One of the ladies responded and explained it to me. I will still just shy away because I don't feel successful completing the shops.

Dave, I have to agree with some of the posters on here that the reporting standards are prohibitively high. I did a shop as a last minute favor to a scheduler, and it was sent back twice for revamping. I've been mystery shopping for 6 years and have only had requests for more details a few times. So, for the amount of time I put into this shop and reworking the survey it isn't cost/time efficient for me to perform them anymore. It could be just a tough client, I don't know all that goes into it, but I would like to see either a simpler form or a larger reimbursement. Thanks.

I have been shopping full time for 4 yrs. I have done about 20 shops for Sentry Mkt. I have never had a shop rejected or had the problems that you are stating. I was always paid in full and on time. I enjoy shopping for them and if/when shops I perform are available, I will continue to accept them. You are there to be their eyes and ears for the Co owner. Your narrative must reflect that in full.I Take a digital voice recorder with me and on many shops I take a hidden video camera. I just upload the film and watch it over to verify my findings. Should the management have a question about your shop, They can view just what I saw. Remember that the scheduling company does not know if you are reliable or honest. They have to be sure to insure there integrity.If you have had a good deal of shops rejected then review your work and see if in fact you are getting an accurate snapshot of the entire process.
Sindee Fregon

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2010 07:50PM by asin4utoo.

asin4utoo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> and
> on many shops I take a hidden video camera. I just
> upload the film and watch it over to verify my
> findings. Should the management have a question
> about your shop, They can view just what I saw.


Sindee, I have seen you post this in different threads twice today. This seems extreme, at the least...If you want to do video shops, why not sign up with the companies that actually do them? Most pay far better than standard MS jobs.
I cannot imagine doing hidden video on most every shop, and I certainly am not about to provide hidden video to the MSC and client for the price of a normal shop. That said, I have no desire to video shops at all.

I have done many video shops. I accept them when they have something I want to do. I do mainly restaurant shops. Many are not video shops. I shop at least one shop a day sometimes more.It depends on the availability of the shops. I use over 30 different companies and accept only the shops I want to do. Many of the video shops are for children's game places or things I have no interest in.They are very picky as to a floor or ceiling shot.They can and will reject a shop for a small shot of the floor. You do not know till you are done if the shop has captured full frame everything. I accept video shops when they offer something that interests me. I think if you do a job it should be done because you have an interest, not just for the cash offered.
As far as the 2 posts in one day comment... please look at the posts listed on this site with your name! I realize you have some sort of beef with many people. it is clear from your posts. I am objective and simply stated my experience with the co listed. One good word goes a long way , one bad word goes for miles.

The "two posts in one day" comment was not about making two posts, it was that I had seen you write the thing I was commenting on elsewhere this morning. Geez. Learn to read objectively.

I recieved an email that my report is finally "correct" and I am going to recieve payment from Sentry Marketing for my last shop. Dave was very polite and professional, but said that we are not a good fit. I have to agree; we are not.

However, I think that the regular communication in Sentry Marketing between company and shopper is flawed. Perhaps the company could use a few good shoppers to ferret out which editors at Sentry need to be replaced rather than docking the shoppers. Also, the fact that I got Dave's email address from this forum and not from the company literature is a problem. The shopper should have some recourse that works to address an issue. The "support ticket" part of the website seems to not be working properly, or the right people aren't reading the support tickets. Since I had to put the shop in 3 times (Thank goodness I save everything!) before the website accepted it, I think the issues may begin as a website problem. The problem escalates when a shopper corrects, but recieves an automated response that the problem still exists and then an email that the real people never got the corrections. This takes an inordinate amount of time both for the company personnel and the shopper. I did get a fast and professional answer from Dave once I emailed him directly.

Shop submission issues are tricky. We do not use our own software (we use Prophet) and we literally have hundreds of shops per month submitted via the web. There can be many reasons that a shop does not submit properly and we advise our shoppers to save their work often and construct their narratives in a text editor (Ultra Edit is great) or word processor.

