I applied for them. Received an e-mail to do the enrollment. Was told my application was accepted and to wait for a user name and password. According to the page, it said 24 hours. It's been over that. Do I contact them or do they normally run behind?

They are good at responding, or you can wait another day.

Momtwo,

If I can be of assistance, please contact me directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com.

Thanks

Dave Agius

I'm waiting too but I just signed up today. Hopefully it will come tomorrow. They had a shop I was interested that I no longer remember what it was or which job board I saw it on (I think Jobslinger but might have been Volition). Hopefully it will still be there when I get approved.

Mom2twoleos Wrote:
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> I applied for them. Received an e-mail to do the
> enrollment. Was told my application was accepted
> and to wait for a user name and password.
> According to the page, it said 24 hours. It's
> been over that. Do I contact them or do they
> normally run behind?

Hi. I would very much like to shop for this company. It looks like they have some interesting and worthwhile shops.
My ap was accepted, and I completely or correctly filled out the enrollment form -- 4 times in fact -- on 4 different computers. No matter what I do I cannot get either my EIN or SSN accepted by their system. It just keeps saying the field is blank or invalid. I tried no spaces or characters, dashes, spaces -- every configuration I could think of. Then I clicked on support and got a 401 error message. I called the main office but was referred back to website. I'm lost. Any help here? This happening to anyone else?

Novice57,

Please contact me directly for assistance.

Dave
dave@sentrymarketing.com

I wouldn't bother shopping this company, their ethics suck BIG time and they take FOREVER to pay.

My experiences with Sentry have all been positive, and they have paid on schedule every time.

I have done about 25 shops for this MSC and have only had one or two small issues. They were solved quickly. Their narratives a little above average in requirements but, overall, I would not hesitate recommending this company. I especially like their hotel buffet breakfasts.

adryer

I'd be happy to review your situation and discuss the matter with you. Please contact me directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com.


adryer8mysock Wrote:
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> I wouldn't bother shopping this company, their
> ethics suck BIG time and they take FOREVER to pay.

I have only done one shop for Sentry, but was disappointed that the reimbursement didn't cover the tax. Their FF fees seem below par for other MSCs FF offers. I do get plenty of emails for shops but there isn't too much in my immediate area.

Dave you would be happy to review my situation now because you're being exposed? after ignoring my emails and locking me out of my account? You've gotta be kidding. Being ethical means you do the right thing when no one is looking. Your company is not an ethical. I've been told first-hand, from two other shopper friends, that your company changed their 'double-talk' assignment instructions so that they could throw the report back at the shopper and refuse to pay them. That is NOT right, a low blow to anyone on the receiving end and definitely not ethical. I would suggest that you make it right with them first.

Since I don't know who you are, I can't be certain I ever received your emails. In fact, I can't be certain that you are even a registered shopper with our company or that you've completed an assignment for our company. I'm not the one hiding behind an anonymous screen name throwing around unsubstantiated claims of not being paid.

If your shop was returned to you for clarification or for more details, this was done because the we could not publish the shop to our client without the additional information. We are an ethical company made up of a team of people who respect our shoppers. We take shopper issues, especially shopper payment issues, seriously. This is why we have a dedicated process in place for shopper payment issues that does not rely on a simple email. We make our share of mistakes, but as beatlesfan wrote, legitimate issues are addressed, usually in a quick manner.

If you did not get paid for an assignment you completed for us, there is a legitimate reason for it and I have no problem discussing the situation publicly or privately. If your account with our company was deactivated, there is a legitimate reason for it, and I have no problem discussing the rationale for our action. It's your prerogative to remain anonymous, however, we can't fix any issue without having the appropriate details.

Dave Agius, Owner
dave@sentrymarketing.com

Edited to fix reply instead of rely.

adryer8mysock Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dave you would be happy to review my situation now
> because you're being exposed? after ignoring my
> emails and locking me out of my account? You've
> gotta be kidding. Being ethical means you do the
> right thing when no one is looking. Your company
> is not an ethical. I've been told first-hand, from
> two other shopper friends, that your company
> changed their 'double-talk' assignment
> instructions so that they could throw the report
> back at the shopper and refuse to pay them. That
> is NOT right, a low blow to anyone on the
> receiving end and definitely not ethical. I would
> suggest that you make it right with them first.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2013 12:17PM by Sentry Marketing.

adryer8mysock, Dave at Sentry has responded and presented an opportunity for you to explain what the problem was with your shop and possibly work toward a clear understanding of what happened. You will find other shoppers sympathetic regarding real problems encountered when shopping within the guidelines. I'm hoping you will step up and explain what took place and how you handled the situation that resulted in your deactivation.

