Ath Power?

I've seen some good feedback on them that's older but it seems like there is quite a bit of negative feedback recently. They seem to have some excellent paying bank shops listed on jobslinger that makes me want to try them but some of the payment issues I've read about them concerns me. I would very much appreciate your feedback on working with them, both good and bad.

Also, has anyone used GroundCTRL recently? I DL'd it but can't log in, even after registering with that impact place.

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I LOVE them, I do tons of jobs for them and they are both easy to deal with and great payers. I have had to reschedule due to a sick child, and one other thing and they could not have been nicer and kinder about it. They are really great, have some good shops and they are not cheap with their fees and always always pay on time, I get it right in my bank on the very last day of the month following the shop. I can not say anything bad about them at all.
Thank you so much! That's really great feedback! I'm trying to expand the companies I work with here in the Pacific NW but want to avoid wasting my time with Intellishop and BestMark type of companies!
Tocino, I recommend that you do the shops for Intelli-Shop and BestMark. You may not have a bad experience with them.

As for ath, they seem to delay payments in March. That is a quarterly time for their big client. If the client doesn't pay them on time, they don't pay shoppers on time. Outside of that, my payments have always been prompt.

"I told myself to quit you; but I don't listen to drunks." -Chris Stapleton
They are the only MSC I do bank shops for. Straight forward and never had an issue. My payments are received 2.5 months Iater or thereabouts by check. I attempted to have them direct deposited but no one responded to my emails.
@Tocino wrote:

Thank you so much! That's really great feedback! I'm trying to expand the companies I work with here in the Pacific NW but want to avoid wasting my time with Intellishop and BestMark type of companies!

I'm in Seattle..... Ath is great... I've been fine with BestMark and Intellishop as well - though I don't always take shops at the initially offered rates.... I'm not shy about asking for bonuses, either. Sometimes I get them. Sometimes I don't.

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
I'm Portland, and have done shops for both intellishop and bestmark. Don't care for either much, but will still pick up an occasional shop from them if it looks good and the timing is right. The intellishop editors have been pretty pedantic, in my experience.
I like Ath a lot, but their rotation rules are restrictive (reulting in few shops) when the shops are mostly with one big bank client. Still, while they do pay a little later, they pay well, and have been fair with me.
@Tocino wrote:

I've seen some good feedback on them that's older but it seems like there is quite a bit of negative feedback recently. They seem to have some excellent paying bank shops listed on jobslinger that makes me want to try them but some of the payment issues I've read about them concerns me. I would very much appreciate your feedback on working with them, both good and bad.

Also, has anyone used GroundCTRL recently? I DL'd it but can't log in, even after registering with that impact place.

I've done several shops with them. Was paid for the older ones and awaiting payment on a recent one.

The surveys were EASY and the pay was HIGHER than industry norm, so I've been happy with them so far. I've only shopped for half a year, though, and have done only a handful of shops. But with those experiences, I've been pleased personally.
Make sure you read the survey before the shop, as there can be requirements/questions on them NOT listed in the guidelines.

But we should definitely do that for all shops too!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2017 07:00AM by shoptastic.
Ath has always paid out... it can be a bit slow, but I haven't had to chase them down. They have the one big bank client whom I would never personally bank with. I've opened and closed accounts, applied for credit cards and inquired about mortgages. They also occasionally have smaller clients and store financing inquiries -- these can be more interesting. Ath pays quite good, but I have other preferred MSC's for banks... if you have enough branches of the big bank where you are and don't mind coming up with excuses for going in, it's a reliable couple hundred bucks a year.
"couple hundred bucks a year..." I have to decide how often I'm willing to open and close accounts with them.... There are more $200 shops with their big client near me than I could possibly do... Some are closer to $300, if I'm up to conducting the shop in Spanish. (I've done that once and it was fine... However, though I am quite fluent, any native speaker will recognize that Spanish is not my first language after a few minutes.... Because I'm asking that I speak with a Spanish-speaker, I can't choose English as my first language.... Plus, they have a list of interpreter services a mile long, so if I were to choose something like "German" as my first language, I'd be put on the phone with a German speaker, which would be a real disaster... I'm a white guy with a very American name.... So... I opened a savings account last week as "MFJohnston the Macedonian." Thankfully, I was not asked too many details about my cover story...

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
I have had no issues with them. One complaint is that their account opening pay has gone down by around $25.