Anyone who has edited or knows an editor in this industry knows what a tough job it is. Our staff is not perfect, but they are a hard working, professional group who perform a crucial task in our company. None of us are perfect, however, and things get missed, especially on a holiday weekend. Sometimes it is necessary to follow up with a shopper more than once in order to avoid a shop being rejected or to remind them that we have not received a guest check, receipt or other proof of visit. Nobody wins when a shop has to be rejected and our first course of action is always to recontact the shopper. We try to be flexible in areas such as document submission and returning shops for revision.

There is always room for improvement, however, and we review every situation to see how we can get better.

Well, DaScubaLady, how was this resolved? You said you would tell us, but its been about 3 weeks thereabouts. What was the end result? Can you tell us?

Well Dee Shops,

Since Sentry Marketing has a 60 day pay schedule, I will not know for 60 days from time of shop.
Either way, I will post here as well as on Volition, where I am also a member.

If I am paid in full, I will state that I've been paid in full, and my question was for naught.

Should I not receive pay on the 61 st day, I will take the matter to the Denver Small Claims Court, and let the judge look at the affidavits that I collected from others who have not been paid, along with the emails from each of my other MSC's stating "job well done, great shop, ect...), plus other relevant information, which will be submitted into evidence ( My husband has a lawyer in the family who will help me should I need it.)

Again, I hope this will never happen, and my next post, is how I jumped the gun and was just being negative, as Dee Shops once pointed out.
I can admit I'm wrong, and hopefully I was wrong -- only time will tell -- so far, no news is no news.

The subject of shopper payment always a sensitive topic and for good reason. Shoppers deserve to be paid for their efforts in a timely manner when they have properly completed their assignment. I agree that shoppers should not have to hound a company for payment and inquires regarding this topic should be promptly and clearly answered. Similarly, we have responsibility to ensure that we are delivering quality data to our clients. In particular, we must be extra diligent with shops that may result in the discipline of an employee of our client.

It may not have always come across in this forum, but we take our responsibility to our shoppers seriously. Every member of our team is aware that our company cannot grow and prosper without a healthy relationship and great respect for our shoppers. Disputes are going to arise in this business and they can be resolved by reasonable parties who maintain a professional demeanor. It is more difficult to handle these situations when one party insists on putting forth opinion and unsubstantiated statements as facts.

The only reason a shopper would not be paid by our company is because their shop was not released to our client or the shop has been deemed to be fraudulent after it was sent to the client. The submission of fraudulent shops is very rare and we have only experienced five instances of it in 4 1/2 years.

I want members of this forum to be assured that we have never, and will never, withhold payment for a shop that is released to a client.

DaScubaLady Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well Dee Shops,
>
> Since Sentry Marketing has a 60 day pay schedule,
> I will not know for 60 days from time of shop.
> Either way, I will post here as well as on
> Volition, where I am also a member.
>
> If I am paid in full, I will state that I've been
> paid in full, and my question was for naught.
>
> Should I not receive pay on the 61 st day, I will
> take the matter to the Denver Small Claims Court,
> and let the judge look at the affidavits that I
> collected from others who have not been paid,
> along with the emails from each of my other MSC's
> stating "job well done, great shop, ect...), plus
> other relevant information, which will be
> submitted into evidence ( My husband has a lawyer
> in the family who will help me should I need it.)
>
> Again, I hope this will never happen, and my next
> post, is how I jumped the gun and was just being
> negative, as Dee Shops once pointed out.
> I can admit I'm wrong, and hopefully I was wrong
> -- only time will tell -- so far, no news is no
> news.


This was informative, but not exactly what I had asked. You said last that you had contacted a scheduler about the situation you had. I was asking more what happened with that, not what you will do if 61 days pass. Again, I do find this negative, as I find most of your posts. Apparently, you do a great job for some MSC's, but still you post here mostly only when things go wrong for you (your post in this thread in response to me a few weeks back excepted.)

