I am clueless here. Where did they respond? All I see is the first line of Jacob's message and a link bringing it back here.

That was up there as of forty-five minutes ago. I am unsure if it is still up.

[www.facebook.com]

Thank you.

Bocaraton,
I know of no evidence that would warrant putting Instant Replays on the "not paying shoppers list." I do a lot of work for them and they have never failed to pay what was owed me. If you have a probplem to report, please put it on their thread here and see what other shoppers have to say.

For those who are interested, I wrote a response to the MSPA post on their Facebook Page. I am happy they seem to be looking into the issue. I hope they are taking this issue as seriously as all of the people who are owed money.

[www.facebook.com]

Glad you posted the link. I have trouble navigating that site. Thank you for taking the time to be such an effective shopper advocate.

What about the company that schedules Freeman, should they be held accountable?
Kudo's Jacob....good for you, we all should be involved, having a strong voice together will be heard. I have not worked for Freeman, thanks to those that spoke up on our forum, thanks to reading the forum and those that were brave enough to speak up. I got my Silver through Shadow Shoppers, not the MSPA. I totally support this open letter.

So, the question is, how will shoppers know how they handled the situation? If they don't respond publicly to "internal matters," why should shoppers trust that they will handle the situation appropriately? Quite frankly, I don't like the fact that won't address the issue publicly.

It appears my response was deleted on their Facebook page. It was, as follow:

"Dear MSPA,

for the past 3 years there have been numerous reports of missing, delayed, and late payments by one of your member companies. These reports are easily found at both MysteryShopForum and at the Volition forums. The company in question is the Freeman Group. In addition, posts on this Facebook page by the MSPA have acknowledged that there is problem with this company in terms of paying shoppers.

3 years of non-compliance with the MSPA Code of Ethics is too long.

I respectfully ask you to remove any company from your organization that has such a track record. Many individual mystery shoppers have lost time and money because of the Freeman Group. Much stress, frustration, and pain has been inflicted on individual mystery shoppers due to late and missing payments.

I am open to discussing this further, in private, to help resolve this situation.

For more information, please read this:

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]
"

I guess it's clear where they stand.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 12:57AM by audrialyn30.

I nominate Jacob for Shopper of the Year!
Jacob, I'd like to buy you a beer. Just tell me when and where.

In my opinion it is all about money. MSPA and its officers get money from the member companies. They are in no mood to jeopardize their income. If they take a stand against Freeman then they are opening who new can of worms.

The code of ethics and other garbage is just to give legitimacy to their revenue stream. It is nothing but lipstick on a pig.

Having a company in the organization with pay issues is bad for business and a public relations nightmare. It behooves MSPA to get to the bottom of the issue because Freeman is hurting their credibility and reputation.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 02:51AM by audrialyn30.

It's going around on twitter that MSPA is covering for freeman and MSPA is deleting any negative posts about its member companies on facebook. Also freeman group uses twitter I just found out. I would think a company like them would.

How would MSPA be able to delete any negative posts about its member companies if you're posting on your personal page?

Nice job!

audrialyn30 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here I can do better. Per the MSPA's facebook
> post:
>
> While negative posts have been placed on this
> forum regarding an MSPA member, it is not the
> policy of the association to respond publicly to
> internal matters. We will also not allow others to
> make accusations regarding member companies or
> shoppers that may or may not have any validity.
>
> The MSPA fully investigates all issues that are
> brought to our direct attention. Once issues are
> reported to the MSPA, we work only with the
> parties involved to reach a resolution.
>



So, basically, shut your mouth and continue to let MS companies take advantage of you because we will stand behind the companies and not the shoppers? Way to go MSPA.

In case you didn't catch it that was sarcasm.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 03:15PM by savak.

President of the MSPA should resign. We need to call for their resignation. Obviously their judgement is clouded.

Thank you Jacob for standing up for us! My question concerns the hotels that hire Freeman to conduct their mystery shops. Do they not know this is going on? Seems like they should be concerned that they are not getting quality shops done.

Here I can do better. Per the MSPA's facebook
> post:
>
> While negative posts have been placed on this
> forum regarding an MSPA member, it is not the
> policy of the association to respond publicly to
> internal matters. We will also not allow others to
> make accusations regarding member companies or
> shoppers that may or may not have any validity.
>
> The MSPA fully investigates all issues that are
> brought to our direct attention. Once issues are
> reported to the MSPA, we work only with the
> parties involved to reach a resolution.
>

Total BS by MSPA
Either everyone bilked by Freeman should write an email to Jacob, saying "I appoint you as my representative to deal with MSPA on the issue of their not paying me $ ____ for ___ years____ months

and/or everyone bilked by Freeman email Jacob so he can get the names together and ask you all if you would like to hire a lawyer at this point to SUE MSPA AND FREEMAN

That might get their attention,

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 06:37PM by shoppinalong.

