Dear Forum Community,

an update on what's been happening with the Freeman Group. As you may know, we pressured the MSPA to kick them out of their organization. Additionally, at my urging, Sassie gave Freeman Group a deadline to pay shoppers or lose their contract. Freeman did not meet the deadline, so they lost their contract with Sassie.

The combination of these things seems to have put the Freeman Group out of business. After abusing mystery shoppers for several years, they now seem to be out of business. Despite my hope that they would be able to make a turnaround and pay their shoppers, this did not happen. They failed. They stole from mystery shoppers. They're out of business.

However, the story continues. It appears that the people behind the Freeman Group are attempting to start a new company called "Service Metrics Group." We need to keep our eyes on this, and hold their feet to the fire.

Additionally, Franchise Compliance, another company that regularly abuses mystery shoppers, appears to have been kicked off the Sassie platform as well. I want to congratulate Sassie on playing an important role in protecting the interests of mystery shoppers, and the mystery shopping industry.

Thanks to you, Jacob, we have a place where we can share this kind of information. I don't think we tell you enough. Thank you for all you do!!!!! It is greatly appreciated!

So glad to have this information. I have long since given up on getting my money back from Freeman. However, the fact that they've started up a new company with a new name makes me really nervous. I certainly will not work for that new company and I wonder how many will. Glad to hear that Sassie is not messing around with them either. Thank you so much Jacob for the update.

I personally will not shop for this new company.

Thank you for the update.
So means that I cannot hope that my 2 shops will be paid right?
I see in the Linkedin that the PIC of the freemangroup now not state "freemangrop" anymore in their CV

I have the same doubt I cannot hope that my 2 shops will be paid right ?

If I were in your place, I would consider it "lost money" and move on. Then if you are paid it will be a happy surprise, but I wouldn't expect it. Freeman may well still surprise us all by paying all its shoppers their past fees, but I rather doubt it. Freeman was having difficulty paying shoppers for previous shops when they were posting shops and had income . Now that they no longer hve money coming in from current shops, I don't see them paying for previous shops.

The sassie login board still works. They still appear to be in business. If there is anyone in the Dallas area that would be willing to file a small claims suit, that may work.

Thanks for the information! And I second (or third) the thank you, Jacob, for providing this forum so that we get this kind of very important information.

I just feel bad for all the shoppers who paid out to do work for them and are now out money. I hope they get what they deserve in the end.

I know that nobody knows me from Adam, so have no reason to trust what I am about to say. I was one of the many shoppers who put their trust in Freeman Group, and performed several of their hotel shops, believing that I would be paid in a timely manner. I fell into the exact same trap as everyone else. And like many out there, I began writing the company, asking why I wasn't being paid. Also like many of you, I would receive a payment here and a payment there, sometimes several months after successfully completing my assignment. One day, when Freeman still owed me for three shops, I received a personal email from Bill Freeman. No, it was not the form letter that he sent to everyone, that only appeared to be personalized. It was actually written to me, asking me to verify my mailing address so that my check could be mailed out that same day. I responded back, asking if I could come the next day and pick my check up in person. Bill Freeman wrote back, saying yes and asking what time because he wanted to be sure that he was there when I arrived. I met with Bill the following day. My visit that day was one of relief, because I was finally able to close my books on that chapter. But it was also a real eye opener for me. I had no idea what this Bill Freeman was going to look like or what he was going to say when we finally met. I can tell you this, in all honesty, I left there that morning feeling like I had just met a once very powerful and successful individual who had been beaten down over the past couple of years. Bill took the time to give me an explanation of how things had gone so terribly wrong with his company. I remember telling him, "Bill, if you would have just reached out to your shoppers back then and opened up to them the way you just did to me now, I have a feeling that things could have turned out so much differently." He agreed. But of course, hind sight is 20-20 as they say.

