Cuppy's Coffee And More Cuppy's Coffee and More representatives are misleading franchise prospects. Fort Walton Florida

Cuppy's Coffee and Elite Manufacturing refuse to return my deposit in full.

I was trying to work out an agreement with Danny Jones of Elite Manufacturing in November - December of 2007, giving him a deadline of Jan. 15, 08 to come up with an amicable agreement. Mr. Jones did not respond. I asked him to give me back the deposit in lump sum, he stated that "It was impossible and not in the budget". The Florida Dept. of Consumer Affairs notified me that Cuppy's has not responded to them.

Cuppy's and Elite are working together to rip off innocent people. That American Association of Franchise Dealers Award on the Cuppy's website is a deception. I can't believe that Cuppy's and Elite are getting away with free money. While I get stuck struggling to make monthly payments on my second home loan. I heard that Cuppy's has new ownership. If the new owner wants to fix Cuppy's reputation he should give back the deposits. If someone asks me about Cuppy's, because there are a few here in SoCal. I will tell them what they did and recommend that they not go there.

I am sorry this happened to you

I am really sorry this happened to you. I doubt you will ever se the money unless you can afford to keep a lawyer on it for quite some time. Your have learned a hard lesson. Very seldom do franchises like these work. First off you should have saved up the money and worked on opening a family type business. It is alot cheaper and you know up front what are the fees and by doing it CASH you are avoiding debt and not putting your most precious asset, your HOME in jepordy.

My husband and I have our own family business. It took very little upfront money to open and for the past 19 years we have continued to build it successfully. it can be done, but it takes time, preparation and reading the fine print if it is something that has to be worked out in a building. we are blessed that we can work ours out of our house.

There are many choices in working your own business and franchise on the whole is awesome way to go broke quickly. I hope you can save your home. Please know I am just trying to offer friendly advice cause this society would have you believe you can not open a business without credit and they are wrong! People will put in $500 a month for a car and not think twice about it. Think of how much money you would have if you saved that and did not spend it. You could have money for a business quickly.

Good luck. Work on saving your home, not this coffee business. Your home is your best INVESTMENT!

Cat

Cuppy's and AAFD say everyone has been repaid? I have not received anything!

I read on bluemaumau that Cuppy's and AAFD state that everyone that was owned money was repaid. That's not true. I have not received anything from Cuppy's or Elite. I know 2 other people who were victimized by Cuppy's, the same way we were, and they have not received their deposit back. When is Cuppy's going to step up and return these deposits in full to clear their name?

Coffee?

In the last six months, I've seen half a dozen coffee shops go out of business. Starbucks reported that their first quarter sales dropped from around $150 mil to around $100 mil. With the prices of everything going up, esp. gas, people are drinking less of that overpriced stuff. As I've said before, IF you're interested in getting into a business, go to work in that business BEFORE you invest a penny. Your wife should have gone to work in one, to learn all the ins and outs.

I suggest everyone work in a business, they're interested in, for a minimum of six months bEFORE investing. You'll get PAID to learn how a real business is run. My dork brother-in-law invested in a subway type business. He lasted one year before he figured out he hated the resturant business. One mailbox business I know has been sold three times to three different suckers. One lady I know, bought a frame business for $100,000 plus she has to pay 20% of her GROSS SALES back to the company for ten years. They put her in another store for TWO weeks to learn the trade. She didn't learn spit and had to hire an expensive framer to help her run her business. They also put her in an expensive strip mall where she paid $5,000 per month in rent. She found out she could have bought an existing business that's been in operation for 20 years for less money and kept all their customers. Her business failed after less then two years.

I get letters from that fast fix it company all the time. I've been in the jewelry business for 24+ years. They try and sell me a "jewelry repair business" for over $100,000. I can and have set them up for under $10,000 and you don't have to pay a percentage for the next ten years. I've opened up several complete jewelry stores for under $50,000. Look on the bright side, all you're out is the $16,000. If you had gotten the coffee shop you'd be out $100,000 plus. Tell your wife to get a real job if something interests her. It'll cost you alot less money.

Stay on them!

I wish I had some great advice, but this is just plain ole sweat and hard work . Stay on them, write letters to your paper, call them, be a pain! If i were you I would call them so many times a day they will send your money back just to get you to STOP calling! lol I know you probably think this sounds nuts, but the only way I see you getting your money back is you driving them crazy with calls. Keep asking for supervisiors and keep telling them, " thats not good enough" when they give you their 10th excuse for the day! Eventually they will get sick of you calling them. Find their fax number and fax them, keep their lines busy! Drive them nuts!

Keep us up dated. I am curious as to if they ever do the right thing by you!

Good luck,

Cat

Franchisees are failing

Here is a story of what can happen if you actually do get financing and open a store with this franchise. I am an unhappy, failing franchisee. It took 22 months to get open due to Java Jo'z/Cuppy's failed relationships with first a real esatate search firm and then a construction management firm.

We were told at the start we would be in business in six months. We, too, had the high pressure tactics thrown at us (no franchise fee, no royalties, free site search, etc. if we sign on that day). All costs were higher (some triple or more) than they projected,and revenue since opening was not even half of a half of a percent of traffic count. What a disappointment and nightmare.

We used our working capital during the long and frustrating process of getting open to cover our rent, loan and many hidden expenses we were never made aware of. Once open, we went deeper in to debt to heavily market our store, build a name for ourselves in the community, and gain customers. No matter what we did, we just could not pull in the numbers needed to sustain the expenses, payroll, etc. We closed our doors after 10 months to stop the bleeding and are suffering greatly financially.

I don't know what recourse we as franchisees who went all the way through the process have, but I do believe being vocal is our only avenue to finding any help out there. I think this story should be told over and over to every agency, publication, reporter, blog, etc. that will listen. Someone must be held accountable for leading so many people to financial ruin.