I joined this concern many years back and found them great to work with. Recently, they have lost many clients, they have omitted telephone help, and they are unresponsive to inquiries. (My last telephone inquiry was dealt with by someone from the sales team, I kid you not.) My problems have included being assigned jobs in the wrong state, late mailings of required forms, convoluted and/or ambiguous shop instructions, the "disappearance" of completed reports, and finding the employees to display an overall level of incompetence, at best, or dishonesty, at worse. I urge everyone to tread very carefully if taking assignments from this concern.

Wow, sorry! I have never had a problem with S2N.

I shopped for them way back when for a well known burger chain. Those were great and paid well. I even did a few of the large coffee chain ones; they mailed me equipment and everything, LOL. They've certainly changed and while I see a few jobs here and there that I would like to do, they are either bad dates for me or too far.

Appears they are scraping bottom....having taken on "that" pizza shop is bottom to me

No doubt that is why I have had no response from them. See the posts that I started a while ago. Was inactivated and can get no one to respond to me either by e mail or will take my calls.

I'd say half of my MS income is from STN, I've never had any problems with them. They just got a few new clients in my area, I haven't seen them drop any around here. I just completed one of those dreaded pizza shops for the first time the other day, so maybe that'll change my mood, though!

I never had a problem with STN but perhaps it's possible they are having financial problems, which lead to incompetent help because some are jumping ship?

(just a guess)

I loved the company.

Whatever happened to the office supply shops? Did they lose the client?

Maybe it's just a slow time for them. I have also noticed a sharp decline in the number of shops.

Squaggy11 Wrote:
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> I joined this concern many years back and found
> them great to work with. Recently, they have lost
> many clients, they have omitted telephone help,
> and they are unresponsive to inquiries. (My last
> telephone inquiry was dealt with by someone from
> the sales team, I kid you not.) My problems have
> included being assigned jobs in the wrong state,
> late mailings of required forms, convoluted and/or
> ambiguous shop instructions, the "disappearance"
> of completed reports, and finding the employees to
> display an overall level of incompetence, at best,
> or dishonesty, at worse. I urge everyone to tread
> very carefully if taking assignments from this
> concern.

A sizeable portion of my business is with STN. In my area they have gained, not lost, clients. I have never experienced being assigned shops in the wrong state. Shoppers either request assignments on the Hub, or via email to the scheduler. Nor have I experienced disappearance of completed reports. I save a copy of my report when I submit it. Additonally, after which, a copy of my report is available on STN's site. Specific details of your issues with the MSC may lend credibility to your complaints, and help us determine why things went south for you.

They don't have a lot of shops in my area either. They're not bad but not one of my favorite companies. Twice I have emailed schedulers about particular shops and been quoted via email a lower fee than was available on the job board. The most recent time I probably would have taken quite a few shops for them. A few days later they increased fees on 3 of the 7 shops I was interested in. Someone took 2 of them and I sent another email to the scheduler asking him to assign me the 3rd after I applied for it on the job board. He told me the shops were all gone and I replied with a link to the shop I had applied for. His reply, oh, I don't schedule those shops? Oh really? Then why the f*** have you been replying to my emails about them instead of getting my email to the right person? Companies that are poorly managed like this I tend to deal with as little as possible.

Just an aside to icstars up there... it's really not a good idea to have half of your income coming from *one* MSC. I have learned this from experience! I saw others, more experienced than I, talking about this before... and I thought, "But what *I* have going on here is just great! In *my* case it won't be a problem!" Well, *HA*! It has become a problem. Even at 90+ MSCs, I need to diversify more. Too much of one's income tied up with any one MSC will always eventually become a problem just because of the nature of how this industry works.

Anyway.

