Hello Fellow Shoppers,

If you've had a negative experience with Rich Koster, Editor at Mystery Researchers, please PM me. Enough is enough. This person is only becoming bolder/worse & bolder/worse year after year. You know what I'm talking about if you participate in the Auto Price Negotiation Shops for this MSC.

Reply if you have had any of the following or worse:

1) Completed Shops Cancelled (you submitted all required docs & filled out report to only have it CANCELLED)

2) Completed Shops Rejected (you submitted all required docs & filled out report to only have it REJECTED)

3) Submitted all shop documents on a cancelled shop, per MSC request, but did not get shop returned to you

4) Paid a partial fee for various reasons (ex: turned in missing docs by the deadline but did not receive credit)

5) Received a RUDE email directly from Rich Koster (who is NOT an employee )
- Rich Koster operates Survey & Tell ( surveyandtell.com) which is a company that contracts with Mystery Researchers



**** There is no need to reply to this thread if you are NOT experiencing a problem ****



**** There is no need to reply to this thread if you are NOT experiencing a problem ****



**** There is no need to reply to this thread if you are NOT experiencing a problem ****

I haven't done any of these shops and have only done 1 shop for mystery researchers. I'm confused though. Am I supposed to be replying or not?

If you search the type of shop or the MSC you will find 2 or 3 threads from the past month mentioning problems with these shops. Not everyone checks the forum often, you might want to PM people who have had things to say in those threads.

My impression of Rick (from listening to him and from interacting with him) is that is tired of bs. He has no tolerance for questions, delays, incomplete work, or excuses.

I did my work. Turned it in. He submitted for payment.

When Mystery Researchers called repeated and begged me to take another assignment to help them out, I sucked it up, accepted the assignment(s). (I accepted one, they gave me two. No bonus was given even though it was being offered - that is another story.) Rick was not in the best of moods, but I figured it was because it was the end of the month and he was super stressed to meet his deadline. He was not pleasant to deal with BUT he was FAIR with me.

Due to how I was treated through the range of shops by the schedulers (not Rick), I will not be volunteering to help them out with any more.

*A side note, I had a lot of challenges with the leasing scenario. The sales person and the sales manager and the finance guy did NOT want to provide the specific information I needed. I don't think they totally understood what I was asking for. I know Rick will say that is bs - they know - but to get them to provide that information? I want you to know that there are at least two people being fitted for dentures as I type this.

Good to read another perspective on this company. I am not even signed up with them.

I am curious. You said "He was not pleasant to deal with BUT he was FAIR with me." and "When Mystery Researchers called repeated and begged me to take another assignment to help them out, I sucked it up, accepted the assignment(s). (I accepted one, they gave me two. No bonus was given even though it was being offered - that is another story.)"

To be not paid a bonus that was offered and to be assigned two shops when you only agreed to one does not sound like fair treatment. I know I must be missing something. Could you explain?

The scheduling got a little odd when it was getting near the end of the project. I was suddenly getting emails from 2 or 3 different schedulers. Some emails would mention a bonus, some wouldn't. Some of the time when you went to sign up for a shop the bonus would be there, sometimes it magically wasn't. Near the very end when the bonuses got better I went to sign up for another one and the mentioned bonus was no where to be seen on Sassie and decided not to. After 2 locations and the second one being hostile I decided I'd had my fill for now.

I realize I am a little late responding to this, but...I probably did about 5 of these last year (trying to pay off my dog's medical bill!) and they can be stressful shops! During the teleconference Rick is very to the point. If a person was late or put us on hold where we heard the music, they were dropped and asked to reschedule the training session.

The leasing ones can be the most taxing, especially if you do not typically lease cars or are not familiar with all the jargon. I did not realize I was not given all of the information after having to ask the salesperson to revise the quote to account for discounts. When something still looked off, I was told they had new system and it would not print. I relayed this to Rick when I was asked and he reminded me that the salesperson will always lie. I offered to try and get the information, but it was the last day of the assignment. Since they were in a crunch, it only required one visit. I was paid for it, but I opted against anymore since I had exhausted my area and some salespersons were not so anxious to give a printed quote.

