This was stupid. Wish I could delete account. Keep posting about how great everything in the world is.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2014 01:24AM by TeachNeeMore.

TeachNeeMore ORIGINALLY Wrote:
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> Has anyone else had serious issues with Feedback Plus?
> It took 76 days to receive payment for my first shop with them
> and that was after submitting two support tickets.
> Now they are refusing to pay me because an employee did not greet
> me initially until the time frame given to start accepting service.
> It was a small outlet store so to double the browse time
> would be suspicious especially that close to closing. The instructions
> were to decline first offer of service, but accept after
> browsing three minutes. Help was not offered until between
> two to three minutes so I accepted since the store was close
> to closing. I had arrived in plenty of time not knowing the
> parking lots were being redone and parking was limited so I
> actually had to leave and go back. Because I did not decline
> that first offer of service which came around the three
> minute mark, they are refusing to pay me. I will never buy
> from that client nor shop for them or Sentry Marketing again!
> They are also impossible to reach by phone and take days to
> respond to email, yet expect same-day responses from
> shoppers. I work three other jobs and am often not available
> same day or on short notice. I understand the nature of the
> beast, but creating excuses not to pay shoppers who followed
> the instructions or paying them months after the fact is a
> real serious issue to me.



Okay, and why is this their fault that you decided not to do the scenario correctly? Those instructions they give us tell us exactly how to do the shop. Most of them also say to arrive "X" amount of time before or after closing. If you decided to leave and come back, and came back too late to let the scenario run its course, why would you think this would be okay? You agreed to do a certain job in a certain way and are now making excuses for why you didn't (not couldn't -- didn't) do it right.

"I had arrived in plenty of time not knowing the parking lots were being redone and parking was limited so I actually had to leave and go back. " Why didn't you just prowl the lot until a car left and you could take that space? What did you think would change by leaving and going back?

I understand the parking lot paving threw a monkey wrench into your plans, but part of the challenge of mystery shopping is to be able to roll with the punches. Coming back without enough time to do the shop was not the solution. Deciding that because time was short you didn't need to keep browsing after the first offer to help was not the solution. You do the scenario as instructed. If the clerk didn't offer to help you for three minutes, you report that. I once waited five minutes before the clerk came out of the back room to offer to help me, and yes, I refused help and continued to browse the required three more minutes before drifting back into her vicinity so she could offer (or I could request) help again. That's the scenario; that's what you have to do to get paid.

Consider this a learning experience. You'll never make this particular mistake again. But don't blame the company for not paying you if you don't do the job the way it was assigned.



Edited to insert what I was replying to, that OP deleted, but I was able to recover by paging my browser back far enough to find the original post....



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2014 04:51AM by dspeakes.

Nope, I've never had a problem.

I got paid faster with Feedback Plus but apparently Sentry's payment policy is a longer period. I am not thrilled with it but Sentry bought out Feedback so that is how it goes for now. I have never had a payment issue and I have never had one of my reports declined. It is VERY important to follow the MSC's/Client's guidelines. Yes, things happen and you should have a Plan B. Many times, I have a Plan C and D.

If you can not complete the shop according to the guidelines, you should not continue with the shop (in most cases) and contact your scheduler right away. If it is not the end of the month with a 3-day holiday weekend, many shops can be rescheduled if you have proven yourself as a reliable and honest shopper.

And if the client does not accept the report, the MSC does not get paid. If the MSC does not get paid, the shopper does not get paid. It is just that simple.

Questions:

1. Why are you shopping for a company chronically late with payments?

2. Since you did not know the parking conditions in the area, why did you arrive so late, as to being near "closing time?"

(There are numerous clients that say to arrive one hour before closing or your shop will be rejected, due to exactly what happened to you.)

This shop needs to be/and will be re-shopped to be fair to the client.

I certainly understand your frustration and while I have never had any issues with Feedback Plus this was probably before Sentry Marketing. However it looks like while you tried to do your best you didn't follow the instructions when you actually could have. At the very least if you realized you weren't going to have time to complete the shop according to instructions you go home and contact the scheduler, give them an explanation and hopefully go back another day.

I'm wondering if you're new to shopping in which case I probably would have done the same things you did, but really the other posters are quite correct. Sorry my friend.

Ditto the above done being ganged up on.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2014 01:25AM by TeachNeeMore.

Sorry. I did not realize like all message boards I have used in the past that hitting reply below an individual post didn't reply to just that post. Did not mean to spam.



Mod note: That's OK, we took out a couple of the extra posts that you had made in error. Welcome.

This shop reminds me of a certain office supply shop, where you had to reject the first greeting and then wait 5-10 minutes to see if that associate would come back. If he did not come back within 15 minutes, you had to go seek assistance.

Needless to say, I did not take anymore of those....

So, you spent 50 minutes driving, and then 50 minutes trying to find a parking space, allotting you 40 minutes to complete the shop? I call it a "folly coup of time" meaning that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong "time-wise."

Okay, 50 minute drive, I estimate this was 30 or more miles away. So, round trip 60 miles. I hope their shop payment was a fair one....

TeachNeeMore, now I am going to call you out. You make an original post complaining about late payments and your shop not being accepted when you clearly did not follow the shop guidelines. Then when other shoppers try to give you advice and explain what you could have done or should do in the future, you pull a temper tantrum. You make multiple negative posts when you don't get the responses you want. Then you edit all your posts so the whole thread does not make sense.

You need to not be so sensitive. And don't pull the "ganged up" card.

Note to self... the next time you reply to a whine post from a newbie, quote the post when replying in case they throw a hissy fit and delete what they said.....

Let's see.... what was in that magazine article? Give them a fish, teach them to fish, or tell them to jump in the lake?

Must be lake time......

And... I fixed it. Amazing how far back in your browser history you can page if you never close your browser or tabs.

Actually I don't think I've ever had an employee come back and offer help again after refusing help the first time. Seems like a silly instruction to me.

Teach I am sorry you feel ganged up on. I think we really just wanted you to look at it from a different viewpoint for future reference, you know, in case a similar thing happens in the future. I'd like to say that Feedbackplus is a good company but I've never worked with them under Sentry Marketing. Actually did not even know they had merged.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2014 12:40PM by jpgilham.

Very clever, dspeakes. And if I remember correctly from the OP's other edited posts, he/she said that they have been MS'ing for two years. So they might be new to the forum but NOT new to MS'ing. Why do they come to the forum and their first post right out of the gate is something negative and whiny? Then the temper tantrum follows. Unbelievable.

dspeakes Wrote:
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> And... I fixed it. Amazing how far back in your
> browser history you can page if you never close
> your browser or tabs.


Good job, ds! I wouldn't have guessed this could be done to recover a deleted post. I'm guessing the OP didn't guess it was possible either.