also by reading Linkedin profile of late owner of NSS I do not believe he spent a lot of time managing NSS: he had a few wine making businesses as well.

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I JUST get an email from Katy Gravatt of Superior Customer Solutions.(888) 928-5868. I am offered to do my usual restaurant (not PJ) and was in an uproar. Emailed her back telling her what shoppers are going through, and I wouldn't do more work when they owe me from March.

My mistake as I hadn't heard the whole story. Katy Gravatt owes above company and just got the account and is scheduling for herself for June. Apologies for jumping the gun.....

IMHO, you have nothing to apologize for. Katy worked with Matt at NSS as his Director of Operations right up until his death. Given her title at NSS, it would be unbelievable if she didn't know that shoppers are due money from NSS. Good to know before you sign up with her that she is willing to mislead shoppers. She and her company are on my 10-mile pole list.

@sandyf wrote:

If Matt died in March which is what the posts here seem to indicate then Katy left a month prior. The timing does seem coincidental or suspicious. Of course we do not seem to know the cause of death or if it was in fact sudden. I have assumed it was sudden since he was youngish. We should not assume anything. Had he already been ill in February? We might find out sometime in the future. I have worked for many companies in my day and even those currently working for the companies cannot take it upon themselves to make statements to the public. People who have left the company generally have some sort of agreement which is similar when they are in positions of authority. Someone who was in a position like Katy can certainly make suggestions to whoever is the appointed or will be the appointed person but I doubt she is or wants to be in the position of making public statements without the authority to do so.
Perhaps we can contact someone who likes to tweet and get them to look into this and tell the world. lol

Matt died sometime in February. On February 28, J. M. Smoot made a Facebook post that noted that Matt had died and announced a memorial for him on March 4. There was no indication what day Matt died .

"Sip
February 28 ·
Sip Wine Bar & Music Lounge in Old Town Auburn is saddened to announce the sudden passing of Sip's owner, and Amour Privé winemaker, Matt Wozniak.

Please join Matt's friends and family for a celebration of his life. We'll be showing photos of Matt from his life and adventures and Matt's own artwork will also be on display.

We will be remembering Matt this Saturday, March 4 between 5pm and 9pm.

Sip is located at 337 Commercial St. in Old Town Auburn."

Here's the link for the post I quoted: [www.facebook.com]

I really think all Katy would be able to do is say that Matt did die and she cannot respond to questions about NSS. If I were in her position I would definitely not want to be making ANY statements about NSS and payment issues.

I totally agree. Now that she is no longer employed with NSS, she definitely has nothing to do with NSS payment issues and she can no longer speak for NSS. I am curious what day she ended her employment with NSS. And I find it interesting that she apparently ended her employment with NSS very close to the date of Matt's death and she appears to have taken NSS clients to her own company.

Intell was posting their shops here before Katy started doing the other, smaller pizza company. How did they pick up the larger account? Did someone from NSS go to Intell?

Just to clarify. I have worked for many small companies. In every case I knew the family of the owner. My suggestion was not that she act on her own as an official company representative. Still assuming his family is not involved in this business, what is the likelihood they know there is a 12 page thread filled with shoppers not knowing if they will ever be paid or how long it might take? OTOH, Katy is in a unique position to possibly speak with a family member.

@LisaSTL wrote:

So why did Irene chew out Katy for delayed payments from NSS?

She worked for them (NSS) and I thought she still did..did NOT know she had her own Company, and got the account. LisaSTL katy is in no position, she no longer works for them, and is carrying on..she emailed me the job, not looking back, but does feel for everyone that got stiffed. I mearlly mentioned the problem thinking she still worked for them. She will not talk about NSS payment problem and shouldn't as she no longer works there. We got it cleared up and I am thinking of doing the job for her company, not registered with her, still indecisive.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2017 01:33AM by Irene_L.A..

I just looked back at the posts that Irene made and I see no mention by Irene that she was rebuffed by Katy. It says she signed up with Katy's company after she found out about it and suggested to Katy that she let the rest of us shoppers know something about what is going on with NSS before she knew Katy was not with NSS in the job offer she had gotten. Irene apologized for "jumping the gun" before she knew Katy's job offer was not from NSS. Perhaps I missed some of Irene's posts. I myself have worked for Katy going back a few years. Looking at her website today it looks like she has only one client that was with NSS at the moment. In my area NSS only had a few clients to begin with anyway so perhaps she has more in other parts of the country. She herself is a very small operation and it was a one man (woman) show until less than a year ago when she actually got a website. Before that everything was by email. I believe she is still small but perhaps has the opportunity to grow with the demise of NSS if she wants to get bigger.
Since Katy is not involved with NSS now and from what I gather in the posts here is not a family member I do not think boycotting her company will help anyone except her other shoppers who will have less competition for her jobs. Yes, she can put in a word for us and she is aware of this thread. Whether she is monitoring it or not I have no idea. But like my feelings about NSS while I worked for them she seems to be just as caring, above board and concerned for their shoppers as they (the employees and seemingly the company philosophy) were before this all happened. .

