I'm awaiting payment on a February shop (30 days from client acceptance is the in the ICA). The latest excuse is 'the client hasn't paid us yet'.

I assume most businesses would try to manage cash flow so that bills could get paid when one client is behind. But given 8+ years experience with MSCs, I'm thinking that this may be more common than I thought.

I'm not naming the MSC now, as I trust they will pay (based on past experience, and that other payments for shops for other clients have been made). It's when they don't pay for ANY clients or everything is late that I get concerned.

Sounds like About Face.

Or Remington

It's not uncommon. Smaller MSC's often have small budgets and cannot afford to pay shoppers until they have been paid by the client. It can be frustrating as your ICA is with the MSC, not the client. However, not much can be done if the MSC doesn't have the money...

@KevinE wrote:

I'm not naming the MSC now, as I trust they will pay (based on past experience, and that other payments for shops for other clients have been made). It's when they don't pay for ANY clients or everything is late that I get concerned.

I wish that you WOULD name the MSC.
Why?
We’re a community here, and your warning might help someone whose rent, utilities or car payment depends on timely payments.
Silence = Enabling

@ColoKate63 wrote:

@KevinE wrote:

I'm not naming the MSC now, as I trust they will pay (based on past experience, and that other payments for shops for other clients have been made). It's when they don't pay for ANY clients or everything is late that I get concerned.

I wish that you WOULD name the MSC.
Why?
We’re a community here, and your warning might help someone whose rent, utilities or car payment depends on timely payments.
Silence = Enabling

Right?

Is this any different than the subject of taking jobs for fees that some would consider too low? I don’t believe so. A MSer’s time should be worth what they’d deem an appropriate fee to take a job and prompt pay should figure in as well. Short of the MSC alluded to by the OP as being an upstart, with little business credit, there should be no excuse for not having a rainy day fund themselves or access to emergency lines of credit to tide them over. I’ve worked for contractors who had those “payroll issues” and I give them credit for having my direct deposit a couple days later, even if it wasn’t going to break me.

Agreed.

I personally know of one new MSC that was started in 2017 on two credit cards.
Credit cards!!!

That’s not best practices, not responsible, and not good for the industry.

And, yes, they are always, always late paying their shoppers.

You could try using the same excuse when your credit card/mortgage/rent is due, "The client hasn't paid me yet." They won't mind, they'll just charge a whole lot extra! Maybe we should do that? Start billing interest and late fees to companies that do not pay on time? Just dreaming....

This is a risk we all face. For the OP, a good faith agreement with an MSC was stymied by a client. What happened at the client's end? Hopefully, everything will work out for all involved and money will flow properly now...

Most shoppers, after signing up for their first few MSCs, do not fully read the ICA and/or the contract they are agreeing to. We assume it is the same with every MSC, across every client.

A badly written contract between a MSC and their client will ultimately cost us shoppers more direct loses or grief than anyone else in the chain.

The subjective and ambiguous use of terms like "30 days from clients acceptance" tells us nothing. Unless the MSC shares their timeline for submitting completed reports and the clients agreed timeline to review, approve and pay for them, we do not have a realistic and actionable expectation in place for when compensation will be made.

In reality, a MSC is most likely receiving core payments for their time and expenses. A poorly written contract may allow the client to cover the reimbursement/fee/final payment who knows when.

My expectations, based on a majority of the MSCs, is that the client is receiving the reports daily, weekly or monthly and expected to process and finalize payments for them in about a 30 day time span at the longest. Thus the differentiation in how long each MSC takes to pay us.

If any of us hires a contractor to perform work, the only enforceable expectations are what is contained in the contract. This includes what we are to pay them and when. The same then applies to when and how the contractor expects to be paid. It is a mutual agreement.

I’m currently having my home redone and my contractor gets paid daily, at 4 PM. $400. Guys like him - who show up at 0800, who stick with the job, who have the right equipment and zero excuses, are totally worth it. There’s a sea of flakey contractors out there, and it was very difficult to find someone who cares about doing the project correctly and on time.

You wouldn’t think that a general construction contractor and a video mystery shopper would have much in common, but I’m learning a lot from observing his work ethic and methods. He takes exactly zero BS, and knows his worth. If I tried the “my MSC hasn’t paid me yet” excuse to stiff him, he’d pack up and leave at lightning speed. He’s in demand and has a skill set that is difficult to find. I respect that.

To the OP: you are getting treated with zero respect. 120 days or more past your work completion? Insane. No excuse, none, for that kind of behavior.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2019 11:52AM by ColoKate63.

Reality Check. They had never late till this month. I just emailed them.

about face isn't paying me for a job done on April 30th and may 3rd, they were suppose to pay on June 17th but nothing, I reached out and the Financial Director said I was "slated" to be paid on the 28th whatever that means and now it is the 3rd and still no pay. They aren't even returning my emails and phone calls and I just get an autoreply referring me back to the link for overdue payments. I'm getting a huge run around from them and now I'm reporting them to the Better Business Bureau, I would warn anyone on here not to work for them because they play around with their payments. Hopefully I can get this resolved outside of having to sue them for it.

Wait but doesn't the client pay up prior to the MSC accepting them a client? I thought the process was that the client reached out to the MSC, let them know what they needed done, PAID them, and then when the shop got done paid to the MS. No???

No.

The MSC gets paid after shops are completed and accepted by the client. What would happen if the client paid them and they weren't able to meet their end of the bargain, getting all shops scheduled, edited, and accepted in the time agreed upon in their contract? That would be quite messy. Just like we shoppers don't expect to get paid for shops in advance.

Edited to add that's no excuse for the MSC not paying the OP as per agreement.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2019 07:06PM by JASFLALMT.

Unless the msc industry is different from others in the market research consulting arena, they collect a percentage of the fee immediately as the contract is signed. The client then makes payments as work is done. So when a msc says they can't pay because the client has not paid, it's likely that they have already received substantial money from the client.

Oh wow. I guess it makes sense. I just had no idea. That's kind of messed up on the client's part. Why do they take so long to pay if the job is done? That doesn't seem right. And what happens if the client refuses to pay up?

Because it's BUSINESS. Businesses that pay invoices ("accounts payable" ) often write checks once a month, on a scheduled cycle. Common invoice terms are net 30, which means they have 30 days to pay. Contracts often specify a % due at certain cycles of job completion -- 3% a month, or 25% after a certain benchmark is achieved.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/2019 07:32PM by ceasesmith.

Yeah, they might get a small percentage when the contract is signed, but I highly doubt it is "substantial".

I'm going to guess that if the MSC is using that as an excuse, it's poor money management on the part of the MSC. I guess the client could refuse to pay as well, but that doesn't mean that they should stiff their vendors (us).

@Kristylynnr wrote:

Oh wow. I guess it makes sense. I just had no idea. That's kind of messed up on the client's part. Why do they take so long to pay if the job is done? That doesn't seem right. And what happens if the client refuses to pay up?