I received an email with new shops and replied to the scheduler I would not do any new shops until I get paid for the ones I already finished.
Maybe if they cannot schedule new shops, the schedulers will put some preasure on the company to pay. Who knows?

Not being able to schedule shops may get their attention.

Goodness, I so like this company. I really hope they can get it together! And of course, raising their fees would be nice. :-)

Raising their fees???? ROTFLMAO. They are the same people who retroactively cut bonuses.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Raising their fees???? ROTFLMAO. They are the
> same people who retroactively cut bonuses.


AND, although their shopper advocate frequently jumps in to explain things when not requested to, when several shoppers on this forum specifically requested that she respond about the retroactively-cut bonuses, she chose not to do so. Of course, back when they retroactively cut bonuses, they were still paying on time.

dee shops Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Raising their fees???? ROTFLMAO. They are the
> same people who retroactively cut bonuses.


Well, it's not like I thought they WOULD. I just said it would be nice. :-)

Today was 45 days for me. I emailed and am waiting to hear back. I noticed they have silently moved the payment date from the 15th to the 20th now. That is after it moved from the 9th.

Warning...danger Will Robinson. This is not looking good.

Got an email response that spewed the same BS about the system changing...Geez, they either think they are fooling us with that, or they have the most incompetent MIS and A/P people known to mankind, as that stuff has supposedly been going on for over a year....

I have now been marked as a "Pay First" but have not been given a date.

edited to add: But now when I look on "when will I be paid?", the date changed back to the 15th of this month.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2010 09:41PM by dee shops.

I just got the mass email from the CEO of this company. At least she finally owned up to the payment issues. I can respect that. However, I still expect to be paid on time. Her company's "economic tsunami" cannot become mine. As soon as it does, I stop shopping (for them.)

Can you share more about the email? I didn't receive one -- the payment I have coming isn't due for another month.

nicely, This is what I got:

Dear Shoppers,

In October, our company will reach a major milestone. We will have been in business for 15 years, and I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know that your support and loyalty to AboutFace is precious to me.

Our core values at AboutFace are incredibly important to me also. You consistently provide timely, accurate and quality results in direct support of two of those values: High Performance Players and Quality. As part of a third value, Pioneer It!, we have been replacing our payment system, which has caused some delays but will allow us to automate payments more quickly and smoothly. There are two other core values we also maintain, People First and Keep Our Word; I’d like to speak to those with you now.

In all of the years owning this company, and likewise, in my life, I’ve never experienced or even imagined an economy like the one we are currently enduring. I hear news of improvements, but the facts are for us, this year has been even harder than last year. We have three major clients who have failed to pay or have repeatedly been significantly late in paying us. We have many smaller clients we’ve had to turn over to collections. These are reliable companies we’ve done business with for years that have also been impacted by what can only be described as an economic tsunami.

I know you, as an individual and a business owner, are enduring and suffering through this just like I am. And just like me, you are trying to make a living for yourself and your family. As a woman-owned business, I’ve faced a lot of uphill battles in 15 years and take tremendous pride in the fact that I’ve never compromised on my integrity. Paying our shoppers what is due is our top priority on a daily basis and I want to give you my personal assurance and promise that you will be correctly paid for the work you do for us. You have kept your end of the bargain and so will I.

Again, I am profoundly sorry for the delay over the last few months.

Thank you so much for your continued patience.



Paige Hall, CEO

Pretty words, lovely sentiment, correct content. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Wanting to pay according to contract is not enough and hopefully the follow up will be NO shoppers needing to complain about overdue payments or needing to follow up on more than an a normally expectable number of 'oops' payments that are truly 'oops' situations.

I received the email too. I again replied to the scheduler that I would not shop until paid and she forwarded my email to Heather. I am supposed to be paid on the 16th for May shops, and I still have two I did in June. After I get all my money, I'moutathere.
There are toomany other companies to work for that pay on time.

They never really have many shops here, so with the rotations, I have only shopped for them a handful of times. It's unfortunate that this is the situation with their payments, as I really like some of the people I interface with there, like Amy. But again, this is a business, and I have bills to pay, too. So, pay me on time, or I won't shop.

I don't do many for them, usually the same ones when they come up in my rotation, and thankfully they are all in close proximity to each other or I wouldn't do them at all.

I appreciated the letter and found it forthright and informative. However, I would like to have received it months ago. I also would have liked AboutFace to advise an accurate date of payment at the time of assignment. I have continued shopping with AF, knowing full well my payment would most likely be late, but trusting I would be paid. In light of this letter from the CEO, I certainly hope things will improve going forward.

