So, I had an idea, and I don't know if it would be feasible or not.

It would be nice to have a cohesive list of payment info on MSCs to have on the forum.

For example:

Company, Payment Terms, Payment Method, Any Reports of Late Payment?
Random MSC--30th of the following month--Paypal or PayQuicker--Yes, 10-20 days late
Other MSC--Mailed 60 days from shop date--Check--No

Listing when they pay, what their payment method is, and if there have been reports of late payment. In terms of late reports, I don't know whether it would be better to have some sort of reporting system*, or just let people comment whether or not that MSC has paid them late, or just skip that field altogether.

*By "reporting system" I mean that in order to have them on the list as paying late, you'd need to say "Company X owed me $22 due on 5/1/2013, received payment on 5/23/2013" or "Company Y owes me $122 as of 6/1/2013, has not paid yet, has not given a reason for non-payment".

Anyway, just a thought. If folks are interested and Jacob approves, I'd be willing to head the project if others are willing to help.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2013 08:51PM by cake....

Good luck. These things constantly change and it would be a majorinvestment in time to even set up 250+ companies' payment schedules. You are an independent contractor. Read your ICAs and make a note for each as to their payment terms.

I think it'd be a good idea to try to do. I've started a list something like this myself. Unfortunately, I didn't think to do it until I'd already signed up with a number of MSCs. I can contribute what I've got if needed.

Cake, I don't think you would get useful information. I'm thinking people who had no problems would have no incentive to contribute, and those with axes to grind would be telling you all sorts of trash to get back at a company for some perceived slight. Therefore, even if you did this, I would be hesitant to depend on information you compiled as to a company being late or no-pay because there would be no way to sort out truth from lies.

I see the main negative here as it being a time intensive project with no financial payoff. There might also be a problem with publishing information on credit worthiness that you wouldn't be able to prove. If you were accepting information from forum members under forum names, that information would seem to be worthless because you couldn't really track it back.
As far as late pay and no pay, you would be compiling reports from anonymous sources. I'm not sure that would work to your benefit.

Do you feel like I'm discouraging you? Yes, I am. I don't think this would be good for you personally, and I don't think it would be a reliable source of information on late pay and no pay.

If you put this together as payment terms only, that part would be useful. However, in my opinion it would still require way too much of your time to assemble and maintain. Even though most of us are signed up with large numbers of companies, most of us work regularly for only a few. Being aware of their payment terms is something we should all be able to handle if it's important to us.

BTW, the MSC profiles that are reported in The Mystery Shopper Magazine all comment on both payment terms/type and a summary of relaibale reportds from shoppers about timeliness. So far, 34 companies have been profiled in 17 issues. Becasue of the way that forum members' comments are screened and summarized, this might just be the best source. Time to sign up! It's free.

Your recommendation of the Mystery Shopper Magazine is appreciated! It is our primary goal to make this publication a useful resource to shoppers. We know that a major concern, and understandably so, is information regarding payment practices of MSCs. Your voices here on the forum are an important element to creating an accurate profile of mystery shopping companies. We do our best to thoroughly research any issues that you have shared in order to provide a balanced and fair synopsis of each MSC.

Thank you all for being members of our forum community! If you have ideas for features you'd like to see in upcoming issues of the MSM, please PM me or email me at ceridwyn@mysteryshoppermagazine.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

cake.. I think it is an excellent ideal.

My Contribution: Feedback+ 2-4 weeks, always on time, no issue of payment.
ath Power: 60+ days, willing to resolve legitimate issues promptly.
Bare: About Face: 45+ days, no known issues.
Pinnacle: 30+ days...no known issues.
Person 2 Person: Payments typically go out towards the end of the month following the month in which the shop report was submitted. For example, payment for all shops submitted in May goes out near the end of June, and so on. No known issues.
Mercantile System: Net 45 days
BMA: Net 45 days
ACE: Shoppers have the option of choosing to be paid by either Direct Deposit or Check and can find this information in their profile in the "More" tab. We pay every month on the 15th for shops completed the prior month. (example: If you do a shop on March 7th, you will be paid on April 15th), No Issues
Intellishop: Payment for your shops will automatically be sent through PayPal approximately 50-60 days after the last day of the month in which your shops were completed. No Issues.
Harland Clarke: 45-60 days, no issues.
Shop Angles: hopAngels pays all mystery shoppers by PayPal only.
Angels are paid once a month for all approved shops.
B Business Solutions: All shops will be paid within two to six weeks of being published and accepted by the client. No Issues.

There is a danger compiling a list based on the memories of shoppers. Sometimes partial information is available and sometimes the information is outdated. Much information provided may or may not be accurate. For example:



anakin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Pinnacle: 30+ days...no known issues.

