I did recruiting for Helion a company out of Belgium in April and May. I am now owed over $400 for my work. The company refuses to answer my emails or any correspondence so I am taking this issue public.

If you signed up with this company I would advise you to deactivate your account. The company did not pay shoppers the agreed upon amount that I posted and was told shoppers would be paid. I was told shoppers would be an amount in dollars, then the shoppers were paid in Euros which was less money. The shoppers were told it was the value at the time of the shop. There was also a conversion fee taken out of the shop payment.

June, it seems to me everyone on forum figured this out......another post on this states what you said. Hurts more
when it happens to you, but no one helped shoppers, we were blind-sided, you'll have to live with the loss as well.
My sympanthies are with shoppers, you hooked us in as well.

This company states on their website that they pay in Euros and that there is a currency exchange fee. Thats why I never signed up with them.

Sorry to hear that June. I do think Irene is being a bit harsh with you. I knew what I was getting into exchange wise and took four shops that were advertised at 14.45 each and ended up with 13.46 each in pay so honestly it was ok for me. I was paid the next month according to their pay schedule. I would have taken the job at that rate in the US so I was ok taking it with the exchange rate factored in.

I hope you get your money.

Liz

I was contacted by Helion stating they never got any of my 10 or so emails to 3 different people? Now I was told to just send them an invoice I have already sent three times to three different people. The last time I sent it was last week Friday on 9/21. The owner answered me on his facebook page asking why I didn't contact him? My gosh how many times do I need to contact this person. I will keep posting about non-payment until they pay. Oh, Helion did remove the link on their facebook page.

Good luck and let us know how it plays out.

Liz

I'm sorry June. C'mon guys, June has been around how many years? I have been shopping over 13 years and I think she has been around longer than that. I don't think she would have recruited anyone if she ever thought people were going to be shafted. Thanks for letting shoppers know June and keeping everyone in the loop. I know you are a good egg.

To keep everyone up to date. I received an email last week from one of the managing partners who apologized for the situation. His name was
Thomas Shimmel. He told me he would look into everything. The person I was working with only sent him one of the emails I sent her, but she
did state I had sent at least one email asking for payment.

Thomas took the bull by the horns and got me my payment this week. I was paid most of my money. Helion paid me what they owed me, but
because they pay via PayPal, I was charged $16 to receive my money. At this point, I was happy to get any money. I do not believe I should be
charged money to get my payment, but Helion is paying via PayPal and PayPal is charging a fee because Helion is paying in Euros.

In the future, just watch how a foreign company pays as you will lose money either if they pay via PayPal then if they pay in Euros and the Euro
is down. Lesson learned, deal with American companies or Canadian at least.

Neither PayPal or the payment in Euros is the problem.

Every company gets charged a fee by PayPal for transferring money, they either absorb the fee as their cost of doing business or pass it along to the shopper who is notified in advance.

Yes the exchange rate changes daily, but no that does not have to impact the payment. Helion should have adjusted for the exchange rate and then absorbed the cost. I shared this on another thread. As the person responsible for foreign transfers I paid vendors in Euros, among other things. They were paid what we agreed to pay them at the time of the contract regardless of the exchange rate on the due date. My company also absorbed any exchange fees for the transaction.

Helion was underhanded and unethical.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2012 03:17PM by LisaSTL.

Not defending the actions of the MSC in regards to payments, but the 4% foreign transaction fee is fairly normal, not just regarding PayPal. Most any type of bank-to-bank transactions in foreign countries will incur some type of transaction fee. The exception is some travel-oriented credit cards, which doesn't do much good when trying to accept payments.

Yes, there is a normal transaction fee when you do credit card transactions, etc. However, when you are being paid for doing services, you are
making a contract to be paid a fee. Then if I have to pay to get my money somehow doesn't seem quite fair. I have in the past returned monies
when people have done this to me in the past. I make them pay the fees, but since I have waited so long to be paid and figured it was either take
the money and just be glad I got anything. I am still not happy I had to pay to get paid. I did my work at a set fee in American dollars and
not in Euros. My contract with them was in American money and it should have been paid that way as well. Shopper may agree to be paid
in Euros, my contract did not state anything about Euros or transaction fees.

Soooo, I guess I shouldn't sign up for all of those shops in my area? This is not the time of the year to be messing around with people's money, so I guess I won't do the jobs that I was looking at on their site.

It sounds like there is a good reason why there's lots of jobs in your area, not being snapped up.

Another check another short changed. Granted not much but promise me an amount keep it that.

JuneRSS do you schedule for any other companies? It is nice to have someone on the inside looking out for us shoppers.

wonderbread12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JuneRSS do you schedule for any other companies?
> It is nice to have someone on the inside looking
> out for us shoppers.


JuneRSS, also Ramack Scheduling, does schedule for other current companies. She scheduled previously for some companies that went out of business owing shoppers money. You may want to search and read the history.

Those shops are still up there. Has anyone done anything for them recently?

I only did one shop for them and they short changed me by half. I signed up with them when they were first looking for people and don't remember reading anything about being charged the exchange rate, PayPal fee or that the pay would be in Euros. I subscribe to a lead service based in Canada and I pay the exchange rate fee, not the people I'm paying. The exchange rate is a business expense. We are not customers, we are the people that are enabling them to charge their client a fee and to collect that fee. For all we know, they're getting paid double for that exchange rate and PayPal fee, once by us and once by the client. They were impossible to work with and took forever to respond to e-mails regarding the shop. I won't work for them again.

AustinMom schedulers have no control over mystery shopping companies paying shoppers.Schedulers seldom if ever pay shoppers. I have not been paid in the past by MSP's who have gone out of business. I am out far more money than any shopper. Unfortunately schedulers have no idea the goings on of people they schedule for. Most schedulers work out of our home and have very little contact with the company other than to report what we are doing or issues on shops, etc. Problems with the business are not something that is discussed as it would not be discussed with shoppers either.

I feel bad when shoppers are not paid. I tried hard to get the person to pay shoppers even telling the person to pay shoppers and forgo my pay when I found the person was short financially. What a mistake!! I never got a dime. I had worked for the person with no problems for over a year, then left a year, came back to the company and the company apparantly had major financial issues. The person finally walked away from the business leaving everyone high and dry. Is that my fault? I was only doing my job.

The person who had financial issues is now fighting for her life with stage four skin cancer. She has to answer her maker about the people she has wronged. I did nothing wrong except to do my job which I will continue to do.

I do schedule for several companies at this time.

Well June, if you need anyone in the Louisiana area, PM me. I'm looking for additional work. (As we all are, I'm sure.)

I've been paid as contracted every time by Helion -- as recently as last month.

June, if you ever need anyone in eastern South Carolina and southeast North Carolina, I'd appreciate being kept in mind.