I accepted some rather detailed shops from an MSC in December. They were relatively well paid shops, and took quite a bit of time to complete during the holiday season. This MSC normally pays in the later part of the month following the shop. However, their editors have fallen behind and as a result, shopper payments that should have been made in January, now will not be paid until February...IF the client accepts them.
Ok, things happen. However, the more I thought about it, it occurred to me that we, as shoppers, are expected to be very careful about not over committing our time when scheduling shops. We are cautioned never to take on more than we know we can responsibly complete on time, lest we negatively impact the MSC's credibility with the client.
Though normally, I like to give the other party the benefit of the doubt and never assume ill intent, unless they lost staff members over the holidays, I find it hard to believe this MSC could not have known WHEN THEY SCHEDULED and POSTED these shops that they wouldn't be able to get them all completed, reviewed and paid by the dates they promised.
Let's say they did have something unexpected happen that dramatically limited their ability to get their shops edited and paid on time. Why wouldn't this MSC at least show some respect for their shoppers and tell us what happened, give us a heads up not to expect our funds in January and apologize for the difficulties caused?
The more I thought about it, the more disgusted I became. Their lack of communication, utter lack of consideration and respect for the shoppers that make their work possible had me even more upset than the underlying situation. Being treated so poorly and with such complete disregard has me questioning if I would ever shop for them again.
I'm curious. Has this been a widespread problem in this industry (from otherwise seemingly legitimate companies)? Is anyone else finding MSC's not honoring their payment policies without comment? If you've had this happen to you, how have you dealt with it? Thanks for reading this far...and thanks for providing a place to at least share the story!

I don't think this is a widespread problem in the industry. I personally anticipate that some times of the year companies may be somewhat delayed in getting reports graded (Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving and the Christmas/New Years) as folks want to spend time with families. There also will be the occasional ups and downs with payments. In December I got paid early by most of the companies I worked with. January has shown payments due from 2015 that weren't paid early are coming in right on schedule.

I normally don't get annoyed when there appears to be a snafu because most of the companies I work with I have continued working with because they seem to genuinely attempt to meet their commitments. I admit to getting annoyed with Bare a few years ago when a shop sat unedited for several months, thus delaying the payment. It was the second time it had happened in fairly short succession, so they fell from my 'favorites' pretty quickly. My understanding is that others have not had similar issues with them. I think my shops were just in the wrong place in the pile at the wrong time.

I don't normally expect companies to comment on slow payments--I expect them to get it right or very close to right.

Do a search here on payment for the companies you are planning to work for. There are indeed companies who rarely meet their payment agreements. There are others who pay the very last day of their "60-90 days" window. Still others that you'll have to chase payment.

And then there are the wonderful few who pay early, consistently, and occasionally well. IMHO, it's less about efficiency (some of the fast companies are quite small) and more about greed (squeezing that extra couple of days from a shopper) or poor management.

If they eventually paid me I would consider shopping for them again but I wouldn't give up work with more prompt payers to work with them. In other words, they would move toward the bottom of the list on what I'd take.
If I had nothing available from the companies who paid better, I would take their work providing they were caught up. And if I did, I would know based on experience they might be late pay.

You can make yourself a positive and negative list, at least in your head if not online or paper. See if the positive side for this company is long enough to counteract what is on the negative side of your list. How do you like their shops, do they pay well, is there a good balance between amt of work and pay, do they have jobs that you enjoy doing in your area, can you afford to wait a week or two extra for pay or will this result in not being able to pay the rent? etc These are all questions where the answers are very personal so no one can answer them for you. If in the balance you see that the good outweighs the bad overall than I would say go for it. Each company will probably have some things you like and some you don't.

I must say, it is helpful to hear from other shoppers. Thanks for your perspective....It is true that this situation stands out so starkly because the vast majority of MSCs I've worked with over this relatively short period of time, HAVE paid on time, or very close to it, as promised. That's the good news.
Things can happen, especially during the holidays, like Flash pointed out. It's more the lack of communication about it that undermined my trust and had me steamed. How they deal with this between now and February will speak volumes.

Definitely keep checking the forum about MSCs, though. I found out too late about a company that had previously been a great company but was going belly under: Franchise Compliance. I had shopped for them previously and been paid. The last time I did a shop for them I ended up getting stiffed over $200 because they went under and didn't pay their shoppers. That's when I found this website and joined the forum. Hard lesson learned.

I think I may have a similar experience with the same company. I did a number of shops in early December and was just told the same thing when I inquired. I had a wrinkle in my experience, though. I did a couple in November.

Two weeks later the scheduler sent me a list asking if I could do more. I did two more. A week after that, one of my original shops was rejected. (Some guideline wording confusion along with editor delay.) One of the second set was also rejected for the same reason. These were my first shops with this company and I had assumed everything was fine with the first two or they would not had offered me more. Now, I had completely wasted my time on that second rejected shop for no good reason.

The company was really nice. They spent a long time on the phone with me while I presented my case as to why I believed my interpretation of the guidelines was correct. They ultimately paid me half of what I would have been paid and let me do four more shops. (Those are the ones which should have been paid in December and have not been paid yet.)

I understand your frustration, but for me, they were great to work with during a prickly situation.

Some of my November shops were just paid yesterday. Since I don't like intellishop anyway I may not do anymore shops for them.

@Roxie wrote:

I think I may have a similar experience with the same company. I did a number of shops in early December and was just told the same thing when I inquired. I had a wrinkle in my experience, though. I did a couple in November.

