David Iseley founded the Oxymagic carpet cleaning franchise in 1999.
In 2005, he hired a kid fresh out of college as his V.P. of Franchise Development. Less than a year later, according to Iseley, the kid went off and started his own competing carpet cleaning franchise company. Iseley sued him and they settled out of court.
Despite having agreed on a settlement, David Iseley could not let the incident go. His anger and resentment toward the young upstart seemed to grow to the point of obsession.
David Iseley created entire blogs about how he had been wronged by the young entrepreneur.
He posted vicious, disparaging comments about his young competitor across the Internet, calling him a cheat, a liar and a thief.
Recently, David Iseley began creating and posting angry YouTube videos of himself ranting and raving about the wrongs he suffered, and the unfairness of the U.S. criminal justice system.
On his YouTube videos, Oxymagic CEO David Iseley plays media interviews of his young competitor while he makes derisive and derogatory comments.
David Iseley holds up snapshots of his daughters [See screenshot] who have supposedly suffered because of his 10-month employee’s misdeeds 5 years ago.
During the past 5 years, the college kid focused on growing his franchise company and supporting his franchisees. His chain has grown to nearly 300 franchises.
In the same timeframe, David Iseley has focused on playing the victim. Despite a 7-year head-start and almost two decades more experience, David Iseley’s Oxymagic still remains at about 80 franchises… about 1/3 the size of his alleged “copycat franchise” competitor.
David Iseley’s attempted smear campaign is doing more damage to his brand than any competitor could ever do.
David Iseley accuses the college kid of using infomercials, while his own website links to a paid-for “Designing Spaces” segment that is not labeled as an advertisement.
David Iseley claims the college kid stole his secrets, but doesn’t explain how the kid achieved 300% more growth with the same supposed concept.
David Iseley rails against the court system and the FBI for letting him “get screwed” because he’s “not Coca Cola.”
David Iseley obviously spends an inordinate amount of time on the Internet attacking a long-ago employee instead of finding a publisher for his book manuscript (he displays its supposed cover art) or updating his website (its most current training schedule is from 2008).
David Iseley claims the college kid is a phony, but is shown on video absolutely livid one moment then laughing the next (when he thought the camera was off).
David Iseley claims the college kid is deceptive, while it seems obvious that Iseley himself posts comments under multiple pseudonyms and personas. On the attack blogs, David Iseley even writes in the first person, as himself, then includes a disclaimer stating “This blog is not affiliated with David Iseley, Oxymagic, or Oxymagic Franchise Development Corp.”
Say what? His own blogs, which contain personal notes to his competitor, are not affiliated with him?
Should Oxymagic Franchisees Hold an Intervention?
At the very least, he should ask his franchisees whether THEY think he should continue using valuable time and resources on his unprofessional, personal online vendetta.
Odds are, if they are candid with him, they’ll say: Stop embarrassing us, David. Stop embarrassing yourself. Get refocused on helping us win and keep carpet cleaning customers.
Sometimes franchisors have to save franchisees from their own bad habits.
Sometimes the franchisees need to save the franchisor from himself.
For all their sakes.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE OXYMAGIC FRANCHISE & DAVID ISELEY? WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
[Note: Neither Oxymagic nor the unnamed competitor sponsored or had input or influence on the content of this blog post. The opinions expressed are that of the post author alone and are just that – personal opinions.] Contact the editor at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com
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View Comments
Seems to me after doing a little research this guy has every right to tell his story.
Just as you have the right to blog and say whatever.
If this other guy did represent that he owned the trade secrets while serving as an officer for the company and was not the rightful owner that is illegal.
I believe it is trade secret missapropriation.
It is ironic that Coke did prosecute some employees for an almost duplicate act.
They went to jail. The US Attorney's Office only prosecutes this kind of thing if alot of money is at stake. i.e. Coca Cola. And I agree the justice system is NOT fair or consistant.
Ellen
Just wonder if you had been stolen from before after working hard to create and build something.
Would you have the same laid back attitude?
I agree with Ellen on this one. Don't think this guy is doing anything but letting the truth be known.
OMG did you see the Oxi Fresh video on this Barnett guy. You would think he was the Messiah.
Ellen:
Comparing Oxymagic to Coca Cola is laughable! Coca Cola owns more than 1100 patents. How many patents does David Iseley own?
Your comment about Barnett having done anything illegal is factually false and therefore slanderous. You can be sued for such a statement. The truth is that Iseley pursued this in court and lost. Why? Because he had no trade secrets stolen. Stick to the facts
Claiming to own someone's trade secrets and faxing a Non Disclosure is OK with you?
You better look up trade secret law.
Its called missapropriation of trade secrets. So what about that paper that he has in the video? If that is true it is illegal!
I was not comparing Coca Cola to this guys company.
Sounds to me like you are put up to this by that Barnett guy.
To Anon
Nobody lost the lawsuit there was a settlement agreement. Know your facts.
No Secrets stolen. Oh OK some guy just took and duplicated everything. And nothing was taken. Go to Youtube and see where the guy that started Oxifresh was an Oxymagic Franchisee and VP of franchise development as well. What a thief.
There was a settlement agreement? Then why is the Oxymagic guy whining all over the Internet like a baby when he agreed to a settlement?
As far as his super top secret carpet techniques, there's a forum of carpet cleaning pros who laugh at David Iseley and his claims. They say his super secret Oxymagic techniques are nothing secret ("encap wih a host machine")
Check it out: http://www.mikeysboard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19140&p=211076
Here's what other carpet cleaning professionals say about David Isely and Oxymagic's claims:
"Can you pay Designing spaces to do an informercial for anything?"
"we can write them off as a step below Chemdry!"
"The same old misinformation, untruthfullness, and down right garbage."