Not sure you would have a cause of action against the MSPA, however, a class action against Freeman (would have to be filed in Freeman's jurisdiction) asking for awarding of not only the principal but interest for every amount due from the due date forward, attorney's fees and court costs might get Freeman's attention. You might also be able to notify their clients of the class action suit without repercussions to advise them of any discovery process wherein they would have to turn over their payments to Freeman. Of course, since you guys aren't being paid, not sure what kind of repercussions you'd face anyway.

There's a possibility you could be persona non grata in the industry. Not fair but people have been blackballed for less. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

MSPA's facebook
> post:
>
> While negative posts have been placed on this
> forum regarding an MSPA member, it is not the
> policy of the association to respond publicly to
> internal matters. We will also not allow others to
> make accusations regarding member companies or
> shoppers that may or may not have any validity.
>
> The MSPA fully investigates all issues that are
> brought to our direct attention. Once issues are
> reported to the MSPA, we work only with the
> parties involved to reach a resolution.
>
> We hope everyone understands and respects this
> postion.
>
> Thoughts?


MSPA LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE !
Individuals have been writing mspa and complaining . I seem to recall their answer was they don't get involed in these complaints.

Two lines of action:

Everybody tweet "DONT TAKE MSPA CERTIFICATION GOLD SILVER TESTS."

Hurting THEM, THE MSPA in the wallet may make them more cooperative and more attentive to how shoppers feel about losing money.


or

"MSPA supports ripping shoppers off".

Shouldn't the Better Business Bureau be notified about MSPA attitude of protecting deadbeat member?

I see schedulers asking for shoppers to take Freeman carpet jobs - maybe email schedulers advertising for Freeman, how they are not paying shoppers in some cases, ever, in other cases for 4, 5 6 months after repeated emails begging or threatening.


Everyone who has a shopper FB account could post Jacob's letter and MSPA response to it , since MSPA took it down from their own site.

IMHO, if there were two stupid moves MSPA could have responded with, they did it.

As someone posted above, they're asking for a boycott of jobs they advertise and
of their "certifications" they charge shoppers mucho $$$$ for.

avitoots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not sure you would have a cause of action against
> the MSPA, however, a class action against Freeman
> (would have to be filed in Freeman's jurisdiction)
> asking for awarding of not only the principal but
> interest for every amount due from the due date
> forward, attorney's fees and court costs might get
> Freeman's attention. You might also be able to
> notify their clients of the class action suit
> without repercussions to advise them of any
> discovery process wherein they would have to turn
> over their payments to Freeman. Of course, since
> you guys aren't being paid, not sure what kind of
> repercussions you'd face anyway.



A class action requires a certain number of injured parties. Large numbers usually in the thousands. Doubtful that Freeman has that many. Maybe a hundred or more, but thousands is doubful.

Additionally it is very difficult to get a Judge to agree that a case is a class action suit.And before a class action can go forward it has to pass a Judge's smell test.

The MSPA's twitter is private, limiting what you can see. Freeman's group isnt

Actually, it doesn't take thousands. It just has to be enough people to justify the classification and that could be hundreds. Either way, if you got enough people together to split the cost of the lawsuit, it might be worth it. Also, all it might take is a threat of a lawsuit with Freeman being told that once the lawsuit is filed and discovery starts, their clients will be contacted and the clients' documents relating to Freeman's business will be demanded. Most claims never make it to filing a lawsuit. That may be enough to get them to either pay people or go out of business. Either way, it would suit the purpose.

I also wonder if there is some state or federal agency where a claim can be filed against Freeman. Would it help dissuade businesses from hiring them to do mystery shop projects if a claim was made with the Better Business Bureau? There may also be a way to file a lien against the accounts receivables without going throug a lawsuit. Something like a mechanic's lien?

audrialyn -- If other MSPs blackball shoppers because they complain about not being paid by their competitors doesn't make sense. One would think that the reputable and ethical MSPs would want to maintain their shopper roster, especially shoppers who provide well-written reports and meet deadlines.

They also have a office in Florida so those in Florida can start the suit there if they wanted. Their U.S. offices are in FL and TX so has to be one of those two states.

Anyone could probably join as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. If you file suit, the suit has to be in the jurisdiction where people either reside or do business. So, if someone lives in Illinois, they could probably file suit in either Illinois or Florida because the company is based in Florida. I would bet that the threat of a lawsuit by a number of shoppers is all that really needs to be done.