I completed a job on Jan 7th. After some email back and forth with Tracy and the Owner Jim, I was finally promised the check that I was owed on 1/24/16. I am asking for the payment on this job. Service Scouts pays twice a month, and I have still not received the check I was promised. All emails and other communications with Tracy and Jim have been ignored. All I want is the check, so I never have to work for this company again.

Your first and only post is a complaint.... maybe chime in on some positive shops you have completed.

BYU, And your point is....? What exactly do you expect from this forum? Are you looking for a solution?

Yes, yes, he, or she, wants a solution. What has your experience been, specifically with this company when you are very overdue for payment. How have you been able to resolve it.

We, as independent contractors for these companies, need to know what our recourse is when something goes awry. This applies most definitely to payment for an assignment complete and accepted.

The have independent contractor agreements written for us to sign. Why do we, being such a large group, not have agreements for them to sign? What does your agreement say? Does it say, if we, through fault of our own, hold your money past a certain date we will pay you interest? Probably not.

I'm working on writing an addendum or two or more to provide to the companies I work with.

I don't have specifics on this company so I can't help you.

I have an email from the owner saying that he would pay me. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem with this company and did they get it resolved? Any suggestions would be helpful.

I have not had payment issues with Service Scouts. I thought their pay period was longer, though.

The only challenge that I had with Service Scouts was that when I pointed out a safety violation with a high potential for an employee to be severely injured, I was told that it wasn't, "Positive or happy," and that I needed to change it. I felt that this was doing a great injustice to the client who pays well for accurate fact reporting. I have not accepted another assignment for them since then.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I have had issues with this company. They just were not related to payment.

Actually, our payment is quite fast and is twice monthly. All shops completed between the first and the fifteenth of the month are paid in the fourth week of the month. All shops completed between the sixteenth and the last day of the month are paid in the second week of the following month.

Your Guide to World Class Customer Care!

Tracy A. Keller
Quality Assurance Coordinator
Tracy@ServiceScouts.com
www.servicescouts.com

EMT- Please email me offline- If there is a safety issue, it must be presented to the client. However, it must be done so without opinion, only what the issue was and there really should be photos. I would also like to know who told you it was not "Happy"- as that does not seem accurate. I can be reached at Tracy@ServiceScouts.com

BYUBoy-

As indicated to you in several communications- you did not follow the requirements for the shop. Then, you violated your shopper agreement by breaking the confidentiality clause. This is why you are not being paid. Again, as indicated in several communications.

Please cease and desist.

@tracy@servicescouts.com wrote:

Actually, our payment is quite fast and is twice monthly. All shops completed between the first and the fifteenth of the month are paid in the fourth week of the month. All shops completed between the sixteenth and the last day of the month are paid in the second week of the following month.

Your Guide to World Class Customer Care!

Tracy A. Keller
Quality Assurance Coordinator
Tracy@ServiceScouts.com
www.servicescouts.com

Thanks for your clarification of how Service Scouts pays, but I am confused. You state that shops done between the 1st and 15th are paid in the 4th week of the month. The OP says he did a shop January 7th, which, according to your post, should have been paid the 4th week of January. He states he expected payment January 24th.

The OP made his post March 3rd and says he has not yet been paid. His post about when he expected payment seems consistent with the payment terms your post stated. If his post is true, it would seem his payment is very late.

Jay C- Our payment policy is clearly indicated on our website, and as I've posted above. I am not going to violate terms of a confidentiality agreement in a public forum. I am sure that you can understand that.

Tracy
This shop was completed and sent to the client. The client accepted the shop and paid Service Scouts for the successfully completed shop. Service Scout has refused payment for this. Tracy has sent me the "Reasons", why Service Scouts states that the shop was not successful. I have provided the justifications and evidence to the contrary. Again, Service Scouts was paid by the Client and now refuses to pay me. I have never violated the "Confidentiality Clause". If you look on your website, all the Clients that you shop for have their logos on your website.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 02:29PM by BYUBoy.

