MAACO Franchise Complaints
MAACO Franchise Complaints at UnhappyFranchisee.com was originally published in July, 2012, and been updated and added to. The Maaco franchise has generated a number of complaints since this page was first posted… post your own Maaco franchise complaints or praise below… and read what others have to say about the MAACO franchise opportunity.
Are you familiar with the Maaco franchise opportunity? Please share a comment below.
Note: the opinions expressed are that of their respective commenters and not necessarily shared nor verified by Unhappy Franchisee.
MAACO Franchise Complaints
Bill B. wrote:
The concept is dated and the franchisor Driven Brands / Maaco / Meineke has lost site of what the franchisors part of the deal is. Everyone I went to training with was out of business by the third year. Maaco is constantly turning over franchisees. The new start-ups fail the quickest. If you walk away the equipment is usually bought at pennies on the dollar by other Maaco franchisees. By the time you figure out how bad a deal you’ve gotten yourself into with Maaco you have generally lost everything.
Harold M. wrote:
Maaco buries its failure stats by not counting failed re-sales as failures. Also they reuse center numbers so you can not see how many folks they have actually churned through. Further on any given week only about 300 of its franchisees report earnings so approximately 150 franchisees do not report earnings for some it is just a missed week. For most it means they do not have enough to pay royalty fees. The way disclosure is setup for Maaco’s offering circular they are then able to exclude the bottom 100 or so franchisees. You do your due-diligence only to find after the fact that the information is skewed to the top 75% of Maaco’s franchises.
Burned franchisee wrote:
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.
More MAACO Franchise Complaints
Got Out 2 wrote:
20 years ago… I did desire to own a business and choose MAACO believing it was the best.
…Within 3 years, all of my classmates (11 of them) were out of business, some bankrupt, some broke, one did not even open and some just too beat up. None of them were out because they made it rich. Over the years the number of MAACO centers has declined, I made it through 18 years and the day I was free of them is when gained control of my life again…
I strongly recommend you do your due diligence before you make the leap into this franchise. All of the comments in this forum are very accurate. I would not take one of these if they gave it to me.
Share Your MAACO Franchise Complaints or Praise
Are you familiar with the Maaco franchise opportunity?
Would you recommend the MAACO franchise opportunity to family or friends?
What is MAACO doing right? Are things improving?
What do you think needs to improve in the Maaco franchise system?
What steps should Maaco be taking to stop further franchise failures?
Please share a comment, opinion or insight below.
ARE YOU A MAACO FRANCHISE OWNER OR FORMER FRANCHISEE? ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE MAACO FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY? PLEASE SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
Tags: MAACO Franchise Complaints, Maaco, Maaco franchise, Maaco complaints, automotive franchise, franchise, franchise failure rate, auto franchise, worst franchise, franchise information, unhappy franchisee
Ahmad Elsayed,
Now that you have been “not getting rich , and making a living” for 5 years with this company, would you recommend it?
How long can these incompetents keep running a business that is an essential rip-off scheme? They churn and churn through people’s life savings but have not made anyone successful in 5+ years. Why aren’t these folks in jail? Make the bonus, screw your franchisees. Oh. pay themselves and the pirate equity owners, who cares if the folks who are foolish enough to buy their crap franchises lose their ass? Churn and Churn, management still gets their well deserved bonuses. 450 +/- franchisees 4 years ago 450+/- franchisees today. Where do all the franchisees go? Lose your life savings to these Frat Boys from other countries. The American Dream.
Ahmad Elsayed,
In your prior post October 27, 2013, you were praising the concept, working on expanding. Of course you are a very hard worker and everyone else who has been screwed by Maaco are just a bunch of softies.
Now, out of curiosity, is this your hard working self, getting sued by Maaco? What happened?
Maaco Franchising, LLC v. Elsayed
Filed: June 28, 2017 as 3:2017cv03711
Plaintiff: Maaco Franchising, LLC
Defendant: Ahmad Elsayed
Cause Of Action: Diversity-Breach of Contract
Court: Ninth Circuit › California › California Northern District Court
Type: Contract › Franchise
https://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/3:2017cv03711/313589
Dear Maaco – Driven Brands – Is my franchise going to fail? Of course it is. but luckily we will find a buyer who will buy it for pennies on the dollar. We won’t help you salvage your life savings, or your shop, for that matter, but we will get to make another franchise fee while you watch your life savings swirl down the toilet. Don’t you worry about us at maaco/driven brands/roark capital – as long as we can find a few people each year to rip off we will live large. Thank you for the largess, we deserve your retirement, much more than you ever did,
Best thing I did was declare bankruptcy and get out. I was a franchise for three years, grossing over 1mil. Watched people lose it all in less than a year, but worse, watched folks barely hang on and sacrifice everything, homes, retirement, everything. and still walk away in their 8-9-10th year because they didn’t have anything else to pump into this franchise. I consider myself lucky walking away without losing my home or using all – just some – of my retirement investments trying to keep my mil.++ franchise afloat.
