a mystery shopping company is billing my paypal account without my authorization

December 14, 2011 06:14PM

a prominent mystery shopping company is billing my paypal account for over $100. they are also sending me multiple harassing emails, telling me that i owe them money.

i hadn't authorized any bills to my paypal account. when i spoke with paypal, they said that i should just ignore any unauthorized bills, and that it would disappear in a month.

mystery don't work for me. i work for them. they pay me money for my work. i don't pay them money for their work, because i don't employ them.

has this ever happened to anyone here?

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December 14, 2011 07:01PM

Did they provide a reason as to why they believe you owe them money?

Evaluating and mailing packages since 1994. I am an undercover connoisseur of customer service, a master of disguise in the aisles, and a sworn enemy of subpar experiences. I blend in, observe, and report—because excellence should never be a mystery.

December 14, 2011 07:26PM

Is it really the company, or is someone scamming you using a similar e-mail address to the real MSC?

December 14, 2011 07:32PM

RobinMarie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Did they provide a reason as to why they believe
> you owe them money?

they claim to have overpaid me for an assignment.

December 14, 2011 07:33PM

TechSavvy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is it really the company, or is someone scamming
> you using a similar e-mail address to the real
> MSC?

it is the real company.

December 14, 2011 07:34PM

Do you have a paper trail? Can you go up the food chain at the MSC and get to the bottom of the problem?

December 14, 2011 07:37PM

TechSavvy Wrote:
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> Do you have a paper trail? Can you go up the food
> chain at the MSC and get to the bottom of the
> problem?

the vice-president of the company is emailing me.

December 14, 2011 07:39PM

Has s/he sent you a complete breakdown of shops you've done, along with the fees?

December 14, 2011 07:42PM

TechSavvy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has s/he sent you a complete breakdown of shops
> you've done, along with the fees?

all that appears are incorrect fees on the shop log.

December 14, 2011 07:43PM

How frustrating! Do you have the original e-mails stating what fees you agreed to? Who's the company?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 07:43PM by TechSavvy.

December 14, 2011 07:46PM

TechSavvy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How frustrating! Do you have the original e-mails
> stating what fees you agreed to? Who's the
> company?

no, i don't keep the original application emails for completed shops. i only retain emails for shops which i haven't yet visited. the shops were visited over two or three months ago. the company is GfK.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 07:47PM by vince.

December 14, 2011 08:24PM

As unorganized as their mailings make them seem, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't keep accurate accounting.

vince Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TechSavvy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How frustrating! Do you have the original
> e-mails
> > stating what fees you agreed to? Who's the
> > company?
>
> no, i don't keep the original application emails
> for completed shops. i only retain emails for
> shops which i haven't yet visited. the shops were
> visited over two or three months ago. the company
> is GfK.

December 14, 2011 08:36PM

TechSavvy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As unorganized as their mailings make them seem,
> it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't keep
> accurate accounting.
>

even when i did the assignments, i was required to print out the questionnaire and bring it with me in my vehicle. however, they did not make available the full questionnaire prior to the shop. there were multiple pages to the questionnaire, and they only made the first of five pages available. then, upon requesting access to the full questionnaire, i was told that it was unavailable and that other shoppers had no problem fulfilling the assignments with what provisions were given.

they offered to remove me from the assignments if i didn't feel comfortable performing it with access only to the first page of the questionnaire beforehand, but i would be penalized if i chose to be removed from the assignments. however, i had never even requested to be removed from the assignments. that was their idea. nonetheless, i said that i would fulfill the assignments with only partial access to the questionnaire, and i did. there were no errors on the assignments on my part.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2011 08:38PM by vince.

December 15, 2011 03:04AM

Do you keep a record of the completed jobs and expected payments? I'd itemize everything in an email, state those were the assigned amounts, and be done with it.

I'd probably figure on not doing any more for them. That's a new one, a MSC overpaying. Humorous!

December 15, 2011 04:29AM

Actually that is real. GFK overpaid a lot of shoppers about a month or so ago. I received a payment that was 3 times the fee. At that point I transferred the correct amount to my bank, left the remainder in PayPal and notified them of the over payment. After that it was basically a real cluster with e-mails coming from them and my responses being ignored. The finally billed me for the difference. What ticked me off was how the e-mails sent kept explaining to me what happened and what was owed. I e-mailed them back and said something to the effect of no sh--, that's what I told you weeks ago since I actually track my accounts receivables!

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.

December 15, 2011 07:29AM

I wouldn't trust Paypal's response to just ignore the emails. Is Paypal going to return the money to your account and forward the information to GFK? Is the amount they are requesting back more than the amount you actually received for them in the past 2-3 months. I would keep contacting GFK until they stopped trying to steal from me.

