$35 Fee to Stop Payment on a Check
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No. That's really awful. If you have a good history with this company, I don't see why they wouldn't give you the benefit of the doubt. I have never had anything like that happen to me. I have had checks sent by the MSC to another person with my name (I have a common first and last name) in a different state (has happened on two separate occasions) but in both cases, the MSC admitted their error and reissued me a check with no stop payment charge (but of course the other shoppers had already cashed the checks by then). Did you email their payroll department or have your scheduler look into it for you? It may be that something similar happened to your check.
Unfortunately I have heard of it before, though I think it was something like $15 to reissue a check and the missing payment was $10. It certainly sticks in the craw. If I send a check to the electric company to pay my bill and they don't receive it, I don't get the option of withholding a fee for a stop payment to reissue the check. The $15 to reissue a check happened to another shopper and it was enough to persuade me that was not a company worth working for.
I don't really understand why companies even issue checks anymore. Anyway, I had one get shuffled under some papers, and, thanks to my less-than-stellar accounting procedures, went unnoticed for just over 90 days. I called and they just wanted me to mail back the check and they reissued me another one. That was nice of them, since it was my error.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Could I have a receipt please?
Could I have a receipt please?
It is the typical policy if you are talking about Secret Shopper/Sights on Service. They do charge $35 for a stop payment when they reissue a check.
This is their payment policy:
"If you believe you have not received a payment, please wait until 10 business days after we mail the checks to make sure it isn't en-route. Please note our checks are issued under our corporate name, Sights on Service, Inc. Often, shoppers don’t realize they have already received the check and cashed it.
If we have received the check back from the Post Office, we will verify your address and information and send the check back to you. If we have not received it back from the Post Office, we can issue you a new check, minus a $35.00 stop payment fee."
This is the only company I know that charges such a high fee for reissuing a check.
This is their payment policy:
"If you believe you have not received a payment, please wait until 10 business days after we mail the checks to make sure it isn't en-route. Please note our checks are issued under our corporate name, Sights on Service, Inc. Often, shoppers don’t realize they have already received the check and cashed it.
If we have received the check back from the Post Office, we will verify your address and information and send the check back to you. If we have not received it back from the Post Office, we can issue you a new check, minus a $35.00 stop payment fee."
This is the only company I know that charges such a high fee for reissuing a check.
I received a check a few years ago and it was for $12. I placed in a stack of papers and never saw it again. I never could find that check! 
It's not your fault if the check got lost in the mail. Surely the MSC can check its bank records and see that you haven't cashed the check. If someone else receives and fraudulently cashes it, that's a problem the MSC needs to deal with. It shouldn't be your problem in any way.
Personally, if this happened to me, once I got the replacement check and cashed it, I'd deactivate my profile from that company's site.
Personally, if this happened to me, once I got the replacement check and cashed it, I'd deactivate my profile from that company's site.
I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
I don't know if I'd deactivate my account, but it would make me think twice about working for that company again. It's hard to want to work for a company that feels like an adversary instead of a partner you can work with in case things don't work out exactly like you both thought they would.
Shopper in California's Bay Area
During my beginning days of mystery shopping, my check from Secret Shopper: Sights on Services was lost and I never received it. After waiting about a month or two, I contacted them and they claimed to never received it back. As a result, I lost payment altogether as the reprocessing fee reduced my payment to $0. I ultimately had to take it as a ~$20 loss. After that debacle, I refused to work with them ever again, as they claimed to have sent it out and their fee to reissue the check was firm. This is the only company that's ever stiff-armed me in the face like that.
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
I know it would really stink to wait this long, but rather then completely lose the money, I would ask them to reissue payment after six months. A normal check, depending on the bank, expires in six months - twelve months from the issue date.
@spaztck wrote:
I know it would really stink to wait this long, but rather then completely lose the money, I would ask them to reissue payment after six months. A normal check, depending on the bank, expires in six months - twelve months from the issue date.
This would depend on the company... If this is Secret Shopper: Sight on Services, I've posted my experience on the situation already. In other words, Roxie may be SOL. Then again, I also experienced a similar situation with BARE International, where my check was lost in the mail, but I was reissued the checks after 180 days (~6 months) without any charges.
Roxie, can you provide more details on which MSC this thread is about?
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2015 04:40PM by Tarantado.
I am kind of surprised that the msc would re issue the check so soon without waiting a while to see if the check cleared a bank with either your signature and acct number on it or some strangers.
A stop costs money to do for most people including probably msc.
A stop costs money to do for most people including probably msc.
@sandyf wrote:
I am kind of surprised that the msc would re issue the check so soon without waiting a while to see if the check cleared a bank with either your signature and acct number on it or some strangers.
A stop costs money to do for most people including probably msc.
You bring up a good point. One thing I didn't specifically ask to Secret Shopper: Sights on Services, not thinking about it back then, was reissuing the check after the check expired. It was frustrating as my first experiences as a shopper was being ignored about the situation after calling and following up with them for a shop they accepted and likely shipped to their client.
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
@sandyf, yes, it does cost money to stop payment, and in this case, the MSC charges it ($35) to the shopper, so for them, it makes no difference if they reissue it right away.
Everyone, thank you for the comments and suggestions. The company is Secret Shopper. I will try the six month delay, but I am not optimistic.
Everyone, thank you for the comments and suggestions. The company is Secret Shopper. I will try the six month delay, but I am not optimistic.
