I haven't received payment from a shop that was done in August, where payment was due in early October. I've filled out the inquiries online, which state that I should get a call back from someone within 30 minutes, but I've heard nothing all week. Today, I tried to call the only number they have listed, and the number is out of service. Anyone know if Inside Evaluators shut down?

Isn't Inside Evaluators with Clientsmart.com?

So I did a little searching. It looks like if you go to the InsideEvaluators website it provides you with a shopper Payment Inquiry. That may be your start.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2016 01:12AM by sojo917.

Sojo the OP wrote that they filled out the inquiries online.

They are still posting shops, but I think they lost one of their clients, and they are behind on a small payment to me.

The shopper contact/payment inquiry page states that you will get a response with 12 hours, so I'm guessing the OP may have not been using that inquiry. If it was a prospective client inquiry, the request may have been disregarded.

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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 07:34PM by Inside Evaluators.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2017 05:34PM by Inside Evaluators.

@Inside Evaluators wrote:

SteveSoCal - I'm looking into your payment now.

Thanks Joan,

I figured it was a glitch since I received the bonus payment from you quickly.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 07:35PM by Inside Evaluators.

Thanks Joan. I'll be awaiting the the response. Is there a valid number or email to contact if I don't hear back in another day or so? Like I've said earlier, I've already filled out the online payment inquiry form, twice, with no luck, even though the first email response says someone would get back in 30 minutes and the form response says someone would get back in 12 hours.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2016 11:24PM by ChicagoShopper.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2017 05:35PM by Inside Evaluators.

I just received the following e-mail from Gary Tripp at Inside Evaluators Brand.

email removed at the request of the MSC as it violates the ICA the poster has with the MSC

ClientSmart does not handle shopper payments nor does our software feed into PayPal. It is a manually process done by each MSP when they are ready to pay shoppers.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2016 04:43PM by kimberlyp.

@kimberlyp wrote:

Please reach out to me if you have received the email from Gary Tripp at Inside Evaluator that was copied in this thread. I'm very interested in speaking with you. Please email me at kimberly@clientsmart.com. I have additional information to share with you.

Kimberly,

I gotta say that I find it relatively unprofessional to goad shoppers into contacting you privately if you have an issue with your client. It's hard for me to imagine anything that could be discussed which would somehow not be in volition of an existing agreement, unless you are planning to reimburse shoppers for payments that have gone missing.

If there is an issue or lack of issue with your software that relates to this problem, feel free to state your case here, but please be respectful of the agreement that we have to the mystery shopping company.

We are exiting the discussion.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2016 04:44PM by kimberlyp.

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Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 07:36PM by Inside Evaluators.

@kimberlyp wrote:

There are ZERO glitches with ClientSmart and processing shopper payments. The software does NOT process payments to shoppers. The licensee pulls a report and processes the payments through Paypal.

Clearly, there is a glitch somewhere, and what you said above seems a bit contradictory. The software might not directly process a payment to a shopper but you agreed that it's involved in the process of getting shoppers paid.

Your stance seems to be that your software correctly generated the report and IE has simply elected to not pay shoppers, and has apparently elected not to pay your company as well. The issue that then comes into play that IE might not be able to get shoppers paid until the two of you resolve your differences, and they may need the software to generate this list of payments.

You brought the discussion public when you posted for shoppers to contact you. I'm sure you can see the conflict of interest there. We shoppers contract with the MSC and it's not really our issue or business what goes on behind the scenes for us to get paid. We simply need to be paid.

That said, as someone who once made their living as a programmer, I don't think there's a piece of commercially available software out there that is without any glitches. I have used your software extensively with another MSC and can promise you it has glitches. One in particular that makes me hate using it, so I have to admit that makes me a bit biased against your company.

How about you guys work together to get everything functioning and get the shoppers paid, act like professionals stop bickering on a public forum? As much as I despise that from shoppers, I find it even less tolerable from people who claim to be professionals. Jeez...

?

Food for thought. I have 20 years application programming experience. My initial thought, after reading the email, was that the problem appears to be with the referenced payment reporting system. Either there was a change in the format of the feed from ClientSmart, or with the format PayPal expects; or the payment reporting system software was changed.

