I have done alot of shops for HS Brands, but this year, they just got into my nerves. 37 days and no sign of payments, Plus their staffs in India act as if its a shoppers fault that payments are late. They promise they would pay before time, (within 30 days or so) but once the reports are submitted, no one cares about getting payments processed. I even tried reaching to them via their facebook page, but they had the nerve to block me. It is really disgusting to see how they treat their shoppers and what a unprofessional payment system they have.

HS Brands/Service Sleuth have a payment schedule of 60 days after the end of the month in which the shop was completed. So, shops completed in October will be paid at the end of December. They have (so far) always been on time with me. I take the shops knowing the length of the payment schedule.

Where did you get the 30 day window from?

@sammjetli When did you submit your report? I am still waiting for payment for a shop I completed 9/11.

I asked my scheduler about it a few weeks ago and she said she would ask the client if they could pay early.

Edit: Can't wait to get that paypal soon at the end of this month!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2015 09:00PM by gojiberry.

Welcome to the forum, samjetli. I think you may have HS Brands/Service Sleuth confused with another company. I've worked for SS since 2008, and, to my knowledge, they have always paid at 60-90 days. They have never paid me as quickly as 30 days and have never promised me payment in less than 60 days.

What staff in India have you communicated with? The HS Brands/Service Sleuth staff I interact with are all in the US, and their schedulers (Kern Scheduling) are in the US as well.

This is their current notice of payment, and it is similar to previous years: "Payment: Shoppers must use our PayPal system to get paid. Payments are submitted to PayPal approximately 60 days after the last day of the month in which they were shopped. Shoppers must set up their own PayPal account at www.Paypal.com."

They have right in the ICA what the pay schedule is. If you can't wait to get paid per the agreement, you should never have taken the shop. They have a process in place to do payroll payments and to make an exception for you and hand process a payment ahead of the regular agreed timetable when they pay everyone else for that round of shops is an over reach by you. They have always paid me on time (the delayed time they agreed to) and I have never needed to call them.

To write something negative on their Facebook page about late payment before your payment is due per the ICA is just wrong. I'm surprised they didn't deactivate you. If it was my MSC, I would have.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2015 09:23PM by scanman1.

I am wondering if the op, like what happened to me, worked for one of the companies they absorbed or bought out last year. That is how I became an HSBrands shopper and the former company did have a much shorter pay window. But now, unfortunately, they have the same long pay window as HS Brands.

I have so far done 221 shops with them, and we had a mutual understanding, since we did shopping for them only twice per year.

meghan9262 - I believe they treat every shopper differently. I remember, once my payment was released in just 2 days , because HS brands needed to get reports to their clients on time.

gojiberry - I submitted it on the 18th of October.I had to ask around for extra cash to get a few shops done, even when I told the staffs that I wont be able to do the shops.

AustinMom - I have a written email from their project coordinator that if not by diwali, then by 25th they would clear my dues. which is some where around 30 days. I am not saying they have always paid me within 30 exact days, but I am pretty sure that I have been paid within less than 30 days at times, or within 30-40 days. I do not want to point a finger at any staffs, but people who have been emailing me, tell me some thing new every day. I never went deep into what or who HS Brands deals with, and to be true, this is the first time I am hearing of Kern schedulers.

scanman1 - Funny ,, you sound exactly like one of the staffs of HS Brands, and your words are some what same to one of their staffs. I do not see why I should be blocked from their facebook page, for there are around 5 more people from all around the world who have been facing the same issue. I have pages and groups on facebook, which has more then 5k likes, or 30k members, but I don't go ahead blocking people if I know, what they saying is true.

I would never have brought this issue here, so openly discussing a problem I am facing with them, but I feel like i am being cheated. I know, according to their email, the payment should be cleared by tomorow, 25th November, but just last night I was told that they are waiting for "a date" to confirm payments.

To some extent I do agree with some of you, I should have never taken shops with them, knowing how pathetic their payroll system is.

Wow, given that their pay schedule is 60 days as stated on their website, I am surprised you have never posted here to tell us how awesome they were to bend over backwards to pay you early so that you would be able to complete more shops for them. Two days?? Wow!!! I am super impressed by their willingness to help you out. In fact, knowing that, I think I'll head over to their website right now and see if they have any more shops available this month.

