@jlovesnyc wrote:
Sentry is a punching bag on this blog for a reason. They offer low paying shops and are slow to pay (yes dave your pay guidelines are published, the 60 day period still stinks). The reporting is cumbersome for the money paid out and the editors are looking for a reason to drop your shop. I did 2-3 shops for them last year and getting paid was a hassle. You can find shops in the $5 - $20 that pay faster easily, Sentry is not worth it. ACL has very helpful editors/schedulers and if you want comparable paying shops that pay alot quicker, just go to MF.
@isaiah58 wrote:
@alycja
There is a difference between appearance and actual consumption. I've eaten plenty of food that was excellently presented yet was not appetizing. Though I agree that Sentry should have asked you to correct the report, I am not sure tgat they are obligated. I have negatively rated their clients for presentation, both appearance and taste for food being appetizing, as well as service and cleanliness issues. They do not reject reports because of proper objective (or when asked subjective) content. And yes, I've performed a shop for them incorrectly and not been paid. I've also had a handful of shops rejected, over the years, by Market Force, A Closer Look and at least one other MSC. It has always been my fault, the MSC is then forced to reshop the client or potentially not be paid in full for providing the required observations. Rejecting our reports costs the MSC, it is not done to pacify the client.
@isaiah58 wrote:
They do have an appeal process. Dave also participates here so might ask for you to email him. Did you use the link on their website to ask for further assistance? We only have one side so far. Also, your copy of the response appears to either have grammatical errors or was edited for here; so may not fully provide everything that was sent to you.
@alycja wrote:
I second that Sentry narrative requirement is too much for the ridiculous pay they offer (aka reimburement that don't even cover the price of food they require to buy!). They take the longest to pay out of the 40 companies I am registered with and their reports take at week to be reviewed by the scheduler...
They just rejected my shop and their reasoning did not make sense, it's almost like they found a way to not pay me for my work.
I completed three shops in the same restaurant before and they were fine, the food was great. This last time, I rated their food average because it came out barely warm and the meat looked unappetizing and when I tried to eat the chicken, I had to spit out around 1/3 of the meat because they were the skin parts. Apparently, the client didn't like the "average" rating, so they rejected my report. If they don't believe the shopper's rating of the food and nly trust the photo, why ask us to write hundreds of sentences and 20 different quiz questions about the food rating?
Let's just say I will not be eating there ever again and it's a shame because their food is usually delicious!!
I'm not saying it is Sentry marketing's fault to reject my shop but they should stick up for the shopper and not let the company they work for simply reject the whole report because of ONE score (out of 30 or so) in the whole report.
I find it unacceptable and disrespectful. It is simply not paying me for the work I did. I did not miss any guidelines and I did not wrote anything that is wrong, I recorded my observations and they even admitted that there was some skin on the chicken. The food was not presented in the "excellent way", it was "average", the other possible rating to choose from. It really boggles my mind the reasoning behind the rejection! Not even a lowered rate for the job done. Clearly I am not the only one who was not paid for the work they did for Sentry!!
The email about rejection from the company.
"After review from the client, your report is being rejected. The photo you provided was compared to your comments concerning the entree item which was not appropriately rated, affecting the scoring. For instance, you rated the meat platter as Average for presentation/appearance and commented, “The meat platter did not look appetizing. The three slices of pork were not neatly organized and the pulled chicken contained lots of skin parts.” However, the photo attached to the report does not show that the pieces of pro were stacked on top of each other and were cooked properly. The chicken in the photo shows mainly chicken with very little skin visible."
@Sentry Marketing wrote:
Also, comments such as “Also, the required items cost more than your reimbursement. Please consider paying more for this assignment or not requiring to order a drink” are not acceptable in the report.
@Sentry Marketing wrote:
You did not include the entire text that our editor provided in the explanation for the rejection. The entire text is as follows:
Feedback: After review from the client, your report is being rejected. The photo you provided was compared to your comments concerning the entree item which was not appropriately rated, affecting the scoring. For instance, you rated the meat platter as Average for presentation/appearance and commented, “The meat platter did not look appetizing. The three slices of pork were not neatly organized and the pulled chicken contained lots of skin parts.” However, the photo attached to the report does not show that the pieces of pro were stacked on top of each other and were cooked properly. The chicken in the photo shows mainly chicken with very little skin visible. Also, comments such as “Also, the required items cost more than your reimbursement. Please consider paying more for this assignment or not requiring to order a drink” are not acceptable in the report.
In addition, you did not include the fact that you ordered dessert even though dessert is not required by the assignment guidelines. Including comments in your report that complain about the fee/reimbursement is not appropriate.
@alycja wrote:
Again, the company decides to not pay because they don't like the subjective answer to a subjective question. WOW. Talking about the unprofessional and shady.
Also Why the editor not raised those concerns then? If she thinks my comment about the insufficient pay is inappropriate (it was merely a kind suggestion to a MSC in the "MSC comments box" ), then they could have deleted that. Why do a poor job of editing the shop and send this info to a client by MSC?
In my opinion, the certification questions are fair... with one exception. Many of the tests I've taken ask whether a photo is required (true or false). However, if one answers "true," this is scored as incorrect. It appears many guidelines were updated sometime in February, and many now require a photo. As a new shopper who is reading the new guidelines that specifically state a photo is required, I have to answer that question as "false" otherwise I may not pass the test. Seems a little unfair to me and took extra time to figure out what was going on.@dulcew wrote:
I too am new to mystery but was dismayed by the certification process. I have a master's degree in education and have been trained in testing. Their certification tests are impossible even if you take them open book. The majority of the questions are excellent illustrations in how not to write a test question.
I also found that their evaluation was twice as hard as other similar restaurant evaluations for the same price point both food and mystery shopping pay.
They are currently on my big maybe list and if they are as slow to pay as mentioned the forum they are sinking further down.
@Sentry Marketing wrote:
Also, comments such as “Also, the required items cost more than your reimbursement. Please consider paying more for this assignment or not requiring to order a drink” are not acceptable in the report.
In addition, you did not include the fact that you ordered dessert even though dessert is not required by the assignment guidelines. Including comments in your report that complain about the fee/reimbursement is not appropriate.
@mahemj wrote:
In my opinion, the certification questions are fair... with one exception. Many of the tests I've taken ask whether a photo is required (true or false). However, if one answers "true," this is scored as incorrect. It appears many guidelines were updated sometime in February, and many now require a photo. As a new shopper who is reading the new guidelines that specifically state a photo is required, I have to answer that question as "false" otherwise I may not pass the test. Seems a little unfair to me and took extra time to figure out what was going on.@dulcew wrote:
I too am new to mystery but was dismayed by the certification process. I have a master's degree in education and have been trained in testing. Their certification tests are impossible even if you take them open book. The majority of the questions are excellent illustrations in how not to write a test question.
I also found that their evaluation was twice as hard as other similar restaurant evaluations for the same price point both food and mystery shopping pay.
They are currently on my big maybe list and if they are as slow to pay as mentioned the forum they are sinking further down.
@LisaSTL wrote:
Questions such as were there five slices of meat arranged perpendicular to each other on the right side of the plate or was the meat served with an internal temperature of 165 degrees do not allow for subjectivity. Whether something is "appetizing" or "tastes good" is subjective. IMO, it doesn't make sense to reject a shop over a subjective answer to a subjective question. If the MSC felt the photo fit the client's standards of excellence, they could easily change the answer and provide feedback to the shopper about how she needs to lower her standards and grade on a curve.