News Beware -Starboard Group

[DL Signs]

the kind of posts I hate making.
Just a heads up to everyone, we've been doing work for the Starboard Group based in Florida off and on, and towards the end of last year we started having issues getting paid. They filed bankruptcy in November, owing us money. Today they contacted us to do a decommission of some restaurants in their chain. We were nice, asked for payment up front, or to at least get their bill current before we would consider, they declined, goodbye, click... They're a large franchisee operating Wendy's, Fuzzy's Tacos, Aplebees, and a few other brands. They're currently looking for sign companies to do work, mainly signage decommissions in Wisconsin for sure, not sure about other states they operate in. Luckily they don't owe us a massie amount, but they're not even willing to discuss settling it, much less pay anything up front. Their financial status is obviously pretty dire. Don't get caught off guard if they contact any of you.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Good warning. Any and all removals get paid 100% up front.

 

[DL Signs]

Good warning. Any and all removals get paid 100% up front.

We usually would too if that's all it was, but we were involved in new stores, updates, re-brands, and removals for them for a while. They paid a little slow, the usual corporate BS, but they paid. Then while doing signage for a new Fuzzy's Taco for them, they started falling behind with all the trades on that job, then ghosted everyone, and filed bankruptcy. We were kind of lucky because wee got a payment. It wasn't paid in full, but at least we got most, and pulled the plug. Never thought we'd hear from them again, much less expecting more with no $$$.

 

[Johnny Best]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Graphic Extremes]

Thank for the information

 

[White Haus]

Crazy to think that they would expect you to do more work for them when they owe you money and are refusing to pay. Hope you're able to get more of out them.

Personally I'd be tempted to take on the job and hold them hostage, but I guess that wouldn't be too professional.........

 

[visual800]

If it were me I would ask for money upfront for the new jobs and apply it to what they owe me...if they already arent paying Ill be damed if I would do more

 

[DL Signs]

Crazy to think that they would expect you to do more work for them when they owe you money and are refusing to pay. Hope you're able to get more of out them.

Personally I'd be tempted to take on the job and hold them hostage, but I guess that wouldn't be too professional.........

Maybe they tried us because they owe us less than others & thought they'd get lucky.
I still have some interior graphics for the last store we did.

 

[Gino]

We got caught in that same situation 3 times. The first one, who had around 35 locations, came back and asked us to do business some more and I said what about what you already owe us ?? The girl said, look, you can either work with us and what we owe you will never be seen again or not work with us and never get another penny out of us. With this company is when I found out, when filing bankruptcy, they can call back money they paid you over the last 3 or 4 month, before filing. Has something to do with channeling money before they filed for it, properly. The next guy had a few restaurants and owed us about $8,000, yet. My wife filed and we had his personal name, address and all kindsa other information, so for like an extra $80. we filed against him and not the business. He ended up going to jail, but we got paid. None of the other contractors got a cent. He was in jail 4 .5 years. When he came out, he was p!ssed at me. I told him to go f*ck off. He was on an ankle bracelet for some time after that and was re-arrested for tampering with it. The last guy, we didn't get anything, because I felt so sorry for the guy. I knew him and although he was kinda smarmy, he was trying to give us household items, cause his business was basically fake and he had nothing.