Complaint Review: Jani King - Nationwide

The Jani King Franchise is simply the best scam that someone could come up with. All the way down to the lawyers that have written the contracts. I will be posting a tell all video on youtube about Jani King and how they use the Franchise and strong arm the clients. The video will be posted as early as the end of June 2009. The title of the video will be JK and the biggest rip off ever. If you would like to contribute content for this documentary please feel free to email any information.

I own a small Jani King franchise and my experience was a great one. I read the paperwork and I was given all of the information on the franchise fees. If you get contracts and do good work, you can make quite a bit of money even after the fees you have to pay! I don't think blaming a for profit company for making money off of your franchise is right. If you wanted to go out and do all of the leg work, marketing, sales, taxes, paperwork, shipping, receiving, purchasing, and management, you sure could have done that just as Jim Cavanaugh did when he started the company. By the way, Mr. Cavanaugh worked his way up and built this company doing the same work that other janitorial services people do. He did the work and then had too much of it to do himself and he started expanding it and started the franchise options for others to have the opportunity. I say he is a pretty smart man. To make a long story short, the Franchise information is in the contract when you buy it. I know because I read it before I signed it! I also know that if you want to do the work, it is available and you can make money with this franchise opportunity If you are willing to work for it. No you cannot just sit back and expect others to do it for you and no you cannot blame a for profit company for selling you something that you did not understand fully because you did not take the time to investigate what you were doing.

This is a rebuttal to all who have filed reports on this website against Jani-King International, Inc. and any of its offices throughout the world. As a former employee, I was involved in a lot of aspects of franchise ownership, including individuals contacting the office to inquire about owning their own business, when they met with a representative for full disclosure of what owning their own Jani-King franchise entails, when they signed the agreement to become a Jani-King franchise owner, training these "new" franchisees (four days a week for three weeks), business offerings, complaints, etcetera. Those who have chosen to purchase a franchise are NOT employees of Jani-King; they are business owners. The purpose of these fees is simple: These monies pay for an accounting department (accounts receivable and collections), a customer service department (complaints), sales and telemarketing departments (obtain new business) and an operations department (ensure the quality of service being provided to clients), as well as advertising (television, magazines, sporting events, etc.). You pay these fees to Jani-King because an entire staff is provided to you, along with every other franchise owner. I've noticed that several reports mention contracts being poorly bid or "underbid". This does occur, but before signing for any new business, franchise owners are given the opportunity to view a contract in its entirety, along with the supplemental documents that show how and why the account is priced for the amount that it is. If this opportunity has not been given to you and you chose to accept the account anyway, that doesn't sound like a "rip off", but more like bad judgement on behalf of the franchise owner. Another individual took the time to complain about what contact was information was listed on their business cards. What would you prefer-your personal address and personal telephone numbers listed or Jani-King business address and telephone numbers? There is also a report that complains about the time of day they were expected to service an account. Again, all of this information (time of day, days per week) is provided to a franchise owner before they sign for a contract. Besides, common sense would tell you that a business is typically not cleaned during regular business hours because it would disrupt their business. I do not doubt that many of those who have filed reports about Jani-King have legitimate complaints. However, I am hard-pressed to be sympathetic to those who chose to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to start their own business, when they themselves state they were not qualified to do so. One last note: Does anyone out there know who to spell or comprise a reasonably articulate sentence? From now on, press F7.

I bought into the platinum package. After everything I sunk into it I didn't see any business, nothing, nada. And you are dead on about their support. It is non-existent. But you are wrong about them wanting you to fail so they can sell more territories. They don't care if your business is failing or not they'll re-sell your territory, that's what they did to me. I got a call from another franchisee who was given my number by someone I had tried to get as a customer. He had contacted them and they told him I had already tried. So two of us in the same area were both duped. Where can I get more information about this lawsuit? I need to recoup some of what I lost to them.

Jani-King is a joke, after 6 months I was only able to get 3 clients. None of them wanted me to continue after a month. Marvna in AL is right about that training too. They make a big deal about all the training and how it will basically leave you without any questions. 8 1/2 hours later and all I had were questions. The first one was "Where did all my training go?" They told me that when I was in the field working the business I would be able to contact them for support and they would answer whatever questions I had. That is baloney. I decided I want out, I know it takes time to build a business but I have zero faith in the Jani King way of doing things. I think they just put everything in a nice little package and sell the franchises. The thing is in trying to get my money back I have called and left several messsages for Cynthia. She is either no longer there or ignoring my calls. Because after about 15 calls and 10 e-mails I only received one response and that was from Andy. I asked if I could speak with Jim and Andy told me Jim doesn't talk with the members. Pretty odd for someone who is so dedicated to making sure your business is a success. Well if you want to throw away $40,000 this is the place to do it.

I signed with Jani-King about bought a franchise in 1998. I had to sign a 20 year agreement, invested about $40,000. For some reason I had to pay the top franchise fee of $16,300 because I live in a rural area. I was told I could work this business from home, but after I sent in my money I spoke to the county register office, and this type of business need a storefront because of the machinery. I was told over and over again by Andy Horta that I would be fine to work from home. Everyone does. Well, I guess I a the exception to the rule. That was the beginning of my problems. I also spoke to Cynthia at ext 158 The promised 40-1/2+ hours of training came to about 8 hr's of training over a period of 3 weeks. It could all have been covered in 1 day, but my trainer had other things to do. I was promised a newsletter never received. There were no meetings with all franchise owners as promised. I was given 800 numbers that either did not work, or went to a voicemail with no human answering. The marketing support was a joke and did me no good. I spoke to Brandy Douglas several times about lack of business, her only idea was to go out and meet people on the street. What a joke Eventually I did get 1 client, my wife's boss. I did their office for about 2 weeks before I was told not to bother anymore. Very sad. So I called in and spoke to Andy ext 143 about my $ back. Giving back everything and cutting my loses. I even told them to only give me half back. No go. Nothing. I am broke and lost now. I need to sue, but I also need to know who else has had this problem. So there is my story. Anyone else out there with problems like this? 1-800-256-4546 1800- janiking SCAMMERS RIP OFF - LIARS

From the materials, to the training, to the support I don't think I was told the truth once. Steve assured me I wasn't in this business alone and I had a "Silent Partner" in him. Well he was right about that, he remained silent all throughout my struggles and as if it was even possible he was even more silent when I wanted my money back. Don't even get me started at how useless the training is. Has anyone ever spoken with Jim Cavanaugh? I can't get an extension for him. I am always told he will contact me and so far that has only been through e-mail. If you have gotten your money back from them please tell me how I can!!!!