I just want to let my fellow shoppers know that I did a shop for them in June and was to be paid in September and then they changed their pay schedule and have done that several times since I have shopped for them. They changed the pay date to October, and here it is now November and I still have not gotten paid for the shop. Beware of doing anything else for them. I asked him to send me my payment immediately and said he can not send individual payments, that they go out in a mass for approved shops, well mine shows approved on my expense page, yet no money. I then waited a week, and still no money. I called him Monday, got voicemail, he wouldn't return my call. I sent him a paypal money request, no response. I sent him another email, telling him that I was going to contact the attorney general in his state, the BBB and let all shoppers know in the forums how he is doing business. That got a response out of him, he then asked me what he owed me money for? Can you believe that guy? I had to re tell him the date of the shop and everything, yet, still no money today. So, here I am to warn you all to be careful of doing any shops with them, I don't know what is going on, but they owe me for several shops between June and now.

I'm sorry Shanon. Unfortunately this has been an ongoing problem with Jason for some time. If you read through the other threads about these guys on this forum you will note the excuses, non payments, short payments, ploys etc. You are not alone. The problems have been going on all year.

This is the first time I have encountered a problem with him, as I have always received my payments on time. I then looked yesterday, they are changing their payment schedule again! Any shops done in december will be paid in Janury! How fair is that? I am contacting BBB and the ag for colorado!



Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm sorry Shanon. Unfortunately this has been an
> ongoing problem with Jason for some time. If you
> read through the other threads about these guys on
> this forum you will note the excuses, non
> payments, short payments, ploys etc. You are not
> alone. The problems have been going on all year.

shanon49301 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Any
> shops done in december will be paid in Janury!
> How fair is that?

Well, if you know ahead of time when they pay, I'm not seeing how that's not fair. There are several companies I shop for that pay weekly or bi-weekly, but there are several others that pay monthly or as far as 60-90 days after the shop.

Even a lot of the companies I shop for that are known to be reliable payers pay at the end of the month FOLLOWING the shop.

I read this differently. She stated that she shopped in June, and that the pay policy has been revised twice (once unfavorbly, once favorably) since that time, now going to one month after the shop. But since she has not been paid for her June shops, and its 4+ months later, she thinks it unfair that people shopping in Dec. will get paid in Jan, given the length of time she has had to wait.

Her point is that the current jobs were done with more than a 30 day payment period offered and even those extended dates have been dishonored. So now to promise that this month's or next month's shops will be paid the month after the shop while folks who helped him before are still not paid is unfair. At least that is what I think she is driving at. We know that he has dishonored his offers to get work paid for in 7 or 14 days and shoppers who fell for that got to sit in the queue with every other job waiting for late payments. So who would believe the current promise of payment next month for this month's work? Only folks who didn't know the history.

thanks, you have summed it up well, how many of you does he owe money to?

I haven't worked for him since he shorted me $4 for a job done for him last December and never even bothered acknowledging emails. So I am 'paid up' so to speak. (Never got my $4 so it will be written off this year since it was claimed as income last year.)

I did finally get paid last week, Jason blamed it on an IT problem, stating that paypal would not accept my email address, and never had this problem before. Hope my payment for my July shop does not go the same way!

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I read this differently. She stated that she
> shopped in June, and that the pay policy has been
> revised twice (once unfavorbly, once favorably)
> since that time, now going to one month after the
> shop. But since she has not been paid for her
> June shops, and its 4+ months later, she thinks it
> unfair that people shopping in Dec. will get paid
> in Jan, given the length of time she has had to
> wait.


Ahh, I get it now.

I just got an email to finish Nov. jobs, pay in 2 weeks....how about my job done last month, I don't see it on my jobs done. I also heard that they merged, maybe things will get better.

Thanks for the info. I will scratch this one.

Got an interesting email this evening from JC&A. They are going through a reorganization. Since the email has no confidentiality notices, I think it is fair to share:

"1. Payment Policy - Under our New Payment Policy all December Evaluations
will be paid in January! Assignments
will be paid one month after the evaluations have been done! Any expense
reports for previous months will be caught
up in December and January.

1a. Expenses - Within the next week or two, you will no longer need to
mail expense reports and receipts! We hope to
have this in place very soon!

