Freeman Group is not making payments to much of anyone. I would certainly NOT recommend accepting any future shops, unless you are okay not getting reimbursed anytime soon. Clearly the track record of the company is evident. Employees dissappearing only tells me that even their employees are getting tired of not getting paid. Didn't they go through this exact thing 2 years ago?

Has anyone contacted .......................................... to address non-payment? If so, what have they said?

TxShopette,
While I agree with what you are say, you need to adjust you comment to maybe just clients. We all signed the ICA and stating an company and there clients is a direct violation.

I shopped for Freeman in the Netherlands, a [restaurant] in Amsterdam on May 1st 2012...I had endless email exchanges and even phonecalls about being paid for this visit. Till now (14th September) I have not been paid. All the time I receive different information, although everything has been approved and this was also confirmed in some of the mails. The last 'promise' was made by Kim Scarcia, in a rather patronizing tone of voice: I shouldn't be so impatient, the first possible date I could expect payment was the end of August. Bill Freemans'letter I never received, but I do get invitations for other shops!
Last week I send another mail to Kim Scarcia, which bounced telling me she did not work for Freeman anymore but I should direct my mails to payments....
Never before during my extensive mystery shopping 'career' I came across a company that treated its mystery shoppers in such a way. Are there any more shoppers from outside the US that have the same problems and how to handle this?
Thanks, a 'cloggie'

I worked for the company for some time and am dissappointed to say the least.

CJJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I shopped for Freeman in the Netherlands,xxxxxxxxxxx I had
> endless email exchanges and even phonecalls about
> being paid for this visit. Till now (14th
> September) I have not been paid. All the time I
> receive different information, although everything
> has been approved and this was also confirmed in
> some of the mails. The last 'promise' was made by
> Kim Scarcia, in a rather patronizing tone of
> voice: I shouldn't be so impatient, the first
> possible date I could expect payment was the end
> of August. Bill Freemans'letter I never received,
> but I do get invitations for other shops!
> Last week I send another mail to Kim Scarcia,
> which bounced telling me she did not work for
> Freeman anymore but I should direct my mails to
> payments....
> Never before during my extensive mystery shopping
> 'career' I came across a company that treated its
> mystery shoppers in such a way. Are there any more
> shoppers from outside the US that have the same
> problems and how to handle this?
> Thanks, a 'cloggie'


Oops, CJJ. Please edit your post. Forum guidelines state "Do not reveal the clients of mystery shopping companies."

Thank you.

TxShopette Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I worked for the company for some time and am
> dissappointed to say the least.


I used to work for Freeman too, but now I am a free man.

I have only shopped once for the Freeman Group. May 2012. They owe me $131.00 dollars. I have emailed them several times. I will email them daily until I hear from someone.

After attempts for months to collect on shops from Nov 2011 to Feb 2012, I decided to research online. Like others, I received the email in early August regarding pay but have yet to receive payment. I am owed $501.73 for my various shops. My daughter is also owed for 2 shops, so my guess is $150-$200. I have not been emailing daily but I have mentioned attorney's. I guess I will start emailing daily in hopes of payment.
There are lots of companies I shop for but I will not shop for Freeman again, even if I get paid!

I am owed quite a bit going back to February of this year and have reluctantly taken some of their assignments as they had been making semi-regular payments to me, but usually only after I emailed. I have not received any payments either since Mr. Freeman sent that letter. But now, I have emailed the general 'payments' email twice in the past two weeks with no response. I guess it is time to start emailing Bill Freeman and all the executives daily. In my stupidity, I took and completed two hotel shops over two weeks ago and they are still sitting in Sassie unedited and unrated, so I guess they probably aren't paying their editor either. I am going to fill out the form that someone created and hopefully get something back.

Have gotten no response for a while now. Even directly emailing Bill Freeman or the payment requests e-mail is getting me know where. The last response I received from anyone was a promise of payment on August 22. Has not arrived yet.

I am a mystery shopper from Middle East. I have performed a mystery visit for Freeman since June and till now no one paid my money. Do you know who can I contact?
Thank you

I never received the letter, but I contacted them and got no answer so I filed a report a couple of weeks ago with the BBB. Lets see if they answer. I completed two shops in March and in August I got paid for one of the hotel stays. 7 months and still waiting! and no update from anyone!

So yea, I was duped big time. Freeman owes me almost $900 ($360 in payments; $534.63 in reimbursements -- all daily gaining interest on credit cards). My last email to them was Oct. 3, in which I said my next step would be to take legal action.

So, anyone who can tell me the most expedient route would receive my most sincere appreciation!

