MAACO Franchise Complaints

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• I just filled out the request form to purchase a facility in ma for$199000.then i began seeing these horror stories. Thank you all as i was about to invest evrrything in this franchise to fill in the rest of my days as a business operator. I withdraw my offer completely. Guess id have better luck in reno. Thanks

• He this massage for John Wesson, you minsion that you try to purchase facility in ma, i think this the same one i am trying to buy, so you didn't want to buy this one then now, i like to talk to you, did you talk with owner more on this business, can you please let me know more on this, my email is [request from UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com]

• Why would you buy this place. An established business being sold for less than what a new Maaco without a customer base would cost. The current seller selling because he is not profitable. All you need to do is work harder than him to make it work. Read between the lines. Current owner has figured out after the fact that he was sold a scam. He can not make it work because it Maaco does not work. Rather than complete failure and financial ruin he is will to take a 100k loss or so if he can dump his problems in your lap and still recover some of his investment. Is there anyone selling any good, profitable, established franchises at deeply discounted prices. Maaco operates on this "there's a sucker born every minute". Hey look over there someone is giving away a Jack in the Box franchise. All you need to do is work so much harder than the last guy or the other 70% of their franchisees who fail. Get real stay very far away from this Maaco loser.

• The judges in these numerous Maaco lawsuits against franchise owners should carefully consider the message they are sending to the American people when they allow Maaco to mislead and bully hard working citizens. Enough already!

• Maaco has tried some new marketing but its going to fail. Just like jc penny Maaco hasn't and won't focus on the customer. Now a days customers are harder to please and when a relationship is built, customers hold the key to revenue. Look at the new commercial what a waste of thousands of dollars. The new CMO is an idiot. You have people that have no automotive experience running the marketing and corporate. RIP Maaco. They've done a lot a people wrong so it's all going to come and bite them in the ass.

• My last correspondence with MAACO - "Kevin,
  Good morning and hope you are doing well. A bit of background – I opened a MAACO in Clearwater in 2007. Not the right time and eventually lost $1.2 MM, filed personal and business chapter 7 and have my home in foreclosure. I was able to supply the new owner with a complete MAACO spec shop, the landlord with $600,000 in capital improvements and had the pleasure of painting over 3,000 cars. We were a certified shop, had corporate accounts but two things happened. Timing of the economy and the Garmat Paint Booth. After the first 5 months of being opened and having to redo over 90% of the cars due to “dirt” in the booth, MAACO and Garmat designed a baffle for the paint booth that eliminated the dirt. That was always a situation where it was my fault, dirty booth, bad habits, and all the others standard owner generated mistakes. But after spending well over $100,000 of my money to repaint and have both MAACO and Garmat on site, it was not me but the booth. Sorry, we will fix it. Five weeks went by and I went to spraying everything in base/clear so that I could cut and buff out all the dirt. That was a real money maker at $299 per car. And the clients were upset because it took 4 days to do this.

  I would prefer to go ahead and put a gun in my mouth and eat a bullet than start this all over again. I have never shared all of this with MAACO but I will now.

  Best Regards,
  Tony Ortiz

• 15 years and now the nightmare is over............ all the stories you have read here are TRUE believe me..... its VERY hard to earn a profit in this thing called a business....... all the "regular body shops" around me are making money! i see where they live.......... i see what they drive............ i see their toys...... this is a losing business...the marketing is this paint cars CHEAP so if you need "WRITE OFFS" get into this business....... The new people at MAACO corp. e-mail threats about under reporting.... and what they will do to you.... even threats to put the IRS on you..... they should read the book HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE...... all these corporate arm chair generals would fail if they tried to run a MAACO shop for sure.... For the familes they have destroyed they should be reminded of what has been taking place around the country of lately! My Maaco friends keep me up todate on these people and what goes on.......

• Look out for Private Equity. The folks who now own Driven Brand and Maaco get paid first. They get paid your franchise fees at 8-9% and they get paid your advertising 1,200-1,400 per week. So here you go sending them 20% of your gross weekly income. The advertising does not get spent on advertising they spend it however they please. The trade magazines benchmark average shop profitability at 6-10%. You own Maaco and your sending them 20% per week. How do you think you make up for that shortfall? You don't so after a couple of years of losing everything you try to pawn your Maaco off on the next fool.

  The numbers jsut don't work. The SBA is not there to evaluate how good a business is. They just guarantee the loans.

• Maaco is a total investment disaster. Do not consider investing in a new Maaco franchise unless you own the building free and clear. As mentioned above you will contibute up to 20% of your gross to fees and totally inept in house advertising group. No one in the advertsing group has a clue as to what will generate foot traffic other than offering your services at a 30% reduction in price over bonified body shops.

  The Maaco business model is based on a churn and burn philosophy....resell failing shops or suckering in new "investors". Trust me when I say this, you will regret investing in this franchise for the rest of your life, if you chose to do so. In the training class I was in, 6 out of 7 new franchisees went out of business within 9 months to 3 years. the last is holding on only because they are cooking the books as far as reporting to Corporate. Maaco will sue you for not completing the 15 year commitment, so if you can last that long have at it.

• Are there any good things to say?
  What is a good Franchise to get into today
  Any happy Macao owners out there