While at the Freeman Group offices, Bill took and introduced me to a couple of his remaining skeleton staff. One of those individuals was Will Tarrant. It seems that these folks knew my name from the many emails I had sent over the course of several months. I actually sat down and chatted with Will. He told me at that time (about three months ago), that he, Robb, Bill and a couple of others had been working for several months without compensation. They were focused on making sure that any hourly workers got paid. And they (referring to Bill Freeman) were trying everything they could to get the shoppers paid. At the time, Freeman had lost all of their hotel, casino and restaurant contracts, but still had a few shops that needed to be completed under the old contract. That is why we all saw job postings on the website well into the period of knowing that shoppers were not getting paid. Why did Will, Robb and others remain working for a company that was not paying them? My guess is that they had a lot of hope and still some faith that things could turn around. When I met these guys, the decision had already been made, that things had failed and would not be turning around. Will told me about the new company that he and Robb were forming. He made it clear, that even though they held nothing against Bill Freeman, he was not going to be associated with their new venture in any way. Their hope was to begin a fresh, new, innovative, responsible mystery shopping company. And their promise was to take care of their shoppers, first and foremost.

No, I am not one of their elite group of auditors. I have no reason to post here, other than to say that I believe these guys should be given the benefit of the doubt, until they prove otherwise. They don’t seem to be recruiting shoppers. They are just asking that they not be given a bad rap simply because they were once affiliated with a company that went sour.

Jacob, you have been great on these boards in so many regards. You were a powerful force when it came to Freeman Group and keeping shoppers informed. I’m just not sure that I agree with you when you fault Will and Robb the way you are. As much as we would like to hold someone accountable for all of the unfortunate shoppers who never got paid by Freeman Group, I do not think it was Will or Robb’s responsibility to compensate anybody. And if they were fortunate enough to sign Freeman’s old clients, I still do not agree that, that should reflect negatively on Will and Robb. Granted, I am one of the luckier ones who no longer has anything owed to me. Had I never visited the Freeman Group headquarters, met Bill, Will and others, I would likely have very different and bitter feelings toward Service Metrics Group and anyone involved with them. I don’t usually post on these boards. But I felt that my two cents might help to shed some light on a subject that people aren’t real sure what to think about.

Personally, if I have the opportunity to work with Service Metrics Group, I would handle it the way I do anytime I start out with any mystery shopping company. I certainly learned this lesson after Freeman Group. I would start out slowly, doing just one or two shops/audits. I would then wait to see if I was paid as promised. Then I’d schedule one or two more, and do the same. If the company did right by me, I would do likewise by them. This company may offer some great opportunities for past Freeman Group shoppers. It would be a shame to deprive those shoppers of that possibility just because the founders of this new company happened to work for Freeman Group during a very troubling time in that company’s history.

Thank you for sharing your viewpoint. I noticed you have been a member of the forum for a year and the only posts you have made concerned Freeman. Last June2012 you posted to a Freeman thread and again in July 2012. The same day as your July post, you deleted both your Freeman posts. It makes me curious whether you were providing information about Freeman's nonpayment in those posts. One of the posts, of course, was deleted the same day you posted, but the other stayed posted for 2 weeks and was deleted at the same time as the second post. Was that information posted and deleted before or after your visit with the Freeman Group? Again, thanks for sharing your experience with us.

So what was the "explanation of how things had gone so terribly wrong" at Freeman?

To my simple mind the business model of a mystery shopper provider seems pretty easy: Sign huge contracts with the target companies, pay the shopper peanuts 90 days later, make money on the float, and then pocket the huge difference. It seems like the only hard part is signing and keeping the clients.

This reminds me of Restaurant Evaluators.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2013 09:45PM by CAscotch.

