CUPPY’S COFFEE: Employees Bid Fond Farewell to Dale Nabors
As the trucks carrying what’s left of Cuppy’s Coffee and Elite Manufacturing home offices leave Ft. Walton Beach in their rear view mirror, the Medina, Cuppy’s and Elite employees left behind bid some fond farewells (here and at Blue Mau Mau) to Dale Nabors and their former co-workers who they claim “brown-nosed” their way to Muscle Shoals, AL:
This is our last day… A great company has been destroyed in less than 6 months! As employees we at least cared about the franchisees. WE TALKED WITH THEM AND CRIED WITH THEM – WE WORKED MANY DAYS FROM HOME TRYING TO HELP THEM, BECAUSE YOU WOULD NOT ANSWER THEIR CALLS – YOU TALKED THE TALK BUT DID NOT WALK THE WALK; And now you have stolen all of our futures!
I will continue to think of the franchisee’s and hope they get their real estate and build-outs before they go broke. We believed you and now we are unemployeed and the franchisee’s who were once our friends hate us! Your hiding-out and blaming us for your not doing what you suppose to do is at least finally ending.
BELIEVE AND FAIL
Franchisee’s should pray that someone stops Dale from stealing their money. At least when Elite was run by Brian Hayes, buildings got built, now it’s run by a kid with no construction experience and who brown noses Dale all day.
Brian may have been late but the franchisee’s got built-out. Dale Nabors could care less, he stopped paying SBT and MBM because he wanted to dispute their invoices and expenses.
Before Dale our company had it’s weaknesses just like all new companies, but we had more than 100 dedicated employee’s and managers. When Dale came to the company he acted like he controlled the company and he had Morg’s backing while he acted so confident and all the while ran the operations and the companies into the ground.
We were a great company with great employees, franchisee’s and managers. This is what happens when a person like Dale is left in charge of your future. Dale how do you sleep?
Guest writes:
Dale promised the managers he had the money and a plan to really speed up Elite’s build-outs. He claimed we would have all of them done before the end of the year. He told us Morg and Brian were wasting franchisee’s money and that he could get buildings built at half the cost.
He stopped paying SBT & MBM for buildings and stopped paying the vendors. This caused all hell to break loose.
Every week we would hear about some big deal he was working on with a famous builder which would save the franchisees thousands of dollars and make the company stronger than ever. He told us it was because of Morg’s poor management skills and Brians stealing Elite’s money was the reason why he was being forced to put franchisee’s build-outs on hold. He also said that Morg and Brian were probably partners.
Before Dale and when he first came on as a consultant the management team would discuss each franchisee problems at a weekly meeting. Getting the right real estate was always a big factor and the company really had a hard time getting good locations during the first year I was there. The next problem we faced as managers was dealing with the people that we thought would qualify for their loans – we would spend hundreds of hours helping them get a good location only to be told they can’t get a loan, I know that many of the people did not get their franchise fee’s paid back to them.
It seemed that the company was always trying to figure out how to pay refunds from Elite, because of financing problems and people getting second thoughts about moving forward. I know a lot of time monthly payments were being made from the accounting department to people that had lost their financing, because they would call if they were a day late. Now the calls are not being paid at all.
I am not bitter, but it is hard to see so many people’s hopes destroyed. We once had a vision of this company being the best company in Florida – WHAT HAPPENED???? – I am hurt to see what this company has become – how did we get here? It is hard for me to say, but Dale lied to us and now he is moving on, while the rest of the employees and franchisees are left to wonder what will happen to us next.
Any employee who stood by and did not report suspicious behavior to the authorities is just as guilty as Brian, Morg, Dale and anyone else who played a role in stealing our $125,000. Turning your head while all is happening does not take away the role you played in bankrupting many franchisees. Yes, there were decent people working for Cuppys and Elite, I have no doubt, but where were your morals when you were employed with such a crooked company?
3+ weeks in a row now Dale Nabors has told Florida employees & franchisees that he will be in FL office tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Today was the last day for the FL offices to be open for the majority of employees and did Dale have the decency to show up? HELL NO!!!! Even though he told several that he would be here on the last day. What kind of heartless owner is too gutless to show up on the last day, even if he had to fake it, to thank employees for their hard work and to wish them well. People say Morg ran the company poorly but you can bet your a$$ that if he had to close the business, he would be right there with each employee hugging and wishing them well. But Dale… WTF!!! I hope I never, ever meet another human being such as Dale! He is lower than snake $hit!! What goes around, comes around. I only pray that the employees that have followed him to AL have a plan B. They will need it soon!
Rick, most of the employees never knew where the $ went. They assumed that it went in escrow for that zees project. Only Morg, Dale and Frankie Marquis in the Accounting department actually knew where $ was sent and to who and when. No one else had access to the checking accounts but the above people.