I completed and reported my most recent shop for Pinnacle on 6/4 and I was paid on 6/11. Pinnacle payment may well depend on which client Pinnacle is shopping. I totally agree on no known issues.



> ACE: Shoppers have the option of choosing to be
> paid by either Direct Deposit or Check and can
> find this information in their profile in the
> "More" tab. We pay every month on the 15th for
> shops completed the prior month. (example: If you
> do a shop on March 7th, you will be paid on April
> 15th), No Issues


Is this old information? Or is this information about a different MSC rather than ACE? ACE used to pay by check until September 2011 when they started paying by PayQuicker. I'm not aware that they offer check any longer. I don't think they ever paid through direct deposit. I think their only payment option is PayQuicker.



> Intellishop: Payment for your shops will
> automatically be sent through PayPal approximately
> 50-60 days after the last day of the month in
> which your shops were completed. No Issues.


This is not necessarily correct. It depends on which client Intelli is shopping. Some are paid 50-60 days but the ones I currently do are paid in 30 days or less.

There are several errors in that list. In addition to the ones pointed out by AustinMom, Bare & Feedback Plus have specific pay dates, they do not pay according to calendar days. For FP it is twice a month and my note is those days are the 8th and 22nd. Bare pays between the 18th and 20th for direct deposit. Intellishop pays around the 20th and AM is absolutely correct that the terms are now client specific. It was also my understanding that BMA no longer exists as a separate entity and everything is handled as Troy Dolan Group.

This may prove why trying to compile a list would take a Herculean effort

The great thing about the Mystery Shopper Magazine reports is that the author(s) has/have already distilled the many comments from the forums concerning reliability. No offence intended to anyone, but I prefer a consensus approach to the reliability issue, rather than relying on just one or two shoppers' experiences.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2013 12:35PM by walesmaven.

I would love to have one place on the forum to refer to the information. I
Would be glad to assist with info I know or even
Research a few.

Maybe this would work if people could enter all of the information themselves, subject to independent verification. It could be like a Yelp.com for MSCs.

How much time are we supposed to spend compiling data that an ambitious mystery shopper can quickly compile on their own as they are registering with a company? In the past there have been several shoppers who would not bother to look at a companies website and instead came here to ask payment terms, over and over and over again. It goes back to the attitude that their own time is more valuable than ours. Record keeping is a part of this business and newbies might as well get used to it from the beginning because it won't get any easier when their company list grows from 5 to 150.

Lisa-I do & don't agree with you. When I first started shopping last year, I didn't have extremely well-kept records. My system is constantly evolving, but could probably still be better. I have started a payment list, but it only has a fraction of the companies I've signed up with. Some of them I can NOT for the life of me find out when they pay. Not too big of a deal for the most part since I've only done shops for maybe a dozen or so companies. While I understand that yes, it would take a decent amount of time to compile & update the list, it would also be helpful for those of us who are still getting into the swing of things. And I know that the magazine has a number of MSC reviews, but they've only touched the tip of the iceberg...

LisaSTL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How much time are we supposed to spend compiling
> data that an ambitious mystery shopper can quickly
> compile on their own as they are registering with
> a company? In the past there have been several
> shoppers who would not bother to look at a
> companies website and instead came here to ask
> payment terms, over and over and over again. It
> goes back to the attitude that their own time is
> more valuable than ours. Record keeping is a part
> of this business and newbies might as well get
> used to it from the beginning because it won't get
> any easier when their company list grows from 5 to
> 150.

Do you choose shops based on when they will pay? I choose shops based on how much they pay and where they are. I keep an excel spreadsheet that calculates how long it took from the shop date so all I need to do if I want to know when Market Force pays is look back to my last paid MF shop and see when they pay.

I don't see a lot of benefit/profit to knowing this information. It's more useful for me to know that some have to be beaten over the head before they pay (because I won't work for them at all), but that's more of an integrity thing than a "how long" issue.

I agree with those who think this would be difficult to keep up and keep objective. I have seen and logged onto too many websites in my time where someone started a page with great information but the last update was obviously done around 2009! Sometimes I do not notice the lapse in time until I have already read a lot on the website, then suddenly see their next event will be on April 23, 2009 and that is my clue.
Everyone starts with great intentions and puts lots of hours into setting up the webpage or information page but somehow it seems that constant updating falls by the wayside before long. And Cake, even if you think you could commit to doing this, how long do you really think you will want to keep checking the info on each company to make sure it is still accurate and changing your spreadsheet. I suspect that task will get really old for you after a while, no matter how noble your intentions were. And leaving the spreadsheet open to anyone to make changes is just asking for the disgruntled to do just that.