I was outed in an apartment shop recently and was not paid by the company but that was no surprise as the employee that outed me is a long term employee and I've done that shop many times. It was just a matter of time before it happened. Ironically she would have gotten a good rating as she did everything right.

It depends on the company's policy. This particular one does say if you are outed then you won't be paid. This is the only time so far I've been outed and I still do shops for them.

Krystal

I experienced the same thing a coupke of times and before I take assignments, I figure out how many pages I have to print out before the assignment, the distance I have to travel, the amount of time required to do the shop and the company's paying history. Once U crunched the numbers over a year ago, I began not applying for or accepting certain shops. I have not been paid a couple times although I know the quality of my report was good. I maintain an Excel spreadsheet of all my assignments with date of shop, location, company and scheduler's name and contact phone and email address. I also record the distance roundtrip in miles. I also note on my SS how much the pay is; the payment due date, etcetera. Then when I receive payment, I color code it in green, signifying it was paid and the method of payment. By doing it this way, I already have my report prepped for Tax reporting as well as how much I've earned from each company. The ones I have to "eat" I note in my SS not to shop for them again and WHY.

Hope this helps in some way, but hopefully you will get paid for your assignment.

I have done quite a few of the same shops only different locations. I just had a shop rejected and not paid because the Manager said they didn't have an employee of that name. I clearly saw the name tag and saw her name. The MSC sent me an email to respond and describe the the employee and provide details of surrounding businesses. I did. I got another email and notified I did not have a receipt therefore the manager would not accept the shop. I had stated on my initial report that I lost receipt. According to their guidelines, it is ok not to have a receipt as long as it is not habitual. So to add insult to injury, the scheduler had called me and offered a bonus to go to this location which is further than I normally accept. I also received horrible service and the food looked less than presentable. I just cancelled all my future shops with this MSC.

I signed up for Harland Clark a few months after seeing a post on here stating they were a good company to work for. They sent me an email showing some jobs that paid $20 with a $75 bonus. I sent an email to the scheduler saying I wanted the one close by and was considering three others. She automatically scheduled me for all four, but for $95 shops, plus mileage, I didn't say anything. I was sick at the time, but couldn't afford to pass up that kind of pay. I had to bust my butt to quickly get home from work to take my dog out and then quickly fight traffic to get to the other three shops (different days) on time. Then, I had to deal with heavy traffic on the way home and write the report up. Harland Clark's system was down for several days and I was freaking out trying to submit the first report. I emailed the scheduler a couple times with no response and then finally called and found out that it should be up the next day. I submitted the other three with no issues and then checked my mailbox daily for the check(s) to arrive around the time stated I would be paid. I received one, but didn't understand the amount. I thought maybe it was the mileage....? Then, another came and it was also a low, odd amount. I called and a lady said she could email copies of the invoices. The company paid me $20 + $10 bonus for all four shops, as opposed to getting the $75 bonus! I was really upset and was told to contact the scheduler regarding the bonus, so I did. She came back and said that the email with the high bonus was an old email. I replied that she shouldn't have continued to respond through the email thread if it was incorrect, that the mistake did not make a good first impression on the company, and that I was going to have to find someone to help me get the rest of the money. The scheduler replied back saying she had removed me from the data base. I called and asked to speak to a supervisor and the operator transferred me to who other, but the scheduler I told her I was having issues with. Turns out the scheduler is also a "supervisor"? I was thinking the whole time that she might be new to the company since she wasn't responding to emails and made a huge mistake like sending out an email with the wrong bonus on it. The scheduler was defensive, rather than apologetic, and the phone conversation ended with me hanging up out of frustration. I called back and got the number of another lady who I could never reach and never returned my phone calls. I was still really sick and then busy with new shops, so I never got a chance to pursue it further. I missed out on an additional $260 I was expecting. They missed out on a reliable shopper in my area (I don't think they had anyone else). The huge take away lesson that I learned from this is to only complete one shop initially with a new company. This way I can gage who has competent employees that look out for their shoppers.

Yes, I didn't get paid by a company because I was truthful regarding the poor customer service. The customer was a large food franchise. The mystery shopping company tried to turn the situation around as if it was my fault the associate didn't know the menu, was rude and provided slow service. They didn't want that report and alluded that I should have known the menu ahead of time which WAS NOT a part of the instructions. Really?