Hahahahahahaha......alter_Ego...mate, dont even go there....i dont know what the situation was back then, but it was around 3 years from now, and alot has changed with HS Brands within this time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2015 02:27AM by sammjetli.

@sammjetli wrote:

I have so far done 221 shops with them, and we had a mutual understanding, since we did shopping for them only twice per year.

scanman1 - Funny ,, you sound exactly like one of the staffs of HS Brands, and your words are some what same to one of their staffs. I do not see why I should be blocked from their facebook page, for there are around 5 more people from all around the world who have been facing the same issue. I have pages and groups on facebook, which has more then 5k likes, or 30k members, but I don't go ahead blocking people if I know, what they saying is true.

You are contradicting yourself if you have done 221 shops and only do two shops a year for them. Let me do the math. Hmm...This means you have been shopping for them for 111 years then.

I have no connection to them other than being another shopper that has done far fewer jobs for them than you have. For me to say that you should expect them to follow the contract that you signed with them sounds like something they would say. Well, that is what contracts are for. If you need a variance from the stated contract, you should request it in writing from the MSC. Otherwise, it is not binding. This holds true to anything that is told to you over the phone from a scheduler from any company. Unless it's in writing, it did not happen.

I have had a scheduler tell me something that did not match the shop or ICA and asked that the MSC send me an email stating this and I will accept the job. It's funny how the scheduler will back pedal the statement when asked to put it in writing. If they are sincere and asking you to over extend yourself for them, then they should be willing to place this revised agreement to the ICA in writing to you before you take the shop. Unless the scheduler is management of the MSC, they do not have the ability to override the ICA. If it's a scheduling company, you are one party removed from the company and not even negotiating with the company itself.

I have no allegiance to this company. This is just common business practice. This is why I may sound like the MSC.

Scanman- I will leave you to your opinions, for right now, most of it does not make any sense to me .

I do around 20 shops for them in the first half of the year, and then 58 shops in the 2nd half this year. Some times the number of shops varies.

Hoping that clears the air, and you can do your math from there.

@sammjetli wrote:

Scanman- I will leave you to your opinions, for right now, most of it does not make any sense to me .

I do around 20 shops for them in the first half of the year, and then 58 shops in the 2nd half this year. Some times the number of shops varies.

Hoping that clears the air, and you can do your math from there.

MSC=Mystery Shopping Company. Companies that have jobs out for bidding.

ICA=Independent Contractor Agreement. (You read and legally agreed to this contract to allow this company to offer jobs to your business. You are your own business and the MSC's are your customers. You agree to the terms of the ICA when you sign up to allow them to negotiate and bid job's to your company.

You need to read the ICA VERY CAREFULLY as this is a legal agreement and you are bound to it. If you do not agree with it, you should deactivate yourself and then never allow that company to submit job offers to your company again.

You are your own company and are bidding on jobs. The MSC is your client. I think many people don't realize that you are not working for the MSC. The MSC is actually hiring your company to perform a job and has an ICA already set up to protect them. Everything is negotiable within reason. I have called up very friendly MSC's and made small changes to the job they are offering my company.

I'm guessing this poster is actually based in India (hence their reference to their "staffs in India"- not implying that they're outsourcing to India as much as he deals with the employees who are there, and also references to the Indian holiday of Diwali). It could be that the Indian branch of HS had a different payment schedule.

I agree. The expression, "they would clear my dues" is one I often heard while on business trips to India. It would be unusual to hear this expression in the US.

@Misanthrope wrote:

I'm guessing this poster is actually based in India (hence their reference to their "staffs in India"- not implying that they're outsourcing to India as much as he deals with the employees who are there, and also references to the Indian holiday of Diwali). It could be that the Indian branch of HS had a different payment schedule.

They are supposed to pay more quickly for casino shops. According to the trainer, the payment for casinos comes out of a different account and is supposed to be paid within a month. If they have moved to a 60-day payment for the other shops, I haven't seen it -- the fastest payment this year for me has been 72 days. They have earned their nickname for a reason.

It is frustrating to have to wait so long for payment, three months most of the time, but I find that they are reliable with regard to payment. I have never had a problem collecting payment from them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 02:16AM by alannajm.

I understand. I did two shops for them in Sept, and it's almost December and I'm still waiting. I know they pay 60 days out, but I understand the frustration.