December 15, 2011 08:15AM

i wonder how many people actually returned the money... maybe this will make them upgrade their system...

shopping north west PA and south west ny

December 15, 2011 08:16AM

... And some staff?

December 15, 2011 04:34PM

Last year I had a reputable MSC overpay me by about $150. They gave me the option of returning the money or simply taking out of my future pay.

I agreed to the future pay concept and they were really nice about it. It was a win/win scenario, since I felt an obligation to take shops for them until it was repaid and didn't have to deal with sending any money back.

I think that would be a more professional approach in this case.

December 17, 2011 11:46PM

SteveSoCal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last year I had a reputable MSC overpay me by
> about $150. They gave me the option of returning
> the money or simply taking out of my future pay.
>
>
> I agreed to the future pay concept and they were
> really nice about it. It was a win/win scenario,
> since I felt an obligation to take shops for them
> until it was repaid and didn't have to deal with
> sending any money back.
>
> I think that would be a more professional approach
> in this case.

now they'r threatening me with legal action. they've deactivated my account in retribution, so i don't have the option of doing any future shops for them. that's just mean. if not stupid.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

December 18, 2011 12:43AM

nope i guess it would cause them to let go of some of their staff...

but they really should upgrade their shopping system and payment system... or well... its their money to lose...

and there are a lot of people who would enjoy a Christmas *bonus*

shopping north west PA and south west ny

December 18, 2011 01:16AM

According to the GFK payroll lady, they HAVE updated their payroll system which is why some of the shoppers never got paid for work done at the beginning of the year. Payroll lady said shoppers had to call in and ask for their pay. She also used that (updating) as an explanation as to why payroll was taking longer than 90 days (currently) to pay.

December 18, 2011 02:02AM

Why don't you just download your PayPal history for the time period in question to Excel, delete the non-GFK payments, and send to the company? There actually might be a way to search by a specific company, in which case, you wouldn't even have to alter anything. (I haven't done this in a long time, but I know there are different search options.) IF you can isolate by company, I'd send GFK everything paid in the last year.

December 18, 2011 02:26AM

nicelytwicely Wrote:
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> Why don't you just download your PayPal history
> for the time period in question to Excel, delete
> the non-GFK payments, and send to the company?

they claim to have the correct figures already.

December 18, 2011 02:40AM

vince Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> nicelytwicely Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why don't you just download your PayPal history
> > for the time period in question to Excel,
> delete
> > the non-GFK payments, and send to the company?
>
> they claim to have the correct figures already.

Well, you are saying that they DON'T, so wouldn't providing them with a means to resolve the discrepancy be a step in the right direction?

December 18, 2011 03:04AM

nicelytwicely Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, you are saying that they DON'T,

where have i said this? can you quote me?

> so wouldn't
> providing them with a means to resolve the
> discrepancy be a step in the right direction?

no, they claim to have the correct figures. they have been directed to resolve any disputes through paypal.

December 18, 2011 03:50AM

So do I understand that the DID overpay you and you realize that, but don't want to repay them the overpayment? Or are you saying they paid you for shops that they had removed from you, but you did the shops anyway? Or do you not keep records and really don't know if you earned the money or not? I'm really confused about what you are saying happened?

I was paid double for a large route of shops by Mintel. I knew right away that I was overpaid and talking to the scheduler decided the best way to handle my particular situation was for my to send them a check. That was done, and we have a great working relationship still. They don't normally have enought work in my area to have made "working it off" feasable.

December 18, 2011 04:02AM

barbage Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Or do you not keep records and
> really don't know if you earned the money or not?

i don't keep records. i rely on the shop log.

> That was done, and we have a great
> working relationship still.

they chose to fire me. there is no more working relationship.

December 18, 2011 04:55AM

Vince, since you don't keep records, isn't there a chance that they did overpay you? I'm not trying to be unsympathetic, just trying to understand.

As an aside, there are some good tips in the forum for keeping records. If I didn't keep records, there are several times that I would have wound up remaining UNDERpaid!

December 18, 2011 05:11AM

nicelytwicely Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Vince, since you don't keep records, isn't there a
> chance that they did overpay you? I'm not trying
> to be unsympathetic, just trying to understand.
>

a difficulty is that they are not even willing to post the correct fees on the shop log. they insist on posting incorrect records on the shop log, refusing to correct the shop log records. they claim to have the correct records apart from the shop log, but they refuse to represent any of this to me in the shop log.

> As an aside, there are some good tips in the forum
> for keeping records. If I didn't keep records,
> there are several times that I would have wound up
> remaining UNDERpaid!

the way that i've kept track of whether i've been paid or not is by monitoring the shop logs.

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