pro-shopper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CIRRUS MARKETING IS THE WORST!!!. And worse than
> doing the shop from hell, is trying to get paid by
> them. I did the shop. It was the same nightmare
> Susan described. It took hours to do and many
> hours more to do the report. NEVER AGAIN. I'mI
> sorry I didn't see this post first.
>
> I DID THE SHOP IN JUNE. I AM STILL WAITING TO GET
> PAID. THEY KEEP CHANGING THE 'PAY BY' DATE.
>
> Does anyone know who I should report this too?

I'm not aware of any agency making these dolts accountable. Get paid and then protect yourself and deactivate.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2013 02:19AM by bestofbothworlds.

For those of us who know who the client is (not the MSC), you can do a search for their name on this forum and really get the low down even more on these shops. No way, Jose! Uh-uh, never ever again, even for $500 or more.

I have done this shop twice in the L.A. area. The time is the most difficult part, 5 hours in the store and 3 hours input. I keep getting put off on payment which was why I came here to look up information on this company and now I am seriously concerned. I certainly will not be accepting any further shops from them. They currently owe me close to $1000...from November 2013 to date.

This client wouldn't by any chance happen to sell furniture, would they?

Omgee Wrote:
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> This client wouldn't by any chance happen to sell
> furniture, would they?


Yes, among other tings!

Do not take that assignment. Trust me. I can't go into details. Do not take that assignment. Don't.

I finally told Cirrus Marketing that I did not want them even to clutter up my inbox with offers. They are unprincipled and abusive to shoppers and they do not accept what really occurred in their shops. If this was not an open forum, I would repeat what I finally told the scheduler to do with her shops. I just wernt pretty. And yes, I can spell.

Thank you for the heads up about this shop. I was thinking of having a go at this (they are paying $60 here in Philly for them) but I was hesitant because of the time it would take to do the shop and travel from Norristown into South Philly and back. But a 5 hour shop before counting travel time and reporting time? No way, even if I did get paid for it. And it sounds like I probably wouldn't!
I think some of these retail companies have mystery shoppers do really obvious things like asking for names and clearly posted info, or returning items right after buying them just to keep their employees on their toes.
Does anyone know if this MSC is decent with payment/expectations regarding other shops they offer? I just signed up with them and haven't had the opportunity to actually work with them yet.

I took this shop for $90. It wasn't so bad in itself. I went in on a Saturday, which was a HUGE mistake, but it was also my first time going into that retailer. I kinda had fun. I did have to leave the store and come back, but no big deal.

Then I realized 4 names were missing from my shop.

I E-mailed the scheduler and she told me that I would just have to go back and get names, reshopping the areas I'd missed.

Kind of a drag, but for $90, I figured I would.

Except, when I finished and submitted it, and it was accepted with a 9/10 (I believe), and I filled out my invoice and sent it, I had a LONG wait ahead of me to get paid. They kept losing my invoice, and I kept sending it, and finally, they stopped responding to my messages. I sent one last message, promising to never work for them again if they would just send my payment. It was all I asked, I was begging them. And I said they'd never hear from me again. That apparently did the trick.

Problem was, I did the shop in July, and I just got paid this month.

I mean, upside was that I got paid, and I wasn't expecting $100 suddenly in my account, downside was, that was a really long time to pay me.

Hi, I just wanted to add this commet regarding doing shops for Cirrus Marketing, if your looking for quick cash, think again. Here's their pay schudule.
Cirrus Marketing Intelligence pays via PayPal. See below for the approximate date, according to the month you shopped:

January paid mid-May
February paid mid-June
March paid mid-July
April paid mid-August
May paid mid-September
June paid mid-October
July paid mid-November
August paid mid-December
September paid mid-January
October paid mid-February
November paid mid-March
December paid mid-April

I did two shops for them in October thinking I could use the extra money for Christmas, I needed to think again....I'll maybe get paid mid-February. This "company" is a joke, I've deleted my account and will never do a shop for them again.

