While I agree with you, anandaw, that there is no excuse for lying to you, I think you are seeing this only from a personal standpoint (it would be hard not to!) and you are not getting that this is business. There are probably hundreds of shoppers in the same position, owed money by IE. You are looking at this from a standpoint of "I'll get my money someday, I just want to know when." They don't know when. They don't have it. And, it might be time to accept that you may not get your money ever. Companies go bankrupt every day, leaving their contractors and accounts payables unpaid. It hits home when it is mystery shoppers, because we make so little, comparatively speaking. Few companies that are facing insolvency warn their suppliers not to do business with them. They continue to do business as usual, trying to catch up. These companies block any talk of cash flow problems to keep others working with them. Sometimes the companies are able to catch up and sometimes they are not.
I think IE hasn't revised their payment schedule because they don't know what to revise it to. I think they want to pay their shoppers but I don't think they can. And they don't want to admit that they have financial problems.
That's the kiss of death. If they post on their website what I believe would be a truthful statement, "We are having major financial difficulties and we don't know when we will be able to pay you or even IF we will be able to pay you," can you imagine that anyone would be willing to take their shops? If no one takes their shops, they might as well declare bankruptcy right now. So they are continuing to do business as usual, hoping they can catch up. I wish them the best and hope they can catch up, but I think this has gone on too long and I think they are drowning.
I would not consider working for them and I'm actively advising others not to accept their assignments. I think the best thing we as shoppers can do is warn other mystery shoppers. When Freeman was nearing the end, Jacob started a warning thread that was a sticky. Should there be a WARNING - NO PAYMENT - INSIDE EVALUATORS thread? There are many shoppers who do not visit our forum, but we can at least warn those who do frequent the forum.