Red Lobster and Olive Garden are NOT fine dining!
I have shopped for ATH for 10 years. Great schedulers, always available, lots of work if you shop all or most of their banks. Never had a pay problem, I think once or twice it was late.
The account openings vary up and down all the time, depends on the MSC. The end of the month bonuses are great!
Responsive schedulers, fair pay, bonuses, pay on time (consistent although not as quick as some MSC'S). I would do more with them if they didn't have restrictions on the number of banks that can be done and time in between.. Other than that, one of my favorites.
ath uses bill.com for payment. contact ath for a link to set up DD via bill.com. Its easy and convenient.
@SS4U wrote:

ath uses bill.com for payment. contact ath for a link to set up DD via bill.com. Its easy and convenient.

Can you still get paid by check?
Is Ath Power one of those MSC that take FOREVER to assign shops? I requested three shops two days ago. The shops are still sitting on the board. They just update the start date each day. Or, are they one of the MSC that posts hundreds of assignments when they only need to fill five?

Shopping up and down the Colorado Rocky Mountain front range.
I'm beginning to feel like the two banking MSCs that I shop for have put me on their 10 foot pole list. My last assignment was in March even though I applied for several in April and May.
I thought that at one point with Ath... So, I sent a nice note to the scheduler for one of the shops I wanted and asked if I had done something to fall out of favor, explaining that I had not gotten any shops for a while. I got a very nice response, telling me that that was not the case- and I was assigned shops the next two times I applied.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

I'm beginning to feel like the two banking MSCs that I shop for have put me on their 10 foot pole list. My last assignment was in March even though I applied for several in April and May.

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
I couldn't find any scheduler information in order to contact them

Shopping up and down the Colorado Rocky Mountain front range.
If you are on their email list, you can respond to the person who sent the email advertising the shop.

@COMystery wrote:

I couldn't find any scheduler information in order to contact them

Hard work builds character and homework is good for your soul.
@MFJohnston wrote:

If you are on their email list, you can respond to the person who sent the email advertising the shop.

That's really good advice and I hadn't thought of it. Unfortunately, I don't recall having received an email. I think I just happened to check the board. But, I'll look through my deleted emails just in case!

Shopping up and down the Colorado Rocky Mountain front range.
Generally I like Ath Power especially their phone shops which are easy, not recorded, and don't make you ask really stupid questions. On top of that the reports are easy. But lately I've had an issue when doing one of their phone bank shops. They keep coming back to me asking to confirm the phone number I called and the name of the representative I talked with several days after I did the shop. What do they expect me to say? That I called such and such number (which was the wrong number) and that I spoke to John when in the report I said I spoke to Frank? Of course I'm only going to confirm what I said in the report. It's highly unlikely after several days that I would suddenly remember something different. One time they came back and asked me 3 weeks after I originally submitted. Does this make any sense at all????

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.
I did the shop in Spanish as required and it went pretty well, though I did have to make some minor revisions.

I would like to do more of these higher paying shops but it says you can't have shopped the location for 180 days. Do they mean the exact branch or the their big customer in general?
@Tocino wrote:

I did the shop in Spanish as required and it went pretty well, though I did have to make some minor revisions.

I would like to do more of these higher paying shops but it says you can't have shopped the location for 180 days. Do they mean the exact branch or the their big customer in general?

You'll have to double check but I think they just mean a particular location. Unless it's the kind of thing that can only be done once for a particular customer. Such as opening a specific kind of account. I've done one for one of their customers that involved opening a checking account. It specifically says that if you already have one, you can't do that shop period even if you opened it prior to doing a shop for that client. Although they also have an account opening inquiry shop that says you can't have this type of account with them when you make the inquiry. Even though if you do the inquiry at a different branch, I don't see how they could possibly know you already have an account. When I did one of those prior to opening my account, they never asked for any information that would identify me one way or the other so I don't see what difference it makes if you already have an account. Unless the client views it as an opportunity to get you as a customer so they don't want you to already have the account.

What's done is done. An egg cracked cannot be cured.
There are 3 kinds of lies. Lies, Damn lies, and statistics.
I have a feeling the ATH shops must not be as good in my neck of the woods. I have seen the same 30-40 jobs sitting on the site for days. Most are for the same place and require opening up a checking account or credit card with fees at $85-$125. Some others require yo to open a credit card, and spend $200 with no reimbursement and no returns. They only pay $250. For me personally, I don't think the fees make up for the credit dings and the hassle. It's too bad, since I hear so many good things about ATH.
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