Hi

I am actively shopping with a dozen different companies and have been for 3 months.
I have never had a rating less than 8. My average is high 80s or 9 & 10/10.
I've never had a report rejected.

Yet, Bestmark has declined to proceed with me as a shopper. Without any reason given.

Yet I see through MSPA they have many shops available in my back yard.

Does anyone know the secret to getting on board with them?
Do I need my MSPA certification (which I've been trying to obtain, but the website seems to be uncooperative)?

Any thoughts are welcome

Need more info. Did they deactivate you or are you just not getting shops from them. They can be wobbly. In the meantime try to get hold of a scheduler and get some clarification.

They never accepted my application. I have never been a shopper with them.
I don't have contact information for a scheduler and while I registered, they said they wouldn't proceed with me.

Makes me feel like a criminal...: (

I'm just guessing but I would suspect they didn't like some of your answers. Not necessarily a reflection on you personally, but just a matter of not fitting whatever demographic they prefer, either age, education, income level, writing skills, whatever.

I wouldn't waste any energy worrying about it. Go sign up with a couple dozen more companies. I'm signed up with Bestmark but have only ever done two jobs for them. I'm plenty busy without them.

Bestmark only has one shop in my area I even care for. It doesn't pay a lot, but happens to have a good reimbursement on an item I can actually use. The other shops available in my area don't pay enough for the work involved, anyway. Which was learned by doing those shops a few times. I did more than one, figuring they might get easier with practice. Nope! : )

So I wouldn't worry about not having Bestmark as one of your companies, either. Not at all.

Really, not being registered with BestMark is not a big loss. There's a lot of MSCs that pay better for far less work. Most of BM's assignments are tedious. And who wants to risk having their fee dinged? That is such an unkosher practice, in my opinion.

And yes, the abbreviation used above can most definitely be interpreted however you like.

Bestmark is an entry level company with entry level pay. I started with them as my first company, and they didn't really seem to care about mspa. I can't imagine them being selective. Maybe you are just unfortunate to share a name with someone they cut.

I have been with Bestmark only for a couple of months. I have been trying to get my certification, but, also had a peoblem
with the website.

Michael C Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Maybe you are just unfortunate to share a name
> with someone they cut.


Yikes, I hope not!! It's such a common name, I played basketball against three of me in high school.....

I have never had a problem with Bestmark; however, I only do phone shops with them. They don't pay much, but then I don't have to leave my house and the reports on these are easy.

Did you try to resubmit your application?

Bestmark was the first company I signed up with to get my feet wet. I agree that they aren't the highest paying but I find the reports easy and the little shops can add up. I homeschool so shops I can do from home make it a tad easier for me.

Bestmark is perhaps the one MSC that I work with where my regard for them changes on a week to week basis. On the positive side they pay quickly and seem to have a fair number of shops in my area. Heck, I get an oil change or tire rotation sometimes on a weekly basis at different auto dealerships; its probably the secret to my van still running well at 225,000 miles.

On the negative side, I have come to the realization that auto dealerships are NOT the place to ever get an oil change. As a regular customer I would much rather drive into the quick lube and get an oil change for $25 bucks or less and be in and out in under 30 minutes. With rare exceptions when I go to an auto dealership it seems to always take more than an hour. One time the darn thing look over three hours because of some factory authorized recall on my van. Problem was...the service guy never informed me of this and I was watching the rest of my mystery shop schedule fall apart as I sat in a waiting room where the only reading material was Rancher Magazines (addressed to the dealership owner) with ads on breeding bulls. and tips on animal husbandry (Google the term if you want more details).

I realize this is not the fault of Bestmark but now, if I accept a dealer oil change shop, I always plan for it to take TWO HOURS which is rather pathetic but at least I am better able to manage my shopper schedule for the remainder of the day.

The only other caution with Bestmark, they are one of the worst MSC that nickles & dimes you with all manner of penalties. Sometimes when I have been out from 8am till late night and then have over 100 photos to process and a dozen reports to enter I sometimes finally hit the bed and miss their next day @ 10am deadline. I have done better lately with making my days shorter and I tend to tackle Bestmark and Trendsource assignments first because of their short reporting deadlines and late penalties.

Given that I have done over 50 shops for them, I am going to stick with them but it is important to have a good understanding of expectations for them. They will treat you right with quick payments but shopper beware when it comes to reporting and the lousy waits for "quick oil change" shops at dealerships.

BigEd
Mystery Shopping in the Great Smokey & Blue Ridge Mountains of the Southern Appalachians

Bestmark was my first MSC. I did six or seven shops for them. I was not their star shopper, but they kept giving me assignments. Then they rejected a report because I did not ask for assistance from an associate in another department from the one I was assigned. They closed my account simultaneously. I sent them three messages asking what I could do to make up for for my error. No response.

Must be nice to have such an abundance of competent and available shoppers that they can discard one for a single mistake, but they're not the only MSC reported here to do that. Sorry that happened to you. I've done a couple jobs for them without issue but am reluctant to do more because of the inadequate pay for the car shops, and the problems that have been reported here by others. I have to travel too far to shop to deal with an inconsistent and arbitrary MSC.

The only Bestmark shop I'll go out of my way to do is a grocery store that reimburses $15. Other than that, I'll only do one if I'm already going to be in the area and just need to fill out a schedule.

Never had a problem with BestMark but got tired of their low pay and low reimbursements.

