CUPPY’S COFFEE: Emails Clarify that the AAFD Advocates For the AAFD
August 19, 2008
If there were ever any doubt about where the allegiance of the AAFD lies, two recent emails make it pretty clear: The AAFD is a strong advocate of the AAFD.
CUPPY’S COFFEE: AAFD Tells Dale to Pay Up
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Dale Nabors Tells Purvin, AAFD to Buzz Off
How the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers (AAFD) loved the previous Cuppy’s Coffee regime! The AAFD awarded Cuppy’s Coffee their fair franchising world’s prettiest contract award and let them parade it all over the Internet on a velvet pillow. Bob Purvin heaped on the praise… defended Morg Morgan’s every action… invoked every benefit of every doubt… invited the Cuppster’s up on stage to strut their stuff, sing and dance, even hand out fair franchising awards…
Mirror Mirror on the Wall… Who’s the Fairest Franchisor of All… ? Cuppy’s Coffee!
In fact, we started referring to the pseudo-franchisee advocacy group as the AAFD&C: The American Association of Franchisees, Dealers & Cuppy’s.
That was the GOOD Cuppy’s Coffee. It didn’t matter that the old regime - the one pirated, I mean piloted, by Captain “Morg” Morgan - was arguably the most corrupt and/or inept franchisor in recent history… that Morg and his minions allegedly circumvented franchise disclosure laws by accepting “refundable” downpayments and franchise fees through its affiliate Elite Manufacturing, that they proceeded to spend hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars that didn’t belong to them with no regard for the franchisee “depositers” whose money it was. No, that didn’t cost them their fair franchising award.
It didn’t matter to the AAFD that Cuppy’s Coffee forced franchisee depositers to accept partial payments, 2-year interest free installment plans (that may have never even been honored) complete with gag orders (which the AAFD “sort of” opposes). The AAFD never even bothered to follow up - or see if Cuppy’s had ever learned what “escrow” meant.
It didn’t matter to the AAFD that Cuppy’s Coffee may have been paying fees to franchisees and/or employees to give positive recommendations…
And it didn’t matter to the AAFD that the Cuppy’s Coffee construction phase was so bungled that it took franchisees up to 22 months to get open - by which time their working capital was depleted. It didn’t matter to the AAFD that Elite Manufacturing was spinning off more than a million dollars worth of work to SBT (another suspicious entity owned, in part, by Elite management) that would never be paid…. that would end up in litigation and result in liens on franchisee buildings when the payments weren’t made.
But then the good old days ended. The new, BAD Cuppy’s regime took over. Dale Nabor’s and FranSynergy stopped (as far as we know) taking $40K deposits and spending it like drunken sailors. FranSynergy announced it would focus it’s total energy and resources on the potentially futile task of trying to get the franchisee stores in the leaky, crumbling pipeline open. In trying to create a legitimately viable company, Nabors committed the ultimate AAFD sin: he stopped paying the AAFD for their phony fairness award and stopped participating in their pay-for-praise program.
In the AAFD’s warped view, that makes them the bad Cuppy’s Coffee. The uncooperative Cuppy’s Coffee. That leaves the AAFD with no other choice than to try to pressure the three poor franchisees on their conference call to go scrounge for change in their seat cushions to be able to put together a Franchisee Advisory group.
The ironic thing is that if the AAFD had advocated a bit for the franchisees, there might have been a few with a few dollars to pay them.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Dale Nabors Tells Purvin, AAFD to Buzz Off
August 19, 2008
Related reading: CUPPY’S COFFEE: AAFD Tells Dale to Pay Up
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Dale Nabors Tells Purvin, AAFD to Buzz Off
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Emails Clarify that the AAFD Advocates For the AAFD
While many complain that Dale Nabors does not return correspondence quickly, Bob Purvin’s pay-the-piper-or-else email got a prompt response. In fact, Dale pretty much tells Bob to bugger off, that he’s not going to pay the $350 an hour ransom the AAFD charges to play kissy face with franchisors.
From: Dale Nabors [mailto:dale@fransynergy.com]
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 11:53 AM
To: ‘Robert Purvin’
Cc: ‘texlawdoc@aol.com’; ‘Rudy Harper’; ‘Peter Hanson’
Subject: RE: Still Offering to Work for a Solution
Bob:Thanks for the email! As I’m sure you know, I am working around the clock to resolve the many challenges which Cuppy’s and related entities are faced with now and into the future. I did not cut off contact with you. Your calls and emails simply were not a priority following our last phone call (the 3-hr call), in which it was quite obvious that it all came down to MONEY for you and the AAFD. I did not and do not believe that we need to be spending money with the AAFD at this time. Monies which in my opinion would be better used towards Opening Stores, Settling Refunds and increasing Unit Profitability. As I asked on the call how do I explain that I’m spending these $$$$ with the AAFD, at a time that other items MUST take a priority.
I would like to ask you:
Why is the franchise Agreement any less fair?
Did we not have 3-Years to form a FOA?
Did we not create a reasonable alternative to the Co-Op?