@Roxie wrote:
@sandyf, yes, it does cost money to stop payment, and in this case, the MSC charges it ($35) to the shopper, so for them, it makes no difference if they reissue it right away.
Everyone, thank you for the comments and suggestions. The company is Secret Shopper. I will try the six month delay, but I am not optimistic.
Try asking what would happen after the check expires and see if the check could be reissued without any fees.
Digging through my archives, this was their response to me during my situation:
Thank you for completing shops for us. We have not received check [check number removed] back. Unfortunately, we are unable to re-issue a check unless we receive the original check back; otherwise, we must assess a $35.00 stop-payment charge. I recommend allowing more time to receive the check; if you are interested in pursuing this more at this time, please contact your local post office and ask them to put a tracer on the check, for which they will likely need the address the check was mailed from:
620 Mendelssohn Ave. N.
Minneapolis, MN 55427
I sent follow up emails and even called them.... No response. I haven't received any payment from them regarding this and counted it as a loss on my end.
Good luck!
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2015 11:18PM by Tarantado.
Here's a related but somewhat off topic question:
In the case of the wayward $20 payment that goes missing and it doesn't make financial sense to pay the $35 stop pay fee to have it reissued: how would the shopper deal with that at the end of the year come tax time? Do you write it off as a bad debt? I assume the MSC is reporting to the IRS that they've paid you that $20, how does it get squared on your reporting?
In the case of the wayward $20 payment that goes missing and it doesn't make financial sense to pay the $35 stop pay fee to have it reissued: how would the shopper deal with that at the end of the year come tax time? Do you write it off as a bad debt? I assume the MSC is reporting to the IRS that they've paid you that $20, how does it get squared on your reporting?
Shopper in California's Bay Area
@CaliGirl925 wrote:
Here's a related but somewhat off topic question:
In the case of the wayward $20 payment that goes missing and it doesn't make financial sense to pay the $35 stop pay fee to have it reissued: how would the shopper deal with that at the end of the year come tax time? Do you write it off as a bad debt? I assume the MSC is reporting to the IRS that they've paid you that $20, how does it get squared on your reporting?
I documented it in my records and wrote it off as a business loss.
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
This would only be acceptable under one circumstance which is if the shopper was dictating the payment terms and they were check only. In this case the shopper was not offered a choice. Since the MSC made the choice, any fees associated with reissuing should be on them.
Check by mail must be the most unreliable method of payment these days. In addition to fraud or theft, even the machinery used by the post office can shred mail plus there is good old fashioned human error. A check delivered to the wrong house could be returned or it could get tossed into someone's junk mail pile and eventually into the trash.
Check by mail must be the most unreliable method of payment these days. In addition to fraud or theft, even the machinery used by the post office can shred mail plus there is good old fashioned human error. A check delivered to the wrong house could be returned or it could get tossed into someone's junk mail pile and eventually into the trash.
Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.
@LisaSTL wrote:
This would only be acceptable under one circumstance which is if the shopper was dictating the payment terms and they were check only. In this case the shopper was not offered a choice. Since the MSC made the choice, any fees associated with reissuing should be on them.
Check by mail must be the most unreliable method of payment these days.
Well put, Lisa; I agree totally!
I learn something new every day, but not everyday!
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
I've learned to never trust spell-check or my phone's auto-fill feature.
Well, it has been more than a week, and no one from the MSC has responded to my email to coordinator@.... There is a main number on the website, so I guess I'll be calling that.
Sounds to me like they're just selective scamming. How is it possible so many people haven't received checks? Seems like half the people who have shopped for them haven't got paid. The $35 fee is an insult.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2015 02:41AM by jay225.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2015 02:41AM by jay225.
By the way I did a shop for them a week ago. I was supposed to go to a discount store to speak to a representative for a cable company, one of those table set up deals. No one from that company was there. Turns out no one from that company is ever there, as it's the other cable company that normally has representatives there. Pretty weird
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2015 02:48AM by jay225.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2015 02:48AM by jay225.
This MSC sounds like a kitchen table operation, one that gets business by working so cheap there is no room for business expenses in the cash flow. I wouldn't work for them, because "companies" like that are a bad case of stomach flu or a car accident away from folding at the best of times, and somebody's going to be left unpaid when (not if!) that happens..
Called the main number yesterday at noon. Wasn't sure whether to choose the coordinator option or accounting option on the main menu. I went with accounting. Left a voicemail message, and I have heard nothing back. This is actually a few hundred dollars, so it is getting a little frustrating.
I really need to stop reading tired...
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2015 12:58AM by JerryBrian.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2015 12:58AM by JerryBrian.
Update: After following their procedure and emailing all pertinent information ten days ago, I followed up with a phone call to accounting on Thursday and left a message. I heard nothing back, so today I phoned and pressed the number for coordinating. She told me the check had been mailed and that I needed to talk to accounting. She transferred me, and I got a live person, who was actually very nice. The check had been returned. (I have the WORST post office ever! I have lived at this address for 8 years and received an email from my credit card company last week that mail had been returned to them.) They are issuing another. It would have been nice if they had answered my email or returned my first call, but it's a big check (reimbursement shop), and I guess they were hoping to keep it. They are also sending me the original envelope so I can take it to the post office.
Glad to hear a happy resolution. Good job staying on top of it. Time to celebrate ..... well, maybe not until the check actually makes it's way to you .......
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