I wanted to know what happened whne the scheduler responsed, the ticket got processed, or whatever happened. This is part of the story you have not shared, as yet. This is stuff that is important for others to know.


What you do on the 61st day, well, that is your decision, and your burden, should it come to pass. I guess I do not understand how using other MSC's grades would help if you are going to court with a specific one, but that is me. I think it is all about the specific contract we each sign with any given MSC. The mileage in your state may differ from mine.

Still interested in knowing how the Sentry responded to your query. I have only done two shops and one other document edit for them. In all cases, I was paid on time, and had no contact with the, which is really, the way Flash said, how I, too, prefer to run my business.

Dee,
I'm sorry you harbor these negative feelings toward me.


Have a wonderful day fellow shoppers !!

DaScubaLady Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dee,
> I'm sorry you harbor these negative feelings
> toward me.
>
>
> Have a wonderful day fellow shoppers !!

You come here to complain every time something goes wrong. You say you will update, but when asked directly to do so, you give an answer to a different question. I don't harbor negative feelings toward you, I just don't like the way you play and choose not to help you.

There is more going on there than meets the eye.

It's definately a concern when our requests for clairifcation go unanswered and a shopper threatens to take us to court. In this thread and others, experienced shoppers have stated that they have been paid on time and/or have had professional interactions with us.

For the record, our payment policy is that we pay by check and that checks are mailed 30 - 60 days from the date a shopper's assignment is accepted.

The intent of this post is not to discredit anyone but to simply share our side of this matter. While I respect those who state that this is a forum "for shoppers, by shoppers", the reality is that this a public site whose threads are crawled every night and whose content is found when a company or person is googled. I'll elaborate on this point in a future post.

On 6-19, Irene_L.A. wrote "I support Flash and my fellow shoppers. The experienced ones will not complain if a company is fair, obviously somethings wrong at Sentry...". I'd like to point out that on this forum (and in this thread) and others, experienced shoppers who have interacted with our company have not reported a negative experience.

DaScubaLady,

Of all the shops I have completed for this company, I have been paid. Regardless if I had to make corrections or not. You should be okay in that area.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2010 03:10PM by prettygul1.

Cetti. Please pass me my shovel. Its starting to get deep in here...:p

I've got my bulldozer idling outside and waiting for instruction as to which pile to move first. Seems to me a two-legged manure spreader is working overtime.


"experienced shoppers who have interacted with our company have not reported a negative experience." How about experienced shoppers who HAVE had negative experiences but just haven't fueled the fire so far. I would think that 16 years of mystery shopping have taught me a few things. There are companies with whom I have severed ties because the experience was nothing but dreadful, perhaps I didn't leap into the fray before now but it doesn't mean that a certain company is lily pure---far from it.

Sorry Cettie, I don't know who you are. If you feel our company has wronged you in some way, I am happy to discuss it on this forum, via PM or you can contact me directly at dave@sentrymarketing.com.

Come on Dave, Do you REALLY want us to bring up the post from experienced shopper about your company that was posted between Feb and April 2009? You turned so many of us off that we totally ignore you now, but if you want, I'm sure several of us would be willing to pull up a few of the "experienced shoppers"post.

OK, I'm a newb and this is my first post so I completely understand if some of you ignore me. I felt compelled to share my experience with SMG however for anyone who IS interested.

I did a restaurant shop for them in July. Before the submission deadline was even close, I received an email from them. I am including part of it as I know I have not built up any credibility here yet.

date Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 2:25 PM
subject Overdue - Casual Dining In Restaurant Evaluation

Dear Shopper,

You were scheduled to complete an assignment at xxxxxx yesterday.
Please reply to this note to confirm that you completed the assignment.

As a reminder, reports are due by 10PM Central Time the day after the
scheduled assignment date.

