CUPPY’S COFFEE FRANCHISEES CONTACT THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

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• If you filed a complaint with the BBB and haven't heard from them in a while, make sure your case is still open. I faxed them back a form letting them know my complaint hadn't been resolved. This didn't get recorded on my complaint, so they assumed I settled. I reopened the complaint over the weekend and by noon on Monday they were asking for additional info about Dale Nabors and Supreme Building Technologies.

  If you haven't filed yet with the BBB, I strongly suggest that you do. Your complaint gets forwarded to the business in question and they have to respond back to the BBB within a certain amount of time. It's one of the few places on the internet where you can see at a glance if people are having a problem with a business and if resolutions were agreed on. Very powerful stuff.

• I am a Cuppy Franchise Owner. I have been in the system for over a year, I have applied for and received an SBA loan. I have signed a lease with a mall. I have completed my white box, which means I have remodeled a store, I have had plumbing and an electrical upgrade. My wife and I have spent approx. $100,000.00 to get this far. I have paid Cuppy's/Elite Manufacturing approx. $170,000.00. You know what I have for all of this money spent? A set of blueprints that were grossly inaccurate, I have some hardwood flooring, 2 ceiling fans and some paint. Oh yeah I have lots of broken promises from Cuppy's/Elite. Promises that I would be open by now. How would you feel if you sat across from the owner Dale Nabors, he looked you squarely in the eye and makes a promise that our store would be open the first week in August. Then the phone calls go unanswered, the emails ignored and when you finally get a hold of someone they only want to talk off the record and encourage you to seek legal help. Then you get a call from an executive at Elite Manufacturing and are told the company has a serious cash flow problem and that the cabinets that were promised 3 weeks ago, are now 6 to 8 weeks out and that they cannot guarantee that. Then when I push further I find out that I don't have cabinets because Cuppy's/Elite doesn't have the money to pay for them, yet I paid Cuppy's/Elite as have numerous other families. Then I am told that even if they had monies to pay for the cabinets they do not have the prints, dies, templates or anything else needed to make them. Now picture yourself with a 10 year lease, an SBA loan, all of your savings spent, and you have to inform your spouse that you were wrong, that all monies are gone, that our future is probably down the drain because of unethical people. This is a serious problem not only for my wife and I, but for numerous other families. We know of at least 6 families that have put it all on the line to have a Cuppy coffee store, we have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for a lot of broken promises, sorry I forgot I have hardwood flooring and paint, silly me. Think twice before you think about a franchise with Cuppy's coffee, this is not good. Yes I have sought legal counsel, yes I have notidied the mall where my store is located, yes I have notified the bank that lent me the SBA monies, but you know something bottom line, my butt and reputation is on the line. Hey can you spare a quarter, I need a cup of coffee.

• RS:

  Out of curiousity, how much of this $170k has been paid to Elite/Cuppy's after Dale Nabors took over the company?