The letter states a software error was identified. All someone has to do is clarify what process contains the error. I believe it is unlikely that IEB has access to the CS code so it makes sense the error is in their code pushing the data to PayPal and eventually receiving confirmations.

We are no longer participating in these discussions. We will handle things on our end.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2016 04:45PM by kimberlyp.

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 07:36PM by Inside Evaluators.

So does that mean that even though I alerted IE about this missed payment over a month ago, I'm not going to get paid, or at least not anytime soon? Gary and Joan also didn't reply to my latest email sent over a week ago to tell me the status. What a bummer.

I hope this gets sorted out. This sounds like it runs deeper than any glitch. I hope all the shoppers get paid.

Wow. what a difference ~~30 days make

Synopsis as I understand it:
-IE has been a reputable company in the past with good communication
-IE recently missed many shopper payments, suggests software may be an issue
-Software developer comes to forum, denies any issue with software functionality in relation to shoppers getting paid.
-IE claims it cannot get to the bottom of payment issues without software access.

In the end, IE is apparently not happy with the software performance and has not kept their account current. Clientsmart has apparently cut off access to software. This is an issue that should be kept between the two businesses to work out. However, the issue at hand appears to be that IE cannot move forward with any reasonable assurance and expediency in getting shoppers paid without access to said software platform. Normally I would stay out of the discussion since this is a business-to-business issue that should not involve shoppers, but sadly I am one of the shoppers that is due money.

Now, I'm not expecting Clientsmart to make getting shoppers paid a priority. They are in the business of selling and operating a MS platform. Kimberly claims to be simply defending the platform, which is understandable. It also appears that Clientsmart is utilizing shopper ire to bolster their position, though. If they were to generate the reports for IE needed to get shoppers paid, their own ability to collect missing payments would be hindered.....so we have a stalemate.

Now here's the reality; In the end, it simply makes both parties look bad. Shoppers have no confidence in taking shops from IE. Shoppers also have less interest in working with Clientsmart. Though we are not directly responsible for the software platform a MSC uses, we do make the decision to work with a MSC sometimes based on the reporting platform. That appears to be the basis of why Kimberly defends the software on a shopper forum. It's important for Clientsmart that shoppers want to use the software.

I have no idea how much $$ is due to Clientsmart by IE and it's none of my business, but I will repeat what I said above to @kimberlyp & @Inside Evaluators; Please do your best to work out business issues professionally, quickly and preferably in private!

It will not break me if I never receive my payment, but I also have a reputation to maintain. I wrangled my payments out of Freeman, Restaurant Evaluators and all of the MSCs that went belly up and screwed shoppers. I have never been stiffed on a payment and I don't intend to make this a first. I promise the commotion I and other shoppers will raise in the name of getting paid will hurt both of your businesses to a degree far greater than whatever is due. There's your incentive to work it out peacefully and ASAP! You brought this fight to a shopper forum and now you get to deal with a group of pissed off and unpaid shoppers. Split the difference on the billing and do whatever you have to to get us all working and back in business or this will go poorly for everyone. None of us win when a MSC folds, a software platform dies and shoppers do not get paid!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 07:37PM by Inside Evaluators.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2017 08:13PM by Inside Evaluators.

:-)

@SteveSoCal

I want to point out, unless of course you claim to have inside information, your synopsis is based on multiple assumptions. Assumptions revolve around: why the account is in default; who is responsible for the interface with PayPal; how the results from PayPal are audited and/or utilized.

My point is, nothing discussed here clearly discloses the reason for why IE was never aware of payments that were rejected or otherwise sent to a non active PayPal account so never claimed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2016 08:22PM by isaiah58.

@isaiah58 wrote:

@SteveSoCal

I want to point out, unless of course you claim to have inside information, your synopsis is based on multiple assumptions. Assumptions revolve around: why the account is in default; who is responsible for the interface with PayPal; how the results from PayPal are audited and/or utilized.

My point is, nothing discussed here clearly discloses the reason for why IE was never aware of payments that were rejected or otherwise sent to a non active PayPal account so never claimed.

@isaiah58

I would like to also point out that even though IE WAS made aware of the nonpayment to an ACTIVE paypal account, they had plenty of time to rectify it, but they failed to do so.

Thank you ISAIAH58 and ChicagoShopper. That is all.