I have done 4 of these shops. The last one I did was on November 13, 2010. I am still waiting to get paid. I have sent in 4 requests for re-imbursement ($125.00) no one responds back or emails me. I am going to send in another email request for reimbursement and let them know all the of negative feedback that exists about their company. I hate to threaten but it seems it's the only way to get a response. I will never take another shop again until I hear they have improved their payment policy. I have been waiting almost 7 months to be re-imbursed. Does anyone have any other contact information other than schedulers? --- Jeff

All phone numbers to them appear to have been disconnected. Your scheduler seems to be your only route to them and at least in my area they seem to be changing schedulers with some frequency. Guess the old ones were tired of hearing from shoppers who had not been paid and likely they had not been paid themselves. Good luck!

It took me 4 months to get my pay from them. The job was nice but I'm with you, I probably wont accept anymore.

I completed the carpet cleaning shop in February and I still have not received payment. I've sent 6 messages with no response. I have threatened to report them to the BBB and Channel 3 news, again no response. I will never shop for this company again! Any advice for those who have received payment?

I had to send a report to BBB. Then they paid, with a check dated 2 months earlier.

I declined this shop after seeing online that the franchise I was scheduled to shop already had a negative BBB rating. I was actually verifying the phone number when I saw the post.

Last year I did a restaurant shop for a company in Chicago that ignored my requests for payment until I contacted my state attorney general. After a couple of back-and-forths and a few weeks they paid me 90% of what I was owed. I am told that not all states work this way but it is worth a shot.

Thanks so much for the tip jstockwell. :-) Anything is worth a try at this point.

No problem. We need to stick together; some of these companies are just plain crooks.

Ya...it's really pretty awful.

I also completed a shop in February with payment expected 5/31/2011. All emails to scheduler and Kami Olsen went unanswered. I did discover that the owner Adam Valdez has a new Credit Inc. company advertised here:
[econnect.entrepreneur.com]

I sent an email about 1 week ago to an email address for Adam I found in one of these threads as well as his email for Credit Inc. and also an email to Kami Olsen. I told them I already filed a complaint with the BBB (although the complaint was rejected by them - said they don't investigate the type of complaint I described) and if I didn't receive payment by 6/30/2011 I would contact the client,file a claim in small claims court, and place comments on Entrepeneur Connect about his business practices. Still no payment as of yet.

This is so incredibly upsetting. How can someone knowingly have you charge your credit card such a large amount and never plan on repaying you. ugh....
Thanks fro the other email.

FC is a SASSIE shop. Can't we go to Sassie shops and complain?

Would U want to be assoaciated with a MSC that complaints about non-payment exists?

I did 2 shops for FC in March/April, I have not received payment. I will not do any more.

What good does it do to complain to the client? If the client does not pay the MSC then nobody is getting paid. Is the client going to pay us? I want the shoppers fee. I will not pursue payment, but I will wait to the end of the summer and then just xxxxx them.

Of course the problem here is that too many shoppers don't know that forums exist. They sign up for the shop naively thinking "Goody! I'm getting my carpet cleaned for free!"

I gather there have been complaints to the clients with mixed effect. I think a more direct line of approach is to respond to the schedulers emailing you and asking them why they are scheduling work for a company that is unwilling to provide working phone numbers on their website and making payment in anything that looks like a reasonable period of time. Perhaps this will wake up current schedulers, as earlier groups of schedulers have awakened, to the realization that if shoppers aren't going to be paid, it is unlikely they will be paid either for their efforts.

Still no payment. Today I got another email from Kami asking me to complete another carpet cleaning shop in my area. It got me so upset I sent a somewhat rude email in response saying she should be ashamed of herself for trying to get shoppers to complete shops that the company couldn't pay them for. I figured it would go unanswered like all the others. I was quite shocked to get a response back.

Kami claimed that she was only a scheduler even though I received her name and email from a different scheduler some time ago saying she handled matters regarding payments. She claimed that in her 9 years of service no one ever didn't get paid and the company intends to pay all of its shoppers, although she did acknowledge that the company was "a little slow to pay at times". She said the company has several large accounts that are some months behind in payments, "to the tune of about $18,000." She stated the company is doing the best it can to get payment from the clients and asked for patience while "We are trying to get it all figured out."

I sent a response stating that my patience is long gone after no response to my emails and the fact that she has knowledge of the company's practices and still is trying to recruit shoppers is frankly fraudulent and indeed shameful.

It's kind of sad to watch another previously reputable MSC go the way of so many others in the familiar pattern of paying later and later, making excuses and then inevitably closing shop or getting bought out.

It's pretty obvious that this behavior degrades faith in the MSC from the informed shopping community, so when they start 'scraping the barrel' for newbie or uninformed shoppers things only get worse.

I wonder why so many MSC's take this route of forcing their shoppers into becoming a mass lending establishment? Obviously it makes more sense to take a loan from a willing bank and maintain the integrity of the business, so I'm guessing that no reputable lending institution would lend them the money....so the shopper's only option is to simply not take the jobs.

