Tony Shelton
BS Detector, Esquire
Allison, there are a couple of things in play here.
First is incompetence.
It simply shows complete incompetence when one has months to prepare for an event and fails to deliver as promised.
I'd like to know, were the attendees told in advance that they would not be cleaning a garage and given an opportunity for a refund?
And what about the fact that Jim didn't even bring his pressure washing trailer down from California? According to him there is not a pressure washer around that can reach the 300 degree temps REQUIRED TO DEEP CLEAN a garage like his unit can. Why didn't he bring it if he had any intention to clean a garage?
Second, is plain old deception.
There was no intention to clean a garage. The intention was to show off some demo machines, rake in some money, get a free vacation, and cause trouble for local contractors. (Oh, and yes, for Jim to have the spotlight to feed his insatiable ego) Did you notice how many pictures were posted before and after the event of the grand SUITE vs pictures of the actual event and the contractors? Why? Because that is what was important to Jim. The grandiose Liberace'esque facet of the event rather than the hard working contractors who simply spent money to come and learn.
Why the multiple stories?
Why publicly lie on the boards in advance that I was "sabotaging" their event so they couldn't clean the garage?
Why tell attendees they couldn't clean because of "unions"?
Deep down you know why. Because Jim is incompetent, and a habitual liar. It never ceases to amaze me the even the regulators recognized from his emails that he is a habitual liar and even go so far as to state that fact in their communications, yet many glassy eyed contractors with nothing but a mirage of dollar signs in their eyes will hang on to his every incompetent word. His one avid follower and worshipper who attended and spoke at both events has his business up for sale for less than $160k showing a net profit of less than $40k, all while using tens of thousands of dollars of Jim's recommended equipment and after spending 5 years under Jim's tutelage.
That's the reality of trying to follow in the footsteps of a con artist.
You and I both know how many contractors were at that event. There were around a dozen. Less than that if you take out the "committee". The event was bloated with manufacturers and distributors and attendance numbers were boosted only because of their attendance. Your story accurately stated the combined total.
This was advertised as the greatest pressure washing event in history and the attendees who flew in from all over the country were told to "bring their boots and work clothes" because this was "not going to be like the other" subpar events (referring to mine and Ron's). Jim even went into great detail in his descriptions of our past events and how his was going to be far superior because he was actually "cleaning". All these claims were made months before the event.
Let me enlighten everyone on what it takes to put on a "training" event. I, personally have had events and training sessions that involved far more complicated issues than this simple garage cleaning of a floor of a garage that barely has 20 cars on it on any given day.
During my event in 2009 we had to arrange to clean coils on the roof of a two car dealerships WHILE THEY WERE OPEN FOR BUSINESS with 15 guys in attendance. Months before the event I had to arrange for insurance to cover ROOFTOP work AND liability in case of water intrusion into the building. I also had to add a rider to my insurance for using the lift to bring non-employees to the roof. Jim was there. He was just unaware of all the details that have to be taken care of in advance for an undertaking like that. This truly was a "working" event and we had to go and finish the rest of the coils on those roofs after the event. Our payment for cleaning two rooftops of coils? - the use of two rental vans to shuttle attendees for the entire event.
We have had training classes on the tops of large Box Stores WHILE THEY WERE OPEN FOR BUSINESS. We had to take care of all the logistics of that, along with the insurance requirements to hold a TRAINING class cleaning evaporator coils that are open directly over thousands of dollars of merchandise and customers. These are some of the hurdles you have to deal with when putting on a training event.
We have had training classes INSIDE working, OPEN casinos, just like the one Jim was at. One of them was done on CATWALKS 20 feet above the casino floor over a suspended ceiling. Mountain climbing ropes had to be used to clean one of the units and even with all the precautions we had a water spill of about a half gallon that went right down through a grate and onto a chair right next to a customer playing slots. We simply handled the situation and continued on with our training class.
At one of Ron's events we did demos at a closed shopping center. Ron had to arrange all the details including access and insurance well in advance. I was upset and surprised when Ron had to ask Shelly to take Fayth off the property because the insurance he had to get for the event expressly forbade the presence of minors. But these insurance issues are the details that have to be taken care of well in advance when putting on an event.
It takes competence to put on something like this, not an inflated ego. While an inflated ego may help in sales, it is a hindrance in actual completion of a project.
During all the time bouncing around the boards bragging about all the work he was doing Jim was cleaning an average of 5 garages per year.
For all his bragging about how you can't get good work for less than 24 cents a foot, he was paying subcontractors like many of us a quarter of that (that is what he offered my son)- while still claiming on the forums that a garage could not be cleaned properly for that price.
He is a habitual liar.
He lied about my son polluting here in Las Vegas.
He lied about my "interference" with his event.
He lied about "unions".
He lied about insurance.
He lied about his experience cleaning garages.
He lied about the money he makes cleaning garages.
He lied in post about how he transports his sludge.
He lied about Scott Stone stealing his information for a garage cleaning magazine story.
He lied to the AHJ's about the content of his garage runoff.
He lied to the AHJ's about his event being open to he public and now may have caused the speaker to have inadvertently broken the law by attending.
There is little the Jim Gamble has not lied about in his 5 years in the public forum.
Did he even have swine flu? Who knows? How can anything that he says be trusted at this point.
There's a story for you Allison. I know you don't want to get involved in it, but it is a story of an entire industry including one, poorly led organization, being duped by one bumbling con artist.
If you want validation for any of these claims including the ones about how many garages he has actually cleaned I have all the information. He knows I have it. I surprised him in the middle of one of his text bragging sessions with the name of his largest customer. He really has no idea how many people have contacted me with information on him.
I didn't go fishing for this information like the PWNA investigation team, this information was given to me by rock solid outside sources who have followed my quest to educate the public on the extent of the con he has pulled on our industry and the danger he and Robert Hinderliter has become to the source of our livelihood.
