I have to say, this has to be the most horrible mystery shop company I've ever worked for. Not only does no one respond to the various email addresses they list in their emails to you, but they also don't pay you promptly. If you are going to send notifications out and other emails out to shoppers, please don't include an email address to write to in it if it's an email address that will be rejected/returned or is going to be ignored. I finally wrote to a company they work with and they told me things needed to go through a "ticket". (By the way, the ticket option doesn't appear when browsing their site via mobile) I opened a ticket, and the person responded has been nothing but rude. My statement stated I was paid out in May. A month later, still haven't received a check. NOW when I questioned it is when they "processed it". So if I would have NEVER written to them and followed through trying to find some way to communicate with them successfully, I bet I would have never gotten paid. Then I tell him that I don't have a Bill.com account, he insists I do as it creates one for me when they process a payment and how he did the "reset password/forgot password" option for me. I did that already 3 times before even telling him I didn't have a Bill.com account. There's NO ACCOUNT created. He can't answer me when I was paid till I kept insisting I had no Bill.com account and I wrote one sentence in all caps because of anger (yes, all caps is for anger). He tells me not to write in all caps. Now they are trying to parent me as well... Anyways, this is the last I do mystery shops with this company. It's been a horrible experience from beginning to end, their website is horrible and not intuitive nor user friendly. (I am a systems engineer and was a previous web developer a long time ago, trust me when I say that their system is horrendous.)

Beware... good luck with them if you decide to work with them anyways. I've worked with many mystery shop companies and this is the first time I have an issue with any.

Good morning Zaphara. I regret you got off to a bad start with one of the MSCs but coming here to throw a fit is not a cheery first impression. How would you feel if you opened up the forum to discover the MSC had come here and posted a tirade about you?

But thank you for your information, I will keep it in mind. I have been with them for several years as a shopper and I believe I'll be able to handle this purchase and assimilation of a second company until they get everything bundled up and ship shape.

I'm disappointed you had this issue and welcome to the forum.

The caps thing has people paranoid...it is NOT ONLY FOR ANGER...for example....some sites have no way to CHANGE FONT or USE BOLD or UNDERLINE for emphasis.

I get 'yelled at' for putting a few phrases in caps a lot...talk about an anger problem.

Were they even using bill.com in May? I just got my invite to sign up. I had indicated a month or 2 ago I was interested. It looked like they were just starting to use it this month.

Well, my poor experience led me to want to let others know about my experience, which is why I came here to throw a "fit". Usually, negative experiences do that to people. They bring them out of hiding when they want to voice their opinion on something that really moved them (in this case, in a bad way, unfortunately).

I don't think they were using Bill.com till recently nor was I notified about this till now when I questioned my payment (the pop up about it didn't appear on their site till I asked them the status of my payment). I never use all caps in my reviews/shop information I turn in for mystery shops, it was only used in my communication with them in their "support" system.

​We are paying assignments completed in our Shop Metrics platform using bill.com. During the sign-up process, each shopper has an account created for them in bill.com. The account is a Free Accounts Receivable account and there is no cost to the shopper. We are encouraging all shoppers to log in to their bill.com account and setup direct deposit as their preferred method of payment.

We made the decision to migrate to direct deposit based on a feedback from our shoppers. Each time we asked this question on our shopper survey, an increasing number of shoppers responded that direct deposit would be their preferred method of payment. By using bill.com, we can also offer paper check (albeit with a processing fee) as an alternative method of payment.

Among the reasons we chose bill.com is that their platform has a track record of success (they handle the payments for all Uber drivers nationally) and their interface is secure and easy to use. Payment via bill.com was launched last month and while there have been some bumps in the road, overall the process has gone very smoothly. We just processed invoices for the May 15 to June 15 period and are giving shoppers 10 days to review their invoice for accuracy before we bring to process payment.

Zaphara was provided with a screen capture showing her the existence of her account on bill.com as well as the payment for her assignment. Yes, we asked her not to type in all capital letters. We are continuing to work with this shopper to resolve the issue.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2016 03:52AM by Sentry Marketing.

jmitw

We made our first payments via bill.com in April. At this time, only assignments completed on our Shop Metrics platform are being paid via bill.com

As a company, we are in a state of transition as we move projects from our Feedback Plus Prophet platform and our Sentry Marketing Prophet platform to our Shop Metrics platform. It is a huge undertaking that will take several months to complete. We just added the ability to submit support ticket request from our Shop Metrics platform.