Rick, most of the employees never knew where the $ went. They assumed that it went in escrow for that zees project.
Fair statement, however, at what point when you are taking calls from the zees do you begin to question the integrity of the people you work for? The past is the past, I do not harbor resentment toward our fsm or the employees of Elite. I just question where and when common sense comes into play.
For all who compare Morg Morgan favorably to Dale Nabors, take a reality check.
The company was NOT better under Morg Morgan, it just FELT like it was because Morg is a professional, polished and highly skilled illusionist. Folks, there WAS no great company, not even a viable company. You were not being paid and your day care was not being supported by people’s purchases of cups of coffee – like a legitimate company. Your paychecks and daycare was being paid by people who were deceived into wiring the company their life savings to those who knew exactly what they were doing.
Next time you’re tempted to say “At least when Morg was running things…” remember that when Morg was running things millions of dollars of people’s life savings were being sucked out of their accounts and their dreams were being dashed to make his Jaguar, Harley and condo payments, as well as your paycheck to keep the illusion going.
And if you still want to cling to the illusion that Elite really intended to use people’s deposits, why has this issue been discussed for over a year and Elite NEVER put deposits in escrow as they would have if it was a legitimate business. It took those deposits under fraudulent circumstances.
I’m not defending Dale by any means… He’s just more of an oaf when he does people wrong.
Regarding Elite Deposits… When the $ came in it immediately went to the accounting department and Frankie would deposit $. Morg then Dale were/are the only two people that said where to put the money.
If you think the franchisees have problems get this:
As I understand it, Dale Neighbors did not pay his employees last week. He apparently paid the Alabama crew, but has cut off all communication with the staff in Mary Esther. The employees that were laid off when the company moved were not paid either. They were told that the “check is in the mail”. I doubt that is the case. I would love to hear from others to see if they got paid. I know that my friend was expecting her last check and did not get it direct deposited, and she was told by the payroll company that the check from Medina had bounced and that there was no attempt by Medina to make it good. I had to loan her money so that she could provide food for her children and pay for day care this week. She is fortunate and has found another job, but she won’t get her first check untill next Friday. I do not know how the other employees are going to get through this without getting there last checks. I think this need to be made public. She refused to put this out for everyone to see, but I have nothing to loose. So there it is. Believe it or not.
Sorry, but I don’t think you’ll find much sympathy here. I know a paycheck is alot of money, but try losing your life savings, your home, and all of your other assets!
Rick,
No sympathy was being sought…
Just reaffirming the fact that if they can’t pay the employees, they sure as heck are not going to build your cafe’. You got screwed, the employees got screwed apparently anybody who associated with Cuppys got screwed. I certainly was not looking to you for sympathy.
I’m sorry ‘friendwasnotpaid’, I’m just getting tired of hearing sob stories from employees who knew what this company was doing to innocent people. We have a lot more invested in this company than a paycheck and our phone calls haven’t been answered for over a month. Chances are your friend was one of the people avoiding our calls or lying to us for months.
I’m just getting tired of hearing sob stories from employees who knew what this company was doing to innocent people. We have a lot more invested in this company than a paycheck…
In defense of the Cuppy’s Coffee employees, most of them were sold a dream by Morg Morgan, the same as the franchisees. They had a glorious vision of building a model company, the best in FL, a model family company with on-site daycare where they provided great training and support to successful franchisees. I’m convinced that a precious few were in on – and profited from – the con-job that took your money.
Have you ever been the conscientious person working at a screwed up company? You work extra hard for your clients because you know they’d be worse off if you left. You know stuff they don’t, but work for them behind the scenes in the hope that things are going to get better past the next curve.
I think many didn’t return your calls because they could not get any answers from the top. Just like you, employees couldn’t get calls or emails returned.
We have a lot more invested in this company than a paycheck…
I’m not so sure. A lot of employees are single mothers living check to check, or heads of families with their health insurance dependent on this company. While there’s no doubt the people chasing the $7000 commissions and six-figure incomes were incentivized to help extract your life savings, I think most were deceived and were trying to help the franchisees.
I share your frustration with those who still defend Morg Morgan as a good guy, and think Dale is the cause of these problems. I think Dale is an opportunist and possible co-conspirator, but he’s not the master mind of this system. At least these guys should be able to look back and see how they were used to perpetrate a hoax.
Krista, I have to ask you, though. I don’t mean this as criticism, but can’t understand how these guys fooled so many people after the word was out. FranchisePick.com has been warning people for a year and a half about this company. Why did you send this kind of money to this company when there were literally dozens of stories of people who lost their money the exact same way posted here:
http://www.franchisepick.com/franchise-controversies/cuppys-coffee-java-joz-elite-manufacturing-medina-blogliography/
When Rick and I were in the market for the right franchise fit, we did our homework. At the time (Feb/March) we could only find stories about Java Jo’s and very little about everything since they became Cuppy’s. When we talked to Cuppy’s about the articles we found on Java Jo’s they said everything we needed to hear. We also have/had the ideal location and know that we could make a run of it no matter what our exterior name was. We didn’t start hearing about the blogs until August.
