Be aware that this company indicates that "You should receive payment within 30 days from the date we receive the completed paperwork." While this is just fine, the problem is that they are not acknowledging receipt of completed paperwork.

With their jobs you are required to mail in an invoice and whatever receipts or collateral were required. This in and of itself is a PITA, but there is a disturbing trend with them. I only occasionally work with them. An April 2008 shop was paid in a timely fashion in May 2008. An August 2008 shop I inquired about and was told they had not received my paperwork. Since my shop log records that the paperwork was mailed the day after the shop and my files only have copies of the materials, I had to assume that the materials were lost in the mail. They did accept a copy of the materials and I eventually received payment October 24, 2008. In November I performed two shops for them and was super careful to make certain that all materials were scanned and mailed the same day. The envelope was not left in a mailbox but personally mailed at the Post Office as I was going by there anyway. The 30 days are about elapsed and my job history still shows they have not received paperwork.

A shopper on another forum reported a similar problem and that ICCDS had indicated they had a paperwork backup, not to worry and to just ignore the email reminders for paperwork. My intuition tells me that not processing paperwork in a timely fashion is allowing them to delay payments and that it is very possibly a matter that they have too many unpaid shoppers and not enough cash to cover, so the delay buys them time while supposedly holding up their end of the contract.

Be aware.

Do you think they're in trouble? They've been shedding clients here like cat hair.

My intuition tells me they are. And this is bolstered by their response late yesterday afternoon that they 'have' my submitted paperwork and as of last evening the jobs were being listed as "in process". Unless the Post Office was being quite slovenly,they have had my paperwork since 11/19 or 11/20, which in theory should mean I will have payment in hand by 12/22 or 12/23 if not before. If they are playing games, I can't expect to see my payment until January. I'll keep you posted. It may well be that ". . .shedding clients . . . like cat hair" is precisely the problem.

Of course I think you know that I am expecting a number of MSPs to fail and leave shoppers unpaid before this recession is over. I know of only one MSP who has admitted to cash flow problems with a clear statement of purpose that they plan to get shoppers paid in full in the sequence in which jobs were performed. Cash flow is essential to any business and when clients are slow to pay, will pose a problem though not necessarily a disaster for the MSP. Remember that shoppers are just one expense of the business--there is also salaried staff and other overhead. If the MSP has a large enough net loss of clients, they will not meet their salaried staff and other overhead--and unfortunately with some MSPs, shoppers are the first ones screwed. It is difficult, without disclosure by the MSPs, to know if their behaviors of excessive rejection of shops and declaring paperwork has not been received are disingenuous means of passing along 'responsibility' for not getting paid to shoppers.

I have been not paid by one MSP this year which continued posting jobs and having shoppers perform shops up until the day they laid off their staff and closed their doors. I would rather err on the side of caution and not give "free" jobs to MSPs who do not have the ability to fulfill their side of the contract with payment.

Yea, well that MSC you refernce has NOT contacted all shoppers, and has not addressed my April 2008 unpaid 150 dollar shop, whihc should be top priority, if what we read it correct.

April to December and still waiting is pretty reprehensible. I hope these guys realize that just like their secretary, shoppers need to get paid so that household bills can be paid. Unfortunately there are no easy answers for shoppers or for MSPs. While I can't recommend that shoppers continue working for slow paying MSPs, I also am concerned that some of the MSPs that have been more lucrative to work with will go out of business and what we will end up seeing is the same shops appearing with cheap ass MSPs for less money. I was disgusted yesterday to see that the naked lady on a horse chocolate shop moved from ICCDS to a company that doesn't answer emails with the fee going from $10 to $6. My guess is that the New Year will show us a whole lot of that kind of behavior.

My favorite drug store went from MFI to CORI, and now pays half the fee, which wasn't all that much to start with, considering you have to write up EVERY employee in the store. A favorite bank chain went from $20 to $17.50, etc...

What will life be like when we're all working for CORI and Bestmark? LOL.

I did a shop in November. I have received payment okay. I was concerned because requested to mail in. Possibly alot depends on the scheduler that you get. I have seen good schedulers and horrible ones too. You learn the horrible ones and avoid them like the plaque. You can be selective which is nice.

Maybe MFI will buy them then, and it'll be cheap cheap cheap. But they'll cut the fee and give us a sweepstakes entry!

More likely Maritz will buy the, then it'll be cheap, cheap, cheap with an uncooperative website and cut fee with not even a sweepstakes entry

Flash your message posted 12/08/08 I could have written....I am not all that great at reading between the lines, I so hope my experience w/ a particular company isn't going to go the way you described...they owe me for 2 very high paying demo jobs[high pay for me anyway] and I know you aren't supposed to count your dollars before they are in the bank but.....
dee
cedar city ut.

Since 'Ponzi scheme' is back in the vocabulary these days, it is what I would tentatively attach to the situation I perceive is happening, with the understanding that Ponzi schemes apply to investment fraud, not to diverting money earmarked for one purpose to another. Today is December 21st and I have no question in my mind but that my completed paperwork has been in their hands now at least 30 days, yet I have no payment. Luckily my two jobs for them are relatively small potato ones, but still not money I care to lose nor have to fight and email endlessly to receive.

So the company sends me 3-4 emails per day because they have unfilled jobs and I just ignore them. It doesn't matter if they are offered with hefty bonuses if you don't get paid.

Do you suppose they Made-off with your money?

Hope mfi does not buy them. How many people do you know that have one that sweepstakes? There are probably thousands and thousands all over the country that have entered the sweepstakes. So what is your odds of winning???? $7.00 and 8.00 for a shop, I think not. The sad thing is those that take these shops are making it worse, because eventually they will be lower than that, almost to the point of shopping for free and just getting re-imbursed for what you buy or eat.

I know of one shopper who won a $10 gift card in the holiday sweepstakes at SI last Christmas. The shops needed for entry into that sweepstakes were offered at regular fees that I do not find abusive and the sweepstakes was more to encourage shoppers to continue working through the holidays than as some ongoing justification for peddling cheap shops.

I never find SI abusive, in fact the total opposite. Really nice people.

I've been doing music store and the building place for them, never a problem getting my money. Trouble is, both stores take me forever to do because I'm having too much fun in both of them.

I guess I phrased that poorly. I do not find SI fees abusive either. There are some shops I wouldn't do because the reimbursement forms a large part of the overall payment and it is not a useful reimbursement to me. My point is that their Holiday Sweepstakes was a one time 'gift' addition to their shopping program to encourage shoppers to stay active during the holidays rather than a continuing bribe to take an underpaid job.

Cettie, when I linger longer in a store than what is required to do the observations, that to me is an indication that the shop is actually what shops were supposed to be--the interaction of an interested customer with the service staff. I try to stay away from shops that are just shops. For example, most of the time I could care less about cell phone providers and services. A shop is about nothing but the money. When I'm thinking about changing from my cruddy provider and my cruddy phone, that is when there is an interest in visiting other providers and hearing about their programs and products.