I received an offer via mail from Gap Busters Shoppers Inc. They instructed me to call them if I was going to accept their offer to become a secret shopper. I called the agent asked to deposit the check into my bank account and then call them to start my assingment. My bank would not deposit the check because they stated that it was not in the system. I call gap busters and the agent stated that the reason was of the hold that they put on the check. I tried contacting them several times and not able to get through. What is your opinion on this.

Gapbusters does NOT send out checks asking if you want to be a shopper. This is a scam. DO NOT DEPOSIT THE CHECK as it will bounce and your check will charge you fees for the bounce. It may take a few weeks for it to bounce but trust me, it will. If you did not sign up with Gapbusters they will not contact you. If you sign up on their website for some jobs they may or may not contact you. But definitely they WILL NOT send out a check and ask you to spend it and wire money back to them! Turn over the check and all paperwork to your local law enforcement or post office.

And you can contact your postmaster by phone and he/she will tell you where to send the papers or emails you have received. Do you by chance have the phone number of the call you received? If you do when you make your call to the postmaster he/she will deal with it immediately.

Any unsolicited items you receive by phone or mail. Contact your local postmaster. That way you don't even have to leave your house.

I belong to Gap Busters and have yet to get a phone call from them except for an urgent shop. No money is never mentioned except my pay.

Ok thank you, my husband thought it was strange, especially the 3 times that I have been able to get through and I mention that I am unable to deposit the check I get disconnected. Also they have a Houston, TX P.O. box and a Quebec telephone number.

Thank You

Re: the first post: THEY'RE BAAAACK!

I must repeat, "NO ONE PAYS YOU UP FRONT TO SHOP FOR THEM". If this were the case we would all be well off and would not have to continue to look for shops every day.

GAP Busters warned shoppers about this threat on thier message board.

Hey I got something last night from them. I activated my account with the company back in 2006. However due to personal issues I never did any assignments for them. I an email about doing a job. I knew I haven't updated any of my information with them so I didn't respond. I logged into to my account...suprisingly it still worked. But just as I expected...my information was still based out of Texas and not Florida. The site didn't even have my current email information. So I sent a part of the email to their customer service department including the name of the person on the bottom of the email. I guess they are starting something new. Beware....here is a part of what I got:

a member of a global mystery shopping network and have the
opportunity to 'Shop the World!'

Help improve customer service in your local area.
Examples of details you would forward to us are after your shopping
experience are:
1) How long it took you to get services.
2) Smartness of the attendant
3) Customer service professionalism
4) Sometimes you might be required to upset the attendant to see how
they react to clients when they get tensed (under pressure).
We turn the information (you gave us) over to the company executives
and they would carry out their own duties in improving their services.
Most companies employ our assistance when people give complaints about
their services or when they feel there are needs for them to improve
their customer service. Your Identity would be kept confidential as the
job states. (secret shopper). You would be paid $100 for every survey
you carry out bonus on your transportation allowance and funds would be
given to you if you have to dine as part of the duty.
Your job will be to evaluate and comment on customer service in a wide
variety of shops, stores, restaurant and services in your area. No
commitment is made on this job and you would have flexible hours as it
suits you. If you are interested do send in your:
Name at bottom says James Marc.

I do some work for Gapbusters and haven't received any email like yours pcurry.

I was asked on a recent application if I would travel to complete assignments but nothing like that from Gap Busters.

The point is that the email is a preliminary to a scam and not at all associated with the real GapBuster company.

I got that Flash. :-)

So far I've not had a scam email besides ordinary spam.

Should I put this under a new heading like Beware New Scam?....I feel that I should warn as many people as possible.

There used to be "sticky" scam warnings. I don't know where they went. But one would think that folks who read through complaints about $5 jobs and 'not taking anything under $15' would figure out that $100 per job plus travel expenses, on the road meals etc. has to have SOMETHING wrong with it.

Not necessarily Flash. Depends on the job.
I've seen travel pay, meals and other expenses to do "specific" assessments and critiques with a nice pay included.
I've signed up for as many of these as I can. And so far I've been accepted into the programs. And I've done a couple locally this month for $60 per assessment or critique.

I don't consider these programs "mystery shopping"

And they certainly aren't from GapBuster The most I have 'extracted' from them was under $100 for a distant shop that they were frantic to have done.

No they are not from GapBuster :-)

These are not from a mystery shopping company in any shape or form. :-)

I've done some mystery shopping this month but most of my work has been "going to a deeper level" :-)

pcurrymorgan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Should I put this under a new heading like Beware
> New Scam?....I feel that I should warn as many
> people as possible.

They change their name every week. Don't bother. BTW--Gapbuster is one word for the REAL company, no plural and no INC.

[www.xec.gapbuster.com]

I just ditch this company after have been faithfully shopping for them for 3 years. Their scheduler still dares to call and asks me to do the shop. Very unfortunate, they don't know how to keep a good shopper. The pay department is messy in communication. Marketing department and payroll and scheduler seemed not to know what each other is doing. Don't pay as promised is one thing that leads the company downhill. I mean the real gapbuster company.

They just have to keep recruiting new innocent shopper. Beware!

I have shopped for Gapbuster for well over a year now, in fact they are one of the first companies that I started mystery shopping for. I have never had a problem with them in fact there have been numerous times that I have turned in late reports with them and they have never denied me pay. They continually call me when it is getting to the end of the month and they need shops done offering me generally at least $10 more and lots of times more then that. And even though it is a month later they are consistent with their pay. The only thing that I can say bad about them is their reporting programing. It has issues and at times because of those issues it takes to long to get the report submitted.

I have never had an issue with Gap; they pay fairly and on time for the few jobs they have here in HI. I have never had any issues with the site, or getting paid on time. I like them.