@low country mystery shopper wrote:

The huge take away lesson that I learned from this is to only complete one shop initially with a new company. This way I can gage who has competent employees that look out for their shoppers.

I have never done anything with Harland Clark, so I can't comment on them. Your experience sounds awful.

But your take-away lesson is right on target. No matter how many other shoppers love or hate a company, if it is a new-to-me company, I proceed cautiously.



edited because in my haste I said "CAN comment" instead of "CAN'T comment."

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2016 04:35PM by AustinMom.

I'm sorry you had issues with Harland Clarke. The only issues I have had with them occurred when the scheduler forgot to approve and forward my invoice to Accounting, and this has been sorted out quickly. Because their shop offers come by email as $X + a bonus of $Y if successfully completed and submitted by [date] and may or may not offer mileage, most of my responses to them are by email which restates the terms of the offer in accepting it and mentions a rough estimate of round trip miles. If they assign me the work, those emails have always included the agreed upon pay, an attachment of an invoice blank, a copy of the survey to be completed, a shopper handbook and a list of shoppers assigned to the project with my name highlighted in yellow as to what I have been assigned. There really is not much opportunity to quibble about the fee, though the bonus could be argued if the shop was not successful, acceptable and submitted by the due date. Personally, if their website was down I would just complete the survey like we used to do--print out the attachment, do it by hand, type up the narrative and paste it onto the survey, then scan the lot and email it to the scheduler along with the Word file of the narrative. That gets it submitted and 'off my plate'. If subsequently they want me to enter it on their website, that is easy enough to check the boxes and paste in the narrative from my Word doc.

@rosaestanli wrote:

Cause I didn't have seconds on a cell phone

Even the old flip phone i used to have had a stopwatch feature.

I responded to her email with the $75 bonus. Her reply and acceptance that the shops were assigned also came through on the original $75 available shop list that was sent out. All of the reports were accepted. I only had to make clarifications to the first one and I got paid for them... just a much lesser amount than I thought I was completing them for. I'm sure the system being down was a case of bad timing. I was just trying to show all of the crap I went through that made it a terrible experience. I would have liked to have given the company another chance if given another scheduler. I feel like she removed me from their data base as a way to cover herself.

@dkpskipper wrote:

@rosaestanli wrote:

Cause I didn't have seconds on a cell phone

Even the old flip phone i used to have had a stopwatch feature.

Some people don't want to hear suggestions or solutions. Some people just want to whine.

I want good cheese with my wine...

I have mentioned this before, but I keep an old cell phone, that does not have any service, and use it for all my timings, as well as a back up camera, if I ever need one. Old cell phones, that have a lot of these functions, can be found VERY cheaply or for free.

Exactly. I will never work for Bestmark again. They deducted 2.00 from me because I was 5 in late sumbitted a report. The reports must be submitted at 10am CST. I live in Cali so 8am. If I get home from a restaurant late at night, the last thing I want to do is write up a shop. So, 5 min late and the person at Bestmark argued back and forth with me. So hasta la vista bestmark. The reimbursement for the meal was never enough anyway, even with a coupon( that they scolded me for using).

How long ago did this happen with Harland Clarke?
And maybe I didn't catch it in your story, but did you submit an invoice with the agreed-upon $75 bonuses?

I also did a new home shop. I followed the instructions to a T. I had to give a soft objection and one of their examples was a small credit issue which I said. The sales consultant did NOTHING she was supposed to do. Never asked for my name, email, fill out a card, nothing. She treated us like we were not serious, although once she saw that my spouse was wearing a military shirt, she started talking about VA financing. She said " you won't even need to be on the title". SO, I reported it all and the next thing I hear is that I'm not getting paid because I did not present myself as a qualified buyer. What the What? After numerous emails back and forth, the MSC ended up paying me, but did not bill the client. They told me that it was a good learning experience and they removed that soft objection from their instructions. I knew I was right and I fought for myself. I did not take No for an answer.

Yes,when thes companies use the same scenarious it looks suspicious.

It was about 3 months ago. I submitted invoices with the fees and mileage. I thought the scheduler filled in the bonus column. Again, these were the first shops that I ever completed with HC and they were all done within a week or week and a half's time. In retrospect, I wish I had put the bonus on it! I think the company has potential if they had an online job board, paid their employees to write up invoices, and replaced the scheduler I was talking about.