Rich CLEARLY hates life - he was so rude and used unprofessional language with me. I am reporting him to the BBB.

Somewhat related: When I started doing these, I was sure I would be revealed as a shopper by asking for such esoteric details as the money factor on a lease. What real customer asks for that kind of thing, I wondered. Then last month I went to buy a car for real.

Good lord.

Please don't walk out of a car dealership without getting as much financial information as you can about the purchase you're making. Ask as many questions as you can, and then ask more. The number of ways these people can and will try to cheat you is absolutely astounding.

@LosAngelesShopper wrote:

Rich CLEARLY hates life - he was so rude and used unprofessional language with me. I am reporting him to the BBB.

What good does that do?

@AlfredB1979 wrote:

@LosAngelesShopper wrote:

Rich CLEARLY hates life - he was so ru

de and used unprofessional language with me. I am reporting him to the BBB.

What good does that do?

Probably about as much good as registering anonymously on an internet forum to bash someone without explanation or details.

What a great way for a forum member to make his first post to introduce himself to the community. Professional behavior?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2015 12:02PM by AustinMom.

Koster comes off as someone who has limited tolerance for lies, excuses and @#$%&, and necessarily gets exposed to all three of these things regularly. I sympathize.

I've found that if you work hard and deal with him in good faith, he will address you reasonably politely.

Los Angeles Shopper, I don't work for Rich so I don't know if he was rude or used unprofessional language. Sometimes "rude" and "unprofessional" are simply expressions of an opinion. It's regrettable if you had a rude and unprofessional interaction that was unwarranted and unexpected, but usually rudeness flows both directions.

Can you tell us exactly what happened and why you think he was rude and unprofessional?

I'm also puzzled as to why you would report this interaction to the BBB, as to exactly what you hope to accomplish by doing that. I hope you'll reconsider that because it sounds like a vengeance hit and it can't help you in this business.

Rest assured that most of the time the schedulers and the MSC can identify an anonymous poster, or at least they think they can. If they nail you, you'll suffer the consequences of your venomous post. If they nail the wrong shopper, the wrong shopper will suffer the consequences. That would be unfair, so why don't you just tell us who you are so the wrong shopper won't suffer because of your action?

Rude and unprofessional?
Let me put you in touch with female shopper that had a shop rejected because she only got a 5% discount on the second visit when a male shopping the same location and model received a 9 % discount.
Rich told her go back for a third visit for a better discount or he will reject the report. He added a snide comment that he does not like female shoppers because they let men walk over them when it comes to negotiating.

She did not like the snide comment and did not go back.


Can you show me in the shop instructions where one shopper will have their report compared to another to determine if it accepted?
Or where it says a MINIMUM discount is required??
It just says TRY to negotiate a discount. (key word*** TRY***) NOT a minimum discount required!!

Reportable to the BBB?
NOT for the comments,.
BUT it is extremely rude and unprofessional the way he interacts with shoppers

What a shame to learn about these problems because these shops seem right up my alley. I LOVE negotiating and I am one female who will not walk out of a dealership with footprints up my back. I'm more likely to leave the salespeople with a couple of shiners.

Tempting.

You should try at least one and see how you enjoy it. The challenge to me isn't getting the discount, but walking out of most dealerships with the written offers and financial details.

The deeper the discount the harder it is to get in writing.
They don't want you running across town showing a printed offer to have it undercut.

If you willing to pay sticker its easy to get a printed offer.

The hardest part is the Money factor on the lease deal.
Most will not have it printed and just write it on,.
Which Rich will not accept
You can waste 30 minutes arguing that you want the money factor ALSO computer printed on the offer.

LJ
I think your in Pacific Northwest?
They don't offer these shops in that area.
I think its only 7 metro areas they offer these...

I agree with the statement that Rich has a no BS attitude. Something I will not complain about, in fact, I think that is a quality that more people should have.

I was a little peeved this year with the car shops because there was one dealership in particular that absolutely refused to give discounts on a print out. Rich would not accept it written on the offer but towards the end of the project, he announced that he would allow it. I spent a lot of time trying to get an offer with the discount unsuccessfully only to find out after I gave up on that shop that he would accept it handwritten on the offer. Otherwise I have no gripes..