May I ask how you know that Service Scouts was paid by the client? Your contract is with Service Scouts- it is not with the client of Service Scouts. You have violated the terms of your contract.

I am not getting in to this in a public forum. You are continually violating the terms of your shopper agreement. It has been requested that you cease and desist.

I hate it when shoppers and MSC's get into this sort of back and forth on this forum, unless it's in a genuine attempt to inform and/or educate! But, since the can of worms has been opened....

On one hand, there's a partial "airing of dirty laundry" here; on the other, a "We can't violate confidentiality" excuse for not simply responding to the original problem. Which, at its core, is that the shopper was promised payment and wasn't paid. I'm wondering why the OP was told this, and is now being told here that his/her shop wasn't accepted. If it wasn't accepted, then why was payment promised? Why not just reject the shop and make it clear that payment wouldn't be made? Or is the OP not telling the truth?

As long as this has been made public, it would be nice to know the facts. Without either party violating confidentiality. Nothing confidential about the OP saying, "I was promised payment and haven't been paid," and Service Scouts saying, "Your shop was rejected and we told you that. So you're not getting paid." Or, "Sorry, we promised you payment before the client rejected the shop." End of story, instead of this convoluted mess.

Someone's dissembling here. It would be nice to know who.

And, if Service Scouts doesn't want to discuss this in a public forum, why do so? PM exists and is a great option here, for both parties.

As I stated before, I have an email from the owner stating that he was paying me for the shop. I also have documentation that other shops have been paid, following the same requirements as I followed on this shop. I will not post them to this forum, to maintain the confidentiality of Service Scouts.
I have also emailed Tracy and the owner multiple times asking for payment, but they will no longer respond to me.

I'm not quite understanding what could have been construed as violating a confidentiality agreement. You haven't mentioned the client. Did you even say what type of shop?

@LisaSTL wrote:

I'm not quite understanding what could have been construed as violating a confidentiality agreement. You haven't mentioned the client. Did you even say what type of shop?

I didn't see what was supposedly violating a confidentiality agreement, either! The MSC apparently feels that there has been, or may be, one if the subject is pursued. Hmmm....

I thought after reading Tracy's post that she was implying that the OP contacted the client, causing a confidentiality agreement violation. That was just my assumption, though, and I may very well be wrong.

@BYUBoy wrote:

As I stated before, I have an email from the owner stating that he was paying me for the shop.

I believe you, BYUBoy, and am wondering why it is that Service Scouts seems to be obscuring that basic issue with repeated allusions to violations of confidentiality, and is now saying that your shop was not acceptable. Why didn't they just say that to begin with?

I admit to being a bit lost in what initially appeared to be a straightforward issue!

@CaliGirl925 wrote:

I thought after reading Tracy's post that she was implying that the OP contacted the client, causing a confidentiality agreement violation.

I didn't read it that way, but you could be right, CaliGirl. It would be nice if Tracy would have been more forthcoming about that. (Which, I think, would have been possible to do without "violating confidentiality." )

As it is, I find the allusions, accusations, and ambiguity a little unsettling, especially since two other shoppers have noted having issues with this MSC.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 10:22PM by BirdyC.

BYUBoy has said he never violated the "confidentiality clause," while Tracy says "You are continually violating the terms of your shopper agreement."

I'm confused as to what part of the terms of the shopper agreement BYUBoy is continually violating. BYUBoy, did you contact the client? Is that how you "know" that they accepted the shop and paid Service Scouts?

If BYUBoy contacted the client, then I agree that would be a violation of his shopper agreement, but it would be a single violation of the shopper agreement, not a continuing violation. I'm confused about Tracy's statement "continually violating," which implies that by posting on our forum he is violating the shopper agreement, and she asks that he "cease and desist." Cease and desist WHAT exactly? What is it he is doing by posting on our forum that violates his shopper contract?

A lot of nebulous side-stepping going on here by Service Scouts.

BYUBoy- you are fully aware of WHY I am no longer communicating with you via email. You have been notified of these reasons.

The details of this complaint made by BYUBoy fall under the confidentiality agreement. Therefore I will not be divulging them in a public forum- as that would not only be unprofessional, but I would then be breaking the terms of the contract as well.