Why should we use the AAFD for mediation at $350 per hour, when the IFA is providing the same service at no charge?
I do not want an adversarial relationship with you or the AAFD —- I do not want to bring harm to the AAFD — At the same time…..I do not want to be held hostage by the AAFD! I did not create this mess, and I’m committed to doing the best job that I’m capable of doing to clean it up. Will I be successful? Only time will tell. The company has (prior to the change in ownership) spent a large sum of money with the AAFD, I CAN NOT at this time justify spending additional money with the AAFD.
I’m open to any and all communications that are geared to helping Cuppy’s and it’s franchisees. I am not open to spending large sums of money which does not directly lead towards opening stores, resolving refunds, increasing unit profitability AND preserving the brand! So, if you have ideas which mesh with our objectives, I’m open to discussing them…otherwise I do not know that we have anything to discuss.
Sincerely,
Dale Nabors
Dale asks some pretty good questions. Don’t hold your breath waiting for answers.
Nabors also states “The company has (prior to the change in ownership) spent a large sum of money with the AAFD…”
Hmm… does anyone know what the going rate IS for an AAFD Fair Franchising Award these days?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Loses Fair Franchise Award. For NonPayment?
August 8, 2008
According to the post AAFD Quietly Suspends Cuppy’s Franchisor Accreditation on FranchisePick.Com, the AAFD has suspended its fair franchising accreditation for Cuppy’s Coffee.
Bob Purvin didn’t suspend it when the guy who seemingly created the mess, Morg Morgan, was in charge.
In fact, the AAFD didn’t even suspend it when the contract was even in use (if it ever was).
In fact, the AAFD didn’t even suspend it while Cuppy’s Coffee was selling franchises.
No, the AAFD decided to wait until the guy with no evidence of wrongdoing is in charge.
Why? Because he is not offering to pay the AAFD to form an association.
It seems that Cuppy’s Coffee & More has now crossed the line and committed the ultimate AAFD sin: not paying the piper.
AAFD President Bob Purvin was a staunch defendant of Morg Morgan’s Cuppy’s Coffee back when the company said it intended to pay the AAFD for putting together and administrating a franchisee association for the scandal-ridden upstart. But new Cuppy’s Coffee owner Dale Nabors has refused to play ball with the AAFD and has, according to Purvin, “gone silent” on them.
So now Bob Purvin has suspended it’s ludicrous and deceptive “contract accreditation.”
Congratulations, Bob, for “getting religion.”
Too bad you waited ’til the good guy took over to get it.
* * * * *
The news came via Janet Sparks on franchise site Blue Mau Mau. Bob Purvin announced the blockbuster news on a conference call with a whopping 3 franchisees in attendance. Writes Sparks:
Last night, the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers made the decision to suspend Cuppy’s Coffee Accreditation status, awarded last year for having franchise agreements that substantially conform to AAFD’s standards. A letter was then sent to CEO and owner Dale Nabors regarding its decision and at 9:30 this morning AAFD chairman Robert Purvin announced their decision on a conference call to franchisees and other interested parties. Originally, the call was to be an exploratory effort in starting a Cuppy’s Chapter of the AAFD. But when the call went public and was posted on Blue MauMau, Purvin had no choice but to open it to others and change the agenda of the meeting. In a fairly accurate count, AAFD said there were approximately thirteen people in attendance, but only the three original Cuppy’s franchisees invited were on the call.
Purvin sent a clear message to all franchisors that you gotta pay to play:
“When Dale Nabors took over the company there were statements that those commitments would still be honored, but they have not followed through,” Purvin said. “When he brought mediation to Nabors, he and the company ignored the engagement of that mediation. The new management declined to advance its promised subsidy of an owners association and for the past six weeks our telephone and email communications have gone unanswered. “Cuppy’s has gone silent on us.”
Seems like more and more are going silent on the AAFD. Any idea why?
* formerly known here as the AAFD&C (American Association of Franchisees, Dealers & Cuppy’s)
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Letter from a Failed Franchisee
August 6, 2008
We received this letter from yet another failed Cuppy’s Coffee franchisee:
I wish I could be the bearer of some good news or encouraging insights, but I do believe we are all in the same boat and on the fast track to failure.
We opened our store in June, 2007, after a 22 month process to get open due to the problems and bad relationships Cuppy’s/Java Jo’z/Elite MFG. had with various third parties (Real Estate firms, Construction management companies, financing firms, etc.). It is the same story that has been replicated so many times.
We did well our first few months being open and I was encouraged that we may end up breaking even, though, we never did. I spent hours and hours and thousands of dollars promoting my store and building local relationships. We had a nice pool of loyal customers who came at least once daily. I had a great well trained staff and an attractive store in a good location.
No matter what we did, we could never achieve enough sales to break even and we eventually closed our doors in April to stop the bleeding. We had used up most of our working capital during the extensive period to get open, also there were tens of thousands of additional costs that were never mentioned (cable, sod, irrigation, fill dirt, parking lot striping, etc.).
