Slow Pay/Missing Pay with Freeman Group

Does anyone have the contact link for Freeman Group? I did a shop for them in June, with a bill in excess of $100 and I have not been paid.
I can not reach them. My emails come back as undeliverable.

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I have only their log-in link, which I'm assuming is what you've tried with no success. Never have shopped with them, but I received an email from them yesterday that there were shops in my area. After logging in, there are visits I can accept. Can we discern from that email that they're still alive and kicking?

Yes, more months will need to pass before you see any payment. Do not expect it will come to you without effort on your part. At least right now. They appear to be righting their efforts, but they are still behind, way behind, on payments, according to shoppers elsewhere.

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“Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling."
~Gilbert K. Chesterton

Thank you for your responses. If anyone has a contact link that is what I am looking for. The link on the site comes back as undeliverable.

They are saying that their pay cycle is 8 weeks these days. Check your records (either printouts or emails) and contact your scheduler.

If you have done a job for them you can find their number on the paperwork you had to download. It took lots of emails and calls to get paid 3 months later. Good Luck ps google freeman group for contact info.

I heard from them several days ago. Thank you everyone for your help.

lmd1956 Wrote:
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> I heard from them several days ago. Thank you
> everyone for your help.

What did you hear? Are they paying you NOW, or did you get the email that says they are behind and are "on track" to pay at X date in the future?

They are absolutely terrible in paying. I did a job for them in JANUARY. They had called me on the phone and asked me to do a visit and take photos. It took me until JULY, after e-mailing them several times, to get paid. I don't like having to keep payments "pending" that long. The CFO sent me two different e-mails during that period advising they were having trouble with paying their employees and blaming it on their customers. I did not and do not believe Wyndam Hotels was having any problem paying for the services -- Freeman has the problem. Consequently, I have declined any further offers.

I am a minority of one with them I think. I have a history with them that has been overall positive. I actually respect them for being up front that their customers are slow to pay. And as for the hotel group in question, it would not surprise me if they are being slow to pay because what I see here are more shops where that client has disposed of a hotel and you are to go in and make sure all logos and materials are gone. Hotels in good financial condition are not going to dispose of locations unless they have just opened newer, bigger, brighter locations. That chain is shrinking in my market. Knowing Freeman's slow pay recent history I still am enough of a believer that as one shop gets paid I am taking on the next one.

Service Impressions is also keeping me up to date on their payment status. The most recent email indicated they had finally received payment for a project I was involved in and explains that the bank wants the full 11 days for the check to clear. Are they lying? I have no way of knowing, but I suspect they are not. Are they late in payment? Yes, but not drastically yet.

No, you aren't a party of one. There are one or two persons on V with the same basic ideas..."keep 'em alive by doing some jobs as they are overall a good company that made some bad decisions."

My most recent shop for Freeman was indicated 8 weeks pay. That was what I agreed to. 8 weeks is a long time to wait for a reimbursement but not unheard of. Service Sleuth, aTH and Intellishop are generally the companies I work with that are slowest to pay while not breaking their stated payment time, with some taking up to 90 days. If I go more than 90 days with Freeman I am going to be very disappointed with them that they still are not stating a moderately accurate pay cycle.

I did a shop at the end of January and didn't get paid until the first week in August. It was a hotel take over with a bonus. They say now that they are in a 8 week payment cycle but I don't know if I would trust that, as I was promissed payment for the shop in May June and July. If you have the extra $$$ and the shop is bonused I would consider it. But only getting $5. extra for waiting 6 months for payment..... is it worth it?

Thank you all for your comments. I received payment yesterday. I would do another shop for them. In this day and age everyone is struggling, including the mystery shop companies.

lmd1956 Wrote:
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> Thank you all for your comments. I received
> payment yesterday. I would do another shop for
> them. In this day and age everyone is struggling,
> including the mystery shop companies.

And yet, is your bank gonna say, "Oh, (whatever named MSC) is having a tough time in this economy? That means you can't pay this month? Oh, okay. No issues. We'll wait. And no extra interest fees, either."

This is a business. If the businesses you work for are not making their bills, neither are you.

This Company is a joke when it comes to payment. Do you think they would be happy if we turned our reports in 4 or 5 months later? I think not. They finally paid me for one of the jobs I did for them, but they still owe me for one I did a month before the one they paid me for. The VERY least they could do is to communicate with us.