My mid-October payment came on October 27 -- after I emailed about it.

I don't plan to work for them again either, but I'm not deleting my account. Things could change.

I did this shop once. It was a last minute, bonused shop and had to be done on Saturday. What a mess. It took 4 hours and I barely finished before closing time. I think the report took 1.5-2 hours. This was all of course before I realized it would take more than 3 months to get paid.

I won't do anymore work for them. And I say "good luck" to anyone who decides to try this shop. I probably wouldn't do it again for under $300.

89lulalula89 Wrote:
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> I did this shop once. It was a last minute,
> bonused shop and had to be done on Saturday. What
> a mess. It took 4 hours and I barely finished
> before closing time. I think the report took
> 1.5-2 hours. This was all of course before I
> realized it would take more than 3 months to get
> paid.
>
> I won't do anymore work for them. And I say "good
> luck" to anyone who decides to try this shop. I
> probably wouldn't do it again for under $300.


I did this shop over a year ago and had to fight to get paid. I wouldn't do it for $1 million (because, chances are, you wouldn't get paid anyway).

OH GEE! I've done this place twice.

I made the mistake of doing a weekend the first time. I kinda freaked out on the first visit, and workers were advising me to NOT shop on the weekends. Evidently freaking in the store is a common enough occurance, that it's an accepted norm. I did a second figuring that I 'd be able to shave a ton of time off, and I did.

I find it easy enough to get whatever info is needed and to get it written down. Everybody is already wandering around taking notes on everything, anyway, so I just prep my info as I go.

From what I gathered, you can skip a given department if you cannot locate a worker within 10 minutes.

I can even live with a slow payment, if need be. From my perspective, all of this pays out slow, so what's another month or 2 added into the mix.

Are there any steps that can speed them up if the payment timeframe goes beyond rediculousness? <--- THAT'S PRINCIPAL.

Watching the Wheels Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OH GEE! I've done this place twice.
>
> I made the mistake of doing a weekend the first
> time. I kinda freaked out on the first visit, and
> workers were advising me to NOT shop on the
> weekends. Evidently freaking in the store is a
> common enough occurance, that it's an accepted
> norm. I did a second figuring that I 'd be able to
> shave a ton of time off, and I did.
>
> I find it easy enough to get whatever info is
> needed and to get it written down. Everybody is
> already wandering around taking notes on
> everything, anyway, so I just prep my info as I
> go.
>
> From what I gathered, you can skip a given
> department if you cannot locate a worker within 10
> minutes.
>
> I can even live with a slow payment, if need be.
> From my perspective, all of this pays out slow, so
> what's another month or 2 added into the mix.
>
> Are there any steps that can speed them up if the
> payment timeframe goes beyond rediculousness? <---
> THAT'S PRINCIPAL.

To me, a slow payment is two months, since I find most MSCs I shop for pay about a month later. Cirrus was super-slow in having a three-month payment schedule but STILL didn't pay me after four months, I think. I had to jump through hoops in order to get them to pay me; they wouldn't do it automatically. Given that, once I went through the motions of getting down all of their info with the intention of next contacting the BBB, they were awfully fast in sending me that payment (which tells me that they likely intentionally hold back on paying shoppers until the shoppers are threatening to go legal).

I don't think this shop is EVEN worth it! (3 hours in the store @ $20 an hour for 3 hours= $60)

Then 2 HOURS filling out the report. So, that's 5 hours so far, Now you are down to near $10 dollars an hour...

I can knock out 3 shops (of my own) in an hour and make $60 bucks an HOUR with little or NO narratives, only two or three names, tops. (one from each store) and hit the next hour of my shop day (rinse...repeat).. So,

I can pull in from 3 hours of my own shopping $180 (example) and *MISS* all the heartache of THIS shop... that the OP is talking about!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2014 04:00PM by SunnyDays2.