Notice it is titled Overdue but also clearly shows that it came in at 2:25pm, that I performed the shop "yesterday" and that it is due by 10pm the day AFTER the shop. That clearly means it is NOT overdue.

I wrote back and asked why I received a notice saying it was overdue when it clearly wasn't... I received no response. I finished up and submitted my report.

The following day, I had the report returned to me for additional detail. I do not mind providing useful information but one example of what was wanted was "Also, although the beverages were the same you need to add some differentiation to the description". Both my companion and I had ordered fountain drink Cokes. I'm really at a loss for why two different descriptions were needed for the same drink. How many different ways can you say the drinks we calibrated properly, served with appropriate carbonation/syrup ratio and looked and tasted as I expected a Coke to look and taste? I provided the additional details requested and resubmitted.

The next day I received my rating, 4 out of 6, along with notification that my fee was being reduced because my report was 2 days late. I also received this lovely bit of math:
Assignment Bonus Fee 0
Purchase Reimbursement Amount 35
Deduction for late report -3
Deduction for report content 0
Total Shopper Payment 35

I noticed that not only did it not mention the $5 shoppers fee, and there was no deduction for report content (wouldn't that mean they were satisfied with the report itself but still gave it a 4 out of 6?) but their math was obviously wrong. $35-$3=$35?? Huh? I tried to contact them to discuss the situation but was only able to access a phone tree runaround nightmare. Even if they were going to deduct $3, I still should have been paid $37 ($35 reimb + $5 shoppers fee - $3 late penalty) and I wanted to make sure I was paid properly. I was never able to contact anyone with SMG.

At this time I received an email asking me Like then on Facebook so I thought I would go see what others had to say. I checked out their page and found several other people with problems with the company. I Liked them just long enough to leave my unhappy opinion and then Unliked them again and I said I was doing just that. I have never tried to be covert in my opinion, good or bad, of a company I work for. I figured it was not worth the hassle over a $2 discrepancy and I was just going to drop it from there.

Yesterday, I received an email from a scheduler asking me if I'd like to do a couple of phone shops this week. I accepted them, honestly without even realizing it was SMG (my mistake and I own it), and was fully prepared to do those shops. Then tonight, my post on their Facebook page was briefly Liked by David. I didn't know who he was at the time so I went to check it out. When I went to their page, I found that ALL the posts from their "friends" had been deleted including mine and the page is now only their own posts. Immediately after, my shops were withdrawn and my account blocked from signing into the scheduling system. I was still able to open a ticket which I did regarding the discrepancy of the previous shop. I figured if they wanted to reopen this can of worms with me then I wanted what I was owed.

I opened a ticket questioning the deduction and rather shortly later received an email from David saying the deduction was an error on a schedulers behalf and I would receive my full payment. He did not address why my shops had been withdrawn nor why my account was deactivated. Immediately after that, I was not even able to log onto the site to check my previous shops. That's when I went searching and found this site.

I know this is long winded but hey, SMG likes detailed narratives right? This is only my experience but by deleting the posts from their Facebook page and by the responses I've seen from David here, it appears they want very much to silence people with negative experiences. I, personally, do not recommend them. I do not feel they behave professionally. That is just my opinion based on my experience though. I have only had one experience with them on which to judge and now because of them deleting my account I will always be left with this negative opinion of that company.

All that being said, I am active with over 15 other MSC's and have an near perfect rating overall with every other one. I have had many good experiences doing this and would be happy to provide info on companies I have enjoyed working for. No other company has been an issue for me.

Good luck to the other newbies out there. It's fun and a great way to make some extra money. To you veterans, now that I've found this forum I look forward to learning from you all and the voices of experience you have to share.

I would just say to anyone with questions about this company, do some research, check out what others have to say about them good and bad and then go with your gut.

Have a great day and happy shopping! :-)

The posts were deleted because our Facebook page is not an appropriate place for our shoppers to request assistance. We did not want other shoppers to post requests for assistance because it would result in a delay in getting their issues addressed.