"Lying and deceiving is not what I call great marketing!"
"OxyMagic is no magic at all"
"I am a professional cleaner and after watching this video it did not sit right with me to not say anything. There are lots of carpet cleaners that perform just as mentioned in the video, however, there are many that are far superior to what this video presented as “clean” carpet. I will tell you that OxyMagic did NOT clean that carpet. He made it “look” clean and there is a big difference. "
Seems like the only person that takes David Iseley seriously is David Iseley.his guy should do himself a favor and stay off the Internet. :)
Alan Leonard wrote "Nobody lost the lawsuit there was a settlement agreement."
How do you know so much? What's your relationship to the company? Are you David Iseley posting under a fake name?
I did a search and it says that the lawsuit was dismissed. That's not surprising since Iseley's own site says the kid used a different machine and different chemicals. What was there to steal? It's oxygenated carpet cleaning, not Iseley's invention or trade secret.
Move on, David, er, I mean, Alan.
To: Anon
I have followed behind hot water extraction cleaners and pulled buckets of dog hair and grit out of carpet with our method.
When I was IICRC Certified in 1996 it stated in their manual that the only way to efectively remove deep particulate or fibrous soil is with deep brush agitation.
You HWE'S are all the same oh Shaw said so, Shaw said so! What is Shaw in the business doing recommending carpet cleaners? NO. Manufactutring carpet.
The IICRC instructor also said that HWE shrinks more carpet, causes more seams to bust and creates more mold and mildew than all other methods COMBINED! We take customers from the dinosaur method every day.
Oh and guest login at 7:12 A.M. I don't have to hide who I am like JB's cronies.
David:
I have no idea why you're rambling about mold, mildew & buckets of dog hair, other than providing a clear answer to the title question :) Nobody knows or cares really. I'm just trying to give you some helpful advice and a little perspective.
Your employee might have done you dirty SIX YEARS ago, but you are wrecking your brand and your professional reputation with your creepy rants, vicious comments and stalkerlike videos.
The fact is that this kid took your idea and grew it 3X faster and 3X larger. He spends his time selling franchises and putting out press releases about his company’s accomplishments and you spend your time obsessing about him and telling everyone how knowledgeable and innovative you are.
You keep telling everyone about what an industry innovator and pioneer you are, but what innovations have you made in the past six years? Purphora? Why don't you dazzle us with your innovations instead of begging for our sympathy. We get it. Kid took your idea. A company took the domain you wanted. Your dog doesn't understand you. Your are a poor victim. We feel sorry for you. Now you can go away happy.
Mr. David Iseley
I have no idea who you are personally but i think it is worth your time to read these blogs, take it in and try not to respond. I know it will be hard but you can do it champ. Listening and learning should be your approach here. This way you can save your family the embarrassment and hopefully keep what little integrity they may still have left.
First off who the hell is in your corner and why in the world are they letting you have a video camera and access to the Internet. Not only do you look like a raving lunatic, but you put a picture of your kids in the video. Classy man! Everybody on this blog should look at this article about his great company and its ability to grow. This should give everybody a good idea of why he is not good at his trade. Your perception of success is a bit off from what most people would deem successful. Ill explain. You may need a calculator and a dictionary David, since there will be numbers and some big words involved. I only say this because I can’t imagine you’re too intelligent. That's just what i gathered from stent on YouTube.
Look at this article from the Brilliant David Iseley
http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/printerfriendlystory.aspx?articleid=061025_Bu_E1_Franc53477
It’s Hilarious. Apparently in 1998 he started this overwhelmingly successful company and in 10 years. The Tulsa Oxymagic had a database of 1200 Customers. That's ten years, 120 months of being in business. So you mean to tell me that you are bragging about getting ten new jobs a month. WOW, Impressive man. I'm not in the carpet cleaning business but I don't know anybody that cleans their carpets more than once or twice a year. So this business is not recurring every month but hey you still get to clean a whopping ten homes per month. Let’s hope that they are mansions with 20 rooms a piece or you’re probably having a hard time keeping the lights on. You literally are booking like 10-15 new jobs a month. After monthly bills you may have enough left over to take everybody out to Applebee's. I don't think you thought that one through before you put it in the article. So i guess during these times of being bored and not cleaning carpet you found your great YouTube skills which inevitably will be one of the main reasons nobody in their right mind would want to do business with you let alone open a franchise with Oxymagic. The best part of this whole thing is you got out smarted not once but twice by this Barnett character. He not only knew when to get the hell off a sinking ship in Oxymagic but he also with no effort what so every to harm your company was able to turn you into a psychotic idiot through his success. He should have sued you the first time you made a crazy YouTube video but look at this, he doesn't even have to. Somebody else got to it before he did. How freaking NUTZ are you?
And somebody please check out the fact that he tried to open two carpet cleaning business in the same state. So you doubled your overhead and compete against yourself with Purphora carpet cleaning. I believe that you just jumped into the #1 spot for world’s dumbest business man. Hey nice stickers on your vehicles by the way. Don't tell me you use the same vehicle for both businesses. I guess you save money that way but wow big guy. That’s not smart. You have the same background on both vehicles with a Purphora sticker over the Oxymagic logo. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now your 1-2 and three on the world’s dumbest business men.
Here is an idea. Leave the successful people alone and in your case try to actually learn something from them. Get out of the Carpet cleaning business, change your already tarnished name and disappear. Save your family and Oxymagic Franchisees further embarrassment.
Business 101: Try not to draw negative attention to your brand! You didn't read that one huh. Ahhh yes you don't need to, that's life dummy.
I would put my name on this blog but i don't want my family on the hit list in David Iseley's Basement where he demonstrates neurotic idiocy. I just don't want to see you damage yourself anymore. So hopefully this hits home for you.