I am a Gold shopper - working at mystery shopping for about ten years. I thought I'd try BestMark's audit shop for something different. My advice. Forget it folks. The pay does not even approach minimum wage. For the two days I was there I worked hard - no breaks - continually operating a Telxon pricing machine that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't - printing audits to a printer that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. Each audit had ten parts to it with reports that had to be hand-written on site to get the manager's signature. For another report I had to take pictures of the pricing card for certain units - I had 100 of those. Then I had to spend 2 hours at home uploading, sizing, and naming photos for the report. Believe me, it wasn't worth it. Be careful if you take an audit from them. You'll be exhausted with very little to show for a lot of work that I don't believe can be finished in the same day. Let me know if you could!

sail2sunset in Delray Beach FL

I agree. The pay is not worth the money...;P

Apparently they recently got this shop and are determined to mine the lowest price for the audits by not paying the auditors. Did you perform the audit? What was your experience?

sailsunset

Thanks for posting this. I had started doing the training for the audit online and as I read it more I started to get a bad feeling about it, so I stopped midway through, but I keep getting emails from Bestmark inviting me to do some of the audits. Glad I decided not to bother!

Yes, thank you for sharing this info, I am not going to go forward either.

The problem is I could easily do other shops and make 3 times as much as their one whole audit pays. Doing their audit ties you to that store for at least the whole day, if not two.

Not worth it for the money their paying. I expect to see some heavy bonuses on them in the future to get them completed.

I did these shops for GFK when they paid $300.00 per location. Bestmark sent me an email asking if I was interested in doing some audits. They did NOT disclose what they involved upfront. When I was assigned and saw what the actual job was - I told them to stick it!!!

Refusing to do this crap is the only way to get them to pay what something is worth...:p

Appreciate this information, I was curious about these jobs.

Would someone like to share what they pay? I started the training, but definitely don't want to finish now!

Jaosmom Wrote:
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> Would someone like to share what they pay? I
> started the training, but definitely don't want to
> finish now!


When I first saw the posts I knew nothing about the audits so the wording was unintelligible. The jobs were listed as Visit#1, Visit#2, Visit#3, and Visit#4. Compensatioin varied - something like $42, $53, $22, and $26. So I looked it over and signed up for 2 visits at the higher pay. this was last week. When it came to the work I approached it as if I were studying for a final exam. I printed out the brochure (65 pages) which has all the information necessary (supposedly) to follow the audit point by point.

The problem is that each "visit" was additionally comprised of three separate "events." And each event was divided into 8 to 10 departments. The big box company sells hundreds of components so if you are looking at any single department you are involved with 100-500 units to check.

You get the picture.

If you divide time by $, you get about $4-$5 an hour for intensive work. Additionally the time at home to report took hours - especially if you are taking pictures to report non-compliant issues.

BestMark should be ashamed of themselves. When I mentioned that I would not be back and that they were taking advantage of people, the attitude was "we have many people who can complete the projects." My point is that as a former Office Manager in the State of Texas we were cited for not paying "work" taken home and not reimbursed. I know. The rules are different for independent contractors. But the money is being taken by the top people in the company and you will feel foolish being paid $4/hour when you're working this hard.

I am so glad this board is here to share this information. Everyone - be warned to NOT to take this work.

When I first saw the posts I knew nothing about the audits so the wording was unintelligible. The jobs were listed as Visit#1, Visit#2, Visit#3, and Visit#4. Compensatioin varied - something like $42, $53, $22, and $26. So I looked it over and signed up for 2 visits at the higher pay. this was last week. When it came to the work I approached it as if I were studying for a final exam. I printed out the brochure (65 pages) which has all the information necessary (supposedly) to follow the audit point by point.

The problem is that each "visit" was additionally comprised of three separate "events." And each event was divided into 8 to 10 departments. The big box company sells hundreds of components so if you are looking at any single department you are involved with 100-500 units to check.

You get the picture.

If you divide time by $, you get about $4-$5 an hour for intensive work. Additionally the time at home to report took hours - especially if you are taking pictures to report non-compliant issues.

BestMark should be ashamed of themselves. When I mentioned that I would not be back and that they were taking advantage of people, the attitude was "we have many people who can complete the projects." My point is that as a former Office Manager in the State of Texas we were cited for not paying "work" taken home and not reimbursed. I know. The rules are different for independent contractors. But the money is being taken by the top people in the company and you will feel foolish being paid $4/hour when you're working this hard.

I am so glad this board is here to share this information. Everyone - be warned to NOT to take this work.

Also, according to what I read, if you do the audits you can no longer do mystery shops at that particular store. I hesitated to take them for that reason as well.

Thank's for the head's up was thinking about doing these.

When I first started I signed up for $10 audit printed the stuff off and died laughing yea no thanks

kaley3646 Wrote:
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> When I first started I signed up for $10 audit
> printed the stuff off and died laughing yea no
> thanks


That's the mystery shop, not the audit. I do them regularly and $10 isn't bad for half an hour of work tops. Report is an easy 10-15 minute after.