I agree that Katy cannot speak officially for NSS, but she could be more forthcoming. She knows what happened because she was working for NSS when Matt died. She is a 14 year veteran in this field, so she knows the situation shoppers are in. It's been been over 3 months since Matt passed away. Surely, more is known than what is on the forum.

I'm not sure she is using NSS' database of shopper info. I haven't gotten anything from her company. Maybe Irene signed up with Superior directly? It's listed on the forum's official list of MSCs.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

She knows what happened because she was working for NSS when Matt died.

We don't know that. The first post stating Matt passed away was on the 28th and the memorial was on the 4th. I can't imagine that he could have passed away more than a few days prior. Maybe the 25th at the earliest. Katy's LinkedIn says she left in Feb. That would be 24 days she could have left prior to his death and still be a true statement.

Also, many times it's days, weeks, or sometimes months, before people update those things. I think mine still has my last employer on it. My end date was 12/31/2010.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I JUST get an email from Katy Gravatt of Superior Customer Solutions.(888) 928-5868. I am offered to do my usual restaurant (not PJ) and was in an uproar. Emailed her back telling her what shoppers are going through, and I wouldn't do more work when they owe me from March.

My mistake as I hadn't heard the whole story. Katy Gravatt owns above company and just got the account and is scheduling for herself for June. I was (at first) under the impression she was assigning for NSS as I've never worked or heard of her company, where did she get my name? .

IMHO, you have nothing to apologize for. Katy worked with Matt at NSS as his Director of Operations right up until his death. Given her title at NSS, it would be unbelievable if she didn't know that shoppers are due money from NSS. Good to know before you sign up with her that she is willing to mislead shoppers. She and her company are on my 10-mile pole list.

You know, it is interesting that the last time NSS made news on the forum was February 17 when some checks sent to some shoppers bounced.
[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

It appeared that the NSS NSF check issue was resolved satisfactorily, with shoppers being paid by PayPal and any fees they incurred because of the NSF being refunded to the shoppers. Britney Eason was responding on this forum to that thread. Might Matt have died on or around February 17? That might be a reason for the bank to stop honoring checks drawn on the account and for NSS to begin using PayPal instead of checks.

A later thread was started about NSS lack of payment, and Britney Eason responded on that thread - ON MARCH 28, about a month after Matt died. She promised payment via PayPal for January shops would be made not later than 3/31 for January shops but made no mention of Matt's death.

[www.mysteryshopforum.com]

Interesting.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

I agree that Katy cannot speak officially for NSS, but she could be more forthcoming. She knows what happened because she was working for NSS when Matt died. She is a 14 year veteran in this field, so she knows the situation shoppers are in. It's been been over 3 months since Matt passed away. Surely, more is known than what is on the forum.

I'm not sure she is using NSS' database of shopper info. I haven't gotten anything from her company. Maybe Irene signed up with Superior directly? It's listed on the forum's official list of MSCs.

I had done shops for Kate for many years so I was in her database. However, in early March I received an email that it said I was recommended to her by NSS Therefore, I was sent the email because I was in the nss database and had done these shops before. Other shoppers who had done assignments for that client also received the same email. That means that Kate, or someone else on her behalf, accessed the nss database after Matt's death. More emails came in the following weeks from Kate's email about other shops that were also used to be shopped by NSS.

BTW, the account for the cosmetics company that has multiple brands showed up in an international MS in April.

I believe she knew excatly when Matt passed, and quit maybe being afraid she would no longer get paid...(speculating). She knew a lot when I spoke with her, but wouldn't discuss the owned pay., but knew. People were being let go a couple months before, my scheduler changed like my hair color. My guess is Matt was sick before passing and the company was preparing to close. Opportunity arise and she grabbed it......

Does anyone know what's going on with the wine shops? The stores are owned by the State and run by the liquor control board. The contract goes out for bids like any other government contract. I guess at some point it will go out for bids again. Another MSC had the contract for a few months last year and was horrible, and it went back to NSS.

