PAINT Nail Bar Franchise Complaints (Part One)
PAINT Nail Bar franchise complaints continue to stream in from current & former franchisees across the country. We’ve excerpted complaints posted on our pages in the last week, arranged by topic or issue of concern. The franchisees who commented characterize the PAINT Nail Bar as a superficially attractive, appealing concept that burdens franchisees with high initial costs, unconscionable fees, & forced purchases resulting in “no path to profitability.” When a franchisee inevitably fails, commenters contend, the franchise is sold to a new owner for a new set of fees. What they describe is a predatory practice known as “churning.” (Part One of a Series) by Sean Kelly
(UnhappyFranchisee.Com) The following comments have been posted anonymously in the comment section of our initial post on the PAINT Nail Bar franchise opportunity. They reflect the opinions of the individual authors and have not been verified nor necessarily shared by this writer, publisher or website. We can say that they were left shortly after invitations sent to PAINT franchisees and that they show no evidence of having been submitted from just one or two sources. We believe they are reflect concerns held by many PAINT Nail Bar current and former franchise owners.
As with every representation made about a given franchise opportunity, we urge you to do your own independent research and question everything. As the value of these complaints, in my opinion, is to identify potential problem areas to investigate, I have dissected and organized the initial franchisee complaints by Issue.
As always, we extend an open invitation to the companies and individuals discussed to provide corrections, clarifications, explanations and/or rebuttals for consideration. We also welcome input from those franchisees who have had success with this concept to share their assessment and opinions.
The original comments can be found here:
PAINT NAIL BAR Franchise: Do Franchisees Recommend the PAINT Nail Bar Franchise?
We also invite review and discussion of the current FDD here:
PAINT NAIL BAR Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) 2024 – Discussion Invited
If you find this forum valuable and support the right of franchisees to share their opinions, please leave a comment here.
THANKS TO ALL FRANCHISEES WHO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES, OPINIONS & ADVICE!
PAINT Nail Bar: Select Franchisee Quotes
Anonymous wrote:
“I’ve watched countless intelligent, successful, and driven people buy into this franchise, full of hope and excitement, only to have their lives unravel.
Homes lost. Retirement savings wiped out. Crippling debt left behind. Mark Schlossberg sells a dream, but it’s a carefully constructed illusion.”
Anonymous wrote:
“Most of the owners I’ve met are experienced, hardworking professionals. They didn’t fail because of a poor mindset, they failed because the model wasn’t designed for them to win.”
Anonymous wrote:
“They claim to build a non-toxic brand but they are some of the MOST TOXIC people I’ve ever encountered…”
NEW REVELATION: PAINT Nail Bar Franchisees Have an Association
Anonymous wrote:
“We created [an] organization after repeated corporate refusal to engage in good faith dialogue or problem-solving.
When we formally approached leadership—requesting collaboration to revise financially harmful policies and to act on our behalf in negotiations
—the response was not partnership.It was aggression.
Rather than working with us or their own attorney to find constructive solutions, Mark Schlossberg and his legal team chose intimidation tactics.
This has been a consistent pattern: bullying masked as leadership.Initially charismatic, he quickly reveals his default approach when questioned—legal threats and evasion.”
Note to the PAINT Franchisee Association: You are not listed in the 2024 PAINT Nail Bar FDD. See my addition to the Item 20 section on how to get listed.
PAINT NAIL BAR Issue: Profitability
Former Owner wrote:
“When you visit a Paint Nail Bar, you see that it’s busy and cute and that it would do well in your city. So you open one, and your location is also busy and doing great revenue and then you learn that this model only lines Marks pockets and you do not make a dime. He’s running a great scheme or he’s really dumb and doesn’t understand that his model doesn’t work as a franchise.
You might make 10% returns with no debt. If you have a loan forget it. You won’t make any money.”
WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW HAPPY IT FEELS TO BE OUT OF THIS CULT!!!!! wrote:
“Franchisees’ monthly revenues barely, if at all, pay for all the expenses each month. So many franchisees have to go into their pocket to pay all the bills and make payroll. It’s absolutely Horrible!!!
“It’s absurd that franchisees invest $500,000 and more to make next to nothing in profits.”
What’s done in the dark will always come to light wrote:
“There’s no profit for owners only the franchisor.”
HAPPY TO BE OUT!!!!!!!! wrote:
“This franchise is a broken model that only loses money!!!