I worked for Bestmark when I first started. Like others have mentioned, as I got more experience and signed up with more MSC's I realized that I could do shops with better pay than Bestmark has. I still review their job boards just in case but have not seen anything that pays enough to warrant my time. To the OP: don't obsess about Bestmark. Continue to sign up with more companies. I am signed up with 74 companies and have shopped for 29 of them.

My experience with bestmark is pretty much the same as everyone else's. They are pretty low pay and I don't do much for them unless it is a car servicing that my car might need anyway. Otherwise it is totally not worth your time. Bestmark's Reorts are very tedious for the amount they pay you. Especially for the car dealership shops, those are a joke, $15 for a shop other companies pay $60 for. But they do pay reasonable quick and they are friendly.

So if I were you, I wouldn't feel any sense of loss for not having them in your list of companies. They don't pay enough to make it worth your time and effort.

Sure would be nice if someone from Bestmark would come here and read all these negative comments about them. Might help them understand why their shops go begging in a lot of areas.

Coming here to read concerns would give shoppers the impression they care.

Duh... what was I thinking?

I did a shop for Bestmark on the first of this month. I received a check on the 18th. Considering that it takes at least 10 days by mail, that's a fast payment. I guess the reason I don't do more is really the pay and the pitiful reimbursement. But if I like the shop and I like what I am buying, I do it.

I did a shop with them and they deducted money from my shop because it was one hour overdue. That's my problem, but they deducted 10 percent of a potential amount that could have been made. The potential amount was never mentioned. There was a specific amount that I was told in the beginning, not a maybe amount. Therefore, when I got my check the 10 percent was decucted from the higher amount that was never mentioned. I feel cheated. Any thoughts?

I must say, Bestmark is not the highest payer, but, I have never had them take money from me, on a shop. It is good to use them for things you need, or to fill in a schedule. Every so often, on the grocery shops, they offer a good bonus.

I haven't got a clue what you are trying to say here. How much did they tell you that you would be paid for the shop? How much did they pay you?

What is this "potential" amount? The only potential amount I know of is the amount they tell you they will pay when they offer you the job. If the potential amount was never mentioned, how do you know there was one?

bsktballma Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I did a shop with them and they deducted money
> from my shop because it was one hour overdue.
> That's my problem, but they deducted 10 percent of
> a potential amount that could have been made. The
> potential amount was never mentioned. There was a
> specific amount that I was told in the beginning,
> not a maybe amount. Therefore, when I got my
> check the 10 percent was decucted from the higher
> amount that was never mentioned. I feel cheated.
> Any thoughts?

Low fees, sure, but I have always had friendly conversations with their editors and schedulers. I've done about 100 shops for them and have never been docked. They pay twice a month. Their latest round of car shops is paying a little more and they've instituted distance bonuses for some. Not so bad.

I like this company alot. So far, so good.

they look to be fair so far. but that did take away a few dollar because of a re write. but that fair. so I will see what the future will hold with them. I need some other mystery shopper company to fall back on. please help when possible. 'thank,s

Bestmark was the first company I signed up with. I was lured in by their auditor program. The two audit jobs I performed were both way more time consuming then they led on and reimbursed far too little for the vast amount of work that was involved. Additionally, I was required to purchase a "uniform" t omeet their company standards. One month later I recieved notification that their auditing program was being shut down. Too bad so sad to those of us that invested a ridiculous amount of time performing their audits for them and filling out and submitting all required paperwork, photos, etc.

In addition to them pulling the rug on the auditing program, my first check was also lost. Of course Bestmark toed their company line of "it's the fault of the USPS and we cannot control what they do". It took them 17 days from the date the check was processed to have somebody cut me a new check. That only occurred after calling and emailing them a multitude of times and having at least four people pass the buck.

When they finally agreed that a check needed to be reissued, I was told that it would be processed with their next pay cycle (an additional 11 days to the 17 I had already waited) and that I could expect to receive said check within 5 to 10 business days after it had been processed. So their expectation was that I wait at least 33 days from the date of first issue to receive a reissued check.

I finally demanded that the issue be escalated and finally an anonymous person told me that they would cut the check and mail it right away. I had to demand a name in order for someone to finally accept responsibility for ensuring my replacement check got cut and mailed in a timely manner. I did receive the check three days later.

I've performed 23 shops and 2 audits for them. The lack of support and lack of accountability when it came to reissuing my check really left a sour taste in my mouth. Coupled with the canceled auditing program I have little interest in working with them again.

When I emailed my contact and asked her to remove the remainder of my scheduled shops Iwas told my account was going to be deactivated because I was unreliable, and received a lecture about how this adversely affected them. Every one of the shops I canceled were scheduled prior to the issue with the paycheck. Additionally, I had informed them when the issues with the paycheck arose that if a timely and satisfactory resolution was not implemented that I would likely be cancelling my shops and my contact had seemed fine with that at the time. Evidently not. Whatever.

Anybody else have problems with checks not showing up and have troubles getting a replacement issued in a timely manner?

I've now signed up with about 8 companies, shopped for 5 of them and had pretty significant major issues with 2 of them already. I've only been at this a little more than a month and at this point it is looking like rejoining the regular work force is a much better alternative to working with incompetent companies who blame their auditors and their mail carrier for their own inadequacies.

Ok. I read that Bestmark is no longer offerring audit shops? Great! And here I passed their cert exams a few weeks ago. Oh well!