The letter is nice and says all the right things, but I don't see anything about paying shoppers TIMELY. It sounds like she is assuring you that you don't need to worry because you will be correctly paid (eventually), but, unless I'm missing something, she is making no claim that you will be paid right away ..... or that AF will do better making shopper payments timely in the future. In fact, it sounds as though she is begging your patience because payments are behind and will stay behind. But she leaves that totally out. Of course, I am thankfully not in that boat - my last shop for them was April 2009 - I perceived a total lack of integrity when they retroactively cut shopper bonuses. I'm not sure how many shoppers were affected by that, but I certainly was - and never shopped for them again. It seemed too bad at the time - it was only $3 but it was the principle of it - to me it was a lack of integrity in payment. Of course, now I'm glad - the $3 AF saved by snipping the bonus that was in place when I accepted the shop (I still had the original instructions showing the bonus) saved me from any of this...because getting paid on time is important to me. You know, the above AF letter has similarities to Melissa's infamous post on this forum .... except Paige writes a whole lot better AND Paige did not have the gall to say she "couldn't promise to always pay every shopper on time." Instead Paige has asserted you will be paid but has left out any "when" information. As far as I'm concerned, this is too little too late. But I decided they lacked integrity and cut them off already over a year ago.

edited because I can't spell.....LOL

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2010 03:12AM by AustinMom.

I got the email, also, yesterday. I'm waiting on a payment from April, and what can you do? The economy is really bad, I am thankful to have work, and I know some companies will fold. I just wish they had mentioned this a month or two ago, instead of telling me about system changes. Come on, any system change does not take months to do, if it does, hire a new It company. I really liked to shops I did for them, before all the problems.

The positive thing here is that they finally "...manned up." They admitted publicly that the issue we all knew is exactly what is happening, instead of

The bad thing is that they are apparently blaming others for there fiscal mistakes. Yup, they did not get bad? How many shoppers have not gotten paid by them or others in the contracted time. Hey, everyone has known about this "economic tsunami" for a while now. Planning, anyone? f you hold the title of CEO, you should know how to do that.

The positive thing here is that they finally "...manned up." They admitted publicly that the issue we all knew is exactly what is happening, instead of

The bad thing is that they are apparently blaming others for there fiscal mistakes. Yup, they did not get bad? How many shoppers have not gotten paid by them or others in the contracted time. Hey, everyone has known about this "economic tsunami" for a while now. Planning, anyone? If you hold the title of CEO, you should know how to do that before you start issuing statements due to the flood of complaints. If we know that more people lurk here than people who post, we know they are hearing this.

The positive thing here is that they finally "...manned up." They admitted publicly that the issue we all knew is exactly what is happening, instead of

The bad thing is that they are apparently blaming others for there fiscal mistakes. Yup, they did not get bad? How many shoppers have not gotten paid by them or others in the contracted time. Hey, everyone has known about this "economic tsunami" for a while now. Planning, anyone? If you hold the title of CEO, you should know how to do that before you start issuing statements due to the flood of complaints. If we know that more people lurk here than people who post, we know they are hearing this continually, since she sent that letter.

Although my log shows I was paid today, NOTHING is in my PP account.

I sent an email to P/R and to Heather. I await the response.

Heather responded that I will be paid today. Let's hope so. I would hate to see AF change to something I would term the "Melissa/DSS debacle."

I'm certainly not condoning ANY MSC not paying on time, as several of my posts have shown, but I wouldn't write off AboutFace just yet. Not sure, but I think this may have been the first MSC with whom I dealt that was late on payment. Fast forward many months, and I came to realize that the 5 or so days they were behind was nothing compared to other companies. And when I inquired about it, I was paid very quickly. Again, I agree that we should not have to chase down money from ANYone, but in the scheme of things, they haven't been too bad. AND, I've always found them to be communicative and honest. Maybe it was because I inquired quickly, I dunno.

I have a shop for which I'm due a big reimbursement, so maybe I'll be changing my tune soon, but I hope not. Dee, I hope you get paid today.

I did get paid today. I noticed the payment was sent by Heather. I am sure it was a special pay. I don't care. I got paid. I am staying away for a while, till I see if I have to chase payment for my late June shop, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2010 10:48PM by dee shops.

I have seen About Face staff logged in here the last couple of days, although I've seen no posts from them, and I would assume they have noticed that AF is being discussed. Maybe it will give them added incentive to find the money to pay their shoppers. Hope so.

I am pretty sure that they routinely monitor this board based on the times Heather intervened in some issues that people have put forth here. However, in light of the president's letter, I am betting that they have been extra vigilent about doing so. :-)

I noticed the same sort of conversation is taking place at Violation, too - that people want their money, then they are done.

If I don't have to chase June $, then I will try another shop, and see what happens with that one. If I do, then I am done, too, at least until their "economic tsunami" stops rolling toward me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2010 12:16AM by dee shops.

I got my pay today, also, for a shop done in April. Maybe things are looking up? I hope, I really like the shops I've done for this company. I'll test the waters, and see what happens. I can't fault anyone who is hit by the economy, but please, above all, pay your workers.
Jen

Every shop I have done for About face, I have had to email Heather for payment. Recently, I got an out-of-the office reply, now I am quite concerned.