We got deeper and deeper into debt, thinking eventually we would turn the corner if we just tried one more thing or held on one more month. This franchise is flawed and the information given to potential franchisees leaves out so many of the expenses that will be incurred that it would be a miracle for anyone to actually spend only what the projections recommend and to actually take in the revenue that is projected based on population or traffic count.
We did our due diligence and did everything right from our end as far as operations goes, but we have been unsuccessful. I have asked many times at corporate for information on how many franchisees are failing, how many are breaking even, and how many are profitable. I have never been given any answers to these questions.
It is my understanding from the internet that Supreme Building Technologies is now in a lawsuit with Elite Manufacturing to the tune of $1.7 million in unpaid invoices and breach of contract. This is most frightening and discouraging news and points to yet another repeat of the pattern of bad relationships that this company leaves in its wake.
I would be curious to hear the stories of some of the other franchisees on this email. Please share your stories with the rest of us.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW.
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Was “Successful” Unit a Sham Store?
August 6, 2008
Related Reading:CUPPY’S COFFEE: “Pay-For-Praise” Franchise Allegations
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Were Franchisees Paid to Act Happy?
More questions and allegations are arising concerning the franchise sales practices and honesty of Morg Morgan and the Cuppy’s Coffee franchise sales team. Franchise owner Mary P has shared allegations of Morgan’s practice of offering pay-for-praise bounties of $330 for positive franchise testimonials; Now she wonders if the “wildly successful” unit they visited was just a sham success story:
I have another questions for everyone involved: How many of you went ot Cassandra Creech’s “wildly successful” Cuppy’s store out in Ocean Springs, MS to visit and speak with her before signing up? Weren’t we told she was selling 500 cups a day? We were there for two hours and maybe saw 3 customers. Did any of you see a busy time at her store when you visited? Is it possible that Cassandra was being paid off to be a “Flagship Model Store” for Cuppy’s to help them sell more franchises? What do you think she received in exchange for having all of us visit? There is now way she sold 500 cups per day. I believe her traffic count was maybe around 30,000 if memory serves me correctly. Our traffic count was 69,000 and we could not even sell 100 cups per day consistently.
The light bulb went off for me today. I believe that Cassandra’s success story was a set up to get all of us to buy in. After all, we thought if she could do it in a place like Ocean Springs, then we certainly could succeed in our market. You know we drove past her store twice without even seeing it and we were looking hard for it because it was our destination. We even had to call her to find out where it was.
Can anyone else share their experiences with us about visiting that store. Can anyone out there investigate this scenario to find out if she really is a successful franchisee or just a front that helped Cuppy’s dupe all of us?
WHO IS CASSANDRA CREECH? DOES ANYONE KNOW THE REAL VOLUME OF THE OCEAN SPRINGS CUPPY’S COFFEE?
Cuppy’s Coffee Overview
July 26, 2008
CUPPY’S COFFEE GOES TO COURT
July 12, 2008
AAFD & CUPPY’S COFFEE: Best Friend’s Forever… or MORE?!
July 6, 2008
Just like Hurricane Katrina, Cuppy’s Coffee gained momentum along the Gulf Coast and moved inland, leaving a path of personal loss and financial devastation in its path. Yet when franchisees are in crisis, there is no Red Cross or National Guard to come to their aid. Read more
CUPPY’S COFFEE: Boo, Cuppy’s! Boo!
July 5, 2008
It’s kind of strange doing a Cuppy’s Coffee blog search now that they are no longer inundating the blogosphere with inane phony blog posts on inane phony blogs. In fact, you can now hear what real customers are saying about Cuppy’s. Customers of a newly opened Cuppy’s Coffee are saying what all of those who have been ripped off tens of thousands of dollars have been saying for months, if not years: Boo! Boo, Cuppy’s. Boo.
Here’s what a disappointed Atalou has to say.
Boo! For months Cuppy’s Coffee was “Coming Soon!”. Then, they were hiring. Now, they are open. We stopped by on our morning walk today and left disappointed.
I don’t know why, but I like my coffee served to me pre-poured. At Cuppy’s you are handed a cup and directed to the carafes on the counter. I also like fresh dairy for my coffee. For this, I like the carafe approach, providing me with options of skim, whole milk or half and half. The mini-moos and International Delight french vanilla creamers just do not have the same appeal. I ordered a regular coffee for Dano and a vanilla cappuccino for myself. Dano said his coffee tasted like gas station coffee and my cappuccino turned out to be a latte and tasted like it came out of one of the pre-blended machines from 7-11.
Boo, Cuppy’s. Boo.
HAVE YOU HAD DEALINGS WITH CUPPY’S COFFEE, ELITE MANUFACTURING OR IT’S PREDECESSOR JAVA JO’Z? WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHARE A COMMENT BELOW!
Does Cuppy’s Coffee or Elite Manufacturing Owe You Money?
June 5, 2008
Does Cuppy’s Coffee or Elite Manufacturing owe you a refund? Provide an update at the FranchisePick.com franchise blog:
Does Cuppy’s Coffee or Elite Manufacturing Owe You Money?
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