@BigEdBSA, I understand your disappointment over your experiences with Confero, yet don't you think that its a little harsh to characterize Elaine Buxton as aloof and a debuntante CEO? I think that you are correct in saying that she delegated the correspondence that you sent to her to another person within the company. That happens. The CEO of any company usually has someone with responsibilities to handle employee or contractor concerns. If Elaine did delegate your correspondence to someone (the "hatchetman", as you mentioned), I wouldn't take it so personal.

Elaine aloof? Doubt it. She's pretty sharp. A debuntante? MILF maybe, but she is a respectable businesswoman. I certainly hope that your concerns become resolved though.

No worries. They paid me according to schedule and on time under their payment schedule. I had never done an assignment for them and was just concerned. I'm glad they're a good company to work for.

jrossetti Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ED:
>
> And I'm sure if you have been paid that late it is
> easily shown with a quick screen shot of your
> assignment history with pertinent details
> regarding clients shaded out. I'm not going to
> argue with anyone over he said she said when it
> can simply be screenshotted.
>
> I've been in the industry for over 10 years,
> Confero is not a problem child in the field. I'm
> sorry you have had an alleged bad experience, but
> I would guess that less ranting and more
> communicating in a calm, rational way, would
> likely yield better results.
>
> Furthermore, if they are as HORRIBLE as you
> continuously say they are, how dumb does that make
> you to keep doing work for them? Unless of course
> you're totally blowing things up out of
> proportion. I mean you go on and on and on about
> how horrid of a company they are, then say you
> REALLY want their job. It sounds like you're a
> lot more salty about a perceived slight in regards
> to not caring than what could be a fabricated pay
> problem. If it were really a pay problem I find
> it ridiculous that you would continue to do shops
> for them. You don't strike me as a stupid person.
> I'm sure we can agree on that right? Maybe just a
> little bit of exaggeration? Tiny bit?
>
> Lastly, You are an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR. It's
> great that you did jobs for them, but to expect
> special treatment or your shops you used to do to
> be held is silly. Sometimes that's how it
> happens. It's not a regular job. You can't be
> upset about being treated like a contractor.
> There is no long term deal.
>
> Dante: They do take a bit longer, but they've
> always been consistent. I honestly went through my
> entire history. I suspect the few people who are
> screaming probably had some type of situation that
> lead to this and it has little to do with the MSC
> but I can't say for sure. What I can say is I
> have done 35 assignments for them some June of
> 2009. The longest assignment took 5/15/09 to 7/12
> for payment. The majority were paid between 33-45
> days. I believe they say they take up to two
> months. I'm not 100%.
>
>
>
>
> DanteInPA Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > jrossetti Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I have never gotten a late payment from
> > Confero.
> > > You guys just get antsy. I have a five year
> > > relationship with them and have always been
> > paid
> > > like clockwork.
> >
> >
> > Maybe you have received your payments on time,
> and
> > that's great. However, there are some people
> who
> > have not gotten paid on time and had to chase
> > payments, so I have every reason for concern.
> >
> > Oh and there's no such thing as "getting antsy"
> > with Confero, considering they take a longer
> > amount of time to pay than most of the MSC's I
> > deal with.

Summit Scheduling works with Confero, which stands alone the Mystery Shop Industry as a heartless, soulless terrible MSC to be avoided at all costs. I highly caution all who read this post to steer clear of the Confero / Inferno people and their hired lap Dogs.....Summit Scheduling.

Last year when my foot became badly infected (I have neuropathy and did not even realize it until too late) and I was ordered by my Doctor to next day emergency surgery to save my leg every single one of my more than 80+ mystery shop companies worked with me EXCEPT Confero. (For more information including photos and proof of my very reasonable and unanswered e-mails and the proof of the call from my hospital bed please e-mail me at BigEdBSA@gmail.com).

