I had one Cirrus shop that took 6+ months to be paid. Large international retailer.

Thanks for all the information! I really appreciate it!

Thank you so much!

I received payment today from Technology Store Shopper for shops done on June 10, 2015.

Intellishop is very inconsistent with their pay dates...sometimes the 20th of the month following...sometimes not until the 28th, and all days inbetween...it is best not to hold your breath with them.

The website says 20th or Monday after. I was paid this month end of day Monday.

Does anyone know when Informar pays? I scroll through eight pages and did not see it posted.

Sentry says they pay on the 30th . I have had an invoice sitting there since June 16 for billpay.com and now they ssy it wont process until the 10th of July.

Darlmam

I apologize for any confusion regarding payment of assignments completed on our Shop Metrics platform. It sounds like we have not done a good job of explaining the payment process. Invoices dated June 16 included all assignments that were approved for payment up to June 15. We provide 15 days for shoppers to review the invoices and notify us of any discrepancy and we will begin paying these invoices on July 10.

If you need assistance, please feel free to contact me directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com and I will be happy to research your situation and respond quickly.

Thanks

Dave

Confero has always paid me two months after the shop even when it has been done by the 3rd of the month.

This is a great summary. Glad I discovered the topic. Thanks for the list!

The Shadow Agency pays 45-60 days after the shop is accepted.

My experience with Cirrus was pretty bad. They took 5 months to pay and I had to send multiple emails (after waiting the 4 months they said was normal payment time for them). Very frustrating, but as shoppers we have the freedom to pick and choose who we work with.

Thanks for the list!

Travis

I wish Cirrus paid quicker, but for me, they are one of the higher paying shops I do because I do them when they are bonused. Plus, I know these shops now so they aren't difficult at all. That said, I'm running out of apartments to shop. :}

Service Sleuth has been very consistent with 60 days after the shop.

My first pay cycle with Service Sleuth was the longest. In April, I only worked for them and BestMark. I was paid for shops from other companies in the next month before I was paid from those April shops. I did get paid for a couple of May shops early this month.

Update on Sentry...while they 'say" payment is made 30-60 days...they actually pay in about 70 days. Typical for them is to withhold payment as long as possible but they deduct fees for not submitting the report on the same day the shop is completed.
Payments are only made by check, and they post shops as being "paid" but don't really cut the check for four to seven more days. then the check is listed as "paid" on a certain date, but my last experience was that the postmark on the mailed check was two days later...hence I got the check for April work in late June. that's a long time.
....and I am wondering why they choose to process and mail a paper check (costs about $1.00 total) when an e-mailing of the payment (Paypal) costs them a fraction of that...and why not combine the payments by a period? (15 days? 30 days?)
Since the SquishBoiger shops are so prevalent....and are so lowly paid...it is beginning to not make sense to take the shops for $4 and a meal when the reimbursement and payment comes 70 days later.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2015 01:39PM by winemaker.

I'm happy to shed some light on these questions.

The payment process we use for assignments completed on the Sentry Prophet portal cost us less than it does to process payments via Paypal. Payments are handled through a processor and not printed and mailed from our office. When the payment show as PAID in our portal, the date is the date the processor returned to us as the expected date of check arrival.

Our published payment policy is that we process payment up to 60 days after the assignment is accepted. If a shops is submitted after the deadline and/or returned for revision, payment could be delayed a few days.

Payments are combined when they are processed in the same batch.

As we migrate projects to our ShopMetrics portal, shoppers will have the choice of being paid by check or Direct Deposit via Bill.com. We are about to begin our third batch of payments via Bill.com and working to iron out the bottlenecks in this process.

That, simply put, is a bunch of hooey. no one should believe a word of it.

@winemaker wrote:

That, simply put, is a bunch of hooey. no one should believe a word of it.

Which part?

Yes, which part?

Most of it...Ha! Although this particular snippet stands out as particularly evasive and slimy:
"Our published payment policy is that we process payment up to 60 days after the assignment is accepted. If a shops (sic) is submitted after the deadline and/or returned for revision, payment could be delayed a few days".

- The 'published' policy is 30 to 60 days. However, it is NEVER even 60 days...more like 65-75 days.
- The 'deadline' is anything after the day of the shop, so if one is late by , say 12 hours, then the payment can be delayed by "...a few days." WTF?

