Signarama BS Franchise Opportunity ripoff Lie Steal Cheat to get your money Nationwide

Don't be fooled by the ad's signarama puts out there. The $40,000 turns into more of $140,000 after getting a lease and everything needed to runt his business. Trust me, I know I had a signarama store for 11 months. I signed in after talking to Jim Tatem. He was the rep I spoke to initially, before I spoke to everyone's voicemail. What I mean by that is, once you pay your money, you cannot get a live person on the phone, only voicemail!

Well, I went through all the training, and set up shop, hired on a guy to help me run things, and trained him. Finally, after 2 months of set up I opened shop. signarama picked the area for me, told me their experts pick it, well I didn't have 1 person walk in to my show for 18 days. Finally, some business came in, but apparently I was not trained right, because I could not run the machines, or make a decent looking sign. How odd I thought. I tried and tried, put my customers off for a few days, called in for support, and got a call back in 2 DAYS. By then my customers had their $ refunded and I was lost. I kept calling in for help over the next several months, but got poor assistance. I had about 9 more customers in the next 3 months, so I knew I was doing something worng. I called in for support, was eventually told “we do not retrain”. So I was stuck, I called Jim Tatem and emailed him, nothing. No response. I tried Nick Bruckner - Sr VP of Sales, and Gary Lengel - Exec VP. They all said the same thing, “No one else seems to have this problem” That was all the information I needed to know this was a scam to get my $$. Now I am down and out, and sewing signarama. So, anyone reading this should know to stay awar from signarama. Huge scam.

sign a ram has been ripping off people since 1995.this company has been sued numerous times and has lost a 3 million dollar suit. it parent company minuteman press is as fraudulent as sign a rama and has been reported in the ripoff report too. all they care is take the people money. i thought of buing into this franchise and met with their mass vp of sales and when he took me to a chosen store instead to the 2 i thought i would visit i smelled a swamp. i visited them myself and heard horror stories. they prie on the people who are out of a job and are desperate but the key is that they have money in their savings, a house that they can remorgage and or a retirement account. they see your financial situation before they accept you into their so called family. no money no store they decline you. they also make their money churning the location..you fail they resell to another poor sole, you get out with 10,000 while you have invested 140,000 and so on, and so on. out of every 1 succesful store there are 15 whcih are failing.

After all the hoopla this business is nothing more than a great way to lose money. My debt, I mean investment, started out as $40,000 and then ballooned up to about $100,000. That wouldn't be so bad if I was making a living with these guys. They gave me some useless training and even helped me find a place for my business. I hung out my shingle and nothing happened. I can't keep this store open anymore. I can't get anyone at Sign-a-Rama to call me back. I've been trying to get a hold of Jim Tatem for months with zero results.

I could not disagree with the statements made here. I am a current Signarama Franchise owner and I am doing quite well. As a matter a fact I bought a franchise from an individual that was failing and building up debt. His Sales were less than 190K/yr., this will bring you to the poor house quick. Three years later my sign shop is doing over 1 million/yr. I make a very comfortable living and we are building a 9500 sq foot facility this year.

The point is, any business is what you make of it. I cannot defend the franchisor before 2001 but since 2001 the franchisor has been very forthcoming and honest.

My personal experience with unsatisfied Signarama owners is that they were lacking in the proper skills to run a small business. People think you can buy a franchise and you'll make a ton of money. Let me tell you, I work 60 hr weeks and have plenty of headaches, but for the right individual THERE'S NOTHING LIKE BEING YOUR OWN BOSS.

One last thing, drive down the street, almost any street, and count how many signs you see! Every business needs signs.

Sign a rama and their parent company Minuteman Press were found guilty of false earning claimes by the ftc and fined millions, it actually set legal presidence. I would defy you to spend more than an hour with either and not hear the same lies or for that matter that line about how everybody needs a sign, by the way if you see a sign they already have one and don't need another. This comment is fairly suspect as no name or city is listed for verification, my advise is call former owners in their offering circular and as many stores as you can they haven't talked about, ask how many stores they have closed or resold in the last 3 years, and get a specific answer...they do know that number. if you hear an earning claim contact the Federal Trade Commission and let them know that the spanking didn't work.