Sean Kelly, who writes the Franchise Pick blog for b5media (where I am also and author and channel editor), has a pretty disturbing, if true, post about the coffee franchise Cuppy’s (formerly Java Jo’z).
The gist is that few months ago Scoble wrote about his brother Ben’s problems with the franchise. A tempest ensued over allegations of bad business practices from Cuppy’s. Fair enough, standard fare for the Blogosphere. The odd thing is that suddenly Scoble’s post disappeared. So did posts on both of his brothers’ blogs. Then other negative posts started disappearing and blogs critical to Cuppy’s started to have problems. To make it more interesting, comments on the LJ and Xanaga sites for Cuppy’s turned effusively glowing. There are now questions regarding the company threatening or even (maybe) bribing bloggers to delete posts or change their tune.
Sean has heard from Ben Scoble and he can’t talk about the issue, which means that some legal maneuvering has been taking place. So the question remains, what’s going on here? Is a company trying to silence critics? While there might not be any thing wrong going on here, it certainly doesn’t look good.
Tags: Cuppy’s, Java Jo’z, franchises
[…] Original post by Yahoo News Converted to RSS .92 Formaat and software by Elliott Back […]
Pingback by Blog For Business - Is Cuppys Trying To Stifle Bad PR About Them Business Blog Consulting — January 27, 2007 @ 11:26 am
[…] Is Cuppy’s trying to stifle bad PR about them? […]
Pingback by Franchise Pick - Bloggers alarmed at Scoble’s Deleted Posts, Cuppy’s Coffee situation — January 27, 2007 @ 11:43 am
[…] Want a juicy tale involving Robert Scoble, his brother Ben, a franchise fiasco, a bullying corporation, and a disappearing post from Scoble’s own blog? Then you’ve got to read this. Additional coverage here and here. […]
Pingback by Scandalous Weekend Links | Copyblogger — January 27, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
Cuppy’s and Java Jo’z
Ok well it seems the whole Cuppy’s / Java Jo’z whole world is going mad. How a company trying to avoid some much deserved bad press can go around deleting and rerouting url from blogs and legit web sites! I have been following all of this very closley mainly because I randomly Googled ROY Snowden , World Media International and Magazine sales crews, When I stumbled upon all this stuff going on with this man. I can not say that I was at all surprised. When working for him on the Mag crew I seen just how rotten and slimey he could be! Now all of these peoples lives are being negitivley impacted by his shaddy dealings. I personaly do not know why he is not being sued and / or investigated on all of these other alligations. Just goes to show you how our goverment spends its time chasing all the wrong criminals. This man should have ben in jail years ago.
So now Cuppy’s / Java Jo’z/ Medina Enterprises are going around and deleting all the negitive comments about them. Listen, these people bought a company from a convicted criminal, who they knew was involved in these shady practices. Roy Snowdens “friend” and ex partner is now part of this Cuppy’s but they say they have no affiliation w/ Java Jo’z or Roy Snowden and Kim Snowden. First of all hacking is illegal. Second how stupid do these people think the public are. I find it utterly humorus the comments and bloggs the “employee’s” are writing about this company….Hmmmm…all this brain washing sounds very familiar. Doesn’t it Roy. ANd the people who use to work for them and are blogging the truth they are dogging.
Only as an adult have I truly realized that there are people out there who do not have an honest bone in there body, some people are so obsessed w/ the love of money and lifestyle that they will trample on anyone to get it. I tink all of these people Roy Snowden, Kim Snowden, Ben Doyle, Medina Enterprises , Cuppy’s , Java Jo’z need to be further investigated.
Also this man who started all the Buzz about the scam and losing of money’s has dissapeared from the net. Either scared by a letter from the lawyers of these cowards threatning a law suite or quite possibly bought off. This country was founded on free speach and If this Ben Scoble is not a dunce he knows he can say anything he believes to be true in any forum he wants.
I am quite disgusted by this whole thing, I hope they all get what they deserve.
I personally feel what ever you put out there comes back to you ten fold!!! And when I was a scared 19 year old in a bus station in the ghetto of St. PAul w/ no mOney or bus ticket i prayed this man would someday get his. I can only hope that all of this bites him in the ass, “law of averages” says you can’t get away with everything forever.!
PLease read about this…and give me some feed back!!!
XXXXOOOOO
Comment by Trisha A. Paliotti — January 29, 2007 @ 2:37 pm
Trisha you’ve made some good points here. I know that the PR agency working with them has contacted a few bloggers to try to mend fences. The question is whether this is too little too late.
Clearly the blogosphere played some role in getting action on this debacle, but you have to wonder at what cost?
Comment by Tris Hussey — January 29, 2007 @ 3:10 pm
I completley agree, my problem is big money stuffing sox in the mouths of decent americans, just trying to get justice.
Comment by Trisha Paliotti — January 29, 2007 @ 4:27 pm
[…] A fellow b5 Biz Channel blogger Sean Kelly has been following the saga of Cuppy’s and the blogosphere. I blogged about it as well on Business Blog Consulting and Sean’s latest post (link above) uses a good Star Trek metaphor for how companies must feel wading into the blogosphere. […]
Pingback by Bolding going where no one has gone before … getting into bad PR on the blogosphere : One By One Media — January 29, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
clips of lesbians…
clips of lesbians …
Trackback by clips of lesbians — February 13, 2007 @ 8:57 am
[…] Is Cuppy’s trying to stifle bad PR about them? […]
Pingback by Bloggers alarmed at Scoble’s Deleted Posts, Cuppy’s Coffee situation — June 8, 2007 @ 6:31 pm