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Thread: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

  1. #61
    Guest redbackmowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    just been reading the bluemaumau forums about jims & could not believe about the carpet fiasco. he got a competitor to do the carpets in a jims venue & didn't use his own frasnchisee. whats that telling his franchisees.
    link herebluemaumau forum about jims

  2. #62
    Member of forum Sandgroper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Gee you would not want to be in Jims shoes for all the tea in China.

    Its always sad to hear of folks loseing their life savings, house marriages etc when all they wanted to do was enjoy the outdoors and mow a few lawns

    I am glad i am Indy,,can you imagine the politics involved behind the scenes ?

  3. #63
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Yes you havent heard the half of it and that goes for most Franchises in this game .

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  4. #64
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by redbackmowing
    just been reading the bluemaumau forums about jims & could not believe about the carpet fiasco. he got a competitor to do the carpets in a jims venue & didn't use his own frasnchisee. whats that telling his franchisees.
    link herebluemaumau forum about jims

    Jim has always made it know in media reports and interviews that he doesnt use his own people thats just a Jims choice and i would say the franchisees know this so i dont see why hes got all upset seeing even i know that .

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  5. #65
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    http://www.indmowing.com.au/forum/sh...t=class+action

    Cutting Jim down to sizeMARY-ANNE TOY
    October 24, 2009
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    Jim Penman, the founder and owner of the ubiquitous (Being or seeming to be everywhere at the same time; omnipresent)Jim's Mowing franchise, admits he can be ruthless. But the 57-year-old – who turned his student lawn-mowing job into a $300 million multinational franchise across 27 different businesses – carefully cultivates a different persona: the franchising guru fanatical about the welfare of his 2900 plus franchisees who run everything from Jim's Antennas to Jim's Windscreens.

    But there is trouble brewing within the Jim's Group kingdom.

    Dozens of the master franchisors – franchisees who have moved up the Jim's Group corporate ladder by buying regional and divisional franchises – are revolting. An unknown number of the 216 master franchisors who actually expand the business, recruiting and supporting the individual franchisees, are so fed up with what they call Penman's greedy, erratic and abusive management they are trying to force him to leave his own company through a no-confidence vote and possible class action.

    They say his humble, modest-living public persona is a front for a megalomaniac whose continued control of Jim's Group is ruining their businesses.

    It's not the first time Penman has faced such a revolt, but he admits it is the most serious crisis he has faced.

    In 1999 the Jim's Dog Wash franchisees were angry about almost everything, including faulty and poorly designed dogwash trailers that kept breaking down and were too heavy for normal cars to tow, fee increases and rule changes, widespread billing errors and repeated failures to correct them.

    Penman told The Age in April 1999 that he had almost lost control of his empire because of the financial crisis triggered by the unhappy franchisees.

    That revolt was eventually sorted and Jim's Dogwash is a continuing division, one of 27 that comprises the Jim's Group, which between them turn over about $300 million a year. There are at least 16 other businesses (known as divisions) that have failed, including pest control, alarms, locksmiths and removals (see panel).

    This week Penman told local radio as he rejected the vote-out as "ridiculous" that he was looking to expand and would love to set up new divisions including "pest control, alarms, locksmiths, glass, removals". As one master-franchisor who is embroiled in legal action with Penman says: "Someone needs to remind him that these and many others have already been done and all failed, with people – but not Jim – losing a lot of money."

    In 2005 franchisors also rebelled, but Penman, who was forced to hold a referendum in response, won that vote. The 2005 revolt was sparked by head office administration problems that Penman says have since been resolved.

    The latest revolt has been sparked by two issues: a huge fee increase that Penman introduced unilaterally a few weeks ago and continuous changes to the Jim's Group operating manual that his franchisors say is rewriting their contracts without their agreement.

    Penman has now backed down on the fee increases and admits he introduced them unilaterally – in breach of his own rules that such changes should be referred to the elected advisory committee and then referred to all master franchisors for approval – because he didn't think it would be controversial.

    The new fee structure in effect would have at least doubled most franchisors' minimum fees. Franchisors are furious. For many this was the final straw.

    As BusinessDay reported this week, disgruntled master franchisors have organised a ballot of all master franchisors to see if they support Penman and, if not, would they support a class action against him. The vote is being run by a US-based online voting company to ensure it is verifiable. The master franchisors – there are about 215 of them – have been emailed a link to the site with a unique code to register their vote.

    Penman is also being sued for $1 million-plus by a former British master franchisor, Paul Carr. Carr says he was "stitched up" by Penman and his control of Jim's Mowing UK terminated illegally. He is preparing to sue Penman, Penman's deputy, Phil Maunder, and Richard Harrison, who was until recently Carr's business partner in the British operation, in the High Court for conspiracy to defraud. Penman says unhappy franchisees voted Carr out, but Carr says the vote never took place.

    In Australia there are at least three court cases – in the Brisbane Supreme Court, Brisbane District court and the Victorian County Court – against Penman or Jim's Group, plus several other pending cases.

    One master franchisor taking legal action, who like most other Penman critics refuse to speak out openly because they are afraid of jeopardising their franchises or of legal action, says Penman is quick to threaten termination against any franchisor that he feels is not complying with the rules.

    They say the problem is Penman keeps changing the rules and fails to provide the back-up and support promised.

    Many disenchanted franchisees and master franchisors have spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees individually after Penman has terminated their franchises without compensation.

    A website, Jim . . . The Truth, run by the anonymous Mrs Jimbo, has examples of Penman's alleged unethical and erratic practices. Penman is threatening to sue the website and has already managed to shut it down several times. There is a section called "Jim Speak" that refers to his frequently solipsistic responses to difficult questions.

