On another thread, [www.mysteryshopforum.com] , the benefits to mystery shoppers of MSPA membership is being discussed. A question came up from a forum member about protection of shoppers, and SteveSoCal mentioned the MSPA Grievance Policy.

I posted that I'm curious about how the grievance policy has worked for mystery shoppers. I asked the question: Has anyone been paid for a shop after filing a grievance for non-payment against a member company? Please post and let us know the results of the grievance you filed.

Walesmaven suggested that this should be a new thread.

Please post if you have ever used the MSPA Grievance Policy and let us know whether the MSPA was able to facilitate payment for you from one of their MSC members.

Umm...you may be twisting my words a bit. I said that they have a system in place for filing a grievance. I don't know the specify policy or think that it's published. Doug Rector gave some details in the thread about Freeman, and he and also discussed it at an MSPA event.

It essentially consists of contacting the MSPA and letting them know there's an issue. A simple email will do that.

Problem is; I have contacted the MSPA on each occasion that I have had an issue with a member not paying. I also contacted that MSC directly on a daily basis, threatened legal action, posted here about it, and sometimes on Volition as well. On each occasion, I have been paid. Who can say which actions brought that about? I received a response each time I contacted them.

I think a more important question would be; Who has ever contacted the MSPA about non-payment on a shop and NOT received a resolution, or a response, and what company was it for?

I know a lot of shoppers contacted the MSPA about Freeman because, to their detriment, they defended the non-payment issues. I'm guessing that most shoppers have not contacted the MSPA when they had payment issues. I am also guessing that there is not a lot of evidence of any organization facilitating payment to unpaid shoppers.

I contacted MSPA in 2013 when I was not paid by Nationwide and the company had not responded to my inquiries. I received an e-mail response from Dan Denston, who was Executive Director then. He thanked me for letting MSPA know about the problem and said they were investigating. He told me "Please understand that the best way to handle this is to let us work with company and hopefully everyone can get paid." He e-mailed me a week later to say "I have been in contact with NSG and forwarded your email to them. They acknowledge some non-payment issues and are investigating and will be in contact with all the shoppers. In my conversations with a representative there, it seemed that there had been some issues, but the company was moving forward. There are some new people there I understand, so give them a couple of weeks to sort through the issues, but please contact me as a follow up when this is settled. "

I continued to call and e-mail Nationwide and never received a response nor did I receive payment. None of my followup e-mails to MSPA were acknowledged.

Nationwide apparently went out of business. I was out $160. Of the $160, $10 was fees and $150 was reimbursement for money spent performing the 2 shops. I learned that there were several shoppers who were owed far more, so I felt somewhat fortunate. It was my only time to be shafted by a MSC.

If I had another payment issue, I would not bother notifying MSPA.

@AustinMom wrote:

If I had another payment issue, I would not bother notifying MSPA.

What's your reasoning behind that, AM? Is it due to the lack of follow-up from Dan in the end, or that you felt they offered no assistance, or (like in the case of Freeman) urged you to allow the MSC time when in fact the MSC was in the process of shuttering?

My thoughts when reading your story are that it seems communication and empathy was offered in the beginning, and Dan apparently was at least able to connect with Nationwide, though it apparently resulted in no payments to shoppers.

My point being that despite your loss (which I am truly sorry for), perhaps the added pressure the MSPA helped spur the decision from Nationwide to close it's doors sooner, rather than to continue of as some MSCs have done, and leave even more shoppers out in the cold.

There's really not a good solution to the problem when MSC's become insolvent. The secrecy of the industry often makes that matter easy to hide and due to that, I feel like it needs to be treated differently than other business models. Once I see any sign of insolvency from a MSC, I close up business with them and do my best to collect any money owed to me. That policy has worked well for me, and any additional pressure I can apply in getting a company to pay up is welcome, which is why I would reach out to the MSPA if any of their members had issues. The threat of being stripped of membership may or may not help, but why not utilize it?

I think you've hit what I was thinking, Steve. I felt there was no assistance. There was a denial - "the company is okay, they just have a bunch of new employees and it's caused problems, give them some time....." Dan did offer empathy, including attempting to delay me from taking any action and telling me to come back and follow up with him. All my attempts at following up with MSPA were ignored. I felt that Dan offered empathy in the manner that you pat a child on the head and say "everything's going to be all right, now go outside and play" to get rid of me and then did not respond.

Is there truly a threat of being stripped of membership? I did not see anything to indicate that there was any threat. With the Freeman lack of payment, which, thankfully, I was not involved in, having listened to warnings on this forum and never worked for him, nonpayment and shopper complaints continued for a long time. The MSPA repeatedly issued statements affirming that Freeman was doing fine. When Jacob posted on the forum about Freeman nonpayment and demanded that the MSPA act, MSPA initially responded somewhat angrily, affirming that Freeman was okay and stating that they would not act because of a forum demand. Other mystery shoppers started to tweet, and post to Facebook, and within a couple of weeks, it became impossible for the MSPA to continue to ignore and deny. MSPA did a complete turn-around. I think MSPA was forced by a loud collective scream from this forum and from other shoppers to respond.

I don't think a single shopper complaint, or even a whole bunch of shopper complaints, is a concern to MSPA. Unless the complaints become extremely public, I don't see MSPA doing anything but cover its MSC members.

And maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe I remember my situation and the Freeman situation incorrecctly. But that's how I remember it all and I wouldn't bother with asking for help from the MSPA.

I think you recall it correctly, @AustinMom, and I believe you are probably right.

MSPA insists that they were taking action to penalize Freeman and the forum had nothing to do with their final decision, but you can't really wipe the stench of defending them and pleading with shoppers to continue working for Freeman away. Seems like that was the situation with Nationwide as well.

Dan was always very nice and professional when I dealt with him. John Bunker took his place and after the debacle with Grass Roots America stiffing shoppers in July of 2015 (they were not MSPA members, BTW), I proposed to him that the MSPA create a policy whereby any member company that had a certainly amount of complaints of payment being over 30-days late would be suspended, and other possible actions taken. He was receptive. We had a good back & forth email about the idea. He promised to present it to the board and get back to me...and that was the last I ever heard from him.

None-the-less, if a member company owed me money and was not paying, every single board member at the MSPA would be getting daily emails from me until the problem was resolved. The one thing I have learned about this industry is that the squeaky wheel gets paid first!