...and let let me give you a fact: I received a check yesterday (7/23) for work done in mid May. It was postmarked on 7/21. That is 60+++++++ days after the shop was completed, entered, and checked (with absolutely NO problems).... however...it is STILL listed as "pending' on Sentry's site today (7/24). Another payment was listed in even dollars, when I was actually paid correctly in dollars and cents. Yet another shop is listed as pending and is now overdue. Can't they get that side of their website connected and working properly?

Sentry 'deducts' a dollar from their shoppers if an entry is even a day late (even if completed within hours of the shop, if one passes the stroke of midnight!), two dollars for two days, etc. But what is good for the gander is not good for the goose in this case, as Sentry does NOT pay a dollar for every day they are late in processing payment. Now, tell me, is that fair?

Now, you may want to have me provide more data, but I am not keen to, because I do not want to be 'back-traced' and then cited and dropped, castigated, etc. the pushback/revenge issue weighs heavily on this paranoid mind!

Winemaker,

Payment timing begins when the report has been fully validated and sent to our client. This is clearly stated in our ICA.

Your statements about the payment being displayed in whole dollars. In fact, all payments on the first page are listed in whole dollars. This was an oversight that we never corrected. If you click on the project name in the first column, the system displays more detailed information about the assignment and payment.

We do deduct from the fee if the assignment is submitted late, however, your statement that "if one passes the stroke of midnight" is inaccurate. The formula that assess a late fee has a 59 minute buffer built in so that a late fee is assessed only if a shop is submitted more than 60 minutes after the deadline. If there was an extenuating circumstance that led to the report being submitted after the deadline, any shopper can request a review of the late fee by submitting a support ticket. This can be done easily from the assignment history page.

I understand that the interface may not be perfect, however, given that shopper payment history is not available in Prophet, I think the assignment history information on our site is valuable to shoppers overall.

If your payment is still showing as pending, it's because I have not update the site with payment information. That's on me.

Since I don't know who you are, I have no way of confirming the information you are posting is accurate. It's your prerogative to remain anonymous, however, it does limit our ability to accurately respond to your concerns. If you like, you can contact me via PM or directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com. I'll research your payments and report the findings to this forum. If we paid you late, that's what we'll report.

@winemaker wrote:

let me give you a fact: I received a check yesterday (7/23) for work done in mid May. It was postmarked on 7/21.

Wait...I'm confused. The shop was done in mid May and the payment was sent out mid July. Isn't that basically 60 days?

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@winemaker wrote:

let me give you a fact: I received a check yesterday (7/23) for work done in mid May. It was postmarked on 7/21.

Wait...I'm confused. The shop was done in mid May and the payment was sent out mid July. Isn't that basically 60 days?

That's a good question. I guess my question is what day was the work done. To me, mid-May is May 15. If winemaker's shop was done May 15, then 60 days would be July 15. Of course, we don't know what specifically winemaker considers "mid May" and we don't know the editing time spent after the shop was done, which would add time to the equation.

Of course, maybe winemaker's shop was done May 10 and edited May 11, which would mean it was paid at 70 days instead of 60. OR, maybe winemaker's shops was done May 17 and edited the 20th, which would be 60 days. Not enough facts provided to make winemaker's point.

Right...but at the worst we are talking about payments being a few days behind. Considering the policy of 60 days from it being published to the client, you have to allow for a few days of leeway.

Ultimately, there's a lot of anger directed at Dave, but it seems to me that he is actually running 2 MSCs, offering jobs to shoppers and paying us for those jobs...albeit perhaps a few days late.

Companies like Cirrus have been screwing shoppers over for years with delayed payments and don't take half that grief. Is it because they don't show up here defend themselves?

@SteveSoCal wrote:

Right...but at the worst we are talking about payments being a few days behind. Considering the policy of 60 days from it being published to the client, you have to allow for a few days of leeway.

Ultimately, there's a lot of anger directed at Dave, but it seems to me that he is actually running 2 MSCs, offering jobs to shoppers and paying us for those jobs...albeit perhaps a few days late.

Companies like Cirrus have been screwing shoppers over for years with delayed payments and don't take half that grief. Is it because they don't show up here defend themselves?

I've never registered with Sentry because of reading many posts Dave has made. I didn't like the tone of them and didn't want to work for someone like that. I have never been registered with Feedback Plus, so I'm not really affected by this one way or the other. From your previous posts, Steve, I gather that you also have never worked for Dave?

