I didn't have a choice. They did not pay, and when I got responses, they always said the same thing. Missing receipts, missing form. I kept forwarding emails that I had sent immediately following the shop that had the "missing" items. I know that they are/were either quite disorganized to lose things that many times, or that they used it as an excuse not to pay on time, given they were hurting financially. They hurt my family financially in that process. I had to sit on missing $122 for 9 months, which I would not have agreed to do at the time had I known that, upfront. As with your experience with RE, my shop for F was also a poor experience. The waiter would have given Houdini a huge run for his title as a disappearing act, most of the food was incorrectly prepared, orders served were not for the items ordered, etc. Wait times were way off. Of course, as with any poor service experience, the report took lots of time to write, as it needs extra attention to detail to provide an objective discussion of what went wrong. It is always SO much easier and faster to write up a great service experience!

My tolerance level for missing payments ends a couple of days after the contracted due date. This is a business transaction for me, and I have done my end of the transaction when the shop has been accepted by an MSC. I start calling and emailing, and when/if that fails, stating I will take further action. If there had been a problem with the shop from my actions or lack thereof, I would, of course, expect not to be paid. But this is never the case in these late payment situations.

I don't blame you for getting on their case. I just want to see if they are actually holding to the terms they are now telling shoppers. :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/2009 08:31AM by dee shops.

shanon49301 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 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 got payment by Paypal Oct 1 for a job done in late July as well. It was about 65 days job to payment when 8 weeks (56 days) was what was indicated to me as well. It did have the $5 late payment fee added.

Sorry to hear about that dee, I do make sure that I have a fax conformation and then if they claimed they did not get it, you have that on your side and then show then how incompetent they really are.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My tolerance level for missing payments ends a
> couple of days after the contracted due date. This
> is a business transaction for me, and I have done
> my end of the transaction when the shop has been
> accepted by an MSC. I start calling and emailing,
> and when/if that fails, stating I will take
> further action. If there had been a problem with
> the shop from my actions or lack thereof, I would,
> of course, expect not to be paid. But this is
> never the case in these late payment situations.

I understand your concern. Anyone who has been around the business long has been burned a few times late payments/no payments. Certainly my July shop for Freeman was in part to see how they were coming along with payments. There are few enough companies that strike me as overall "good guys" that it pains me when one of them is in troubles. Freeman, for me, fits that category. I emailed them as well, but now that I see another shopper got paid on the first, I am willing to assume that payment was already in the pipeline and her payment for an Aug 1 shop was even closer to the 8 weeks promised than was mine. I definitely will work for Freeman again at the next opportunity, though will be taking it one shop at a time, accepting the next one as the first one is paid until I feel they are solidly back on track. And for me, it means never being out of pocket with them for more than a couple hundred dollars, which my shopper fund can tolerate for 8-10 weeks.

No legitimate company should be late in paying the independent contractors who make their business function. Without the I.C.'s these companies would not exist. It's unconscionable that a company asks I.C.'s to front the money for a project, pay the interest on the credit card (required for the hotel reservation) for up to two months, then is late in paying said contractor. If any company is late in paying and they decline to respond do your emails or phone calls, REPORT THEM IMMEDIATELY to that state's Attorney General and to the Better Business Bureau. They would be quick to fire you if you were a day late on the assignment. They should practice good business and return the same courtesy.

Certainly not a tactic I would recommend dktomb if you plan on trying to work with the company again. While there are many companies out there, burning bridges is generally not a good practice unless you are just so disgusted you would never in a million light years work with them again.

Of course, Flash. Your point is well made. But why WOULD you want to work for a company again if they are seriously late paying? Surely one has more self respect than to be abused by the same company repeatedly, right? As I stated in the posting, "If any company is late in paying and they decline to respond do your emails or phone calls, REPORT THEM IMMEDIATELY to that state's Attorney General and to the Better Business Bureau." Again, that action would be appropriate if said company refuses to respond to your inquiries for payment. Agreed?

The original post on this thread referred to Freeman. They are a fine example of why I would not raise a ruckus. I have worked with them for a long time and they have been great to work with. I have found them one of the handful of companies that treat shoppers like colleagues. While I would not suggest other shoppers go out on a limb for them, I certainly would because I believe they will recover with the economy and I will certainly be delighted to work with them then. It would be a great loss to me as a shopper for them to go out of business or be bought out by a company such as MFI that has little regard for shoppers except the attitude that we should always be doing the same job for less pay and more requirements. I don't think that one can make a generic and sweeping statement of what one "should" do since every case is different for each shopper.

