In April I did my first shop for KSS International, though I have shopped for other companies before with success. I invested about half a day in preparing, driving to, doing the oil change shop, and filling out the report with all kinds of detail and now I get nothing.

This company does not make the details of what is expected for shops available until after you request the shop. I contacted someone there and requested details before requesting the shop. I also searched for at least half an hour trying to find where I could view the exact form I would be filling out prior to completing the shop. I finally concluded it was not available to preview. Today when I found out I would not be getting paid for the shop, I contacted KSS. They insist that the MS form is available once the shop is assigned, but I would beg to differ. If I had not been so completely honest and admitted the things I was not certain about on the shop (due to my lack of access to the form ahead of time) and just went with what I was pretty sure was right, I would probably have been paid.

I do not recommend working for this company. They do not inform you sufficiently. They do not let you know if there is any problem, and they give you no opportunity to remedy it. They just don't pay you.

Kern Scheduling is actually not a mystery shopping company. They are a scheduling company, and they schedule shops for many mystery shopping companies. I like some of the companies they schedule for better than others.

Whatever job you performed may have been scheduled by KSS, but the job was performed for another company. The form would have been available on the mystery shopping company's site and the guidelines are written by that company. Payment also comes from the mystery shopping company, not from KSS.

What specific company did you work for, with the job scheduled by KSS?

The company was Service Sleuth. It appears the problem was lack of communication. The emails she did get said they were from KSS. I am not quite sure how that works, but the breakdown in communications from the beginning. She said she was a new shopper and she had never done this shop before. It is important for mystery shopping companies to communicate clearly with any shoppers but especially new shoppers. Too often mystery shopping company employees treat mystery shoppers like idiots and blame the shoppers for not understanding unclear instructions. Before the shop, the conversation took place over the phone, so there is no proof of what was said. After the shop, the communication was done by emails. There actually was a lack of communication before Oshiana contacted the company. If there is a problem with a shop, at least an email should go out saying so. It isn't not sufficient when you are not going to pay someone to just put it in their profile. That is my opinion.

Actually, I was never clear what the company was called. I followed links from an email my husband forwarded to me, but the page that came up had different names. I believe informant150 is correct that it was Service Sleuth, but the only people I dealt with had email signatures that said KSS International. If I could rename this discussion, I would add Service Sleuth to the title. I had a terrible time trying to find the information on the Service Sleuth site. I am an educated person and am computer/internet literate, plus everything I do I do thoroughly. I read over all details of every shop two or three times before performing shops. After spending half an hour or so trying to find the exact things they wanted from me for the shop (specifically the form I would be filling out) I finally concluded that they must have a simple form to fill out afterward because all I could find were the general guidelines for the shop. The person I dealt with yesterday said that there was supposed to be a link in the email confirmation, but it was not clear to me where to go. The only thing I can think of is that they must have expected me to click on the link as if I were going to go ahead and fill out the form, as if the shop were already complete. I don't know how they thought I was supposed to know that.

I've performed many assignments for Service Sleuth, scheduled by KSS, with no difficulty figuring out who I was working for or how to access the website. I've also worked for other MSCs scheduled by KSS with no difficulty.

I'm confused about what specifically are you saying. Are you asking for help or advice? Or are you just venting because you performed an assignment unsucessfully and will not be paid? It is upsetting to not be paid for an assignment after completing it. Were you able to locate the Service Sleuth website and enter the report? What specifically did the guidelines require that you did not do? It sounds like you visited the location and then completed the short acknowledgement report on the KSS website but you did not see the link in the KSS report to click to go to the Service Sleuth website and you did not complete the report on the Service Sleuth website. Is this correct?

Hello,

I am currently a Account Manager for KSS and I would like to weigh in. I have scheduled these myself, and while they are very detailed they pay well. I can say we are rescricted by the MSC on what we can release before your assigned. Thats not our rule, its theirs. Also once assigned the complete details are on the MSC site. They do this for privacy reasons. We do NOT hide anything, except what the client requires us to. It does us no good to burn shoppers, because we ARE going to need you in the future. We also DO NOT make any descions on payments. Thats up to the MSC. Basically we are only the messager.

We hate when this happens because then we have to get it reshopped. So we have to fill the same shop twice. We all (KSS employees) want you to get paid, keep shopping and helping us make our clients happy. Thats our job, but in some cases we cannot help if any shopper either doesn't follow the instructions or fails to do the shop properly. These things happen. One thing I can say about my company is we are honest, 100% of the time. So if the MSC has a issue, chances are it did occur. Best thing we can do is offer guidance and support.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2014 08:02PM by KSSErik.