Just a little rant, I guess. I've been mystery shopping for about 4 years and never had a problem with getting paid via paypal or bank transfer - until lately. I feel like I have to fight to get paid for my work..

In another post I mentioned that I was told my paypal payment had gone unclaimed by a company I'd worked for various times in the past without problems. It took a while, but I finally figured out that their system had reverted to an email I hadn't used in several years, which was no longer linked to PayPal. They said it was fixed and the payment was reprocessed so it should arrive soon It's now been another month and still nothing.

In another case, it was an audit for a company I had not worked for before. However, they had good reviews on this and another site, as far as paying on time and being good to work for. Everything seemed professional when I did the work, but when I asked about payments, I was told various times that there were delays in reviewing the work. FInally, mid-December I was told the payment was processed and should arrive soon. Christmas passed and still nothing. Last I heard they had accidentally started to process a check, not a wire to my account, but that they had done a wire and the money would be there last Friday. Today it's still not showing up. I copied the payment information directly from an communication from my bank, so I doubt that the problem is that. I have done that before and been paid with no issue by other companies.

Between the two, it's over US$500, not an inconsequential sum. I've followed up again today. There's not much more I can do, I guess.

Nope. Keep good records. I keep a copy of the original email. I download the guidelines. I save a copy of the report. I check email frequently.

I have one scheduler/company reaching out to me for the last week or so asking me to do work. Their pay policy is pay at the end of the following month. Well, the last few months, they have not been mailing out the checks on time. It's often a 1-2 weeks into the FOLLOWING month before the check goes into the mail.

I won't accept new work until I get paid. I will carry two months of pay on my books. (So work completed in January, would be paid by check mailed out at the end of February. Work done in February would be paid by check mailed out at the end of March. Their pattern lately has been not to mail the check at the end of February, like their pay policy says they will...they wait until 1-2 weeks into March before mailing the check to pay for January. So I would not accept any work in the month of March until I have been paid for the month of January. Once the pay for January has been received, then I am only carrying 1 month of pay on my books - February.)

NSS is another company that has been inconsistent with following their own pay policy. They are late paying me for November 2016. (Pay policy is to pay by mailed check or by PayPal at the end of the following month. So November should have been paid by the end of December. It's the end of the first week of January and I still have not been paid for November 2016. I am carrying November and December pay on my books. I will not accept any new work until I have been paid for November.) Other posters have been paid for November by NSS.

Read the forums here. Problems with payments are often shared in a thread here, about a specific company.

Yeppers. Believe it or not, finally got an e-mail from About Face that they "got behind" due to the holidays and my "past due payments" will be issued on or before 1/13. That's two full months since I did their shops, submitted them, and they were approved. They even had the gall to tell me e-mail to me had bounced back as undeliverable (even though the e-mail I received was addressed to that same "bounce back" address, LOL!!!).

On my 10 foot pole list from here on....

I stopped working for About Face a long time ago. Once in awhile we have to go into beg mode to get our money. This happened to me with a company that is based in Seattle Washington . The shop was for a Merrill Edge/Bank of America shop. The shop was done in mid October. It took until January 3rd to get paid because I had to do a return visit to the bank. in the month of October I wrote to the scheduler and the scheduling company more times than what I wanted to. Each time the same answer was you will be paid by the end of December. Mind you this is more than 90 days. I suggest you stay on this company until you get paid, or send a certified letter to the company with a listing of all the e-mails you had to send. If nothing happens you can always do a report to the Better Business Bureau with the company is based. Wishing you best of luck. I am always reluctant to carry a company for more than 60 days. We are not their bankers.

Thanks for your responses all. I did look for comments about the company that I hadn't worked with before on here and the reports were very positive. That's why I am surprised that my experience has been so frustrating.

On further investigation, they didn't process my wire transfer according to the payment instructions that I gave in my MS account, which means that the money is stuck at an intermediary bank. My bank is pointing the blame at me, saying I gave incorrect instructions, which is not true. I copy/pasted the information exactly as they sent it to me. They at least said what needs to be done to fix it, so I'll send a copy of their response to the MS company. The accountant acknowledged that he didn't notice that he should have added the "for further credit to" information, but that it was there.

The other company that should be paying by paypal still has not responded to my last inquiry. I'll try again today.

Interestingly, I got an email from the company that is supposed to be wiring me the money saying I was assigned antother project by them. I later got an email asking me if I'd do it. I simply said I was hestitant to take on more work when I still haven't been paid for work done months ago and I couldn't do it.

Well, good news, I received the larger wire payment I was expecting. Someone from the company contacted me again about doing that other project because they don't have anyone else in my area. She promised that what happened last time was not usual and now that they know how to handle the intermediary bank issue, there won't be a problem. I'm going to do it today. Time will tell if it was wise to accept another project, I guess.

The scheduler from the other company still hasn't responded to my inquiries. I guess I should send another email.

I finally got paid by the place that pays by paypal, or at least most of it. There is a US$15 bonus missing, so I am going to have to follow up about that. I got paid for that more recent job with the other company almost instantly - last Friday for work done on last Wednesday-Thursday.