Two weeks later the scheduler sent me a list asking if I could do more. I did two more. A week after that, one of my original shops was rejected. (Some guideline wording confusion along with editor delay.) One of the second set was also rejected for the same reason. These were my first shops with this company and I had assumed everything was fine with the first two or they would not had offered me more. Now, I had completely wasted my time on that second rejected shop for no good reason.

The company was really nice. They spent a long time on the phone with me while I presented my case as to why I believed my interpretation of the guidelines was correct. They ultimately paid me half of what I would have been paid and let me do four more shops. (Those are the ones which should have been paid in December and have not been paid yet.)

I understand your frustration, but for me, they were great to work with during a prickly situation.

Roxie,

Your post hits on such an important point: "The company was really nice." That, for me is the crux of this issue. Do things go wrong...on both sides? Of course they do! None of us is perfect. We all do the very best we can. What makes the difference between a long term business relationship built on mutual respect and one where you end up feeling expendable and poorly treated, is how things are handled when things go wrong. I'm glad your experience was positive.
I suspect that the schedulers who were working with you on your shop details, etc may be different from the staff that are in charge of payments and communications about payments. All the MSCs are structured differently and its hard to know who is responsible for what at each company.
I actually feel badly for schedulers who do a great job, communicate effectively and work hard on their relationships with shoppers only to be undermined by poor payment policies/communication practices of their companies which may result in losing good shoppers they've worked hard to get to know.
In your case, did the MSC mention anything to you in advance, or after about your not being paid on time for your December shops? Sounds like you didn't find out about the late payment issue until after you called to inquire.
How long would it have taken them to send out a simple, clear and apologetic email to give anyone affected a heads up in advance?

@veebeeshops, you are absolutely right! In answer to your question, I was not notified about the late payments. This company pays on the 15th and 30th, so I am now 3 cycles past due. It is still sooner than many companies pay, so I am okay with it.

Are we all talking about the same company? I'm thinking of the automotive shops with the online lead component that got bonused pretty heavily in December, and it sounds like that's what veebeeshops is talking about too.

If so, I wish they would run another payment batch once everything is edited, but I'm betting we won't see our money until the later end of February.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/24/2016 03:35AM by AlexG.

I did one in December and I was paid 4 days ago. It took weeks for the editor to get to it though.

I signed with one particular MSC, expecting my approved shop to be paid in accordance with their rules. Guess what ? They were delayed in paying, claiming their client had not paid them. Oh well, sounds like a personal problem to me. So when the electronic deposit finally showed up, I promptly canceled this MSC. I will not perform anymore shops for them. Ever.
I followed their rules for submitting and they did not follow theirs for compensation, and so they lost a good reliable shopper, and when other MS start standing up to unacceptable behavior, perhaps the MSC will get the hint.
Never ever will I chase what I earned.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2016 11:00PM by SS4U.

@SS4U wrote:

I signed with one particular MSC, expecting my approved shop to be paid in accordance with their rules. Guess what ? They were delayed in paying, claiming their client had not paid them. Oh well, sounds like a personal problem to me. So when the electronic deposit finally showed up, I promptly canceled this MSC. I will not perform anymore shops for them. Ever.
I followed their rules for submitting and they did not follow theirs for compensation, and so they lost a good reliable shopper, and when other MS start standing up to unacceptable behavior, perhaps the MSC will get the hint.
Never ever will I chase what I earned.

That is something that will never happen too many Newbies coming in. All you can do is complain here and hope that the newbie will read it.

One good piece of advice about deactivating from a MSC because it upsets you for whatever reason is to put them "on hold" and don't accept their shops, but do not deactivate. You may change your mind and want to shop for them in the future. There are many posts on the forum from shoppers who deactivated themselves from a company and now wish they had not..... and they are unable to re-build the bridge they burned.

I personally have had a few companies who have annoyed me for some reason and for whom I have chosen not to shop. I have a rule, like SS4U, that I do not chase payment. I figured I earned the money once, so why should I have to earn it again by requesting it? Two companies who I previously did not shop for (but I did not deactivate from) because of payment issues have completely turned around and now pay according to their terms without requiring a payment demand. I accept many shops with both Goodwin and Ridgway, who now pay, without prompting, according to their stated payment terms.

So - my advice is: If you don't want to work for a company, don't. But there's no need to make a formal statement and deactivate. Stay registered and just don't accept their jobs.

@AustinMom wrote:

One good piece of advice about deactivating from a MSC because it upsets you for whatever reason is to put them "on hold" and don't accept their shops, but do not deactivate. You may change your mind and want to shop for them in the future. There are many posts on the forum from shoppers who deactivated themselves from a company and now wish they had not..... and they are unable to re-build the bridge they burned.

I personally have had a few companies who have annoyed me for some reason and for whom I have chosen not to shop. I have a rule, like SS4U, that I do not chase payment. I figured I earned the money once, so why should I have to earn it again by requesting it? Two companies who I previously did not shop for (but I did not deactivate from) because of payment issues have completely turned around and now pay according to their terms without requiring a payment demand. I accept many shops with both Goodwin and Ridgway, who now pay, without prompting, according to their stated payment terms.

So - my advice is: If you don't want to work for a company, don't. But there's no need to make a formal statement and deactivate. Stay registered and just don't accept their jobs.

Excellent point, AustinMom. Things can change. There seem to be lots of mergers and acquisitions as well as many staff turn overs among MSC's. The secrecy/anonymity in this industry can make it difficult to pinpoint the source of internal company issues as they arise. Its great to have this forum to stay informed before taking the risk of working with a company that may be declining in its performance...or to find out if a formerly awful company has changed its stripes and improved.

I have never had a payment problem with Bare. One of their schedulers goes out of his way to reschedule shops, if necessary