Britney Eason was also Director of Operations at NSS until May 2017..another strange move

I was contacted several years ago by Katy and asked to do some work for her which is how I originally found out about her company. At the time she told me that NSS had referred me as one of their reliable etc shoppers.
I believe at that time she was handpicking people to contact based on location near her jobs, personal fit and background and ratings etc. She may be doing the same again. I have not gotten a blast email from her inviting me to join her company. If she was just using the mailing list straight out from NSS I would think the emails would go to everyone but evidently they have not. I have only seen Irene and maybe a handful of people who have heard from her company. This is the same thing that happens to me periodically when I receive an email from some scheduler or ISS or somewhere like that telling me they have referred me to another company. This sort of thing seems to happen frequently for shoppers who fit the profile of what the pursuing company is looking for.

@sandyf wrote:

I was contacted several years ago by Katy and asked to do some work for her which is how I originally found out about her company. At the time she told me that NSS had referred me as one of their reliable etc shoppers.
I believe at that time she was handpicking people to contact based on location near her jobs, personal fit and background and ratings etc. She may be doing the same again. I have not gotten a blast email from her inviting me to join her company. If she was just using the mailing list straight out from NSS I would think the emails would go to everyone but evidently they have not. I have only seen Irene and maybe a handful of people who have heard from her company. This is the same thing that happens to me periodically when I receive an email from some scheduler or ISS or somewhere like that telling me they have referred me to another company. This sort of thing seems to happen frequently for shoppers who fit the profile of what the pursuing company is looking for.

Sandy..she now has our restaurant on her board at self assign,so you know she has hand picked her shoppers.
funny it was me, but since they have that restaurant in my town as well as yours, it makes sense we were both picked.

@gene wrote:

Britney Eason was also Director of Operations at NSS until May 2017..another strange move

Starting in June 2017, Britney Eason is now a Client Manager at Intouch Insight.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

I JUST get an email from Katy Gravatt of Superior Customer Solutions.(888) 928-5868. I am offered to do my usual restaurant (not PJ) and was in an uproar. Emailed her back telling her what shoppers are going through, and I wouldn't do more work when they owe me from March.

My mistake as I hadn't heard the whole story. Katy Gravatt owes above company and just got the account and is scheduling for herself for June. I was under the impression she still worked for NSS.
edited to take apology out.
/quote]

IMHO, you have nothing to apologize for. Katy worked with Matt at NSS as his Director of Operations right up until his death. Given her title at NSS, it would be unbelievable if she didn't know that shoppers are due money from NSS. Good to know before you sign up with her that she is willing to mislead shoppers. She and her company are on my 10-mile pole list.

Live consciously....

@Irene_L.A. wrote:

@sandyf wrote:

Sandy..she now has our restaurant on her board at self assign,so you know she has hand picked her shoppers.
funny it was me, but since they have that restaurant in my town as well as yours, it makes sense we were both picked.

She did not just pick shoppers but she, or someone else on her behalf, accessed the nss database AFTER Matt's death and notified shoppers who had done specific nss shops about the availability of those specific shops but this time being done by her company. As I said, even though I had been doing shops for her company for years, I received two different email blasts that said I was referred to her by NSS, and she was notifying me about the availability of that shop. It looks that Kate got clients that NSS used to do and then accessed the nss database to see who has done those shops before for nss and then sent them an email. Since this was done after Matt's death, was the estate aware of that? Is not she stealing proprietary information? (If I remember, someone had tried to do something similar with the KSS database after they had set up their own scheduling company.)

If someone is using the database from NSS/taking old shoppers/getting recommendations from them I would personally stay away regardless of where they are. It was a scummy thing to do for them to keep giving us shops without payment, and then they take the whole database? Can I open up my own MSC, scam all the shoppers, then move to a new company and use my old database? Regardless if it's not your fault it just doesn't feel morally right to me. I'm staying away from the old schedulers/old people from NSS unless I get paid. I don't want to be associated with them even if they are no longer associated with NSS. I understand that the owner passed away but it is not normal for an entire company to stop and shut down, not even having the decency to email shoppers or stop assigning them shops. 1000000000 foot pole.

I think it is unwise, not to mention a waste of time and brain cells, to make assumptions or allegations until an executor/administrator of Matt's estate is approved by the court at the end of the month. Once that occurs, questions and pay claims can be legally addressed. Right now, their hands are pretty much tied by California probate laws. The estate and the estate's attorney are now well aware of the issues that need to be addressed concerning unpaid Independent Contractors for NSS.

It's going to come down to whether or not NSS is considered an asset of the estate. For now, certified letters to the NSS corporate address asking for the contact information for NSS's legal representative might be in order...if only to cover all bases.

The company's mail has to be being forwarded somewhere.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/10/2017 05:15PM by Inside Evaluators.