Folks I have also requested that the Postal Inspector in the Dallas area start a criminal investigation into the principles at Freeman Group. Norm and Bill committed wire and Internet fraud. As such, they can be prosecuted for felonies, can go to jail, and lose this ability to be Corporate officers in any other company. I also made a call the US Attorney's office in Dallas to request they investigate and prosecute these corporate officers. These requests and forms can be found on line and are easy to file. Everyone who was defrauded by these folks should enter their data to these two offices. When these criminals are prosecuted all their belongings can be taken, sold and the funds be distributed to those who were victims of these folks. I hope everyone helps to put these people behind bars.

.... Mike

Luckily I got all of the money Freeman Group owed me. Due to the problems with getting paid by them, I had not done that many shops with them (Just two or three).

aleematti Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have the same doubt I cannot hope that my 2
> shops will be paid right ?

I have two shop un-reimbursements from February totaling $200 plus credit card fees, am I to understand I am SOL...

PEOPLE----PEOPLE-------PEOPLE------Call [client] and put the fear of GOD into them. They must know that Freeman Group is almost dead. I think we are at least due a free night at any hotel in there chain.

Delta ... I know how you feel about them, but to do that would also hurt your credibility as a shopper.

That said ... in response to SLibby 1995, I know you want to be able to feel for them and try to get those shoppers to understand where Bill Freeman came from, but business is business. From what all of the posters on this forum have been saying about this situation, it is not something that happened overnight; that it has been going on for some time.

Think about the Madoff Scandal (and I am in no way shape or form comparing Freemen to Madoff). The Madoff company and its executives did what they did for YEARS. It got to a point where the bubble was about to burst, and people were going to lose all their money. When people lost their money, the Madoff pleaded poverty and said that they did not have any money to pay its "investors", so the $#!t hit the fan.

If this were something that happened over the course of a month or two or few, then I might be able to feel for them a little bit. But, from the posters on this forum, it seems like this has been going on for quite a while. They were consistantly having shops performed, and not paying their shoppers either at all or for months on end. If this is a question of the company not being paid by their clients, then they have to find a way to be able to recover that rather than continuing to have shops done for free. If this is a question of them not charging the client enough to do the shop, then it is the stupidity of the executives to not see this, and they deserve to go under. However, if this is what most people have mentioned that money that was supposed to be used for the business was not, and the books were cooked to hide it, then that is a criminal act and should be punished.

The only way to find out what is really going on is for there to be an official investigation into misconduct on the part of the company's principals. It is only then that we will truly know what went on and closure to this fiasco can happen.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this forum until much too late. Freeman Group owes me $894.63. It makes me want to vomit.

SLibby: It's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when I can't even get a response from them. I would have gladly worked with them had they given me the opportunity, but instead they have simply ignored my emails - and there appears to be no other way to contact them now. I filed a BBB report too, again with no response.

What Freeman Group can be assured of is that I will not simply lay down and take this. I will keep searching for a way to hold them accountable. It would certainly be in their best interest to contact those of us owed money. I've had enough of this big business "power" move; they think we'll simply fade out of the picture.

Angry in Louisiana,
Linda

Has anyone found out if they filed for bankruptcy? I would asume they did and that would mean that whatever assests were left in the business (probably Minimal) would be divided between their creditors. However, I think that you would have to make a claim against them; this is not automatic. Emailing them will probably have no effect.
Find out how to file in small claims court. Call your local civil court. You will have to pay a nominal fee and appear. Please keep in mind, that even if you win a judgement, there is no guarantee that you will collect.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2012 05:00AM by cynb.

Has anyone tried to contact the restaurant group or individual restaurants directly to see if they will offer some kinds of reimbursement or free meal? I must have done one of their last shops at the end of August and am out $250 or so.

mlwolfert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Folks I have also requested that the Postal
> Inspector in the Dallas area start a criminal
> investigation into the principles at Freeman
> Group. Norm and Bill committed wire and Internet
> fraud. As such, they can be prosecuted for
> felonies, can go to jail, and lose this ability to
> be Corporate officers in any other company. I
> also made a call the US Attorney's office in
> Dallas to request they investigate and prosecute
> these corporate officers. These requests and
> forms can be found on line and are easy to file.
> Everyone who was defrauded by these folks should
> enter their data to these two offices. When these
> criminals are prosecuted all their belongings can
> be taken, sold and the funds be distributed to
> those who were victims of these folks. I hope
> everyone helps to put these people behind bars.
>
> .... Mike

DrTerminus Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone tried to contact the restaurant group
> or individual restaurants directly to see if they
> will offer some kinds of reimbursement or free
> meal? I must have done one of their last shops at
> the end of August and am out $250 or so.