Part of the reason I don't take their shops often. I still have a couple of shops from August that hasn't been paid. Imagine your regular job pays you after 3 months of your work. I understand this is what you agreed to when you signed up but why can some other MSC's pay you once or twice a month? Very discouraging to take on their shops.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2015 04:52AM by civic82.

Sixty days is what I expect when I take their shops but it has strung out close to 90. The one that I do for them is an auto service which I would have to have done on my car anyway so I don't get real concerned with the payment time. It is a small shop fee and a reimbursement anyway so even if I don't get paid I am only "out" the shop fee. They have never been noted for fast payments for as long as I can remember. I also keep a spreadsheet with payment times and "notes" about specific companies. You can bet they probably have notes about you on their system and if you are known as a complainer your phone might not ring so much.

I agree with Meghan. I have done many shops for them and it's always been al least 60 days. They take longer to pay then any other company, but they always pay.

agreed. I, as well, have not been paid from a Sept. shop, and I am getting the run a round

I'm still waiting on payment for an August shop. No response to my two emails. Sigh.

I'm waiting for a September payment as well, for a dry cleaning shop. I do HS Brands shops because they're services I would typically use and do not need the reimbursement immediately. It would be nice if it was on time though.

Emailed their payroll department. Their clients are being slow to pay them. Payments for Sept shops should come end of next week.

I'm also waiting on a September shop. The website stated payment would be yesterday. I email this morning and am awaiting a response.

She has more than likely been bombarded with requests for when they will get paid.

Many MSC's make a determination to pay or not after the client approves/accepts the shop. Once it is approved/accepted, they put it in their list of shops to be paid, whether the client has paid them or not.

HS Brands, however, seems to wait until the shop has been approved/accepted AND paid for by the client. They probably have some agreement with the client that the client pays within 30 - 60 days.

So the cycle for most companies is 1. Shopper does shop. 2. Shop is reviewed/approved. 3. MSC bills the client AND MSC pays the shopper.

But with HS Brands it seems: 1. Shopper does shop. 2. Shop is reviewed/approved. 3. MSC bills the client. 4. Client pays. 5. HS Brands pays the shopper.

The advantage to HS Brands is that they are never out of pocket for the expenses we incur, nor are they out of pocket for our shop fee.

This approach would explain why they not only pay 60-90 days, but also sometimes take longer when they say the client is slow in paying.

It's been a couple of years since I worked for them since I get my services elsewhere now-a-days, so I don't remember their ICA, In hindsight it would be interesting to go back and see whether the ICA says anything about what happens if the client never pays them. Would they still pay us? They should.

But if the ICA says they pay us after they get paid, it would be interesting to see what happens if the client never pays. Say the client goes under....

OTOH, if the ICA doesn't say anything about waiting for the client to pay, then HS Brands would regularly be in breach of their contract with us if they are late paying us just because the client hasn't paid yet. This would be of interest to a variety of legal organizations in the USA.

Sorry for the length, but it seemed like an interesting set of questions to raise.

Except that I imagine most MSC's have Net 30 terms with their clients. Meaning they are paid 30 days after billing, which means HS is running a full cycle behind. In other words clients pay the end of December for November shops and that money is being used to pay October shops.*

*this is just assumption on my part. I have no knowledge of HS Brand's internal processes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2015 04:20PM by bgriffin.

To follow up on this ......
Completed a total of 7 shops for them since April. Five shops back in April and May were paid after about 60 days. I emailed them about a month after and got the typical "60 days" response back. Just got paid for the two Sept shops after 90 days. I was going to email them but decided not to after reading this post.

I am sure they will pay you at some point. The question becomes whether it is worthwhile doing shops for them. This post is about how poorly they handle the shoppers' pay. I am sure if there is a post on their way of assigning shops, there will be an equal amount of responses like this one.

Cut to the chase, if it is their simple, last minute self-assigned audit shops that take no more than 10 minutes of my time to complete, I will do them. I am ok with getting paid after 90 days. KNowing their 60-90 pay policy, I will not do any of their shops that require me to pay up front. It's not because I can't afford it but it's the principal.
I won't even bother requesting for their shops now. Their process on assigning shops is another long story to talk about.

I will only take from them easy shops that will fill out a day or a route. I'm not picking up anything that requires me to lay out money or anything that seems overly complicated. I just got paid this week for shops I did in September, nearly a full 90 days from the shop. The Paypal notice I received just said "Sorry for the delay". Well, I guess I am sorry I don't want to do more shops for you!