I have done multiple high end car shops for this company. Last October, I did a $30 motorcycle shop and a $30 car shop for them in Northern Ca. By February of 2015, I had yet to be paid. I contacted Shannon who said, "You did not do those assignments for us." I knew this was not true and spent a ton of more time researcing the matter. Today, I decided to call them and started with Faiza. She told me that I did not do the shops for them. I pushed her a little and she then found out that I did indeed do the shops. But she now claims that I never submitted the reports and refused to pay me for them. (Never have they had this problem with me before. Every other report was submitted perfectly.) First it is, I didn't do the shops for them, now it is, "Oh. Well you never submitted the reports." I asked to speak with her supervisor and got Shannon. She kept arguing with me and I said, "I do not see how this is productive. Can I speak with your supervisor?" She said she never sent me the email that I referenced above (which I have a copy of) and hung up the phone on me. I called back and got the owner, Ryan. He gave me the same song and dance that I did not submit the reports. I pleaded with him, "You have a great shopper who has received nothing but glowing reviews from your company, that writes great reports, and is completely professional and reliable. I can also play the part of buying a $400,000 car. You have never had a problem with me before. I can't see how $60 is worth jeopardizing our relationship. How about you meet me in the middle at $30 which no where near covers the three hours I have in EACH report and the expense of crossing the Golden Gate Bridge twice." Something bizarre happened. Ryan became delusional. (Keep in mind that I am a Licensed Clincial Social Worker and never use this phrase likely.) Ryan said that he was afraid that I would maliciously fabricate data in future reports and he asked me to terminate my relationship with him. He accused me of black mail and prying into his financial data. I told him over and over that I loved the company and I loved doing their shops and that I did not want to terminate with them. I also said, "You guys are in the business of Mystery Shopping and customer service. My mind is boggled that you are treating one of your shoppers like this. I would never operate my business like this." I had kept my cool with all three of them until this point. HYPOTHETICALLY, I wonder what would happen if their big clients knew how they were treating their mystery shoppers. If enough of us were to complain, maybe they would lose their contract?

Welcome to the forum. How long have you been mystery shopping? How many companies do you work with? I hope you'll post again and tell us some of your good experiences.

I'm sorry to hear you've had difficulties with this company. It just boggles the mind. I've shopped for them for several years with no problems. They are one of my favorites.

Thanks for letting us know. Better luck with other companies.

I've never done shops for Monterey, but most msc will give you a confirmation number after you submit a report. Does Monterey do this? I would think if you were given a confirmation number they could not deny that you did the reports.

I'm a social worker too and fully realize that some companies, or more particularly certain owners are knee-deep in crazy. I think of one in particular who will harass shoppers on this board. I have also shopped for Monterey and don't have them at the top of my favorites list.

Thanks so much for your post. I made the mistake of not writing it down, but hopefully have learned my lesson! Thank God, it was only $60, but it was still 6 hours of my time.

Thanks so much for your welcome and reply. I have been mystery shopping for 20 years and work with 40 plus companies. I would have put Monterey at the top of my list as well. That is why my mind is so boggled over this strange experience. I can't believe that they are in the business of customer service but treated a shopper this way. So strange.

Hi. I am so sorry that happened to you. You should also save a copy of all of your reports. Just print it to pdf and save on your computer.

400k car? what kind of car? the 400k car shops only pay $30?

No, the high end car shops pay $150. The cars are high end British Cars, Italian sports cars, etc. Not sure if I can mention the names here.

Thanks so much. Great suggestiong.

You can't mention the car makes because the thread is about the MSC.

Wow. I've done about a dozen shops for them over the past year. I have never had a problem, but don't mean to imply that you did not. I've seen too many responses where the writer says what a good shopper they are and therefore you should not have had a problem.

I will have to say that I have seen other companies this past year offer shops at the same dealerships Monterey has in the past exclusively, whether its a straightforward shop and test drive or a negotiation shop. Is there any possibility that you grabbed one of these deceptively similar shops from another company thinking it was the typical Monterey shop? Not making accusations...just always troubleshooting.

I have done many shops for them and Faiza is very wonderful to work with. If you had done these reports then you would of been getting a confirmation number in which they could pull that up. I would of questioned you also, so have fun getting more shops !