I used to do a lot for STN, too. I really miss the office store shops, which I often got with a nice bonus. I was a little put off when, after several months of successfully negotiating bonuses and sometimes asking for ad getting a larger bonus on a shop that I saw was near, at, or past it's deadline but would take a lot of driving for me... the scheduler I was working with gave me a heads up that the bosses had told them to deactivate shoppers who regularly asked for bonuses and/or higher bonuses that were "inconsistent" with past bonuses. ??? So I kinda just quit asking all together. And quit taking as many shops, because they never got bonused enough to do them except for a few. And then those shops just disappeared.

*sigh!*

Second to None has been one of my better MSC-very fast communication if I need help. They have many shops in my area and they pay better than most MSC I have dealt with.

They are still doing the office supply shops.

Office supply stores are no longer offered in my neck of the woods.

We have a few of the office supply stores here, just not as many as before.

I haven't seen any office supply shops in my area for months. I do find their reports take longer than other msc because you have to keep selecting "N/A" for multiple questions if you're not assigned that particular scenario.

It is a bit annoying, but far better (to me) than the reports requiring repetitive narrative.

The N/As are annoying. I don't know why their reporting platform doesn't use collapse and expand.

Now that y'all mention it, no office supply shops showing here either. :O

No office supply or sporting goods shops here...but the pizza and "cholesterol bombs" are plentiful.

Love this MSC-just got a big payment from them today via paypal. Now if i could just figure out why Sentry takes so GD long!!!

Just got this from them...

"Hello Valued Shopper, This payment is for shops completed June 1 – June 30, 2014. For US shoppers selecting PayPal, a processing fee of $1.00 is deducted from the total monthly payment. STN also offers the convenience of Direct Deposit as a free option. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding your payment. Please be advised it may take from 5-7 days for us to research and reply to your inquiry. Thank you!"

Really?????!!!!! Paying me $10 wasn't enough, but you subtract $1 to send my pay to Paypal?

I just got paid $160 from them to have my computer repaired. I'm not complaining.

I performed a medical testing shop. Called the location, they do not do Drug screenings any longer. They cancelled the shop without payment.

Next month, same location again. A friend gets it. Calls finds the same information. Contacts S2N. They are going to pay her.

So, we have an issue. I want my $15.00

Why don't you just use direct deposit? Companies often have their preferred method of payment. Those with DD often do pass along the PayPal fee rather than absorbing it and the ones who send checks tend to mail them much later.

SusanShopz Wrote:
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> Really?????!!!!! Paying me $10 wasn't enough, but
> you subtract $1 to send my pay to Paypal?

Was not aware direct deposit was an option with them. I would think, though, that processing payments to IC was a business expense on their end. A $1 ding on a $10 shop hurts!

I can't argue that having 10% of your fee disappear sucks. I also feel S2N does not make it as prominent a disclosure as they could.

I don't eat pizza or donuts, so have not been doing many shops at all from STN. Hopefully, business will pick up for them in the Fall when the Medicare Advantage shops come available. They always paid on time and were easy to deal with. I miss shopping for them.

I do shops for them all the time. Most months I do 5 or 6 shops, but the last two months I have done double that.

They had the office supply store on their boards just six weeks ago in my area.

I have completed 5 shops for 2nd to none. I had trouble working with their website when completing my summaries. I couldn't upload some required pictures and receipts and I couldn't complete some of the surveys because the website wouldn't allow it-unless I uploaded the pictures and receipts. I reported this right away to their "Help Desk." I didn't receive a reply right away and the summaries were due, so I contacted my schedulers. They responded and had me upload whatever was needed directly to them. After that I received requests for clarification-no surprise-I couldn't finish the surveys. I answered the questions and verified that no further clarifications were needed.

To my surprise, I logged in today and my account has been deactivated! I sent an email to the "Help Desk" and received a vague reply telling me that 3 of my shops were voided due to "various reasons," and that my account was deactivated because of that!

There was no further details given. I replied and asked for more details and have received no answer. I contacted my scheduler, who knew about my website problems and attached a copy of the email that the "help desk" sent me. I have heard NOTHING from her either! I have no idea what happened or who makes these decisions for them. I will keep all of you posted on what I hear, or even IF I hear!