Correct. Audits and shops are separate departments. When you log in there are separate searches for 'Find Shops' and 'Find Audits.'

KaiGywer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> kaley3646 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > When I first started I signed up for $10 audit
> > printed the stuff off and died laughing yea no
> > thanks
>
>
> That's the mystery shop, not the audit. I do them
> regularly and $10 isn't bad for half an hour of
> work tops. Report is an easy 10-15 minute after.


-----

I want to shop your location. I've never gotten out of the store in under an hour. I did one of the one person in store plus the phone call shops and still didn't get out of there in under an hour.

And..not to mention, If you have a question while you are there and need to get in touch with someone from Bestmark..GOOD LUCK. You had better figure it out, because you are as good as on your own. I don't even shop for them any more because their shopper support is HORRIBLE!

Well I heard from my audit friends at BM. Here was today's email.

Cancellati​on Notice [Dispatch# 2284000]
notification@bestmark.com
2:06 PM (28 minutes ago) to me

This message is to inform you that the following shop:
Dispatch# 2284000
1168-WELLINGTON -- WELLINGTON
Scheduled 7/10/2012
Has been cancelled due to the fact that the shop was not completed and submitted by the required deadlines. All shops must be submitted within the timeframe specified in your shop instructions to be considered valid and eligible for remuneration.

Thank you.

SO, they are choosing NOT to pay me for work performed. Any suggestions for handling the next step? I'm not one to let go of payment for work I DID perform. I have emails from the audit people telling me that they will find someone else to finish the shops. Who would be interested to see them? Should I go on Judge Judy??

HELP!

I dont get it? you didnt submit the work and want to be paid? I dont understand the question.

I don't get this. Did you submit the report after all that other work? I'm curious about the deadline now that they have the audit. How long do they give you? The previous MSC requested 12 hours, gave 24 and would extend it if necessary.

If you look at the very first post of this thread, Visit#3 involved three separate parts. I did not understand this when I accepted the shop. As I discovered there were so many parts of the audit that it was impossible to complete. During the initial discussions with the auditing team on the phone the person I spoke to decided I should complete one part and come back to do the rest. When I arrived the next time I had the assignment of Visit#3 plus the additional two portions from the previous visit. And I the same problem. There were three parts to Visit#3 as well , and I never was able to perform everything. It took five hours to complete the one part I did complete. Back on the phone I was offered $20 to come back and complete the shop. The store is located 35 minutes from my house. The more we spoke the less I wanted to complete the assignment. I was told that she - the auditor - would assign the other parts to someone else. I assumed I would be paid for the portion I was able to complete. Apparently it was not the case.

Do I have the option of fighting for what I DID do?

the way I understand the audits is they are broken up into several parts and paid separately. So if you completed a part in full, then they would pay you for that part since it's a seperate job.

However, if you only did part of one of these seperate jobs, then they are not going to pay you for it nor do you have any recourse. Did you even enter it?

I read your post and saw you were there for two days. Since I did these for two years with the previous company and could audit most stores in one day it did not cross my mind that you had not completed what seems to be a shorter version. They never took me over two. Actually there were about 12 "components," but rather than break them down into 4 different visits, we had two days. I also was able to enter my data in under two hours for the full audit and the previous company had one of the absolute worst reporting platforms I've ever encountered.

I am not aware of the changes Bestmark has instituted because the statement that you needed the pricing gun for two full days and had to check 100 to 500 units in one department was surprising.

I was there on Tuesday for Visit #2 and completed one component - pricing. I submitted the form signed by the manager and entered the data online within the 12 hours allotted. I was there on Thursday for Visit #3 and completed one component - functionality, It took me five hours to complete that unit and I wrote up 5 pages of units not in compliance and had the manager's signature. I submitted the online portion but could not submit since there was a message that master could not be submitted before children. Each time I completed one component.

I believe I should be paid for work completed.

What do you think?

I guess if they included 3 components for each visit and you were not able to complete them it would be difficult to pay you and send another auditor in to finish up. Did they give you the option to return and finish? We've all gotten screwed over with jobs which are much more complex than we were led to believe, but we have to muddle through and complete them in order to be paid.

I'm not done yet. Will keep you posted.

Just a thought. Occasionally people would go over the two days with the other company. It still makes more sense for them to allow you to finish rather than delay it even further by sending in someone else. It seems they should have expected people's first audits to take much longer. There is a learning curve for any audit, new terminology, new equipment, etc.

jschilz Wrote:
> I want to shop your location. I've never gotten
> out of the store in under an hour. I did one of
> the one person in store plus the phone call shops
> and still didn't get out of there in under an
> hour.
Haha they are always asking me to do this one so have at it But seriously though, I am usually out of there in about 25-35 minutes with the two dept shops and 10-15 on the phone call shop. My worst (well, best in a way) was 1hr 10 min on a TV, but by the time I was done, I could probably build my own TV and have it calibrated...the sales person had amazing knowledge (for a change)

Your audit survey had to have been different from mine. From what I understand this is a NEW audit. I'd be curious to see if you signed on again and got what I looked at. There were amillion pieces to the puzzle. It could not have been the same survey.