2. December Assignments - Check the December Assignment board. We have
NEW assignments for ____, ____ "

The clients mentioned I believe are new-to-them clients, though I am not sure. Promises have been empty in the past, so I am not rushing right over to the website to start signing up, but perhaps those of you out of pocket for too long will get paid.

Flash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Got an interesting email this evening from JC&A.
> They are going through a reorganization. Since
> the email has no confidentiality notices, I think
> it is fair to share:
>
> "1. Payment Policy - Under our New Payment Policy
> all December Evaluations
> will be paid in January! Assignments
> will be paid one month after the evaluations have
> been done! Any expense
> reports for previous months will be caught
> up in December and January.
>
> 1a. Expenses - Within the next week or two, you
> will no longer need to
> mail expense reports and receipts! We hope to
> have this in place very soon!
>
> 2. December Assignments - Check the December
> Assignment board. We have
> NEW assignments for ____, ____ "
>
> The clients mentioned I believe are new-to-them
> clients, though I am not sure. Promises have been
> empty in the past, so I am not rushing right over
> to the website to start signing up, but perhaps
> those of you out of pocket for too long will get
> paid.


Yeah right, he paid me finally for the June shop, and now owes me for July. That was supposed to be paid in November, now stating that will be paid in December, sick and tired of them changing their payment schedule. He sent me an email asking me to retract my letter to the BBB regarding the last non payment issue, for some reason he seems to think that I sent the letter to them after I got paid. I warned him that I was going to contact them if I did not receive the money by a certain time. He did not, so I filed a complaint. I told him that I will not retract the letter until we are settled up, as he owes me for a shop in July and one in September. I think that is fair.

Certainly I will be waiting to hear if he gets his act cleaned up and keeps it cleaned up before I consider doing shops. It almost doesn't matter if he gets everybody paid for 2009 by the end of January 2010, the issue is what will happen going forward. Just as shoppers have to build a good reputation, so do companies.

shanon49301 Wrote:
> he paid me finally for the June shop,
> and now owes me for July. That was supposed to be
> paid in November, now stating that will be paid in
> December, sick and tired of them changing their
> payment schedule. He sent me an email asking me
> to retract my letter to the BBB regarding the last
> non payment issue, for some reason he seems to
> think that I sent the letter to them after I got
> paid. I warned him that I was going to contact
> them if I did not receive the money by a certain
> time. He did not, so I filed a complaint. I told
> him that I will not retract the letter until we
> are settled up, as he owes me for a shop in July
> and one in September. I think that is fair.

Shannon, I would not retract it, either. You waited for your payment $, and they did not arrive. In light of that, you sent a message stating that you would file, still did not receive payment, and filed. Now he does a partial payment and expects you to retract it? Why would you? It is not your worry if the stain on his record gives the the new merger cause for pause in their transaction.

And this comes from one who does not really believe in the teeth of the BBB. But if the MSC believes in their teeth, more power for the system having worked for you.

I believe I did one in August and one in September and am still awaiting payment for both of them. I received the same e-mail Flash did, and I logged in and checked my status or whatever it's called and it said no records found. Don't know exactly what that means but I'm not taking another shop from them until I get a payment.

Lynlee

I am awaiting payment from May. YMMV. Mine does not. I will never do another job for them again.

edit to add:

I also got the email. I deleted it. To me, it is not worth the air bubble it came upon.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2009 10:25AM by dee shops.

YMMV?

Meaning some will always decide that the risk or reward is worth the effort. I will not.

I think that based on Dee's definition, it should read YPMC (Your Perception May Vary).

We all get the same mileage (i.e. working hard on a shop and then fighting or waiting to get paid), but some still perceive this as a fair deal.

I agree with Dee that it's a mistake to shop for a company that can't adhere to it's own guidelines. When we shoppers do this, we invite this sort of unprofessional behavior into our industry. The "free" meal may seem like a deal at first glance, but you have to look at the bigger picture and expand your perception.

I accepted the assignment because I had never been to that casino and it was sort of a treat for my friend I took with me. The second time I went with another friend who is an extreme gambler (I didn't know until that day), and I ended up sitting there for what felt like days watching him blow through about $300. I put $10 in the Wheel of Fortune game and won $100 so I consider it a positive; even if I don't ever get paid from JC I still made out okay.

The only way I'll accept another shop is if my friend (1st friend not gambler) wants to go, and I certainly won't hold my breath on payment.