When the transition is complete, I beleive shoppers will find resources consolidated to fewer locations as well as resrouces that are more tightly integrated. Our goal is to improve the shopper experience and to make it easier to interact with our company.

Does this mean I will soon have to create a Sentry profile in order to do the jobs I used to do with Feedback Plus?

I've set up an account on Bill.com. Now what?
There doesn't seem to be any way to link the Bill.com account with my Sentry account. Is this automatic? I'd really rather not pay Sentry to send me the money I'm owed.

goldilox - Yes, you will need to be registered on our Shop Metrics portal to view projects that have been miragrated from Feedback Plus's prophet protal.

meghan - The Bill.com account that we've created for you is a free Bill.com Accounts Receivable account. You are not charged by bill.com for the account and this account will allow you to be paid by any vendor who uses bill.com.

Sentry...
I didn't realize you had already set up the account. I was under the impression that I had to sign up for a new service. I've already signed up for a bill.com account with the same email that I use for Sentry. Does this mean I now have two accounts? Is there a way to undo this or am I still on the right track? If there are two, what would the user name for the Sentry Bill.com account be?

Also, how do I set up for direct deposit? There seems to be no way to update this info on the bill.com website.

I feel like a moron trying to toggle between all these different websites and I'm not getting anywhere.

meghan

I'll update your support ticket with the answers to your questions.

Thanks

Dave

Thanks again, Dave!! I appreciate the help!

It is very confusing.

Sure is. I think I'll just wait around for somebody to pay me. Or not pay me. I logged in to Bill.com and I probably already created a debacle so I think I'll let well enough alone for now and see what happens.

I take it a bill.com account is only created if a payment is due related to a SM assignment?

I keep requesting password reset on the account that was "created for me" at bill.com and still receive nothing... I don't use a free email service that blocks spam and handle my own email filtering, I know it's not going into a black hole in my email folders. So here I am... just waiting to see if I get my check in the mail since I can't login to this mystery account to provide my details for direct deposit even. Oh well at this point, I will sit and wait and hope for the best.

I think we've done a very poor job of explaining how payment are being made for assignments completed on our Shop Metrics platform. I apologize for the confusion and hope that I will be able to clear up everything.

At this time, only assignments completed on our Shop Metrics platform are being paid via Bill.com.

When a shopper completes the enrollment/application on Shop Metrics, a Bill.com account is crated for them. This a free Bill.com Accounts Receivable account and can be used to accept payment from any vendor that processes payments using bill.com. There is no charge for this account.

In order to recive payments by direct deposit, shoppers will need to log in to their Bill.com account and add their banking information.

Shoppers do not need to register for a bill.com account. If you already have a bill.com account, you can add our company to your network by clicking on the Network link and searching for "The Sentry Marketing Group". You must search for the exact name of our company.

I understand the frustration of not receiving a password reset link, however, this is not under our control.

If you contact Bill.com for support, let them know that you are an independent contractor with a free Accounts Receivable account. If you need to contact us for assistance, please email help@sentrymarketing.com or click on the Submit a Support Ticket link from the Shop Metrics homepage.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2015 04:40AM by Sentry Marketing.

I wish I had read this before today. This is very confusing. I guess I too set up an account on bill.com separate from the one that was created for me. The interface is difficult to navigate. Why can't we just do it the old fashioned way? This is a big hassle.

I checked bill.com and they do not have an account set up for my email address. I registered for the SM platform months ago.

Please contact me directly and I will assist you.

Thanks

Dave
dave@sentrymarketing.com

I just received the invite. Thanks

Hello, I haven't received any information on bill.com and have outstanding payments due to me. Was an email sent out to let shoppers know about this or what? When I looked at my invoice there was a notice next to it stating to check bill.com and log into my account, that I don't have or if I do I have no idea how to access it.

My advice is to contact Dave (dave@sentrymarkeing.com). He's super helpful and quick to respond. Don't try to deal with bill.com directly as Sentry has probably already set up the account for you and just needs to tell you how to access it. (My personal experience talking there). Dave is really helpful and easy to deal with though.