Many contend that commercial cleaning / janitorial franchise opportunities like those offered by Stratus Building Solutions, Coverall and Jan-Pro are blatant scams.
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The text of a recent lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of the County of St. Louis, State of Missouri, against Stratus Building Solutions contains the horror stories of two alleged franchise scam victims, Markeeta Rivera And Guadalupe Clemente.
Both alleged victims are women.
Both are Hispanic.
Both were allegedly tricked out of their savings by a cold and calculated technique that has been used and refined by janitorial franchise sales sharks for decades.
Here is an excerpt from the actual lawsuit document:
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MARKEETA RIVERA’S STORY
70. In April of 2010, Plaintiff Rivera entered into an amended “Unit Franchise Agreement” with Impressive Cleaning Solutions, Inc., doing business as Stratus of Upstate New York. (A copy of that franchise agreement is attached hereto as Exhibit “15”.)
71. Pursuant to the FDD, Plaintiff purchased a franchise plan that was to provide her projected gross annual revenue in the amount of $30,000.00.
72. Pursuant to the Unit Franchise Agreement, if the Franchisor fails to offer accounts that satisfy the projected revenue within 120 days of the execution of the Agreement, Franchisor is required to refund a pro rata portion of the initial franchise fees.
73. However, Franchisor’s obligation to refund any portion of the initial franchise fee is deemed waived if the Unit Franchisee rejects any customer accounts offered by Franchisor or subsequently discontinues service to any customer accounts offered by Franchisor.
74. Plaintiff was offered accounts that required Plaintiff to travel such distances that it was economically not feasible to accept the account.
75. Under the terms of the Franchise Agreement, Franchisor could offer an account hundreds of miles away from the Unit Franchisee that Franchisor knows the Unit Franchisee will reject to relieve the Franchisor of its obligations under the contract. Such actions have occurred throughout the United States.
76. Plaintiff has never been provided accounts which total the projected annual revenues in that amount, had accounts taken from her without just cause or excuse, had excessive and/or unauthorized fees assessed against her, and has never been able to attain the business level represented to her by the Master Franchisee.
77. That the Master Franchise engaged in the practice of “Churning.”
78. That the above-referenced fraudulent actions set forth by Plaintiff, were first undertaken by the Defendants who passed their practices, policies, procedures, and methods to the Master Franchisee to utilize.
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Also read:
STRATUS BUILDING SOLUTIONS Franchise Lawsuits Ahead?
STRATUS BUILDING SOLUTIONS: Markeeta Rivera’s Franchise Horror Story
Read all related stories here: Stratus Building Solutions Franchise
STRATUS BUILDING SOLUTIONS FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY: WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
To contact the author or site admin, email UnhappyFranchisee[at]gmail.com
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