I see the problem here is that they are damned if they do and damned if they don't communicate. For a while they were sending 'all hands' emails about their financial situation and when they hoped to be able to pay folks and that brought waves of criticism and sarcasm. Then when they stopped, THAT brought on waves of criticism and sarcasm. So why bother? Get your payments and stop working with them if it upsets you. Simple. Knowing their situation I did do a shop for them and I am out of pocket under $100. If/when I get paid I am willing to do another shop for them. If the payment is within the 8 weeks advertised I will be willing to be out of pocket no more than $200. If it takes 8-12 weeks I will be willing to be out of pocket $100 again. If it takes longer than that then what I am willing to do will definitely depend on the relative fee to out of pocket ratio. It is all part of what 'risk management' we do or should be doing as shoppers.

If your payment is currently past due, go back to your scheduler and then work your way up the corporate hierarchy until you get a response.

Is there any recent news on Freeman Group, are they paying within an 8 week cycle?
They periodically email me with shops for a motel chain which I have considered taking but I have read this and other forums, and it seems you are only getting paid if you chase them down. Any updates?
Thanks!

Sliver certified in Edmonton, AB

Haven't heard. I did a job for them 7/26 that is no yet paid but 8 weeks have not elapsed either.

I was paid on Sep 01 for an assignment I performed on Apr 29. That's a four month wait. I have a number of other reimbursement hotel shops that I performed in May and June for which I am still awaiting payment. I expect that they will be paid according to a similar schedule. I personally am not worried as I have forged a professional relationship with a number of the company principals and can understand the financial dilemma they are facing. I appreciate their candor and I am fortunate enough that I can afford to wait for payment without having to use "borrowed" money via a credit card or credit line. The $5.00 bonus for waiting four months represents a 15% per annum return on the average $100 per assignment that I have fronted them. These days I can't get that much with a CD or bond. Do I recommend shoppers take this "calculated" risk? Absolutely not. I do because I like Bill Freeman. I would have spent the money on hotels visiting the areas I was touring, so in my case, it really is a win/win situation. Were my financial situation different, or should it change in the future, my opinion would certainly be to the contrary.

lame1, your reaction is exactly the same as mine. I do respect the principals there and I do assume I will eventually be paid and I can afford to float a certain amount of unpaid shops for them. They have been such a wonderful source of really good work for me in the past that I don't plan on throwing in the towel, but I would not recommend them to a shopper who cannot quietly wait for 4-6 months for payment. My recent shop for them was not for my convenience but rather for them to get it done. I will recycle the proceeds of that shop to another shop once I receive them.

I've not shopped with them, but signed to see what's available. The past three months, they've only shown a low-cost lodging chain. Either they don't offer more around me, or you have to work your way up.

There are two different groups with Freeman. There are the shops that are posted on the Prophet and then there are the special shops that you apply to be part of the program, have writing samples closely scrutinized, go through phone training and quizzes and then do shops. I've done stuff through both branches and it is definitely through the non-Prophet branch that you get to know the principals involved because you are working closely with them.

Are the 'special' shops, not-Prophet, primarily hospitality? If a shopper is interested, where's the entrance?

They are hospitality and they generally require a significant personal outlay, some of which is charges to be backed out of a credit card by the hotel, but far from all of it. Not something I would suggest trying until they get their financial act together (talking perhaps a thousand bucks or more on some of them).

I did not have much of a problem getting paid from them, I did one shop at the end of July and one on Aug. 1. I emailed them today as they told me they pay eight weeks from shop. I got paid for both of them pay pal two hours after the email went!

I am curious if you would have been paid had you not emailed. We will never know. I had to spend many hours and 9 months waiting for my money, and to finally get paid I had to go to the top dog. Yes, I got paid that day. But that was 7 months too many to wait, and I will not work for them again.

I don't know I was not about to wait and find out. I did the shop and then read the posts on here, so I wanted to stay on top of them and make sure that I didn't get screwed over. I went through a lot to get paid from restaurant evaluators too.

Perhaps. But not 9 months of trying. :-)

I don't know how you dealt with that. I know that I will never deal with RE again. The place they sent me sucked and the service was bad. The staff swore and lots of other vulgar things. I don't think I will do any shops for Freeman anytime soon either, two months is a long time to wait to get paid for what I had to pay out.

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