In the past, I have received confirmation numbers from a different MSC that came back and said they never got them and made me do them over. Therefore, confirmation numbers mean nothing when it is convenient for them to say so. The only thing I would question is which browser did you use? Some companies require a specific browser and if you don't use it, you can lose your work. Is it possible that could of happened?

That is what Monterey said (They kept tellig me that I did not do the shops for them--that I did them for another company, until I spent a lot more time researching the matter and pressed the issue with them). In fact, I did a shop at one of the same dealerships that week for another mystery shopping company and a different brand and those reports with the other company went through fine.

Responses from people like sisterstrollin make me question if Monterey asked her to write that for them. As for "I would of questioned you also, so have fun getting more shops" first of all, I can't imagine why someone would write a response in this thread that is so hateful. I can't work for a company that steals my hard work and data (I truly believe that they submitted the shops to their client) and is so unreasonable and unprofessional with their shoppers. I keep saying over and over to this thread and to Monterey, "They are in the business of customer service." There are way too many other mystery shopping companies to work for that operate with integrity, honesty, sanity and appreciate me as a shopper.

As for the browser, I use Mozilla. I had never lost my work on their $150 shops. Most mystery shopping companies beat down your door if you are late with a report. This was not my experience with Monterey.

I am so saddened that the owner of this company chose to not do the right thing and sever our relationship over $30-$60, and furthermore that he and his staff were so unprofessional. Apparently it is a trickle down effect there. However, I am glad that it was not one of the more expensive shops (even though I put almost the same amount of time into these). Again, if enough shoppers share their experience (hypothetically with their clients), they will lose their contracts.

Thank you all for your kind support. Have a great weekend.

Why did you show them a willingness to let the money slide if you knew you were right? It was business, and by bringing relationship up you showed weakness, and they ran with it.

skipspeer, that is awful. I believe you. I am lucky I have never had any problems with Monterey but I haven't shopped with them for several years. It makes me wary of doing so in the future, especially since loghomelover says confirmation numbers don't really mean anything. I am going to write them down anyway.

Watching the wheels, if skipseer has no proof, there is no way to challenge Monterey over this. Reporting them to any agencies would require proof that the shops were completed and they aren't just going to take someone's word over it.

I'm sorry for the troubles you have had with Monterey. While I've worked for them for several years, love working for them, and have had no problems, I do realize situations happen and sometimes one individual has a horrible experience with a great company. It is completely conceivable to me that there was some terrible situation between you and Monterey, and I am sympathetic. Thus far, yours is the only negative experience I have read about with Monterey.

@skipspeer, I don't think sisterstrollin intended to be "hateful" in her response and I did not take it as such. Many forum members know and have worked for Monterey for many years with good experience. We know the owner, scheduler, and editor well by name and from having worked with them. You have entered the forum, registered, and immediately posted a complaint about the company many of us know. While you are a total stranger, unknown to anyone here, and there is no documentation for what you posted, this is not necessarily a reason to disbelieve you. However, there is no reason why everyone who reads your post should completely believe your story. I think siserstrollin and others intend only to express doubt because of their good relationships with the company. I do not believe sisterstrollin was paid by Monterey to post, just as I am not employed by Monterey and am not being paid to post. I think sisterstrollin is expressing her opinion from her experience. I would actually like to see Ryan or someone else from Monterey post in response to this situation. I'd like to hear Monterey's side of the story. Maybe I will e-mail Ryan, sending the link to this thread, and ask if he would like to comment.

Although it won't help you in this situation, and it appears you will not be completing any more assignments for Monterey, some suggestions for keeping documentation for assignments are:

1. When I accept a shop, I immediately copy the shop guidelines into my flash drive file.
2. I add any communication from the MSC relevant to that assignment.
3. I keep a copy of every report I complete, saved to my flash file.
4. I save a screenshot of the confirmation page, showing the confirmation number, to my file.
If told I did not complete a report, I could immediately e-mail a copy of the confirmation page and the full report.

Again, I'm sorry for your problem and the disappointment of not getting paid for a completed assignment and losing the opportunity to continue working for the company. Better luck with other companies.

Why give up if you did the work? Keep at it.