BTW, in response to sojo's question; When Restaurant Evaluators had not paid me last year, I contacted every single principle at Surf Merchants (the owners of Sassie) and asked why they continued to support a business that was extorting money from the mystery shopping community. Not a single response was received. My guess is that their bill to Surf Merchants WAS getting paid on time!

I say throw this MSC in the pile of those who have no respect for their shoppers and refuse any work for them. It's tough times and we all get dirty carpets eventually, but is a really worth the hassle?

Its been past 3 and 1/2 months and it doesn't look like I am getting paid from this Company.

Just from reading all the post out there. This is very sad, because it ruins any desire that I may have to work for another Secret Shopper Company.

I have emailed this company now 5 times and no response. I usually would not care. But I really counted on this Money. I live from pay check to pay check.
And I dream that this pay check will come in. If they would just email you and say, we are sorry, we are going through some Financial difficulties, we will not be able to pay at this time. Something, so I can move on. I just feel that they took advantage of me. It makes me not want to work another Secret shopping company ever again. I had some of my friends that want to do the same work I do.. But the truth is, I tell them. Don't Do it. I have a bad experience. Its not worth it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2011 01:07AM by aprilshowers96.

Aprilshowers96, what needs to be noted here is that we are all disgusted with this company and any other company that does not keep up their end of the contract. They do cast an ugly shadow on mystery shopping. But that is why a forum is so useful. It helps us avoid those companies that are not playing fairly. There have been multitude of complaints about Goodwin, Franchise Compliance, Freeman and Restaurant Evaluators for a long time about payment problems. There were warnings that Orilio was not paying before they went out of business. There were recently issues with Checkup Marketing not paying in a timely fashion.

But this is a half dozen bad apples and the list of companies is more than 200. There are companies that are easier or more difficult to deal with, companies that not only pay on time but pay fairly, companies that pay on time but are just dirty cheap. To decide not to shop further based on a bad experience is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Read around the forum, make sure you are signed up with those companies that shoppers like and avoid the companies that are being jerks.

aprilshowers, they are NOT sorry, that's why they have not e-mailed you. Keep counting on the money, and don't move on. Don't accept not getting paid. File a BBB complaint. Read the comments here and on the other threads about this company and use the techniques that the shoppers who have been paid have used. Hopefully, you will get paid. Resolve never to work for these bad bears again, and when you accept future jobs with MSPs, check them out on the forum before accepting the job, especially if it requires a high dollar amount. Of course, opinions of good/bad differ, so some of us like some MSPs and some of us like others, but if anyone mentions slow payment or payment problems, I RUN. I figure I work for my MS money and I deserve to be paid .... without having to wait or beg or file complaints .... or whatever ...... sic em, go get that money ....... Good luck

They owe me $18.00 for a shop done in April. My shopper log shows it was paid on 6/30 but I haven't received anything. Just sent my first email inquiring about the payment.

my log shows the same thing about being paid on june 30th and still have received nothing. Emails are ignored also. My last email gave them a certain date to pay me before I take further action. I will file with BBB and also go right to the company I did the mystery shop with (it was an in home shop) and tell them everything so the salesman does not thing he did something wrong when he tried to sell to me.

I did a shop for them in March and am still waiting payment as well. It said payment 6/31/11. When I emaiiled to complain that there was no such date and sent about 20 other emails I have still not heard back. The first shop I did for them last year was paid within 1 month. I am deactvating my account and filing a report with the BBB.

I looked up my FC account. I, too was paid on 6/30.

Somewhere out there in cyber space is a check for $xxx. I hope I get it b4 someone else does.

If any one gets their 6/30 payment, let me know.

I can understand how it makes you feel when this kind of responses are coming from that side.You should keep a bit patience and just wait for their next response for one day.After that you just take a legal action against them.

I don't know if I stated on this thread or another, but I had to wait close to 4 months and contact the BBB before I was paid with a check that was "dated" about 2 and a half months earlier. Hah! Never again!

I tried contacting the BBB and they rejected my complaint stating they don't research that type of complaint - basically because we are not consumers, but independent contractors. I ran into the same thing with the Utah AG. They referred me to a consumer complaint division. I emailed them back stating that I'm not a consumer but a contractor trying to get paid. Am waiting to hear back. Not sure what else to try, but it still really gets me upset that this is happening to so many of us and they are still trying to get folks to do these shops.

Have sent three emails in the past 4 days and no response yet. Does anyone have any additional contact information?

Afraid not. My 'scheduler du jour' on these gives only an email of lhess@franchisecompliance.com. These guys haven't offered phone numbers in a long time. Yesterday's scheduler was jbishop@franchisecompliance.com who seems to have been around for a while.

I did one on 2/23/11 and was paid 5/30/11. While this is a pretty long pay period, I don't think it was heinous. I will be hesitant to take any others from them, because of what the rest of you helpful folks have had to say about them!

Well I did mine at the end of February as well and was promised payment on 5/31 and I have NOT been paid. The person who answered my rude email was Kami Olsen - kolsen@franchisecompliance.com

Doesn't this company pay by PayPal?

Are they (FC) saying that someone from PP is taking our money?

B/c if our FC account says paid on a certain and a specific date, then who really got the money?

There are some things a BBB or AG or even Comnsumer Proctection will do, but this.......?