All kinds of companies have been on the "approved" list ..... some were once good and then went bad. Freeman - which went bust owing a bunch of shoppers big bucks - was once on the approved list. So was Franchise Compliance - another one that was once a good company but then began to pay later and later ..... until going down without paying its shoppers. Then .... there was the company company I've been stiffed by (in 6+ years, yes, it has happened once!) - Nationwide, for which I worked for 6 years and found them to be a great company ..... but they suddenly lost clients and boom! NO pay for shoppers, including me. All of them were on the list. All of them used to be good. Do NOT blindly trust the list.
The point is that this is a changing business. What I do (and it saved me for 6 years, until a good company that I trusted went bad) is to sign up with any company on the list. BUT - before I take that first assignment for ANY company, I do a search here to see how they pay. A little bit of bad feedback is understandable. We all have our favorites - some of the companies I love are at the bottom of another shopper's list. Some of the big favorites here are companies I won't touch. Pay attention to WHO says what - not all posters here have proven themselves to be credible. And if NO PAY or NOT PAYING ACCORDING TO THEIR STATED TERMS pops up more than once or twice when you are reading about a company, RUN. Research carefully before you risk dollars. And if you are not sure about a new company, take a job that is payment-only, with no expenditure required, or one that involves only a small reimbursement.