Last AugustI was literally on a hospital bed in pre-op calling calling each of my MSC to inform them of my surgery and all were concerned for my health and happy to work with me - cancelling my upcoming scheduled shops. I called Directory Assistance (still have the e-mail receipt where I called to get their Cary NC number) but the Secretary at Confero told me they have nothing to do with scheduling and if I needed to cancel a job I would need to contact my Summit Scheduler via e-mail. Here I am about to head into surgery, I was lucky to still have my cell phone which was almost out of power Sorry but patients don't generally have a lap top with them and I tried to explain this to Elaine Buxton's idiot secretary to no avail.

After surgery where I lost half of my foot I had a month in the hospital plus three months of rehabilitation. As soon as I had my lap top I called and e-mailed Confero and Summit Scheduling. SIXTEEN TIMES.....nothing, not a word, no reply from Celeste Borden at Summit Scheduling.

When I was finally approved to return to Mystery Shopping every MSC welcomed me back EXCEPT CONFERO. I made more efforts to contact them, finally reaching Rob Barry, one of their hot shot account executives, who said there was nothing he could do. It was noted to me that I was still active in their system and they could use me on projects other than their big Grocery Store account. So three months later when I finally saw some local burger joint shops I requested those via Summit Scheduling's Celeste Borden yet all of my requests were rejected and again NO COMMUNICATION.

That is when I went on this wonderful forum and exposed Elaine Buxton (their debutante C.E.O) for the heartless soulless person she is. A company that did not give a damn if I lived or died, one that was not willing to, under these extraordinary circumstances, relay a simple message to Summit Scheduling that I was not going to be able to visit some grocery store shops later that week because I was getting my foot sawed off in Asheville NC at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Confero said I would be able to do other shops from them, I actually believed them until it became clear they were never going to approve me for another shop for any of their clients. That is when I dropped the Mystery Shopper Forum atom bomb on Elaine's head (and guess what Elaine....I will never stop telling anyone and everyone I meet at IMSC and MPSA conferences about YOU!)

At first I worked quietly for months to try restore my relationship with them, even sending them photos of what happened to my foot before and after surgery to no avail with very reasonable letters. Elaine did not reply to these. Celeste Borden failed to acknowledge or respond to 16 e-mails sent to the Confero system and directly, finally telling me on September 16th that they could not use me on the Grocery store account.

Confero did not respond at all to me until I finally got the attention of their aloof and detached C.E.O. after posting a detailed post on this forum about her company. Even then this clueless C.E.O. claims I was eligible for other projects until I posted on this forum at which time she deactivated my account on March 16th (I had just been turned down on 7 burger shop applications two weeks before, despite the false assertion that I was still eligible to work for their other accounts besides the grocery store chain).

Elaine and her associates are all hugely well paid, have 401K's health insurance, etc. I am out here driving 20 - 30 miles or more between dozens of small towns high up in the Blue Ridge & Great Smoky Mountain chains of GA, NC, & SC trying to somehow squeeze a profit from her $10 Grocery Store shops with no insurance of any kind. I am spending $190 on gas most weeks to turn a gross income (before expenses) of $350 a week. Very often I leave before noon, not getting home until after midnight 5-6 days a week (and even then I still have hours of photo processing and data entry).

Elaine was not finished with me; she event sent a message to all other MPSA companies that they should drop me. Only two of them initially did and when I went back to them and showed them all of the facts, they both reinstated my accounts. She may be a past Vice President of MPSA but it says a lot about what the other MSC think of her that so many ignored her hateful message.

Today I work with every MSC that has projects in the Southeast except one. CONFERO. It is sad because I drive right past those Grocery stores every day and I know they struggle to get these shops filled. That same Celeste Borden over at Sumitt...periodically she sends out tons of SPAM begging me to visit these stores they have not been able to get any coverage on for weeks. When I needed her most, all I got was silence, yet now Summit Scheduling thinks nothing of sending me 10 automated SPAM e-mails at a time as a shopper who works for other MSC to go to these very shops.