I ask all of you readers to step back and take a moment- Pretend if you will, you have a serious plumbing issue in your home. You hire a plumber to do the work. The plumber comes to your home and does part of the job. You request that they complete the job you hired them to do. They do not. Would you still pay them? Now, take another breath and think about this. You are driving down the street and you see a billboard where the plumber says you're not a nice person and you are not paying them to do the job, but fails to state the reason behind it. How would you feel? Would you then pay them? Mind you, the job was not finished the way it was supposed to be finished.

After that analogy, I ask you this. What does it solve for the home owner to put up another bulletin board stating what wasn't completed on the job? Does it get the job done? No. It appears to be a back and forth airing of dirty laundry- much like a political campaign.

In the terms of the shop. The shop did not meet requirements. Payment was denied. The shopper failed to accept that and take the matter not only to a public forum, but to other outlets as well. The shopper broke the terms of the agreement. End of Story.

I feel like I have to apologize for this, but frankly, this issue should not have even gotten this far. I do not want to become unprofessional. This is the last comment that I will make on the subject.

If any of you have questions or concerns about your payments, feel free to email me off forum.

I wish you all a good day.

Your Guide to World Class Customer Care!

Tracy A. Keller
Quality Assurance Coordinator
Tracy@ServiceScouts.com
www.servicescouts.com

@tracy@servicescouts.com wrote:

I feel like I have to apologize for this, but frankly, this issue should not have even gotten this far. I do not want to become unprofessional. This is the last comment that I will make on the subject.

Tracy, you are absolutely right. It should not have gotten this far.

Let's explore WHY it got this far. BYUBoy made his post on March 3rd. There was brief discussion, and by March 6th it was over. BYUBoy did not make any additional comments or posts to this thread.

Today, you came in and posted what most shoppers already know: the Service Scouts payment terms. You reopened the issue, when it was already a closed issue and an ignored thread. Only then were additional questions asked and only then did BYUBoy hop back onto the forum with another post. All this is in response to YOUR post. Congratulations, you've stepped in mud and tracked it back to your office.

Tracy,
Lets continue your analogy for the benefit of the other readers. Lets say you have hired that plumber over 100 times to work on your house. Each time he completes the job per what you instruct and you pay him. The last time he comes in and does the exact same job that you have paid him for in the past, only this time you refuse payment. When he tries to get you to pay him, you ignore his requests. What is there left for him to do?

I have never called Tracy a "not nice person". I have stated the reason why you should pay me.
If you refuse to settle this in a private forum, then a public one is the only option that shoppers have to take grievances to.

I guess posting in this forum is breaking the "terms of the agreement" according to Tracy.

"In the terms of the shop. The shop did not meet requirements. Payment was denied."

I think this was the relatively easy answer most of us were looking for rather than details which may give away too much about the client or the assignment.

"The shopper failed to accept that and take the matter not only to a public forum, but to other outlets as well. The shopper broke the terms of the agreement. End of Story."

This doesn't answer the question about how the confidentiality agreement was broken. Does your ICA prohibit discussing the company on social media? Knowing would help those of us who are not registered with SS or those who may have forgotten all the details of the contract.

Too funny Jay C. You have a quick whit. And you're right. I didn't know this thread even existed. I only clicked on it because when I clicked on the "Latest" category, it was the second post listed. Today is the first time I've ever seen this topic.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2016 01:43AM by deelitefullyme.

@LisaSTL wrote:

"In the terms of the shop. The shop did not meet requirements. Payment was denied."

I think this was the relatively easy answer most of us were looking for rather than details which may give away too much about the client or the assignment.

Yes, indeed! But I still wonder why the OP was told he would be paid, rather than just being told the shop was rejected.... Sounds like a passive-aggressive move on the part of the MSC. Avoid and sidestep the issue, rather than being honest and upfront right away. I think most people would rather be told the truth than be put off.

The allegation that the client accepted the shop was not rebutted. I'm curious whether or not SS was indeed paid for the shop by the client.