down 30-50 units this year. of course you can make it work, because you are sooooo much smarter than all the other folks who can’t make this crap franchise work. hmmmmmm!
down 30-50 units this year. of course you can make it work, because you are sooooo much smarter than all the other folks who can’t make this crap franchise work. hmmmmmm! good luck!
now they sold some pirate equity folks 30+ failing franchises in the south-east, bought for pennies-on-the dollar, only to figure out that they can only gross 500k or less per-unit. where is the rock star multi-unit franchise president that is going to make all this work? Jose Costa, scampered away from this crap franchise as soon as he made this multi unit deal.
when i bought my maaco franchise from tony martino he was a scum bag, a rich scum bag, but at very least he understood that to continue to be a rich scum bag, he needed to keep the people he was ripping off in business. the driven brands mba thieves who own maaco now just don’t get that. they just figure there is an endless supply of folks they can rip-off, so why not sell-sell-sell crap franchises?
Best way to own a Driven Brands / Maaco franchise?? Have a wife makes lots of money!
I still can’t figure out why they are all jacked-up about the idea they have over 500 franchised units when they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 450? Maaco has been-stagnant-failing for 20+ years, yet they still inflate their pump-and-dump numbers, and folks continue to buy this crap franchise. Makes no sense whatsoever. There is so little you can define about this B.S. franchise, but failing unit numbers is actually very easy to define.
8 years in, no real support, someone varying stops by every once in a while, 2 years or so, thinking just to make sure the shop is still open. They call every other week, like a bill collector, I owe them a lot of fees. No one seems to care that I am losing everything. Nobody I bought the shop from is still around, support is just a revolving door. wish I had never done this.
I had a successful maaco, not-very, but I survived. sold out after a few years, best decision I ever made. Unfortunately the guy I sold to was not able to keep it going. I heard once corporate got sold all they did was jack-up the weekly advertising fees past the point of individual owners being able to make anything.
even if they had the 500 franchises they talk about, which they don’t. it still means they have not grown the business since 1998? fail-fail-fail for over 20 years, but people still buy this franchise, because???
Great Franchise! If you are looking for a franchise to piss away your life savings, work 80+ hours a week, and then walk away after ten years bankrupt, then Maaco is the franchise for you.
Don’t you worry about the 1,000 owners who have failed in this franchise in the past 10yrs., you’ve got what it takes to make it with no support, excessive franchise fees, exhorbitant advertising fees, questionably spent, if at all.
I was stupid enough, I could do better than all the other failures.
Learned a very tough lesson. I failed, pretty much like all the other suckers who have bought into this scheme over the past 20yrs.
Still trying to figure out why this scam is called a “franchise”? you pay 1,500 a week, yes every, week no matter your revenue, to “advertising” (with no accounting for where that money goes) then you spend 8% of your revenue, every week, just for the joy of loosing everything you ever made in your life prior to owning this scam. After you give them 300K just for the privilege of losing all you have ever worked for to buy into their scam???
Driven Brands/Maaco/Meineke only exist because they are able to continually sucker in folks who pay them exhorbitant fees, advertising that does not get spent on advertising, and no demand for them uphold their end of the franchise agreement.
Would you buy into a franchise where three months after you buy in the reality is “figure it out, we offer no support, but if you don’t pay up we’ll sue you for all you have?”
Welcome to Maaco!!!
Par for the course, anyone who is giving this franchise accolades, is broke and just trying to get out. Glad I am done, only cost me 500,K and 7+years of my life!
If you are looking for a franchise with exorbitant fees, declining unit numbers, and an extremely high failure rate, maaco is the franchise for you. still can’t figure why they get to advertise they have 500+ franchises when the real number is about 450? does not matter, you can make it work!
What they do is, for the most part illegal, unfortunately by the time you have figured it out you are so broke you can not do anything about it. Not to mention the lawsuits related to Maaco failing you will be in a far away state and, of course you will be too broke to represent yourself. Franchising as done by Driven Brands/Maaco should be criminal.
Sucker someone into investing their life savings into making a deal, offering no support or expertise, once you fail suffer through the Franchisor pounding you into the ground. why? because they Maaco/Driven brands failed you!!!
Oh well, they don’t give you the tools to be successful but are happy to run your business in the ground collecting their fees???
Foolish enterprise with no support.
Would you buy this franchise if the realistically advertised that they were just a collection agency, demanding 20+% of your weekly revenue, and offering you no services???