    Those such as Mrs Jimbo behind the vote say 89 per cent of master franchisors so far want Penman out and another 81 per cent support a class action against him for alleged breach of contract. The anonymity of the vote organisers, and their refusal so far to say how many of people have voted, of course weakens their case.

    Penman says there are "probably" only nine master franchisors who oppose him, but then concedes up to a third of his master franchisors are probably unhappy with him.
    Last edited by administrator; 30-10-2009 at 08:16 AM.

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  6. #66
    Guest redbackmowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by administrator
    Jim has always made it know in media reports and interviews that he doesnt use his own people thats just a Jims choice and i would say the franchisees know this so i dont see why hes got all upset seeing even i know that .
    yes i read that somewere also but as per his reply to jims carpet guy he mentions he users jims for quote"-----Original Message-----

    >> From: Jim Penman [mailtoenman.jim@gmail.com]

    >> Sent: Saturday, 6 September 2008 9:06 AM

    >> To: John Marsh

    >> Subject: Re:

    >>

    >> Sorry John, I'm not going to be able to give you the answer you want.

    >> Jim's guys are good and we give them tens of thousands of dollars a
    >> year in work around our place,"

    so for a lousy $76 he didn't get the quote.
    full emails here: jims emails carpet fiasco

    i read a book years ago about a guy nicknamed "chainsaw" he was hired for big $$$ to cut the fat off businesses that were doing poorly. he would see how the business was run for a couple of months the bam! cut excess staff, procedures etc... to get the business profitable again. in one business which supplied tissues, paper towels, dunny rolls etc...1st meeting he went into he noticed they weren't even using their own brand napkins. he said to them if they can't even use their own brand in their work place how on earth can they have the confidence, belief & passion to make the business succeed. same story as at jims if he's not going to use his own guys well that will get him no respect for sure & the poison will slowly but surely run through his business.

    cheers
    rbm

  7. #67
    Member of forum Sandgroper's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by administrator
    Yes you havent heard the half of it and that goes for most Franchises in this game .
    Its interesting to see that they think getting rid of Jims is the answer,,if you hit an iceberg and are sinking changing Captains is not going to help much, some folks are confident that Jims will keep going and we have heard about safe guards in place, they might be very suprised how fast a franchise can go down,,the first indication will be the mornings paper "Jims closes up shop"

    Hopefully the Jims on here are taking steps to get out while they can, things might turn out ok in the end but is it worth the risk to hang on and find out and get 10 c in the dollar

  8. #68
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by cammos
    Thanks for the kind thoughts guys. I am sure Jims will be here for many decades to come, despite most of you all wishing over 3000 family businesses to simultaneously close.

    Real friendly folk around here, and Rooread says thanks for his birthday card, even though he is still banned from posting.

    ic you like fishing cammos

    http://fishwrecked.com/forum/jims-mo...ng-down-toilet

    Fishermen and there tales lol

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  9. #69
    Guest redbackmowing's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by administrator
    ic you like fishing cammos

    http://fishwrecked.com/forum/jims-mo...ng-down-toilet

    Fishermen and there tales lol
    that's one fishing tale that really smells fishy. lol

    nice pick up admin

  10. #70
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    shorty interesting name for a person wonder if it's anything similar to his business name
    Anything Ian says may or may not be garbage, it may also be his own opinion or it may not be his opinion at all, it may just be something he felt like stating anyone following his advice does so at their own risk and may be doing something Ian would actually advise against.
    And if you don't like what Ian has to say use the ignore function if you don't know how ask i will gladly tell you

  11. #71
    Senior Member wombat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    next step???




  12. #72
    Senior Member wombat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    the latest local Jims strategy straight from a franchise's mouth....the local franchisor is offering $100 off their monthly fee's if they dob in any of their "mates" doing the wrong thing. Example: talking to an Indi operator at the tip or in work hours,not wearing corect Jims attire...anything from the hat to wrong shoes will see a reduction reward come their way!!!....and according to my source who had to keep looking around for fear of getting caught!(I kid you not!!) there is a cpl boys who are gladly driving the knife in for the cash offer!!!

  13. #73
    Member of Forum Glenofcarwoola's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    That sounds a bit over the top. Can MowerRob or another Jimmie confirm this?

    Another question. If a franchisee wants to dump a customer because their a pita, do you still have to pay fees for them?
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  14. #74
    Member Of Forum Lockie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Way over the top. Never heard such cr@p. We are expected to wear the uniform (polos', jumpers, cotton drill) with the bearded fella on them, but foot wear is up to you as is who ya talk to. My standard uniform for today was jims polo, khaki shorts, blunnies (steal caps) wide brim straw hat (Jarvis walker).
    Had a yarn to 2 indies at the servo as well...........
    hehehehe

  15. #75
    Senior Member wombat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Jim's Mowing Franchisees want to cut and run

    Quote Originally Posted by Lockie
    Way over the top. Never heard such cr@p. We are expected to wear the uniform (polos', jumpers, cotton drill) with the bearded fella on them, but foot wear is up to you as is who ya talk to. My standard uniform for today was jims polo, khaki shorts, blunnies (steal caps) wide brim straw hat (Jarvis walker).
    Had a yarn to 2 indies at the servo as well...........
    hehehehe
    I did say local, as in my local area. This is what has old mate fumming...he got into Jims as his rel's are franchisors in another state and have a brilliant working relationship with their franchisee's....but this particular one is a top shelf tosser.

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