I did a well known large chain restaurant shop for The Freman Group on 07/03/12 and was told it takes 60-90 days to get paid, and I should contact them the end of September .I have been calling and sending emails daily and no one has called me back or responded to my emails. They owe me $135.30. My next step is the BB and contact their client direct they should know what kind of people they hire.It looks like I'm not the only one,well maybe if we call keep on them we can get our money . What a bunch of crooks. This is the only Mystery Shopping Co I have had trouble with.

I am assuming this is the Rock N Roll theme shop? I believe someone on another post indicated that they did contact them and they told the shopper that they have ended their relationship with Freeman. Not sure if you would be able to recoup any money from them. And contacting the BBB is a waste of time as Freeman's rating is an 'F' and they dont respond to the BBB attempts to resolve. I am owed more then $600 and it looks like we are S*** out of luck. I think Freeman is going under since no one answers the phone or emails. Check out the sticky at the top of this board- I know a few people had talked about a class action lawsuit, but if Freeman goes Bankrupt, that wont do anything.

nmaucgard2012 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did a well known large chain restaurant shop
> for The Freman Group on 07/03/12 and was told it
> takes 60-90 days to get paid, and I should contact
> them the end of September .I have been calling and
> sending emails daily and no one has called me back
> or responded to my emails. They owe me $135.30. My
> next step is the BB and contact their client
> direct they should know what kind of people they
> hire.It looks like I'm not the only one,well maybe
> if we call keep on them we can get our money .
> What a bunch of crooks. This is the only Mystery
> Shopping Co I have had trouble with.

Welcome to the forum, nmaucgard. There are a number of shoppers in the same boat as you, many owed much more for much longer. Use the "Search" function and put in "all dates" and search for Freeman and you can read quite a lot. The late payment by Freeman has gone on for a very long time and it seems now to have turned to non-payment. The BBB is generally not much help in getting payment when an IC performs work for a company. Small claims court may be an option. Several possible collection options are discussed in other threads. See the thread at the top of this page, posted by JacobJ, the forum owner, "Are you owed money by the Freeman Group?" to join others who are also owed money by Freeman.

I completed a shop for them as well on July 22, 2012. I have sent many emails to them. I even contacted the Mystery Shopping Providers Association to try to get some answers. They themselves said, "...it appears that company is no longer in business." I am extremely frustrated. I have even emailed the legal department of the company I did the shop for. I then googled the company and found this discussion. I hope we can all get some answers ASAP!

I am having the same problem. I started shopping for them in 2009. They were always slow, but I did eventually get paid from 2009-2011. I did a lot of hotel shops, because I was traveling quite a bit, so I would have been out the money for hotel stays anyway. I figured it was better to eventually get reimbursed than never. But, in 2012, things stopped. I did several shops on a trip in January. Payments trickled in through July, when I performed my last shop for them. I am now owed a total of $652.36 in payments and reimbursements for the remainder of my January 2012 shops, as well as two in March, one in April, and one in July. They no longer respond to any emails or calls. I filed the BBB report just so it would be on record.

I did two hotel shops for them in July and have not gotten paid....my emails are unanswered as are my phone calls...thankfully I only did the two shops for them.....lesson learned! ARGH!

How long are we going to bet this dead horse? All the information is on here. Seem they just keep being repeated. I see a lot of veteran poster direct new poster to the search button before posting same old information. This horse is dead .... let move on to something more positive.

stiffed shoppers need to vent. let them.

Good luck! I am still waiting on payment for a hotel shop in February, 2012, and a rock and roll theme shop in April, 2012. I have re-invoiced per their request several times and get no response to emails. I had a similar experience with a merchandising job which took over 6 months to be paid--Robin Nelson Family Business: RNFB.

I am also facing the same issue. I have performed a visit since June 2012. I have informed that I would be paid after two months and no payment was received. I sent several mails to the company and contacted the client and filed the BB case with no any reply or result. I contacted the MSPA and several assosciations with no reply.
Pleasee help us....

They owe me some $300 for two rock and roll theme shops in Germany :-(((

Are there any shoppers in the Dallas area that would be willing to file a small claims suit? It seems like this is the only way to recoup the money. I don't see how they are still in business.

It's a disgrace that they are still in business stealing from unsuspecting new shoppers.

We too have been bilked by these turkeys. I call them every day and leave messages on all their phones. I guess we can start to flood their system in Europe as well. I did talk to the Chief Operations Officer about a month ago, he noted that he was leaving the company. Even he admitted that they were having problems. He stated that I needed to call Bill Freeman at extension 214 every day as he does get his voice mails. I too would like to see if we could file a small claims case as a class action case against Bill Freeman. Additionally, because he used the internet to do his business, he is liable for wire and mail fraud. This venue is the purview of the Postal Inspector in Dallas as it is in their jurisdiction. I plan to call them later today and file a complaint. Anyone else who wants me to forward their information, please send your contact information to mlwolfert@hotmail.com. I hope we can recover our funds . . . and more importantly to put Bill Freeman in jail!

For those of you that shopped ...............:
Today I spoke with ........... thought I'd reveal the results. As soon as they saw trouble they cut all ties with Freeman so.............they tucked and ran to keep from doing the right thing. I had this issue with another company in the past and the client did the right thing by paying the shoppers directly. I shopped .................... in August and still no pay or communications.
This is my first post regarding ............................
I've filled out the form on here for the one considering a lawsuit.
I've emailed the addresses given here on the forum.
Anything else suggested?

lucyball Wrote:
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> For those of you that shopped =restaurant=:
> Today I spoke with =restaurant= corporate and thought
> I'd reveal the results. As soon as they saw
> trouble they cut all ties with Freeman so.....they
> tucked and ran to keep from doing the right thing.
> I had this issue with another company in the past
> and the client did the right thing by paying the
> shoppers directly. I shopped a =restaurant= in August
> and still no pay or communications.
> This is my first post regarding =restaurant=.
> I've filled out the form on here for the one
> considering a lawsuit.
> I've emailed the addresses given here on the
> forum.
> Anything else suggested?

