JDog Franchise Survivor Statement: Navy Veteran Rich Roberts
JDog franchise owners are invited to contact me, in confidence, to share their experiences and opinions regarding the JDog franchise opportunity and JDog Franchises LLC.
If you wish, I can share your message using a pseudonym and a few altered details to obscure your identity, as I did for the “Rich Roberts” statement below. Sean Kelly, Publisher, UnhappyFranchisee.Com
Statement of JDog Franchise Owner & NAVY Veteran Rich Roberts July, 2023
My name is Richard “Rich” Roberts.
I served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years with multiple deployments overseas.
My wife Sarah and I have one son and two daughters; the youngest was born while I was deployed in the Middle East.
A few years ago, an ad for the JDog Junk Hauling franchise popped up in my feed on Facebook It linked to a video of Jerry Flanagan, an Army veteran, who said he founded the business to help other vets.
JDog’s mission, he said, was to empower military veterans and families by putting them in their own proven businesses.
As JDog franchisees, he said, we could then hire & train local veterans, and give them a positive transition to civilian life.
Like dozens of other military veterans we know, we believed the persuasive sales pitch and the dream of business ownership JDog Franchising presented.
Like our fellow veterans, we were misled, drained of our finances, and intimidated into silence.
We lost the money in our military retirement fund.
Our strong credit score and business reputations are destroyed.
We are over $200,000 in debt and have less than $500 in our savings account.
We are in the process of filing for bankruptcy.
We could lose our house.
After more than a year pleading with JDog HQ for assistance – or at least a break from the escalating fees that were crushing us – I called to say that we were drained and could not continue.
Their reaction was matter-of-fact: “Just give us a drop dead date, so we can shut everything off.”
It was like, “OK you’re done. You’ve got no more money to give… CLICK.”
Psychologically, the hardest thing for me to cope with is the fact that Jerry Flanagan and the JDog executives continue to put all their energy into selling a false dream to military veterans, and NO energy or effort into supporting them.
Thanks to the love and support of my amazing wife, our family will survive this.
We will get through it.
But I am deeply saddened by the thought that some of my military brothers and sisters will not.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Richard “Rich” Roberts
P.S. My name is not really Richard “Rich” Roberts. Some of the details have been changed to obscure my true identity for fear of legal repercussions. I’m sad to say that this story is, otherwise, accurate.
If you are among the veterans or military family members whose JDog franchise(s ) closed before reaching the end of the contract term, please accept our condolences.
Please share your experience and insights so fellow veterans can make informed investment decisions regarding the JDog franchise.
All JDog Franchise Posts (Most Recent First)
Franchise Warning: JDog Junk Hauling for Veterans (Index)
Letter to JDog Franchises LLC President Kevin Kopa
OPEN INVITATION: Unhappy Franchisee extends an open invitation to all those discussed to provide corrections, explanations, clarifications and/or rebuttals. We will correct factual errors & alternative views fairly. Anonymous or signed comments are welcome below or can be emailed in confidence to UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail[dot]com.
Sean Kelly is an independent investigative journalist with 35 years of franchise industry experience. Since founding UnhappyFranchisee.Com in 2006, his reporting has exposed & shut down several predatory franchise & investment schemes. Sean Kelly is a franchise watchdog who prompted and aided the FBI investigation that shut down the 165-victim multi-million-dollar NY Bagel franchise scam and landed perpetrators Dennis Mason & Joseph Smith in federal prison. Sean was featured in the ABC Four Corners expose of 7-Eleven wage theft in Australia and has served as an advisor to Dateline NBC. He has withstood bullying, intimidation & frivolous lawsuits as high as $35M and never lost. His crack editorial staff and fact checkers include Chick, Gem, Red, Pru & Joanie the Rescue Chicken.
Contact the author at UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail[dot]com
TAGS: JDog, JDog Junk Removal franchise, JDog Carpet Cleaning franchise, JDog failure rate, veterans franchise, franchise for veterans, Dan Dewitt, Amber Dewitt, JDog North Little Rock, Kevin Kopa, Jerry Flanagan, Julip Run Capital, Chris Debbas, Tom Spadea, franchise failures, franchise scam, vetfran, Spadea Lignana law firm, Terry Corkery, JDog Foundation
