I must say that I have worked for college pro for about 4 years total. I know the seattle leadership inside and out. I have seen all the dirty secrets and now 6 years later, I have decided to let it out.
My experience started out as a part time painter during the summer. I loved my manager, he was great, althought the pay wasn't that great, I enjoyed being my own boss and painting at my pace. I decided to do it the second year and got better at painting. When I started painting them quicker, I would move to the next house and finish it so I can get paid more. When I found out the trick, I fell in love with it even more, the faster I paint, the quicker and more I got paid. At the end of that summer my manager approached me to see if I wanted to be like him. He said many things about college pro and convience me to do it, little did I know that he was making a percentage if I got hired and bought the franchise.
The first interview took 2 hours and the second one took about 3 hours and they pump you up once you get the franchise. What they don't tell you is the things they do behind the closed doors. First off, they don't tell you what kind of business owner you will be, they don't tell you anything about tax. They will have you sign a paper which states that you are the owner of 2 or 3 zipcodes and tell you how they can see you being successful. Soon after, they will tell you about the fee for which are responsible for, you start out at -$20,000, variable cost and royalty that's unheard of which will squeeze every bit of dollar from your weekly checks.By that time you will have worked 70 hours drove God knows how many miles and all you will have left to show is penny to the dollar.
I had to write about this because I was tired of people writing onbehalf of college Pro.in fact, I am at fault as well because when I was at the office a long time ago, I was told by Dave Rychley to respond to an email that a person wrote about college pro. Foolishly, I responded backing up college pro and I am ashamed and very embarassed about it because what they are doing is not only morally wrong but one that can be devastating to a college student. The only response they can come up with is well it's a risky business and that you have to work hard to succeed. Well let me be clear in saying that it was a scam, I made the company $135,000 and end up in $12,000 tax debt with the state, not mentioning federal.
I made it to presidents club, in fact, I have the great resume and the plaque to show for it. If they want me to be specific, Dave Rychley bought all (People who made it to the presidential club) our tickets to orlando with his credit card. I was right next to him, excited. We all flew together and had 2 or 3 people to a room. It was around January and I felt like this was a great company, because they said that they were going to refund you if you hit a certain amount of profit and all that good stuff. Once we got back around Febraury, we got invited in Minnesota and that's when they told everyone that we were responsible for tax and that we need to pay it soon. I remember hearing all the students gasp, including me. I remember getting chills and the whole room was quite. Everyone started calling their parents and I saw some people crying and some talking about suing. What's sad about this is that it's not students credit that gets damaged but his/her life. Nobody messes with IRS and the penalty's are hefty, after that I started chasing every lawyer that I could find.
Although I didn't have luck in finding a lawyer that will sue them for free, I found out many issues and lawsuits that collegepro has been involved with.in fact, I was blinded because the book that they don't encourage you to read when they hand it to you has all their lawsuits from page 5-20. I guess I was just blindsided because I worked for them in the past and felt they were legitimate. I am still suffering from it because of all of the penalities i have incurred.
0 comments