I'm confused about what you are suggesting. Your lawsuit is against Freeman, correct? I don't agree that the right thing for Freeman's clients to do would have been to jump in and pay all Freeman's shoppers. I think severing ties with a company that is not paying its mystery shoppers is the right thing to do and it sounds as though the client has now done that. IMHO they waited a long time to do it, though, nonpayment has been pretty obvious for some time. I certainly would not expect that the clients would dig down into their pockets and pay the shoppers for Freeman. The clients contracted with Freeman to get mystery shop reports on their restaurant. The clients have paid Freeman for the work. Freeman has not, for whatever reason, paid its shoppers. Why would the clients be expected to come back, after paying Freeman for the work, and pay the shoppers because Freeman has not honored the contract it made with its shoppers? Freeman contracted with its shoppers and Freeman owes the payment promised to the shoppers. I see no liability for the clients. I am happy to hear that this particular client has done the right thing and fired the nonpaying company, Freeman.

I agree it is lawsuit time and I think Freeman owes many people money. If you have not done so, you should fill out the form Jacob gives in the thread "Are you owed money by the Freeman Group?" at this link:

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

I have the same case. I did a rock shop last June 6 and e-mailed them the reimbursement and payment form. They said I will be paid in 10-12 weeks but up til now I haven't been paid. I kept sending them e-mails but no one is responding.

I did a shop with them last year and I was paid. So I don't know why they haven't paid for my shop last June 6.

I hate what they are doing. Saying promises they can't keep.

Hi all

Does anyone know whether a small claim is possible? s the company still trading? Their website has gone almost blank I noticed (again not a good sign). I am in the UK. Here a small claim against a corporate or an individual can be launched online and the whole thing done by post. WHen I checked the Dallas alternative it said I would need to appear in person to swear on some particular document. Can anyone advise if there is an alternative?

Pete,
The rules differ from place to place but where I have filed small claims before (Birmingham, AL), the cost would not justify the effort. In Birmingham, the smallest claim requires a $51 filing fee and a $10 fee to have the sheriff serve the papers. You would get that back if you are awarded a judgment, but then you have the matter of collecting the judgment.

Since our work was done for Freeman Group, we have to go after the company rather than its owner. Since Freeman is effectively out of business, I doubt they have any assets we would attach.

Our best bet would be to have Bill Freeman investigated for fraud in my opinion. Because our reimbursement costs (versus the fee Freeman paid for our services) was a direct reimbursement for our expenses, those funds should not have been commingled with Freeman's operating accounts. They "belong" to the shopper and Freeman was merely the conduit for passing along the reimbursement. Again, this is my opinion, but on that basis I would think what his company did to us was criminal in nature, in which case we can go after the individual and not just the company.

I'm in the same situation ,I made two inspections ,one in June and one in September,no response,and they don't answer to my emails.What have I to do ? I'm from Italy.Thank you.

So a search using the "Search" button at the top of the page, above the forum lists. Select "Freeman" and "all dates" and you can read all information written about Freeman and the collection activities that have taken place.

Thank you !

I have been a mystery shopper for over ten years averaging over 1,000 assignments per year and have never had this experience before. I guess I am lucky that I have only one outstanding Freeman shop, and that was last June. I had received payment for all of my previous jobs within a few weeks prior to this one. I was scheduled for a shop in July and called them to see when the June payments could be expected. When I got transfered around to the third person I decided that it made sense not to do anymore until I was paid. I have not seen an open request for shops since that time. The shop I had been scheduled for was gone from the open list. As with everyone else, all attempts to contact Freeman have gone unanswered. In all my years shopping I have never found the need to post on a forum such as this before. As with some others, I have mentally written this off as a loss with Little hope of recovery. I enjoyed my dinner shops for Freeman and hope that the clients I visited will continue their shopping programs with honorable companies.

Good Luck to all. And Happy Holidays.

Irwin

Wise of you to refrain from taking new shops until paid for the previous jobs. You cut your losses drastically.

As far as not having a reason to post before this, you will find that there are a lot of reasons shoppers come to the forum. Someone with over ten years experience could provide some great insight to newer shoppers. You may want to consider sticking around because we tend to have some fun and silliness as well.

Hello, Irwin. Welcome to the forum. You sound like an aggressive and organized shopper, and I hope you'll stick around and become a regular poster on the forum. We may not be able to do much for you, but you could be a big help to others. We have some great mentors on the forum, but we would welcome one more.

There was a reply from someone in Dallas suggesting a class action law suite. I have been thinking about the possibility of contacting the Problem Solver in the DMN where they will research and put the results in the newspaper.

I did a job for them back in August 2012, I did not get paid or have my emails and phone calls replied to. I am looking to take this legal.

Hello,

I am also owed a lot of money by Freeman Group, the last hotel & restaurant shops I did for them was in September 2012. Because I also purchased the flights to Asia, my reimbursable amounts to thousands of dollars. I have given up on emailing them and I want to take legal action. Has anyone had success getting their money back and can recommend some actions to take? Thanks in advance!

I love to read the @#$%&. I also, did shops for Freeman and always got paid late. The last one I was screwed on just like y'all. It is part of the game. If that is the first time it will not be the last, I promise you. If you want to get paid every time, try working for Mac Donalds. If you chose to be an entrepreneur ie: shopper. You take your lumps and go on with life.
Dr. Bruce Lloyd shopper in New England.

Out of curiosity, why do you have two different user names Doc?