Well Elaine, I can play this game too so this month I am preparing to file the following complaints:

I will report Confero and Summit Scheduling for unsolicited SPAM to:
The U.S. Department of Justice @ [www.justice.gov]
The Federal Trade Commission @ [www.onguardonline.gov]

For Fraudulent Practices including non-payment I will shortly be contacting the Attorney General of North Carolina as well as the Raleigh - Durham Better Business Bureau.

I am even considering linking all of these posts with Google ads so that any time some unsuspecting mystery shopper Google's Confero the first item in the search box will be documentation about Confero's war on me. Elaine, your behavior would be enough to scare the hell out of anyone thinking of working for you!

It did not have to be this way.... I tried for months to amicably resolve these matters, begging for the chance to resume earning $10 per shop so my visits to the three dozen small mountain communities I visit in three states could include your Grocery store shops.

I am one mystery shopper, with huge unpaid medical bills, trying to survive and I thank all of those wonderful companies like MarketForce, Jancyn, BARE, Reality, Trendsource, Maritz, AboutFace, Bestmark, Beyond Hello, etc. who do work with me and stood by me. Despite Elaine's best efforts to run me out of the Mystery Shop business I am still here. I even was at the same IMSC forum in Atlanta she was and will likely run into her again this fall in Nevada.

I want to thank this forum as well, it helps level the playing field. Each Mystery Shop company has their ICA's and the MPSA, all of which are designed to protect THEM. As independent contractors we have very little in the way of recourse to fight back when a MSC goes rogue. It was almost a year ago I lost my foot and I have been back shopping now for eight months.

So Elaine....how many more years do you want to continue this war against me?

@Big Ed Good post, yet I don't understand something. I know that you were at the IMSC in Atlanta (you and I met very briefly), as was Elaine Buxton. Why didn't you present this to her then? She seemed to be pretty open in speaking to everyone there and if you were dropped by Confero, I'm certain that she would have reinstated you on the spot.

I don't have any affiliation with the company whatsoever, yet experience tells me that if you need any form of problem resolution, I would take certain steps (as you have) until it requires escalation. Rather than bash Elaine, did you escalate the issue to her right then and there, in person? Or, did you present this to some of the IMSC officials, of whom were present as well? Also, what is your end goal in this? Would you want to become reinstated with the company (if in the event that you were dropped) or do you want to continually bash a company to the point of being borderline libel?

In reading your posts from prior, your situation is unfortunate, yes. It does seem as if someone dropped the ball somewhere along the line with regard to listening to your current situation. Yet you also mentioned that there were 3rd party schedulers involved as well as Confero's schedulers, into which there may have been some confusion in the string of emails.

Please clarify?

They have always been great to me, but you may be right about people shying away form them. I usually apply for three or four pizza jobs at a time in hopes I will get one. Well, this time I got all three of them that I applied for and they were scheduled for Thursday, Sunday, and Monday. I may never eat pizza again!!!

All of my previous reservations about Confero are out the window. Most of their shops are easy, as long as you pay attention to the details. They email me fast. My wife has done a few shops for them and I really enjoy working for them. Their pay may not be the fastest, but it's always been right for me and been there on the date outlined. They're a great company to do assignments for, in my opinion.

Just applied for my first shop for them! Looking forward to it!

I never had a problem being paid by them, but I just got screwed out of a shop I had scheduled with them. I was scheduled to do one of their oil change shops this morning with a $15 bonus. Sweet!

I requested the shop Wednesday. I was assigned on Thursday. Got the reminder notice Friday AM. Did the shop this (Saturday morning). I went to put in the shop and saw where they cancelled it at 7:52 PM last night.

It's relisted on their job board with the same due date window now, but WITHOUT the bonus.

If they screwed up in posting the bonus, they had three days to cancel it. Instead they wait until less than 24 hours before the agreed due date?

Apparently you cannot trust them to live up to their agreements.

