Purchased a Pool Scouts Franchise, From the get-go it was a horrible experience. Company knew of marketing issues in the area due to Having a partner franchise Mosquito Joe and a Pool Scouts franchise to the north. Still talked up their mailer program which I agreed to. Then they sent out the companies first Mailer with an inactive Phone number. That was the first sign something was wrong. After sending out multiple rounds of mailer with a less than 1% rate of return, they had to modify the Franchise agreement to remove the mailers. However, the financial damage was already done.Everything else their marketing department presented failed. Even after wasting 1000’s on PPC with their preferred vendor the company was so confident of it working with a different company they put forth their own cash for a month to prove it. This also failed. $25 plus a click is not sustainable. At that point I stopped using them for any marketing. The marketing is the one size fits all cookie cutter type. I had to spend thousands figuring out the marketing in my area.Marketing was a main reason I Joined this franchise….Another issue is that I was never properly Licensed. Corporate was aware of this and promised to assist and for 2 years this never happened. In fact, unless it was to collect money, I never heard from them. The leader Michael would come 3 hours away to visit family and could not be bothered to come see the franchise.There was only 1 person was in charge of technical support of all franchises this was not possible after the first week I just used YouTube to learn as customers can not wait hours for answers.Another issue was I was sold a vehicle that was not field tested and not suitable for pool care. As I was growing it came time to get a second vehicle. They sold me the new ford transit connect. Unfortunately, someone just threw it together and never field tested it. For instance, there was not ventilation and tons of volatile chemicals next to each other. There were no designated areas from chemicals and every thing had to be jerry rigged with bungie cords. It became a rust bucket in a year.Emergency management: Nonexistent. We were hit with a tropical storm 2 times in 1 week. You would think this would be a worry. Corporate could not even be bothered to call or check on us. In addition, I repeatedly asked the corporate offices for hurricane guidance for customers. It never happened.Covid 19: What killed my company. No tangible support from Pool Scouts corporate. In March of 2020 we lost our first 2 employees. At this point we had to shed 30 accounts and pull back service as it was already difficult to find new employees. Due to the decrease in revenue, we could not pay franchisee fees. My kids need to eat. Come October me and 1 other employee are still trying to make it work doing about 140 accounts a week between us. I am a 100% disabled wounded warrior and it was extremely painful however I kept pushing as I was looking for employees to no avail. At this point corporate presented me a note for past franchise fees with a payment plan starting in February.In January 2021 my last employee had a mental breakdown and disappeared with one of my vans for 8 days. Still not support from corporate. They just kept saying hire someone… They could not understand I was trying and there just was no one. Even if I could have found an employee it takes time to train them. So there I was 100% disabled no employees and no support from the corporate offices. They could have sent help…. It was impossible for me to do the workload myself.Now corporate is trying to sue us for past franchise fees. This company is not Military Friendly. They are not good with support. They have a lot of talk and no action. NOT TO BE TRUSTED!Something also seems fishy as I closed. I offered my accounts to the franchise to the north of me they refused them said they did not have employees either. Then as soon as I closed customers were calling me on my cell as the franchise to the north was now trying to service them.

Great franchisor! Very supportive, great customer service, committed to the success of all!