Chiff and Fipple Forums

I'm starting this thread so as not to bother Mr. Freeman while he is busy helping his community during this COVID crisis and while he is trying to catch up on outstanding tweaked whistle orders.

I'm hoping that those on this board who have had recent experience (i.e. since the virus crisis started) ordering and receiving their whistles and those who have placed an order(s) and it is still outstanding to be fulfilled will share your experiences. I'm hoping it will help us (read that "me") remain patient and give him the time he needs to get caught up.

I've got two whistles on order and still to be received: on June 5th I ordered a Generation G and on June 15th I ordered a Generation Bb. (both ordered thru eBay).

When I get any information about my orders I will share it with the rest of you.

I would love to hear from any who have had any recent experience regarding your orders.

Thanks in advance.

I ordered a B natural whistle as soon as he posted here that they were "available" on January 16th of this year, and received it on June 29th.

Very nice whistle, worth the wait. As good or better than my vintage Generation Bb.

An Draighean wrote:I ordered a B natural whistle as soon as he posted here that they were "available" on January 16th of this year, and received it on June 29th.

Thanks for the info. That tells me I still may have quite a long wait ahead.

Any others care to share their info?

I ordered a Mellow Dog D/C set in March and received it in June, along with an email where Jerry told me about all of his volunteer work on COVID. I would recommend giving him some time, but contact him if you hear that he is sending whistles again - just to remind him of your order.

Alaskamike wrote:I ordered a Mellow Dog D/C set in March and received it in June, along with an email where Jerry told me about all of his volunteer work on COVID. I would recommend giving him some time, but contact him if you hear that he is sending whistles again - just to remind him of your order.

Thanks for the info on your oder Mike.

From the reply he made on the sessions website a month ago he said he was working on sending out a respectable amount of whistles. Here is a snippet of his post at that time:

"I apologize for the delay in filling orders and the lapse in communication. I’m making progress. My eBay listings have been suspended because I’ve been too slow filling orders, so I have zero income except for a tiny Social Security check. But even with the near-overwhelming taskload working on the pandemic, I’m getting a respectable amount of whistle work done. Before too much longer I’ll be caught up again and my eBay listings will reappear.

Again, I apologize for the delay, and I appreciate your patience.

With heartfelt best wishes,
Jerry Freeman

So I am hoping to gain some good information about orders going out from the people here on C&F. I don't want to bug him if I can see that I need to wait another month or so before trying to contact him.

For those that want to read his complete post here is a link to it:
https://thesession.org/discussions/45161

I ordered a Bb in January and received it in a few weeks, and was very happy. I then ordered an alto A and tenor G on April 27 and received them on July 20. I was a little concerned about the delay and used eBay's contact the seller, which may have helped.

Ordered a C/D Mellow Dog set on May 31st via Ebay, unaware of his volunteer work at the time. Sent a note through Ebay on July 19th and got a nice note back on July 22nd explaining his volunteer work and that he'd send ASAP, "most likely by Saturday." Pinged him again today.

It's been a month since I last posted on this thread and I'm wondering if anyone has received any whistles from Jerry in the past few weeks?

I understand he had a COVID scare and that his test came back negative. I'm seeing him post things on Facebook and just wondering if anyone has gotten any part of their orders recently.

Thanks!

I hope he comes back to selling soon. I just love the tone of my blackbird Eb. It’s definitely my go to whistle but they are so delicate it says in the house lol

I'm bumping this thread again in hopes that someone can tell us that they have recently (in the last month) received a whistle from Mr. Freeman.

I have been trying to contact him via eBay, his Facebook account and his You Tube channel but so far I haven't gotten a response from him.

On October 3rd it will be 4 months since my first order for a tweaked Freeman Generation G from him.

I am just looking for his acknowledgement that he is working on whistles and mine are in line. If it takes him another 4 months, so be it. I'll wait.

What is bothering me is no communication at all.

If any of his friends can contact him to have him get in touch with me or give me his contact information (you can do it privately with a C&F private message to me) I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide.

I wanted to share an update with those of you who may have orders to be filled by Mr. Freeman.

Today I received both my tweaked whistles (the Bb and the low G). I want to thank Mr Freeman for making the whistles and getting them shipped to me.

Here is a summary of what just recently happened:
Monday a week ago a member of C&F pm'ed me and showed me there was a way I could start what I will call an eBay "trouble ticket" (my terminology not theirs) which I did Monday evening.

Early Friday morning last week eBay contacted me via their messaging system asking if the matter was resolved. I responded no and shortly afterwards Mr Freeman contacted me through their system offering to complete my order within 48 hours. I accepted.

Last weekend Mr Freeman called me to confirm my address for shipment. He was very cordial and apologized for the lateness of completing the order. He seems like a very nice man to me.

Tuesday of this week I received tracking notification that he had shipped the whistles.

This morning I received both whistles in excellent condition. I am happy and relieved that this episode is now over.

Hopefully the rest of you who are waiting on your orders will get them soon.

My order arrived today, completely out of the blue. I am very pleasantly surprised, as my usual experience with artisans who fall behind due to an "attack of life" (it happens), and then also get stressed enough that they stop communicating, is that they fall of the face of the earth after that point. The last time I'd communicated with Jerry, he seemed very stressed, and my order was not enough of a big deal to me to want to increase that stress, I just basically forgot about it.

Today my Mellow Dog C and D set arrived in the mail, and I couldn't be happier. I'm glad to see Jerry back, at least enough to dig thorough back-orders, and I hope to see him around for years to come. After all, I don't have all of the keys yet.

Cheers,
Garick