Just my opinion, but when somebody bends over repeatedly and bares their butt to others with disrespect, there's a tendency to want to kick that butt. Over the years I've been here I've not posted much but read a lot. Dave has a big history on the forums and he hasn't always just defended himself. I've watched and read as he has attacked other posters. He has identified and deactivated shoppers from his company for posts made here on the forum. He also appears to have created a fake screen name and pretended to be a shopper so he could post good things about Sentry and he has encouraged others to come in and register for the sole purpose of backing him up.

That is pissy, unprofessional behavior and it pisses other forum members off. Although Dave seems to have cleaned up his act and his posts over the past couple of years are reasonable and professional, I'm sure a lot of forum members who have been around a long time have long memories.

I agree completely with you. If a company owner behaves like a pit bull, he makes a lot of enemies among shoppers. It doesn't surprise me to see more anger directed against him and his company than against other companies who are truly doing shoppers wrong.

I actually have worked for Sentry. Generally, they don't have the types of shops that I specialize in, but when everyone here was complaining about the workload a few years back, I took a shop to see what it was like.

It was pretty much like any other shop of that type I had ever done, and I was paid on time. I think that's the experience that most shoppers probably have with Sentry.

Agreed that Dave may have been argumentative and not on the best behavior in the past, but that has changed and he does seem to be an honest businessperson. Would it not be a good idea to incentivize MSC owners to engage shoppers in a productive manner by applauding that, rather than holding a grudge?

rolfwofl

I'm sorry that you have such a low opinion of my company and I.

Your comment about my creating fake account refers to a situation that happened over five years ago which was worked out between Jacob and I. Since that time, I don't believe that I have responded to any post about Sentry Marketing in a way that would be defined as attacking a member of this forum. If you believe there is a post that I've made in last five years in which I've attacked a forum member, please point to it so everyone can review it. There have been plenty of posts directed at me that were insulting, demeaning and profane. The forum members that have posted positive feedback about Sentry have done so on their own. We have not solicited shoppers to do this on our behalf.

It is true that on occasion, a shopper will be deactivated based on their comments here or their interaction with our team. Shoppers deserve to be treated in a respectfully and professional manner and it is not unreasonable to expect our shoppers to treat our staff and company in the same way. It's a normal part of this business that there are disagreements between shoppers and mystery shopping companies. The difference is how those disagreements are handled by both sides. I've posted this before: shoppers who have an issue with us and communicate in a pleasant, professional and patient manner almost always are able to work out a resolution. This is pretty consistent with what CureMS wrote (http://www.mysteryshoppermagazine.com/uncategorized/how-to-negotiate-with-mystery-shopping-companies/) in issue 113 of MSM.

My purpose in participating in this forum is to provide members with both sides of an issue in an effort to be transparent. While I understand that you don't care for me or my company, I don't think you speak for all forum members. In fact, I think that recent feedback about our company has been very positive.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2015 11:17PM by Sentry Marketing.

I have posted positive feedback for Sentry in the past and was not recruited by Dave, or anyone else. I have met some of the other posters on this forum from attending the IMSC conferences and MSPA shopperfest - they know I am real. I have done the spa and FD shops for Sentry, plus many, many shops for Feedback Plus. The editors' critique were constructive, when I get them. I was paid accordingly.

Steve...my point is that the stated policy is "30 to 60 days." Getting a check cut (not even talking about the MAIL delays) anywhere over 60 days is inappropriate. It is NEVER, in my experience (YMMV) less than 65 days. I have a hard time believing it is EVER anywhere close to 30 days. I can live with (and have been living with) their late -over 60 days - processing of payments for some time now. I just don't think they are telling me/us the truth, or, at the very least, they are not doing an adequate job of meeting their own stated policy.

And...Sentry wrote back (in grammar and spelling that would get a shop rejected), saying, "The formula that assess a late fee has a 59 minute buffer built in so that a late fee is assessed only if a shop is submitted more than 60 minutes after the deadline."

I believe that was written with a straight face. SO, I guess that means I can be 60 minutes 'late' with a report on a visit done 6 hours previously, and I get a $1.00 deduction. They pay 70 days after the visit, and I get nothing, nada, zilch, nil, the null set...for waiting.

FACT!!!: A 5/14/2015 shop was completed on time. Payment in the form of a check was cut on 7/21/15. I received the check (postmarked 7/21/15) on 7/23/15. I can do the math - that's 67 days.

It ain't the money, it's the principle.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2015 01:32PM by winemaker.