I read all these bad assignments and I feel I have been blessed for the five years I have been doing this. I have never not gotten paid except for three assignments and they were all my fault. I get paid the next month from Confero and have since I started. My jobs are mostly pizza assignments and that may be the reason.

BigEdBSA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Summit Scheduling works with Confero, which stands
> alone the Mystery Shop Industry as a heartless,
> soulless terrible MSC to be avoided at all costs.
> I highly caution all who read this post to steer
> clear of the Confero / Inferno people and their
> hired lap Dogs.....Summit Scheduling.
>
> Last year when my foot became badly infected (I
> have neuropathy and did not even realize it until
> too late) and I was ordered by my Doctor to next
> day emergency surgery to save my leg every single
> one of my more than 80+ mystery shop companies
> worked with me EXCEPT Confero. (For more
> information including photos and proof of my very
> reasonable and unanswered e-mails and the proof of
> the call from my hospital bed please e-mail me at
> BigEdBSA@gmail.com).
>
> Last AugustI was literally on a hospital bed in
> pre-op calling calling each of my MSC to inform
> them of my surgery and all were concerned for my
> health and happy to work with me - cancelling my
> upcoming scheduled shops. I called Directory
> Assistance (still have the e-mail receipt where I
> called to get their Cary NC number) but the
> Secretary at Confero told me they have nothing to
> do with scheduling and if I needed to cancel a job
> I would need to contact my Summit Scheduler via
> e-mail. Here I am about to head into surgery, I
> was lucky to still have my cell phone which was
> almost out of power Sorry but patients don't
> generally have a lap top with them and I tried to
> explain this to Elaine Buxton's idiot secretary to
> no avail.
>
> After surgery where I lost half of my foot I had a
> month in the hospital plus three months of
> rehabilitation. As soon as I had my lap top I
> called and e-mailed Confero and Summit Scheduling.
> SIXTEEN TIMES.....nothing, not a word, no reply
> from Celeste Borden at Summit Scheduling.
>
> When I was finally approved to return to Mystery
> Shopping every MSC welcomed me back EXCEPT
> CONFERO. I made more efforts to contact them,
> finally reaching Rob Barry, one of their hot shot
> account executives, who said there was nothing he
> could do. It was noted to me that I was still
> active in their system and they could use me on
> projects other than their big Grocery Store
> account. So three months later when I finally saw
> some local burger joint shops I requested those
> via Summit Scheduling's Celeste Borden yet all of
> my requests were rejected and again NO
> COMMUNICATION.
>
> That is when I went on this wonderful forum and
> exposed Elaine Buxton (their debutante C.E.O) for
> the heartless soulless person she is. A company
> that did not give a damn if I lived or died, one
> that was not willing to, under these extraordinary
> circumstances, relay a simple message to Summit
> Scheduling that I was not going to be able to
> visit some grocery store shops later that week
> because I was getting my foot sawed off in
> Asheville NC at St. Joseph's Hospital.
>
> Confero said I would be able to do other shops
> from them, I actually believed them until it
> became clear they were never going to approve me
> for another shop for any of their clients. That
> is when I dropped the Mystery Shopper Forum atom
> bomb on Elaine's head (and guess what Elaine....I
> will never stop telling anyone and everyone I meet
> at IMSC and MPSA conferences about YOU!)
>
> At first I worked quietly for months to try
> restore my relationship with them, even sending
> them photos of what happened to my foot before and
> after surgery to no avail with very reasonable
> letters. Elaine did not reply to these. Celeste
> Borden failed to acknowledge or respond to 16
> e-mails sent to the Confero system and directly,
> finally telling me on September 16th that they
> could not use me on the Grocery store account.
>
> Confero did not respond at all to me until I
> finally got the attention of their aloof and
> detached C.E.O. after posting a detailed post on
> this forum about her company. Even then this
> clueless C.E.O. claims I was eligible for other
> projects until I posted on this forum at which
> time she deactivated my account on March 16th (I
> had just been turned down on 7 burger shop