We had a VERY HIGH MONTHLY LOCATION!! The profit margins are not there!! If you ask corporate about profit margins, you get the response, if any at all,
is that you need to change your MINDSET!!
You get very little to no support from corporate.”
Unhappy Current Franchisor wrote:
“Even more concerning was the lack of concern for franchisee profitability. The business model is bloated with costs that don’t match market realities,
and there’s little flexibility to adapt. Instead of collaborating with owners, corporate often responded with defensiveness or indifference when legitimate
concerns were raised.”
Un-spammed by unhappyzee wrote:
Unfortunately, greed and ego on the part of the franchisor got in the way and there is no path to profitability for the franchisee as fees continue to pile up.
Un-spammed by unhappyzee wrote:
Very questionable sales tactics promised huge net profitably that I don’t think anyone has been able to recognize”
Blessed to be OUT wrote:
“The primary reason for the numerous closures across the system appears to be financial instability. Many franchisees are losing thousands of dollars each month.”
PAINT NAIL BAR Issue: Negative Outcomes
Former Franchise Owner wrote:
“We stayed open for 18 months. During that time, I hosted pop-up events twice a month, organized networking events,
gave away free services to influencers for Instagram exposure, and even visited local beauty schools monthly to recruit new hires.”
After nearly a million dollars in debt, we quietly shut down the location to avoid harassment.But that didn’t stop the founder. His ego is massive. We were publicly harassed—on my personal Facebook page, during a nationwide franchise call,
and in an email he sent to our customer list, where he encouraged them to sue us and even shared our phone numbers and emails.”
Regretful franchisee wrote:
“It’s incredibly disheartening to see how many of us have invested everything—retirement savings, personal finances, even time with our families—only
to realize this brand is a financial and emotional drain. The harsh truth? Almost no one is actually making money here. Many of us are deep in debt,
others have already lost everything, and it feels like corporate couldn’t care less.”
WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW HAPPY IT FEELS TO BE OUT OF THIS CULT!!!!! wrote:
“We all could have and should have kept our jobs, not gone into debt, not given up our lives and souls, and not lost years of our lives dealing with this toxic,
unethical, and EVIL environment.”
Unhappy Current Franchisor wrote:
“Owning a Paint Nail Bar franchise has been one of the most frustrating and disappointing business experiences of my career.
What was marketed as a modern, supportive, and innovative franchise system quickly revealed itself to be poorly managed, lacking transparency, and completely out of touch with the realities of running a salon.”
Crossed the RIGHT child of God wrote:
“Imagine thinking you’ve found the perfect business for your family. A thriving business in order to spend more time together , create stability and even leaving a
business for your children -a successful family business… Only to find out the complete opposite. A business that has left my family completely depleted. Financial ruin, drained 401k, borrowed money not understanding
why we’re not seeing the profit margins we were promised.
“Nothing is what it seems…. From unexplained fees, to social media content that doesn’t reflect locations techs/art/demographic, to alleged donations through jewelry sales which never happened. What once was a dream come true has turned into a nightmare.”
Un-spammed by unhappyzee wrote:
The only profit corporate cares about is their own. This is sad to see how many closures there are.
Life savings are vanishing and lives are being destroyed!
Blessed to be OUT wrote:
“This franchise was sold on the promise of significant revenue and business success. Many left secure, professional careers to pursue what they believed was a
stable opportunity—only to face financial devastation. What’s happening across this system is not just disappointing; it’s deeply troubling and, for many, life-altering.”
END of PART ONE
Topics to come:
- Toxic Relationship
- Blaming the Franchisee
- Location Churning
- Advice from Franchisees
- Charitable Contributions
Invitation: All individuals and companies discussed on our site have an open invitation to provide corrections, explanations, comments, rebuttals or other statements of their point-of-view which will be fairly and respectfully represented. Comment below or send an email to the author at UnhappyFranchisee[at]Gmail.Com.
Opinions shared here or in the comments are that of the individual commenters and not necessarily shared nor endorsed by this writer or publication. We are all responsible for our own statements.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE PAINT NAIL BAR FRANCHISE?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
TAGS: PAINT Nail Bar FDD, PAINT Nail Bar Franchise Disclosure Document, PAINT Nail Bar franchisee association, , PAINT Nail Bar, PAINT Nail Bar franchise, nail salon franchise, Mark Schlossberg, Michele Schlossberg, Ashley Koshinski, Evan Goldman, The Franchise Firm, franchise churning, franchise failures, Franchise Disclosure Document, FDD, PAINT Nail Bar franchisee association
