Testimony from Somone who has been in involved with ooples since the concept phase
I was another member of ACES and was invlolved with Ooples when it was but a concept. I personally liked it better when it was the custom hats and screen printed shirts. He was A LOT nicer back then or so it seemed to me as an outsider looking in. I didn't help out to much since I was in school and had other things to do with my life. But I will share what I know from good friends, exes, and associates.
But with friends who helped when I was at the store, they were never compensated for work normally given the "I can hook you up with this" excuse back at the Wonderlands location. They never really even got food or a thank you. I was friends with a few artist consignees and they got ripped off my opinion., The contract was sell it to me wholesale or i take half. 50% is a lot to take out from handmade items which are priced on labor and supplies so artists wouldn't make anything even when he sold them. He had them poorly placed and did not market them to often if that. (Note i think the consignment rate decreased but I am sure by how much). He did not keep track of artist sales so not everyone even got paid.
Customer service is pretty bad., You can simply read the Amazon reviews and see that 90% of the responses to negative feedback blames the customer in a way or takes the fault off them. I worked retail and do online sales, This is a bad deal on customer service. Quality of goods is over priced. Many items are used and cards as well. As an avid Magic player I know how drastically card condiditon can impact the price on cards and over pricing your cards will lose you business since we can just buy them off eachother cheaper or trade. Selling used merchandise at ridiculous prices is attrocious. If you want to be a GOOD business man then you should be fair instead of pocketing that. Asides from his treatment of people, this has prevented me from ever making a purchase.
On terms of Franklin, he really was a bit nicer before the go of ooples. Despite no one being compensated he was not as rude to anyone or Crystal. The only time I heard of someone being compensated was a friend of mine who got paid in a T-shirt. Lately, he has been exploiting the "volunteers". From the conventions this year, Anime Matsuri my friends were the only ones really running them. One of them being an 18 year old girl and that stressed her out badly. She feel asleep under a friends artist alley table sunday morning. When she left to get food (note if you were at matsuri you know how long it took get food) she kept getting calls from Franklin to get her back to booth but she and several other friends were beyond exhausted with over work. Their con hotel room was uncomfortably overcroweded and meals and gas was not paid for. At the con the following week, two people who worked for him were promised a room yet they had none, They had to sleep in their car that weekend. At san japan mach 5, a now former co-worker of mine set up his booth all morning for the dealers room. Franklin was like well thanks but no badge for you and ran off. They were able to sneak a badge regardless but refused to work for him ever again. With underpaying employees (and as an business adminstration major and accounting major) this is a crime. You cannot pay anyone in sotre credit it is actually illegal accouring to federal guides and my text book state "Under the FLSA, the pay you receive must be in the form of cash or something that can be readily converted into cash or other legal forms of compensation, such as food and lodging. Your employer cannot, for example, pay you with a coupon or token that can be spent only at a store run by the employer. Employee discounts granted by employers do not count toward the minimum wage requirement."
Paying an employee under minimum wage is also illegal. I know the girl who was paid 2.09/hour and this is illegal. If she is not a server for a business listed as a restraunt under the state then is illegal and a federal offense. Not paying overtime is also wrong and I know this is bs when it was noted that people are not working over 40 hours. The employeer is required to pay time and a half or give paid time off (i,e. working 8 extra hours but the next week getting paid for that time while staying at home).
Working people off the clock is illegal in many cases and most states. To get around he would need CONSENT in writing. Also while contracted employees are not illegal, he also needs to tell them about the IRS taking the taxes out in that lump sum (for moral reasons mostly). He also needs to make CONTRACTS since employees in this category are self employeed contractors according to the IRS he needs contracts in order to classify them properly or they can classify as normal employees and this puts trouble with the IRS and there are legal guidelines for this. Simply listing an employee as contracted to dick them around is wrong.
The structural issue can be the landlord's fault PENDING the terms of the rental lease. Some propertry owers note in the leasing agreement that the damages to the property are at the hands of the person/company renting it (normally to keep from from paying out of pocket for repairs). So if the lease gives Franklin responsiblity to repair the damage then he is required to comply with it due to OSHA and the leasing agreement. I am not that heavy about 160 max and I walked in and felt the floor creek and do very wierd things. The floor is warped and the loose electric wires are the biggest issue in the store. It can cause fires and injure people.
Anyhow to end this rant. He is a poor business man who is exploiting his employees and I have known him since either '08 or '09. Personally I think he needs to COMPLETELY leave the company and either sell it to someone who knows what they are doing or give it Crystal. She has morals and is a sweetheart and is pretty damn smart to.