There are a couple problems with this ... one, it is unethical (and I believe against our ICAs) that we contact the clients to do anythign like that. And if anyone is contacted incorrectly that may jeopardize your secret shopper status with that company, and possibly MSCs as well. Number two: I assume that the clients have paid Freeman for their services; the clients hire Freemen, and Freeman in turn hires the shopper. Since assumingly the clients have paid the MSC, it is the job of the MSC to pay the shopper. Unless there is an attorney reading this forum that can elaborate on how a shopper can go after a client of an MSC with regards to payment, I doubt that contacting or going after the client for reimbursement will be a fruitful endeavor.

I did end up calling the restaurant group's headquarters. They told me that they had received many calls from Freeman shoppers; as the person I spoke to put it with in an understated manner, "We are well aware of the problem." They were unwilling either to reimburse me or even to provide me with a gift card or token of appreciation. As the last poster stated, she explained that they had fulfilled their contract with Freeman and did not renew it because they were aware that Freeman had not fulfilled their part of the contract. So now the decision is whether or not to contact the individual restaurants directly, though no doubt they have also heard from other dissatisfied Freeman shoppers.

Has anyone contacted the media?

DT: Contacting the individual restaurants will do you no good. My guess is that this restaurant group that you called owns these restaurants, so all they will be doing is referring you back to the lead client. The restaurant group, as you mentiond, fulfilled its contract with Freeman. Your contract was between Freeman and yourself (yourself being also other shoppers). And again, in the event they go to another MSC, and you want to shop those places, you will probably hurt yourself by doing that.

In thinking of the hotel chain, I'm sure they spent over hundred thousand dollars to Freeman over the time that things were going bad. Just guessing with the pay and reimbursement For these shops, $125 per shop on average probably a very conservative estimate of what the company paid. In just looking at the number of shops that showed up in my state, estimating a thousand shops over a six-month period is probably not an excessive estimate. So you have a hotel company that has already spent this much money have shoppers come saying they never got paid. I am uncertain what we can use for proof of completing the shop and not getting paid, even if they wanted to reimburse us. They have no idea which of us actually legitimately completed shops and which of us were actually paid. If word got out the hotel company giving $50 to everyone who called them, they would never get off their phone. As much as I'd love to get my money back, I think the hotel or restaurant companies unfortunately have already done their part. The blame lies solely with Freeman and if they are truly bankrupt i am not sure how most of us have a shot at getting reimbursed..

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/01/2012 05:30PM by Shelly.

Thank you for sharing this information! And thanks to you Jacob and all the members of this forum that help us share this kind of necessary info!

If you are owed money by Freeman AND they file bankruptcy - you will receive a letter in the mail identifying you as a creditor for the bad debt. Assuming Freeman has kept records of whom completed shops for them and which are unpaid.

I went through this with another defunct company (Orilio and Associates). I received notice about 90 days after OA actually filed bankruptcy. OA was a much smaller company with many fewer shoppers and presumably creditors, so I suppose the process - if they do file bankruptcy here - may be a bit slower.

In my case, I consulted an attorney and was advised that there was not a lot I could do. You can get in line with all of the other creditors; however, ICs are literally last in line to be paid legally. And one has to assume that a failed company has no real assets beyond maybe some sale of office furniture and equipment.

My thoughts go out to anyone left with a bad debt. I've been through it - it sucks - no other way around it.