He did not give up, he said the owner severed the relationship and refused to do the right thing. Why should he keep calling? He has invested a lot more time into this problem with all the calls and this thread, than it is worth at this point. Without copies/proof of his report submissions, etc., it has become a lesson learned. If that shop required proof of shop documentation, he would have something.

I'm confused by this thread. An attribute of a good mystery shopper should be to look at situations objectively and not jump to conclusions and make assumptions.

All we know about skipspeer is what he posted in his first post. It's an oddball story with a lot of emotion and NO documentation. He says he is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the company employees are delusional, a term he says he would never use lightly. He says the company didn't do the right thing.

What is the right thing? What is the whole story? We know only what this anonymous person who just registered posted on an internet forum. Do we believe him because everything posted on the internet has to be true?

He says "HYPOTHETICALLY, I wonder what would happen if their big clients knew how they were treating their mystery shoppers. If enough of us were to complain, maybe they would lose their contract?" Since his negative post is the only bad thing I've seen posted about Monterey, I would say NO, it sounds like he would be the only one of us to complain. HYPOTHETICALLY, I wonder what would happen if Monterey posts complaints about him. Would all the other mystery shopping companies read it and maybe skipspeer would lose all his MSC clients?

Why is everybody jumping on the bandwagon to agree with him?

@Jay C wrote:

I'm confused by this thread. An attribute of a good mystery shopper should be to look at situations objectively and not jump to conclusions and make assumptions.

All we know about skipspeer is what he posted in his first post. It's an oddball story with a lot of emotion and NO documentation. He says he is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the company employees are delusional, a term he says he would never use lightly. He says the company didn't do the right thing.

What is the right thing? What is the whole story? We know only what this anonymous person who just registered posted on an internet forum. Do we believe him because everything posted on the internet has to be true?

He says "HYPOTHETICALLY, I wonder what would happen if their big clients knew how they were treating their mystery shoppers. If enough of us were to complain, maybe they would lose their contract?" Since his negative post is the only bad thing I've seen posted about Monterey, I would say NO, it sounds like he would be the only one of us to complain. HYPOTHETICALLY, I wonder what would happen if Monterey posts complaints about him. Would all the other mystery shopping companies read it and maybe skipspeer would lose all his MSC clients?

Why is everybody jumping on the bandwagon to agree with him?

Exactly and well put

My intuition tells me that skipseer is not making this up. It is possible I could be wrong, but I don't think so.

@purpleicee wrote:

He did not give up, he said the owner severed the relationship and refused to do the right thing. Why should he keep calling? He has invested a lot more time into this problem with all the calls and this thread, than it is worth at this point. Without copies/proof of his report submissions, etc., it has become a lesson learned. If that shop required proof of shop documentation, he would have something.

I think he got a raw deal, and I am telling him not to give up. You are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to MINE!!

I've done many shops for Monterey and haven't had a problem getting paid. In fact, I find them great to work with especially when I'm on a route.

I will say that the ultra-luxury British automobile isn't the same since they were purchased by a German company.

They got me 2 or 3 years ago. I spent at least 3 hours between shopping at the dealership and doing the report. Then they refused to pay me because of a timing issue. I believe the report said to show up there at least 2 hours before they closed, which I did. I think the salesperson was unreasonably slow, etc., and their complaint ended up being that I should have left the dealership earlier. Anyway they never paid me my fee, which was supposed to be $30. I have never done another shop for them again. My time is too valuable.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2015 02:14AM by LLW50.

Make a complaint with BBB!

This is probably not a BBB issue. BBBs exist to resolve issues between consumers and companies. I go to a store and am unhappy. I can then contact the BBB and maybe they will decide to help. We are independent contractors collecting a fee for a service rendered. Generally, BBBs will not deal with those types of issues.

BBB won't handle it. I had an issue with a company several years ago called Franchise Compliance. I did a carpet cleaning shop for them. I received a 10 score. They did not reimburse me the cost of the cleaning which was over $200. I complained to the BBB, as did others who got burned by the owner, Adam Valdez. They went out of business and Adam is nowhere to be found...but BBB of course did not resolve my issue as they handle consumer complaints, as myst4au pointed out. I tried the Utah Labor and Wage Commission and other avenues as well to no avail.