> applications two weeks before, despite the false
> assertion that I was still eligible to work for
> their other accounts besides the grocery store
> chain).
>
> Elaine and her associates are all hugely well
> paid, have 401K's health insurance, etc. I am out
> here driving 20 - 30 miles or more between dozens
> of small towns high up in the Blue Ridge & Great
> Smoky Mountain chains of GA, NC, & SC trying to
> somehow squeeze a profit from her $10 Grocery
> Store shops with no insurance of any kind. I am
> spending $190 on gas most weeks to turn a gross
> income (before expenses) of $350 a week. Very
> often I leave before noon, not getting home until
> after midnight 5-6 days a week (and even then I
> still have hours of photo processing and data
> entry).
>
> Elaine was not finished with me; she event sent a
> message to all other MPSA companies that they
> should drop me. Only two of them initially did
> and when I went back to them and showed them all
> of the facts, they both reinstated my accounts.
> She may be a past Vice President of MPSA but it
> says a lot about what the other MSC think of her
> that so many ignored her hateful message.
>
> Today I work with every MSC that has projects in
> the Southeast except one. CONFERO. It is sad
> because I drive right past those Grocery stores
> every day and I know they struggle to get these
> shops filled. That same Celeste Borden over at
> Sumitt...periodically she sends out tons of SPAM
> begging me to visit these stores they have not
> been able to get any coverage on for weeks. When
> I needed her most, all I got was silence, yet now
> Summit Scheduling thinks nothing of sending me 10
> automated SPAM e-mails at a time as a shopper who
> works for other MSC to go to these very shops.
>
> Well Elaine, I can play this game too so this
> month I am preparing to file the following
> complaints:
>
> I will report Confero and Summit Scheduling for
> unsolicited SPAM to:
> The U.S. Department of Justice @
> [www.justice.gov]
> The Federal Trade Commission @
> [www.onguardonline.gov]
>
> For Fraudulent Practices including non-payment I
> will shortly be contacting the Attorney General of
> North Carolina as well as the Raleigh - Durham
> Better Business Bureau.
>
> I am even considering linking all of these posts
> with Google ads so that any time some unsuspecting
> mystery shopper Google's Confero the first item in
> the search box will be documentation about
> Confero's war on me. Elaine, your behavior would
> be enough to scare the hell out of anyone thinking
> of working for you!
>
> It did not have to be this way.... I tried for
> months to amicably resolve these matters, begging
> for the chance to resume earning $10 per shop so
> my visits to the three dozen small mountain
> communities I visit in three states could include
> your Grocery store shops.
>
> I am one mystery shopper, with huge unpaid medical
> bills, trying to survive and I thank all of those
> wonderful companies like MarketForce, Jancyn,
> BARE, Reality, Trendsource, Maritz, AboutFace,
> Bestmark, Beyond Hello, etc. who do work with me
> and stood by me. Despite Elaine's best efforts to
> run me out of the Mystery Shop business I am still
> here. I even was at the same IMSC forum in
> Atlanta she was and will likely run into her again
> this fall in Nevada.
>
> I want to thank this forum as well, it helps level
> the playing field. Each Mystery Shop company has
> their ICA's and the MPSA, all of which are
> designed to protect THEM. As independent
> contractors we have very little in the way of
> recourse to fight back when a MSC goes rogue. It
> was almost a year ago I lost my foot and I have
> been back shopping now for eight months.
>
> So Elaine....how many more years do you want to
> continue this war against me?

All I know if that this company is crossed off my list, and glad that you had a chance to vent, Ed. I hope you feel better real soon.

I saw that my payment was sent (direct deposit) on the 10th of February but I have not received it. I email company and was told bank sent it back for some reason but she was sending a new check manually that day. I still have not receive it and I spoke with her on Thursday. I have two jobs to do this week and I hate not doing them but I need them to send my payment for December. The person I emailed back and forth with was very nice but that does not do it. I need the 104.00. I had received it the two months previously so I know the account number is correct.