I have no doubt that the employees of Cuppy’s, Medina and Elite have lost money. I feel for them too, but they are able to move on and find new jobs. We are out the money and will be lucky to ever see a dime of it back. They have avenues to pursue through unemployment. We can not prove fraud or any other criminal act actually took place against us.
Good luck to all!
This website is currently made possible by sponsored links.
Sponsored Links.
“All evil needs to triumph is for good men/women to do nothing” about says it all.
There had to be “talk around the water-cooler” (the receptionist talking about all the angry franchisees, the sales-people talking about having to wait years to get “back-end” commisions, etc). All these pieces add up. 2+2 does equal 4, not 3. We all know what it is like to work in corporate offices. People talk, things come together. That is easier to see from the inside. To put the blame on us franchisees for believing this was a new company, that the sins of Snowden died with Java Joz’, is wrong IMHO. We took a chance on Cuppy’s, and they failed us miserably.
I know there are employees that were truly in the dark about this company, but there had to be a number of other employees that knew people were getting scammed. They kept telling us that everything was going to work out, that they were going to look into our situation.
Why dont all the employees whose paychecks bounced file worthless check charges against Cuppy’s or FranSynergy?? You can easily file a charge with the state attorney’s office in shalimar or crestview, florida for no charge.
Rick:
Another unique aspect of this company was the large percentage of actual family members who were co-employed there. Husbands and wives, mothers, daughters, etc. Even Snowden’s ex-wife and her daughter still worked there.
I think the effect was that they had additional reason to trust (Uncle Morg wouldn’t lie to us, would he?) but also a larger economic stake and dependence on the company.
Not a defense, just an observation.
I think Kimmy was fired by Dale in July. Who was her daughter?
You’re correct about the dependence on the company. Take Steve Wesolowski’s family. Wife Yvonne and daughter Stefanie worked there. Three paychecks at risk. I would bet Steve knew exactly what was going on, he was the “enforcer” when it was time to collect on those construction draws.
Now I believe the three of them are out of work.
I think Kimmy was fired by Dale in July. Who was her daughter?
I could be wrong, but didn’t she have a daughter working there under her married name? Jennifer? Cox or something?
Kim married to Roy has a daughter around 6 years old. Roy’s ex-wife was Pam and her daughter and son in law worked there.
Steve was not an enforcer, that was the job of Dale and Morg down his throat to get the money when they commanded.
Steve was the guy who would demand the money, he was the enforcer in that sense. Think mafia, although instead of threatening to break my kneecaps he threatened delays in construction.
Was the daughter Roy’s daughter?
I think everyone who can’t afford their rent or mortgage payment should be allowed to go camp out in Snowden’s $2.5 Million dollar home and splash in the fountain. Maybe they can set up some of the closed modular units there on the grounds as temporary housing.
I’m sure Morg will offer his guest room to anyone in need. After all, Dale offered to clear out his kid’s college fund for one franchisee as long as he promised to Believe & Succeed.
And now Eden is withholding work due to lack of payment? Maybe that’s where payroll went… the 12 noon ultimatum.
Too bad none of the family members owned a construction company. The poor franchisees paying on empty lots and storefronts don’t even have anyone at the home office being paid to avoid their calls or give them the runaround.
What a mess.
Is that fountain a chocolate fountain like what was sold with the popcorn kiosk franchise? Because that can get gross pretty fast.
What ever happened with the Popcorn kiosk franchise? Was it really Popolicious? Are they in business?
I’m not sure if Roy Snowden’s Fountain is a chocolate fountain, but I’m pretty sure it was once owned by Ponce de Leon. Perfect for laundering large sums of money.
http://www.goldstarhome.com/shared/get/lphoto.php?lid=26929457&img_num=4
Okay… as for Jennifer… Her now married name is Jennifer Cox. She is the daughter of Roy Snowden, and his ex-wife, Pam Snowden. Some older employees and zees might also remember her as Jennifer Zapletal. She and her now husband, Mike, along with both of his children, Josh and Kandace (from a previous marrage), all worked for Cuppy’s/Medina at one point.
Popolicious was the real popcorn franchise in a kiosk in malls. It was a HUGE BUST!! Even though the product tasted good, it just wasn’t marketable.
