jan 2011 version and the Certificate was signed by you.
Canada & U.S.
Listed in the schedules are 10 regional owners and 74 unit franchisees.
Viewing the ABC site today, of those 10 Regional Owners there are 4 remaining.
Of those 74 Unit Franchisees, there are 10 remaining.
The website posts 5 Regional Owners and 84 Unit Franchisees.
Doing the math and not including those that have come and gone within the past 4 years, who are many (including ourselves) and the names "missing " from our FDD, the results are;
Regional Owners 6 out of 10 failed, quit, or franchise revoked.
Unit Franchisees 64 lost 74 sold since 2011
If you or Bill Refern would like to view the documentation (FDD's, Franchise Agreements, news articles, 100's of emails, I have collected over the past 2 1/2 years, including court documents that back these figures, I would be glad to share them.
I hope this clarifies at least in part, the position we have taken.
We request that reconsider your offer, so that our situation be resolved, and we all move on.
I think it is reasonable to expect your response by 11 am tomorrow.
Regards,
Greg K
(As of April 14th No Response received from Mike Smith)
Email April 7th to Sue Vanditelli (CFA Mediator) Forwarded to Mike Smith and Colin Pendrith)
Hi Sue,
The reality is that $________ is the least amount we will accept as settlement. It does not fully cover even our hard costs. Mike Smith is not willing to pay that and I don't believe that a mediation recommendation would sway him.
Legal opinion based on information I provided paints the ABCHI franchise system as a "Ponzi scheme" or similar, that involves the repeated sales of franchise units of a company that has little or no substance. Mike Smith and Bill Redfern are criminals and a black mark for the Franchising industry.
They consider themselves "bullet proof" in the face of defrauded franchisees while they operate virtually unscathed by the justice system. Joan & I very much appreciate all the time you have spent us Sue but we will have to forego mediation and expand our campaign. With perseverance, perhaps our online invitations /links phone calls, emails will tweek the interest of a Canadian or U.S. law enforcement agency.
Thanks again.
Greg K
Report Attachments
Before the Courts
#3Author of original report
Tue, April 07, 2015
To repeat, despite efforts by the Defendants, the only scheduled court dates posted for the claims filed by ABC's Smith & Redfern are those for dismissal for unnecessary delay.The Plaintiffs have not made any attempt to move forward since the original claims were defended in 2012 and 2013.
To the contrary. the Plaintiffs recently offered a settlement to the Defendants' favour. Highly unusual.
Greg K
Owner?
#4Author of original report
Sat, April 04, 2015
Owner of what company? Where?
ABC
Other,ABC Response
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, April 02, 2015
The legal matters referred to in the above-noted post are before the Courts. Accordingly, we are not in a position to comment on the litigation, except to say that we are confident that the Courts will resolve these matters in our favour.
Silence Broken
#6Author of original report
Tue, March 31, 2015
The 1 year of silence and zero cooperation ended 30 minutes after sending a link leading to our campaign to ABC Regional Owner Mike Smith.
Mike Smith would now like to entertain mediation to resolve the issue.
I sent the following email to the Mediation service provider that will hear the arguments, if it happens.
***____ "I sent the following email to Mike Smith yesterday. He sent me an email this morning regarding mediation, with no mention of yesterday's message. Record says "sent". I re-sent it. No response from him yet. His "interest" in mediation at this point is simply a stall. In the end, unless you say exactly what he wants to hear, he will just walk away after killing 2 to 4 weeks time (and wasting more money). With your mediation being confidential, I see no point, as the information gathered will be of no use to me. (I have attached the mediation /mandatorty arbitration clause from the ABC documentation we were given. Redfern got dragged into arbitration once (2011) because of this clause. I don't have the details but know for certain it didn't go well for Redfern.
My opinion is based on my experience researching ABCHI since June of 2011.
Mike Smith rejected our $_______ offer to settle in late 2012. The fact that Mike Smith offered to settle with us last week for $________ and mutual release(rejected)has exposed his $100,000 Breach of Contract Superior Court Claim, along with the $1.7 million dollar Defamation suit (Smith & Redfern) as being unfounded. These claims were outright attacks, to scare us off and discredit Joan and I personally. Over and above the 1,000 plus hours of time spent fighting the fight for ourselves, and other Franchisees, defence of the claims has caused us extensive personal and financial stress over the past 2 1/2 years. Smith has gone to the extent of telling franchisees in the past that he would "crush us financially" as punishment for our revolt.
Making the effort to "work in harmony"or have any association with Mike Smith, Bill Redfern and the ABCHI franchising ruse is not in our cards. We do not wish to be labelled accomplices.
If ABC submits, or has submitted a membership application recently, the Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) membership committee may wish to review the information I have available before making a decision. It could avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.
Our story was posted on ripoffreport.com last Friday March 27th (Report # 1218606). An additional report (#864134 May 5th,2014 From: Tampa Bay) is also posted. I don't know the author of #86134 or the individuals referred to.
We submitted our story to CBC Go Public on Friday. No reply to date.***
For more information on A Buyer's Choice Home Inspections and the individuals involved visit abuyerschoice.com. Go to "Contact".
End of March 31st update. Greg