By the way, I love your name. I think the socks your dryer ate have been showing up in my washer. Maybe we can swap out odd socks.

As I said Dave, make right with your other shoppers first and I will email you again to rectify my situation. In the meanwhile, I guarantee you I can live without your company. Jacob, whoever you are, do NOT PM me again. Your English grammar and spelling leaves much to be desired. If we were to submit reports with such grammatical and spelling errors, we wouldn't get very far. btw, You're guessing. I did not do any bar evaluation. Your MSC scheme of things is to shoot first and ask questions later and not even apologize when you're wrong! No decent, hardworking shopper needs that. If you can't set out clear-cut instructions, you should not be in this business. Shoppers do not want to haggle with the MSC after the fact, let alone wait 3+ months for a measley payment.

FYI, if it was JacobJ, he is the founder and owner of this forum. I would imagine he can PM whoever he wishes.

adryer

I have no idea what you are referring to in the statement that I need to "make right with your other shoppers first". What other shoppers are you referring to? Also, I never stated that you did a bar evaluation for us, I was using that situation as an example. Since I don't know who you are, I cannot provide specific details to the issues you claim to have with my company and I.

If you'd like your situation addresses, provide details on this forum on in an email to me. It's your perogatoive to remain anyonomus, but I cannot reasonably be expected to address your claims without speciic details.

Dave

PS - Jacob is the owner of this forum. You might want to be a little more respectful when you interact with him.

Sentry - Hi, Dave - Do you post all the shops and note in the instructions that the shopper must take the training before performing the job or do we have to do the training and then see the jobs posted?

I'm looking for more work here in Alb., NM.

All assignment information is available prior to a shopper accepting a visit.

Dave have been professional and I enjoy the shops I have done for him, as recent as last month, when I did a fine dining. The guideline and samples are more clear and concise than a lot of other mystery shop companies. I appreciated the minor errors pointed out in regards to my reports, but they were not sent back for editing. So, I'm guessing it was fixable on their end and they did not waste my time.

Failed to agree to do another shop when requested.. next thing I knew.. I was locked out.

I am not sure why the owner of this company is so vindictive. I now that he is well liked by many, but his is the only MS company that I have heard of trying to "track down" people who have something negative and constructive to say (even when positive comments are included as well) about his company, so he can lock them out. I also think that once cooler heads have prevailed, he can be reasonable, so if you really want to work with him again just send him a note. He is watching;0, and reading.

Just fyi, I got the same error response after submitting the enrollment part that said a "valid SS number is required". Even though the box says EIN could be entered, I had to put my SSN WITH the dashes before it was accepted. If you leave out the dashes, you get the error over and over. Hope this helps someone else.

mleighb

Thank you for pointing out this issue.

An EIN can be entered, however, it must be entered in the format xxx-xx-xxxx. We've added this information to the first page of the enrollment site as well as our searchable knowledge base. Hopefully this will help.

so payment is 3+ months? Ouch. I will remember that, and make sure I am paid first before accepting another assignment.

Jaosmom, I'm not aware of any MS's that pay before an assignment is completed. Is this possible?

Does anyone find it odd that the ridiculous complaints come from people with 3 or 4 posts and then you never hear from them again.

Jaosmom

If you are referring to our company, payment is made 30 - 60 days after the assignment is accepted. Payments are made by check. We are currently averaging processing payments in 44 days.

If you have an issue and need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

dave@sentrymarketing.com


Jaosmom Wrote:
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> so payment is 3+ months? Ouch. I will remember
> that, and make sure I am paid first before
> accepting another assignment.

I signed up with Sentry a few months ago, after finally figuring out the links to their training site, reporting site, job serch site, etc. I took the test and took on a small Taco chain in Athens GA I had never heard of. That is what I like about Sentry, they seem to represent a lot of small up and coming restaurant chains that are poised for growth and really care what their customers think.

Well I did the shop, enjoyed it, and wrote a detailed report on their Prophett system, saving as I went. At the end I added the link to my receipt and did the final send I got an error message screen. When I went back to their site all of my narratives were GONE! I rewrote those several times and did all I could to report the shop to no avail. Jennifer, the person I was working with was nice but she had no idea where to address technical problems and ultimately I did not get paid for the shop I did on July 26th even after nearly 4 hours of aborted attempts to upload the data.

I want to work with this company but am reluctant until they get a spell checker on their site and they fix whatever problem causes their portal to eat narratives.