YMMV I took to mean Your Motives May Vary, but it reminded me of that commercial where the woman didn't know what HAK stood for. I am not very 'text abbreviation savvy'

Lynlee

While I can understand the impetus to take a shop just because you wanted to go a location, like eating at a restaurant, or were going to be driving by anyway, I think everyone who reads these boards needs to understand something:

We collectively have power to shape how the MS industry functions.

Now that I have been involved in this for a few years and seen the problems that shoppers come across, as well as solutions that can be brought about by posting publicly, I realize that we as shoppers should feel an obligation to support each other, and help create fair business practices.

It may not matter to you today that you never got paid for a shop, because you had fun or won money when you were on assignment. At some point, you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot afford to get stiffed on a particular assignment, however. As someone who performs a lot of travel and hotel shops, I am always concerned about this. When you do these shops without concern for getting paid or not, you allow the unscrupulous MS companies to stay in business.

If we all make a stand and refuse to work for companies that do not pay on time, pay poorly, do not live up to their promises, or abuse shoppers, sooner or later the only companies left will be the ones who have fair business practices.

There is clear evidence here about which companies do not pay and I continuously see the same excuses from shoppers about why they still shop for them. Sorry to sound harsh but I do not approve of that. I am not singling out anyone in particular, but I think it’s time that shoppers made a stand and refused to work for the companies who abuse us, as a group. You will get no sympathy from me when these companies fail and you loose the money you invested in these shops.

I appreciate your post, I never gave any thought to some of the points you made.

I apologize for the way my post came across sounding so frivilous and nonchalant, it was not meant to sound that way. I have never done a shop I wasn't paid for to the best of my knowledge (I lost my paperwork and have spotty records of July and August), so I cannot relate to the frustrations that brings. JC is the only company I have any real aversion to shopping for because of such a long wait for payment and poor communication. I should have specified that I will NEVER do a shop for them if I do not get paid this month for both of my prior shops, just as the e-mail I recieved from them stated. If no payment comes this month I will do the same as others; e-mail the company and inform them that I will notify every shopper I know by way of message board that they have not honored their word on payment. I highly doubt it will be responded to or even taken into consideration considering how many people have had the same issue.

IF- and I know how big that if is, I get paid as I should this month, I will still wait a couple months and moniter the boards to see how the new payment policy of theirs is going.

Again, I didn't mean to make it sound like I don't care if I get paid or not, and I can see where you interpreted (sp?) it that way.

Lynlee

Steve, what has always concerned me is how low the percentage of shoppers is who actually make it to forums. While I know that there are many who lurk and read but never post, I am astonished at how much competition there is in my backyard and yet I never see the 'perps' on any of the boards. With every single $4 gas shop claimed within 24 hours of being posted, I see little hope to being able to get the system to change.

I don't know how you get the word out to shoppers that there are forums to share experiences and opinions. The only 'official' referrals I have ever seen to shopper forums are to Volition, where posts are heavily moderated and beginner questions are not welcome (in my opinion and experience). So a shopper with a real problem with payment does not even get to state it on Volition if they finally decide to try to make their first post there. And if a board not allowing shoppers to ask for help from each other, a great potential resource is lost.

I've seen several local and national newcast in the past few years explaining how wonderful mystery shopping is. I've yet to see any honest reporting of the the whole truth.

I received payment for 1 shop today. $50, not $55 as was said in the job description. I e-mailed right away asking about the other shop I did and received an almost instant reply stating that they never received my receipts therefore that shop was invalid.

I e-mailed right back saying this was the first I had been told of this, and I asked if I could re send my paperwork. No reply. Also no mention of the $5 difference between the stated pay and what I received.

Never again!

Lynlee

I got paid for what they owed me for July, August and September. Now we are squared up! I got exactly what they owed me!

JC just "merged", I got an email to sign up with the new Co., which I did. I believe their name is Marketstat. The reason for the lack of pay in the past...let's hope this Co., has there act together. I am going to see. I never got paid for my Nov. shop, wrote Jason, still waiting. They never got the "bird" restaurants back, although kept saying they would. Seeing is believing!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2010 07:02PM by Irene_L.A..

Marketstat seems to have had it's own issues with payments. I am still holding off till I see what happens over the next 6 months. And I still need MY way past due check cleared up, too!