Looks like the verdict is in on Cuppy’s. In the end, it appears that it will not be all the disappearing franchisee money that kills them off. Rather, the banks are facing defaults by borrowers who state that they never got their equipment or stores built out.

“Reputation management” only goes so far when the underlying facts don’t change.

I am so really extremly shocked to see all of the post on the matter I discussed earlier are gone. Everything I have posted on this matter has been deleted. Someone tell me there has got to be something I can do about this. Cuppy’s is/ has to be breaking some law by deleting these post and redirecting URL’s. I fully plan to look into this, I spoke to the IT guy At work today and he says it is a break of federal law. That these people seem to just be getting themselves into more trouble. This really has my attention now. And anyone interested in free speach or even the gift we have been given to blog our thoughts and opinions should be deeply concerned by this company’s obviouse attempt at silencing it’s criticts. I can not believe that any lawyer representing this company would give them this advice. I know one thing I am not Scoble , I will set up a 1000 different blogs and let them delete them so that I can sue. Not for money but principal. How dare they think they have some power over the internet.

I do know that Cuppy’s has made offers to ostensibly neutral parties, including a journalist. In my case, I was approached by a frequent blogger (and defender of Cuppys) on the site and I said bluntly that I was not for sale and gave a blunt message for the blogger to relay back to Cuppys.

I posted 3 times on the payola issue before I finally got one of the posts which did not mysteriously disappear.

It is bad enough to pay people to post fake blogs. But there are a host of curious coincidences and electronic evidence which is– shall we say, indicative of a malicious program.

Some of you may have already have figured out what happened with the BlueMauMau site; suffice it to say that other blogs such as FranchisePundit have now seen the need for more robust defense against the bad guys and upgraded their protection.

Most of the world does not need to care about abusive franchise companies.

But… hacking websites and deleting negative comments from someone else’s website without the permission of the webmaster is serious and should be of great concern to all of us.

BTW: Let’s not be hard on Scoble– he did what he had to do, he broke no laws, and besides if there is an investigation and he is under oath (along with the franchisor’s attorneys and marketing people) my guess is that Scoble is itching to tell the truth once he is protected against anyone suing him.

And let’s remember that Scoble went out on a limb and forced light on this issue. We should be commending him for that.

Before even starting, head over to FranchisePicks’ summary of the situation Cuppy Coffee’s going through. Click Here. Are you done? Great! As you might have figured out by now, this is a terrible PR situation for the company to be in. Not only have …