SIGNARAMA - SIGN*A*RAMA - SIGN-A-RAMA - UNITED FRANCHISE GROUP - EMBROIDE MESIGNARAMA - SIGN*A*RAMA - SIGN-A-RAMA - UNITED FRANCHISE GROUP - EMBROIDE ME You will never sell your sign*a*rama store when you need to sell. HQ will wait until you bankrupt and take over your store for their own profit. West Palm Beach Florida

SIGNARAMA FRANCHISE RIPOFF Report: #351319 is totally ture for SIGN-A-RAMA HQ in USA.

SARMAX WROTE:
I wish I had been aware of the other Sign-A-Rama Rip-Off reports before I had forked out all of our life savings to set-up a new franchise in Regional, Australia. It all seemed like a licence to print money, the other franchise owners I spoke to were all doing well which was reflected in the forecast sales.

I first smelled a rat when I was in Florida for my 2 weeks training which had little or no technical content but was predominantly marketing and sell, sell, sell. It was too late by then to back out.

After some months of doing everthing by the Sign-a-Rama book we were still suffering very slow trading and ongoing losses, we asked for help to try and kick start the business but were told we needed to put our prices up. Our accountants contacted Sign-A-Rama in Florida to try and get some support but their promises all ended with nothing.

When we suggested to Sign-A-Rama that we needed to sell or close the business we were begged by Sign-A-Rama to keep it running until they could find a buyer. They obviously had a buyer in mind but left the sale until we were close to bankruptcy so we were desparate to accept any offer.

So the Sign-A-Rama rip-off formula has continued, obviously you can't make money out of the business at the original set-up cost but at a 'fire sale' price it may be possible to make it work, so they set you up to fail and then get the franchise fees

on the changeovers, very clever.

Sarmax
Albury
Australia

Statement above describes the common practice of Signarama Franchise and United Franchise Group in USA. Approx. 5% of 850 store owners are at least profitable & happy about their business. The rest of the stores are suffering to compete with other local sign companies since the most of the franchisee dose not have any experience in sign industry and HQ never gives any techincal training other than a few booklets (how to run business which is pretty general). They will wait until you have no more money to run your store...Then, one day they show up and take over your enture store. You must abandon your store, but you are still responsible for your equipment lease and property lease. All the equipment & customer list & Phone # & Email will be transfered to HQ and sold to others. If you are lucky, they may find you a buyer (You must pay $22,500 fee to HQ). The value of your business is not based on the business valuation in the market, it is based on how much money/cash the prospective buyer currently have. If the buyer only have $30,000 cash, you must sell your store for $30,000 then pay $22,500 to HQ. You just take Net $7500 regardless of the sales volume, profitability of your store. If you reject the offer, no more help from HQ. Only way you can exit from SIGNARAMA FRANCHISE SYSTEM is BANKRUPT. I saw that 5 owners left SIGN A RAMA Franchise system during the last 12 months. They just do not disclose the ownership change to other signarama franchise owners.

If you are looking for Sign-a-rama Franchise, do not buy the existing loss store. Do not open new location. Buy the existing store with Net Income but show SIGN A RAMA $20K to $40K cash only. You are able to buy the store for that amount as SIGN A RAMA HQ dose not have know how to calculate the value of the store. This is the biggest problem for all existing 850 sign a rama franchisees. You will need at least $150K for this franchise, but you will never get any return from this business investment.

SIGN*A*RAMA FRANCHISEE IN USA

Signarama rip-off
West Palm Beach, Florida
U.S.A.