There are many people who will enjoy bringing Dale down. When you mess with peoples money you make a mistake that will never be forgiven. Franchisees have basically had money stolen from them and the employees in Fort Walton have not seen their final checks. Pray for those that followed the man to Muscle Shoals, how many of those will regret that move. It is a shame that someone like Dale Nabors lies and makes promises of wire transfers and investors to make it all right. Maybe it is time that the questions get answered. I urge all to contact Nabors with the questions maybe we can smoke him out and force him out of hiding to tell the truth. Here are numbers for Fransynergy his company in Muscle Shoals 800-975-7312, 256-386-1395. Fax # is 256-320-2161 and the corp e-mail is info@fransynergy.com. Let’s all call and ask the question…Why Dale, why? Why do you lie, steal and cheat? Can you sleep at night? Call TV stations and news radio stations in Alabama and Florida and ask them to investigate and do stories about why and how something like this can happen. When Dale winds up in prison, I want to visit him and ask exactly how it felt when he got screwed by the big ugly guy. Wonder if it’ll be as bad for him as it has been for us. My guess is that he’ll probably like it.
STILL NO PAYMENT ON FINAL PAYCHECKS!! DALE, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ALL THAT MONEY?!!
After weeks of tracking him down I got a hold of Dale Nabor’s yesterday at his Muscle Shoal’s office. I had to tell the receptionist I had a delivery for him just get him to pick up the phone. When I identified myself hey was speechless. Ugh, ummm. I went off on him and demanded all of my 113,000 dollars be returned. He told me the money is gone and will not be returned. He said he did his best to get this ship going but has given up. In fact he stated that if he continue’s to be harrassed by everyone looking for refund’s he’s going to relocate to his summer home in Maine where we’ll never be able to reach him. We must not let this man get away with this. We must ban together and sue this asshole. He was cold, and matter of fact when I spoke to him. As if he did nothing wrong! Just wait Dale…..Your turn is coming!
After weeks of tracking him down I got a hold of Dale Nabor’s yesterday at his Muscle Shoal’s office. I had to tell the receptionist I had a delivery for him just get him to pick up the phone.
Anthony… are you for real? He said he gave up? Your call reminds me of the old SNL Land Shark routine:
http://www.spike.com/video/land-shark/2802070
Except the call would go more like this:
Receptionist: Good Morning, Cuppy’s Coffee! Make it a Cuppy day!
Caller: Dale Nabors, please.
Receptionist: Hey…You’re not one of those pesky franchisees, are you?
Caller: No, I’m… the… Plumber!
Receptionist: Or a depositer? Unpaid vendor?
Caller: Telegram!
Receptionist: Unpaid employee? Plaintiff? Bob Purvin? Process Server?
Caller: CandyGram!
Receptionist: Federal investigator? Negative blogger? 60 Minutes?
Caller: I have a delivery for Mr. Nabors. Authentic Coach handbags. A surprise for the Missus.
Receptionist: Why didn’t you say so? Hold for Mr. Nabors… And make it a Cuppy day!
Poor Dale. if people don’t stop talking abou thim & threating him, he’s going to move to his summer home in Maine. Isn’t that nice to still be able to say you have a home & haven’t lost it due to actions such as Morg’s & Dales.
Seems kinda appropriate that Dale “summers” in Maine. This is a horror story Stephen King would be envious of. Wonder what’s in the water up there.
Admin, I love the script.
Seems kinda appropriate that Dale “summers” in Maine. This is a horror story Stephen King would be envious of.
Where to even start with the Stephen King adaptations.
“Christine:” The killer coffee kiosk?
“Misery”: The crippled cafe that just can’t get open, held hostage by a crazy person?
“The Dead Zone” Deposits go in, but never come out?
Check out Gary Pulzak. Dales, landlord in Fort Walton Beach. He thought Dale was a good guy and he loaned Dale $100,000.00 and Dale paid him back $20,000 wrote him a hot check for the rest and disappeared. Okaloosa records. On top of that Dale skipped on $40,000.00 in rents.
Check out the rental car Dale abandoned when he moved to Alabama, with his cronies and left the rest of the employees and franchisees hi and dry.
Call his coffee supplier who was trying to him and Dale stole the money he loaned him and now has disappeared… how many more victims?
I have someone in Muscle Shoals that has located Dale.Is anyone trying to find him for legal reasons?
Yes I would love to find Dale.
Why would Dale be hard to find?
The Fransynergy address is still valid, isn’t it?
Where’s Morg Morgan these days? Someone wrote he was moving to Indiana, which seems ludicrous. Unless he was hiding out on Dorwart St. in Angola in an abandoned Cuppy’s modular unit.
Morg is still living in Destin, Florida. Email admin and he can contact me and Ill give him the info to give to anyone who needs it.
I also have a good address for Dale Nabors. Dont send him certified mail tho, he refuses every single piece. But his office and home addresses are still good up there.
Pingback: CUPPY’S COFFEE CEO Facing Felony Charges : Franchise Pick - Picking the Perfect Franchise