The "overdue" message that this shopper received is an automated reminder that is sent to every shopper to simply remind them of the due date so that their shop is not late. We have never received a complaint about sending these and several shoppers have expressed appreciation.

The shop was designated as overdue due to an error on the part of our staff. We corrected the issue as soon as it was brought to our attention and thanked the shopper for letting us know about it.

We have a dedicated message on our phone system that asks shoppers to submit a support ticket if they have any question about a shopper payment. We use a ticketing system so that shoppers are able to track all of the activity related to a request for assistance rather then sending an email or leaving a voice mail which may get lost in the shuffle.

It is always a concern to our team if a shopper is unhappy with us but the reality is that not all shoppers are going to care for our processes and procedures. It's unfortunate that we were not able to meet this shopper's expectations. In the same way that shoppers are free to chose who they shop for, we certainly don't want to continue to offer assignments to a shopper who does not care for our company.

We complete hundreds of shops per month and in more than 99% of them are completed without issue. The vast majority of our shoppers are able to follow our processes, navigate our phone system and submit any questions they have through the appropriate channels. We try to address any concerns within 48 hours. Right now, we are not meeting that standard 100% of the time, but we are working on it.

As an aside, in June and July, we are experienced a record low number of assignments not being completed as scheduled, shops not being returned from revision and shop being completed outside of the guidelines. We are really excited about this trend and appreciate the reliable, professional shoppers who complete assignments for us each month. Thanks!

Dave Agius, Owner
The Sentry Marketing Group
dave@sentrymarketing.com

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2010 01:07PM by Sentry Marketing.

Rest assured Zackay, you have encountered situation normal. Fortunately not all companies are like that, nor are their owners quite of the same caliber as Dave.


Now if you would be so kind as to help me attach the manure spreader to the back of my tractor I'll be all set.

Cettie,

I am sorry that you don't care for me or my company. The truth is, I don't know who you are, if you are one of our shoppers or if you have ever completed an assignment for us.

If you have an unresolved issue, I would be more than happy to address it via PM, email (dave@sentrymarketing.com) or on this forum. Otherwise, there is no way for me to address the ongoing animosity that you clearly have toward us.

Dave Agius, Owner
The Sentry Marketing Group
dave@sentrymarketing.com

Cettie,

Tee-hee. ;-)

Thank you for the response. I'm sorry to have discovered that so many people have this problem with them and the owner seems to care more about "defending" his company than about correcting the obvious problems that exist there. I guess though that it's his company to run how he sees fit though for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would WANT their company run like this.

Oh well, C'est la vie.

Zackay

Wouldn't a simple solution to the "Overdue" notice be to alter it to read "Approaching / Past Deadline" or something to that effect?

lame,

That is a good suggestion. I actually was unaware that the subject of the note had word "overdue" in it because on our side of the interface the subject is "Reply Required: Assignment Completion Confirmation".

We are going to do some testing and see if we can find a way of fixing it.

Now where did I park my bulldozer?

Hey Zackay;
Consider yourself lucky. I felt the problem revolved around Sentry trying to save a buck at my expense, so I don't shop for them anymore. The sad thing is most of the problems can be fixed if communication were open. You had the same trouble as I did. You communicated by facebook. I used this forum.

Problems should be handled by email or internally, but no one answers but Dave and he's busy at the forums. I too work with a lot of companies and some, intelli-shop and Bestmark have given me nothing but top marks. I've never gotten lower than a 9 on the sassie scale from any of the 40 companies I have linked to jobslinger, so I know I'm not the one in the wrong, but I'm not going into the whole mess with Sentry. It's over.
Terry

This person is not affiliated Sentry Marketing Group in any way. Please delete their post.

brucecaine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My goal here is not to pick a fight or create hard
> feelings. This is a public forum and comments made
> here can impact a MSC's business. All we're
> looking for is fair shake and for shoppers to give
> the same measure of respect that they expect.