This is actually not the first time NSS shopper data was shared with Superior Customer Solutions. In August of 2013, Katy sent out communications to NSS shoppers introducing herself and saying she was referred by NSS and had gotten shopper information from NSS. At that time, she was still Director of Operations for NSS, and Matt was still very much alive and in charge of NSS. That was reported by forum members here who received the communication: [www.mysteryshopforum.com] Katy remained Director with NSS until February 2017.

I may be completely wrong about the sequence of events since I don't know the date or circumstances of Matt Wozniak's death. On February 28, Facebook announced a memorial party at Sip, Matt's wine bar, which closed shortly after that. This was not Matt's funeral, which likely had already taken place before February 28. I now believe he died in mid-February. I think it was sudden and shocking to his family and employees. I think the NSS employees continued business as usual, believing company operations could continue without Matt. I think his death caused the bank to return some shopper checks in February, and NSS employees replaced those checks by paying shoppers with PayPal rather than issuing replacement checks. I think after that happened, the bank account was frozen and NSS believed they could just make payment by PayPal. But, with the bank account frozen, not enough funds were available. At some point, there was probably not enough funding to continue to make payroll, which would be Game Over.

I don't think this was a deliberate case of knowing NSS was sinking and trying to get every dime from every shop, knowing shoppers were not going to be paid, although I'm sure the employees tried very hard to make payroll. There are payday laws in most states that would protect direct employees and ensure that they be paid if funds existed. I think this was a case of the sudden death of the owner and his employees believing they could keep business as usual and finding out they couldn't. Unfortunately, payday laws do not protect ICs.

I'm not saying the employees deserve a medal or that shoppers should not be outraged and confused. There was a lot of secrecy surrounding this. It is particularly odd that Britney Eason, NSS Director of Operations, who remained with NSS until May 2017 and moved, as of June 2017, to Intouch Insight, did not announce Matt's death, which would seem to be normal operations. Britney acted as spokesperson on this forum during the time that reports of returned checks and nonpayment were made, AFTER Matt's death. Britney's last post was 3/28, promising January payments would be made via PayPal by 3/31. It does not sound as though that 3/31 payment was made. Can anyone confirm? Although she did not post again, Britney last logged into the forum on 4/24.

I got with PayPal January payments on 3/30 and February payments on 4/28

@KateH wrote:

@ChrisCooper wrote:

I agree that Katy cannot speak officially for NSS, but she could be more forthcoming. She knows what happened because she was working for NSS when Matt died. She is a 14 year veteran in this field, so she knows the situation shoppers are in. It's been been over 3 months since Matt passed away. Surely, more is known than what is on the forum.

I'm not sure she is using NSS' database of shopper info. I haven't gotten anything from her company. Maybe Irene signed up with Superior directly? It's listed on the forum's official list of MSCs.

I had done shops for Kate for many years so I was in her database. However, in early March I received an email that it said I was recommended to her by NSS Therefore, I was sent the email because I was in the nss database and had done these shops before. Other shoppers who had done assignments for that client also received the same email. That means that Kate, or someone else on her behalf, accessed the nss database after Matt's death. More emails came in the following weeks from Kate's email about other shops that were also used to be shopped by NSS.

BTW, the account for the cosmetics company that has multiple brands showed up in an international MS in April.

NO, I never signed with her, and still have not registered with her company..she came to me.as I did NSS's restaurant for years, and she got my name from them knowing I was a reliable shopper.

Well that's the whole point. The shopper database is an asset. Even if Matt had given permission for anyone to use it while he was alive, upon his death only the heirs and the estate can give permission since that asset can be sold.

I'm not sure why anyone would refuse to work for Katy. There are lots of MSCs that I sign up with that ask if they have my permission to give my info to them. And I have also, if I remember correctly, signed in as a shopper on the MSPA site where any MSC could get my contact info. I would gladly take a shop with Katy but unfortunately the account she got does not pay the kind of bonus that I was getting for the larger pizza chain. If she has a shop here locally, and offeres the right price, I'd take it.
I say this because none of us know what has transpired behind the scenes and I really do not think Katy did anything nefarious (like steal names from the database). I have a feeling her hands are tied at this point.
I do think the attorneys or the family should have made a statement of some sort and had it sent to the database folks explaining what was happening and if we were going to get paid or not get paid. I do know from losing a loved one close to me, that the brain does not always function well when you are dealing with grief.
Guess what I'm saying is let's give the family and Katy a little slack.

Sorry plmctt. Slack has been given. I was allowed to accumulate hundreds in expenses during the 'slack' period from March to June. If I were out fees, I might be generous. This is out-of-my-pocket money and I want it back. NSS has pocketed that three-month's worth of my money. No one has heard a word, no one is talking. We have every right to be pi$$ed off and angry.