Mystery Researchers did not pay the bonus they advertised when I got paid for these shops. I simply e-mailed Lisa and stated I was offered a $20 bonus for taking on four more shops. She did not respond directly but I was paid the bonus promptly after that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2015 03:01PM by dixiewhiskey.

dixiewhiskey
Do you think that was fair or just to you after the time you spent, to not accept your shop and then accept if from someone else?
These are VERY time consuming shops.

Contrary to what Rich says
you have NO CONTROL over the dealer if they want to give you that written offer or not.
Rich is 100% wrong when he states the only reason the shopper does not get the printed offer is because the shopper did something wrong.

@jackaroe wrote:

The deeper the discount the harder it is to get in writing.
They don't want you running across town showing a printed offer to have it undercut.

Which is silly, because I've gotten more than one discount by just telling the salesperson that Jim Bob down the street offered me $X off and had them beat it, no questions asked. No one has ever asked to see the written offer first.

Rich accepted a couple of my first few shops with handwritten numbers for the money factor, etc. but got stricter after that and started requiring printed information.

All my shops were accepted. I gave back one of the shops because I spent too much time on it and couldn't get an offer with the discount on it. That was my choice. I didn't think spending two hours on the first visit trying to get the quote was worth it. All the other shops I've done of this type only took 20-25 minutes tops. I ended up taking four or five more bonused shops later on at different dealerships which gave me no problems so that to me made up for the wasted time. I think in the future to make it easier and to wrap up the project earlier, he should just allow the discounts to be handwritten on the offer with the salesperson's initials on it if it comes to that.

I had a lot of doubt in what Rich said at first but I think 95% of the time, what you say, how you dress and how you behave has a lot to do with whether you get a written discounted offer or not. That particular dealership's customer service is so awful a lot of people run to other locations and I think no matter what I did or said, there would have been no way to get a quote. The rest of the locations in GTA were very easy to get quotes from. I would do these shops again for a third time if they are done again in the future but I would specifically avoid that location.

@dixiewhiskey wrote:

I think in the future to make it easier and to wrap up the project earlier, he should just allow the discounts to be handwritten on the offer with the salesperson's initials on it if it comes to that.

But it's a competitor shop, so it's not like they would be able to verify the initials. It would be too easy to fake something like that.

There are some dealerships that simply WILL NOT give you the printed offer with the supporting documentation and detail needed. I have been to several where it just did NOT happen....could they do it? Probably. Will they do it? Not at these dealerships. So, in that case, the shop cannot be properly finished, Rich is po'd, and you have to eat your travel and time.
These shops are just not worth it, and Rich can be a complete D....

There are definitely salespeople and managers who *will not* cooperate no matter what you do. It's not necessarily that you could have done anything differently. You can't win every time.

I don't know Rich personally but perhaps he needs a vacay!!~~

To those that had difficulty getting a printed offer or one with all the required numbers computer generated,
Did Rich send you an email stating YOU are the only shopper in the entire program that can not get all the required information on the first attempt?
And continue on how YOU must be doing the shop wrong because EVERYONE else gets what they need without a problem on the first attempt???

This guy seems like a complete jerk.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2015 04:36PM by bgriffin.

@jackaroe wrote:

To those that had difficulty getting a printed offer or one with all the required numbers computer generated,
Did Rich send you an email stating YOU are the only shopper in the entire program that can not get all the required information on the first attempt?
And continue on how YOU must be doing the shop wrong because EVERYONE else gets what they need without a problem on the first attempt???

I got one of those.

I've never had the "pleasure" of dealing with this guy but, IMHO, our job is fraught with enough issues/roadblocks, etc. and to have to deal with an unpleasant, glass-is-half-empty, less-than-supportive and condescending tool like him seems counter-productive.

Hopefully he reads these postings and, since I would never ever consider to do an assignment with him, if anyone would like to furnish a direct email contact for him, I would be more-than-happy to spend the time to furnish him with copies of these postings.