So, Flash, you don't agree that if a company (any company, no one company in particular) refuses to pay and refuses to answer any/all communication after work has been performed for them, that the IC shouldn't seek legal remedies? What, then, would you suggest the IC do who has put out money up front and submitted a perfectly acceptable report? I'm really curious as to your answer. Remember, it's nothing personal, it's purely business. What would you suggest the IC do after the company (again, any company) refuses to respond?

That is not what I am saying and you know that darn well, so why start a fight?

I am saying that this thread was about Freeman, who I respect and although I am terribly disappointed that they are and have been behind on payments, I believe will and has made good eventually without resorting to legal actions.

I know of very few shoppers who have recovered anything by reporting to BBB or to other authorities and in general the cost even of filing small claims is prohibitive. So yes, mount your high horse and declare what others "SHOULD" do, but also be a realist. When a company treats you poorly, it generally works better to fuss about it on a forum and move on. Not that the fussing will do any good, but perhaps you will feel better.

Flash, you've missed my points completely. I, too, have a good rapport with Freeman. My comments, again, were not about Freeman, but about ANY company who fails to pay on time or provide a reasonable, legitmate case for not doing so. As IC's we have little recourse, as opposed to other creditors who are owed money by the non-paying company. I've been burned a few times by poorly run SS companies who are no longer in business.

Your comment, "When a company treats you poorly, it generally works better to fuss about it on a forum and move on. Not that the fussing will do any good, but perhaps you will feel better..." holds no merit from a contractual or sound business practice. It's foolish to only "fuss" about something and not take action. Again, this is not referring the company at the top of this thread, but any company who owes you money. In fact, it applies to any company with whom one does business as an employee, IC, or customer. I'm not going to belabor this any longer. Happy Shopping!

My reaction is that 'fussing' in an open forum has had significantly higher results than anything else when companies are not responsive and even some times when they are responsive but not giving acceptable responses.

I spent a great deal of time last year with a company that closed its doors and left shoppers holding the bag for thousands of dollars. I never saw a cent, nor did the other shoppers holding their respective bags. Trying to collect cost me more in time and energy than just getting out there to do more jobs. This guy could have cared less about the BBB or the state's AG. He had had a lot of jobs done when he knew he had already received the $ to pay for them but he spent the $ elsewhere and then declared bankruptcy.

I remember other companies getting into financial hot water who caused shoppers to waste a whole heck of a lot of their time trying to get paid with checks that were not rubber. While eventually I think they all got paid with valid checks, the damages of bank fees were not taken care of.

But my point is that you don't burn your bridges with a company you might want to work with in the future, you be more businesslike than they are and at a certain point you step back, save your energy for other work and don't work for them further until/unless you get paid and raise a fuss to warn others. At least that is my approach and certainly each of us needs to explore the options we are comfortable with. Sure you attempt the contacts and certainly unresponsiveness escalates the shopper's response.

And I agree that fussing is not a 'sound business practice' but often it brings better results as companies try to save themselves from embarrassment. I currently have a personal issue with my bank. They have screwed up my account something fierce. They have acknowledged the problem and it is to be fixed in '4-5 business days'. We are about at the end of that time frame and it is not fixed. I know the way to get it handled quickly is to go in on Friday afternoon when there are many customers present and state the problems a little too loudly to the associate such that many folks can 'overhear' the conversation.

"Fussing" on a popular mystery shopping forum about a company that was unresponsive and late with payment got me paid the same week. I doubt that going to the AG or the toothless BBB would have had the same effect as quickly.

The company filed BK later that year and left many shoppers holding the bag for high end dining and hotel shops.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2009 05:20PM by dee shops.

And certainly "fussing" gives others a heads up that all may not be well so they should approach the company's jobs with caution.

There is a phone number on your evaluation form that gets a person. I just got paid for a shop done in June

gaylacooper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is a phone number on your evaluation form
> that gets a person. I just got paid for a shop
> done in June


That is a long time, still, Gayla. It is 4-5 months after completion, depending on when in June the shop was completed. At least it is better than what they were doing at this time last year, and much of this one. Did they give you that as the time frame in which you would be paid, or did they state something different? Was it money you would have spent at the establishment anyway, or something you did strictly as a shop?