I've seen that several of you have filed a complaint with the BBB, which will certainly do. However, I'm not real clear which one to file the complaint with; I live in Louisiana - do I still file with Dallas? And then...?

Also, has any more action been taken on a class lawsuit? If I can help in anyway, count me in.

Sure wish I had known about this forum a lonnnng time ago! Thanks all!


Linda ~~ shopping New Orleans, surrounding areas, and the country when I travel

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/09/2012 11:34PM by Llrod.

Hi all

I am in the UK. Owed around USD165, mostly expenses as I only did one job (Freeman have only one client in the UK/Europe as far as I know and I have just had confirmation that this client has severed its relationship.

@Llrod
I filed a complaint with the Dallas BBB, it was accepted and sent to Freeman but they chose not to reply. I received a 'case closed' notification this week since the request had timed out.

What worries me is that there has been a marked downturn in communications in September and OCtober. In August I was getting prompt answers from staff when I emailed - the answers were useless and did not lead to payment. but at least there was dialogue.

I am not getting any repsonses on emails, I am emailing the executives every other day. There are no jobs at all on the Freeman job boards, which is worrying if this becomes permanent as presumably they are not gaining any revenue, which I guess means they will have no money to pay us.

Here in the UK there is a quick way to take a company to court - its called 'small claims' and is designed to be low-cost and low-burden. It can be done online and does not usually require a face to face appearance at court, and does not require lawyers. If anyone knows of an equivalent process in the US please do let me know.

Fingers crossed for us all.

I meant to add that I emailed the client directly to ask if they could assist. This is the response I received, I am sharing this for the benefit of others in this situation. Note the phrase "they did not fulfil their obligations to us either".

If you have shopped the same client (a restaurant) I would suggest emailing them also so they can forward your concerns.


START QUOTE

EMAIL

from: Customer Care

Dear [firstname],

Thank you very much for reaching out to [us]. We are aware of this situation and disappointed that the Freeman Group has not paid you, and a number of other shoppers, in a timely manner.

We have severed our ties with The Freeman Group, our former contracted vendor in Mystery Shopping, as a result of these types of complaints. Once the situation became known to Hard Rock International, we discontinued utilizing their services.

We take all concerns very seriously and appreciate you bringing your particular issue to our attention. We empathize with your situation, and we have forwarded your inquiry to representatives of the Freeman Group expressing our serious concern that they are not rendering payment. Ultimately, they are an independent contractor who we don't control, and they did not fulfill their obligations to us either.

Please feel free to contact us again if we may be of any help to you in the future.

END QUOTE

This is not good.

I can't tell you how sad I find this whole situation - "Freeman owes me almost $900 ($360 in payments; $534.63 in reimbursements -- all daily gaining interest on credit cards). " AND - how many more shoppers are owed large amounts like this - not just fees but also reimbursements because they actually put out their own money to complete the assignments. And now the clients have dumped Freeman ... and does this mean these shoppers owed hundreds will never be paid?

I was very lucky to find this forum in 2008, not long after I started mystery shopping. Because of the posts I read here in 2008-now, I have never shopped for Freeman even though I am registered with them. Other shoppers were not so lucky and many are in this same boat. With no more shops, I am concerned that Freeman will never be able to generate the income to pay these shoppers. Sad. The whole thing.

I just sent an email to the group of email addresses listed above threatening small claims/legal action. I also sent an email to the client, whom I already see here has severed its relationship.

For a while they had been responding, but that has
> not been happening anymore. I'm not sure if the
> company completely goes belly up who you could
> even go after in small claims court anymore. I
> know there was discussion about a class action
> lawsuit but when dollar amounts were totaled from
> shoppers who reported at that point in time of the
> Belief was that the total dollar figures were not
> near enough what would be needed to actually begin
> a class action lawsuit. If at least one of the two
> main client has discontinued working with them,
> they have little to no source of income coming in,
> so they have nothing left to pay us. I do know
> that they were not even caught up to the beginning
> of 2012 in the back payments and my payment is
> from February. Unfortunately those of you who are
> owed more money than me may need to figure out an
> alternate source of paying off these bills.

ffrieszell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dear Floyd,
>
> Lies lies lies lies lies
> Lies lies lies lies lies
> More lies, more lies
> Lies lies lies
> I'm a liar and a cheat
> Lies lies lies
> >
> Bill Freeman
> Freeman Group Prevarications

I never received a letter from the freeman group nor a payment from them, all my emails and phone calls were before run arounds and now not even returned

Well he has owed me over $400 for over a year, for 4 hotel shops. I don't think that they should ever be able to work in the business again, if they don't pay their debts. I'm sure they got paid.

You are a little late to the game, but welcome.