Don't ask me how I know this, it was the client who insisted and the MSC who fought against the idea. According to instructions I read just today, it is no longer a requirement and shoppers are informed that it is in fact a hard hit.

If you know it is in the guidelines that you have to allow the credit check and you still take the shop then you cannot complain about the credit check. However, if they say it is a soft hit and it is a hard hit then you have every reason to complain about that.

On the shop I did (see original post) the guidelines clearly stated not to allow a credit check. I never meant to criticize the MSP in any post I made on this.

Mary,

As far as I can see, you have not criticized the MSP. You have been sharing what happened and the one you have been analyzing the most has been yourself.

Has there been a final word from the MSC as to whether you will be paid?

Based on all your posts so far in this thread, I think:

1. You were absolutely correct in refusing to let the sales rep. run a credit check on you;
2. It is debatable whether your not taking the sales rep. up on the offer to just sell you a phone was a mistake. Your analysis was solid. The issue was whether the phones and plans were two separate parts of the shop.

I hope you will get paid, especially given the bonus and travel time involved. If the shop guidelines were ambiguous and you followed the clear parts of the guidelines, such as not allowing a credit check, such ambiguity should not be used against you.

Good luck.

Thanks for your comments, Busy. I haven't heard back from the MSC since I answered their initial inquiry, and I'm hoping no news is good news.

You're welcome, Mary, and thanks for the update. "No news is good news" is generally the way things work in this industry, so it looks good. =)

I used to work at a retail establishment that rented a certain product and we were required to run credit checks before the rentals. That did not go over very well with buyers and eventually got us so much negative press that the NCAA got on our case accusing us of making it a race issue (the people who were failing the checks in the area happened to be predominantly one race). The issue was not a race issue for us, it was that we were losing a ton of money to people that rented a product and then never returned or paid for it and most of the general area that we were in was a certain race.

Regardless, because of all the bad press, the store I worked at eventually went out of business because people kept calling it a race issue, and it wasn't, it was a credit issue. The fact of the matter was that we still took the time to present the product to anyone who inquired, and did not run a credit check until they were literally pulling out their wallets ready to buy. The fact that there are cell phone companies out there that run credit checks before even doing their presentation is pure laziness on the part of the company. Basically what they are doing is trying to qualify people and being too lazy to do the presentation for anyone that is not going to qualify anyway. In doing this, they are still losing what could be a potential sale. The people who don't pass the credit check might have a spouse that will, or another family member, or possibly have a paycheck coming up that they could use to just outright buy a phone. There are always ways around bad credit. My guess is that the MSC probably wants to catch whatever companies are refusing to present the product without a credit check. Still, it would make me uncomfortable as well to be forced to submit to a credit check before even hearing a presentation, and I would be less apt to do that type of shop.

I saw "$10 Shop Fee!" I opened it up (out of curiosity) and it was one of those blazin cell phone shops...

Not on my death bed. Not a $100 bonus... would I let these people do this to me again.

I work hard to keep my credit in decent shape. They just smacked crap with this and for a lowly $10 bucks.

The thing that got me: Prepaid Plan Scenario #4 says no credit check.

The dipsh** TOLD me I would be doing a credit check. (Not a choice.) I don't like things rammed down my throat.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2013 01:00AM by SunnyDays2.

Sunny:If you used scenario #4, which said no credit check, then you should not have allowed the credit check. You should have called up the scheduler and let her know and then in the report write up what happened. You followed the guidelines so they should have paid you anyway.

jwolpert Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sunny:If you used scenario #4, which said no
> credit check, then you should not have allowed the
> credit check. You should have called up the
> scheduler and let her know and then in the report
> write up what happened. You followed the
> guidelines so they should have paid you anyway.


I wanted to run out of there so bad. But, I remember the guidelines saying, "If they ask you for a credit check, you must allow it." A $10 buck shop was not worth hitting my credit....

I see them now and I DELETE immediately. This left a sour taste in my mouth. I can understand some of their rules but this one is PERSONAL, by taking private information and "analyzing" our credit....Not good.

If this is the same one I signed up for you get to choose from 4 scenarios. The 4th scenario is for a prepaid plan which does not require a CC. The 400 character narrative for multiple text boxes was the deal killer for me.