When your business model is “how much can we steal from the suckers who are silly enough to buy a franchise from driven brands” good luck. Executives??? at driven brands work for the pirate equity firm, really don’t care about what they do for the people who are unfortunate enough to be suckered into buying a “franchise” from them.
PAY UP SUCKER!!!
Best reason to not buy a franchise from Maaco or the driven brands group: as you go through the buying process you will never interact with anyone who has worked for Maaco franchising or Driven brands for longer than 2 years.
Wow! Company keeps churning through franchisees, and net overall numbers are dropping. They have a “group” in the South East GA/FLA that owns 27+/- franchises and average 600K in sales per year??? hopefully this failing group will sue Maaco/Driven Brands and stop the rip-off-failure cycle that is the Maaco/Driven Brands business model. Still can’t figure why they are advertising 500+ franchise units when the have 450? Oh well, I guess they are happy if they can just find enough people to rip off each year so the execs make bonus???
What I really can’t figure out is they keep selling shops, and the shops they sell keep failing. In any other scam, this would be a scam that is prosecuted, but since this is “franchising” failure is shifted to the poor souls who bought into the scam. How is it that Maaco fails-and-fails-and-fails the people who buy franchises from them but they (Driven Brands / Maaco) just get to keep selling their failing businesses??
a scam is a scam is a scam, unless you have a team of attorneys, then it is becomes a Maaco / Driven Brands franchise. Should be criminal but if you have a good team of attorneys it does not matter, especially when the folks you are suing are too broke to defend themselves because they went into business with your company. What a calculated cluster-mess.
funny, they closed 60 units this year. for some reason people still buy into this losing business.
You do not pay them a percentage of your profits. You pay an unsustainable amount of your gross earnings. Then you pay them wwwaaaayyyyyy ttttooo much for advertising, that does not get spent on advertising??
Marketing is always a questionable idea, but the only thing that is sure, if you are spending money on advertising and the money is not spent on advertising, your business is screwed.
Oh, and buying a business with 1980’s revenue sharing means you are screwed too.
Did you use a broker to help you find Maaco
Driven Brands and the MAACO franchise is the biggest scam in the franchise world.
Corporate prays on people with no experience in the paint and body shop business. They tell you 90% of the owners are absentee owners. They make it sound like it’s the greatest opportunity but time is limited. You better jump on this opportunity and sign your life away quickly or someone else will get that territory. Run away as fast as you can. They skim over the 8% on gross sales and 1000 a week in advertising they steal by telling you how you will be making so much money. On average my store needs 14k a week break even. It takes years to establish a body shop. Not the 13 weeks to breaking even they show you on a BS excel spreadsheet sheet. The MAACO brand is shit. That name costs you more money than it brings in. When you first open they require you give them another 20k for advertising. You get about $500 worth of flyers send out to the surrounding area, then you get a free Facebook page. That’s about it. The marketing department is a joke. Their “go to” to get people though your door is you giving paint jobs away at basically cost. Maaco doesn’t give a shit, they get their 8%. I have had two prospective owners call me to ask about life owning a Maaco franchise. All I do is tell them the truth. The part that was omitted when my former partner talked me into this.
I’m proud to say both of those possible deals fell apart and two families get to keep their retirements, college funds for their kids, their life savings. I could not in good faith sell some innocent hard working person or persons this criminal scam.
IFPG partner franchises
they keep upping the weekly advertising fees (now on average $1,800 per week) but will not show franchisees any quantifiable advertising expenditures. no more t.v. commercials but rest assured their mba VP’s assistant VP’s brand presidents etc. are spending on social media blah….
franchise count is down to less than 450.
new franchisee failure rate near 100%.
driven brands new recruit executives tenure, less than 1 year (for the people who are not thieves).
buy maaco – lose everything!!
announcement: driven brands / maaco has declared a new transparency initiative: only sell franchises to people who can not do basic math!!
international franchise professional group ifpg promotes maaco driven brands. no vetting or investigation
How does Maaco/Driven Brands react to a worldwide pandemic and a financial crisis? Sue the heck out of its struggling franchisees:
https://dockets.justia.com/search?query=maaco
Bought a Maaco franchise & managed it for 13.5 years. When my contract was up after 15 years I wanted out. Took me 2.5 years to find a buyer. Garnett Station Capital Partners was highly recommended to me by Maaco. GSCP had 56 Maaco franchises and mine was number 57. GSCP failed to fulfill their contract and quit paying me. Maaco took the franchise back with no explanation or compensation to me! I called Maaco to see what was going on, but no one would return my call. Not only did Maaco suggest selling to Garnett Station Capital Partners, they took no responsibility in helping me with the $260,000 Judgment I received on GSCP. Be extremely careful with any dealings with Maaco or Garnett Station Capital Partners they both took no responsibility for their actions!!
Pingback: Top Reasons Why Not to Buy CARSTAR Franchise | Fransmart