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Good Morning All,

Need some advice on what to do next because in my many years of shopping this has never happened. I took a shop off of the I Secret Shop portal on Monday. It was a lunch shop. There was a note under the payment that had a +$6 bonus. I would have never taken this shop without this bonus because I would have made about $4 total after buying the meal, and I do not work for that amount especially seeing what the report looked like. Took a screen shot of the bonus amount sitting there just in case I needed it. Well, get the shop done, and receive the email that has the invoice on it. Ha! No bonus.....No problem I thought, I'll just email the scheduler. I ask nicely about the bonus, she asks who put the bonus on the shop? No idea, here is the screen shot. Her response to me this morning was "The bonus was only for the weekend shops, we needed to get them done". I thought for sure she would add it. So, what should I say? It's not my fault the bonus was still there on Monday......

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I agree with you. There was a bonus, whether they meant there to be or not. It was part of the terms of the assignment. Is there someone else in the company you can contact?

Not sure, but I am going to take a look!

It reminds me of a situation where, lets say you were a painter. You contracted to paint someone's home and deck. The home owner asks you if you wouldn't mind cleaning off the deck first and she will add $50 bonus to your contracted job. You paint the house and clean the deck and now it's time to get paid. She pays you for painting the house but she omits the part about cleaning the deck. You ask her where the extra $50 is for cleaning the deck and she says, "I don't know what you are talking about" But savvy you....you recorded her saying that (legal in your state) and now, you show her the recording. She is trying to get out of paying you something you agreed to and so is your scheduler.

Not fair. She should pay you...

When it happened to me the first time, I just ate it. I was mad but thought, okay you got over on me. Now, I email the scheduler before taking the bonus shop offered on a job board. In the email I would have said something like, "I've been looking at this shop for awhile now and have decided to do it because of the $6 bonus, is it still available?"

In all cases, they were so ready to unload the shop that I was replied to within an hour and the scheduler manually scheduled me the job and answered my email saying I just needed to confirm the shop. Those emails are then saved until I get paid. Funny how some schedulers forget the bonus when it's time to get paid. Humm....

Update: We have gone round and round on this. I emailed her again Friday after she told me she would not be paying me the bonus because that $6 should not have been there. I guess it's time to chalk this one up to a loss. What a classy move by the operations manager no less....

You have the screen shot. Was your shop within the dates listed? Maybe it is time to use a little legalese. Turn around the language the MSCs like to use. Taking the shop was a contract, per the contract the assignment had a $6 bonus. While you understand mistakes happen, you took the assignment in good faith. The MSC doesn't have the right to change the contract terms after it has been fulfilled.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

Hi Lisa,

Luckily for me, my partner is a contracts lawyer, so he went to town on this one.....and yes the dates were CLEARLY listed as 4/18-4/24..and I accepted the shop on Monday the 18th, so the weekend had already passed as she indicated the bonus was only for the weekend.

I sent that email on Friday. Still no response. I really do not want to have to take legal action for $6. Now it's just the principal of the whole thing!

Here is the email.

Hi, XXX

If what you said was the case (that the shop needed to be completed on the weekend in order to be eligible for the bonus), why wouldn't it be marked accordingly? There was nothing online indicating that the shop needed to be completed on a weekend day in order to get the bonus.

The location that I shopped was clearly listed under the bonus.

So far, everything that you have stated indicates that this might have been a technical issue however, even if this was the case, that is not my fault - this falls on the company. The bottom line is that there was an offer (with a bonus), I accepted that offer, and a contract was created. I have completed my side of the contract in accordance with all of the provided requirements. Your side requires you to pay the full price and bonus (which is what was agreed to).

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