I am owed $700 and my son is owed $150. Believe me, I am just as unhappy as the rest of the unpaid shoppers are. I am simply saying that I know from experience when my husband died suddenly from an auto accident, it was like my brain was fried for a few months until I got over the initial shock. I do think the family or their attorney are remiss in not posting some notice and letting shoppers know where they stand.

they do not care so much about that company and about us.

Having in her resume work for NSS that is the red flag...I will stay away from such offers..

assuming we will get to worst case scenario and they will not pay us. Is this possible to write that down for 2017 tax return as business loss?

I just called NSS and the phone is disconnected.

If you didn't receive reimbursements you should be able to write those off along with mileage if applicable. I don't know about fees.

I am owed reimbursements (40.00) and 20.00 bonus, not worth the hassle...I enjoyed the dinners. Looks like this is our loss. Phone disconnected and no one to at least speak to us doesn't look good. I used to speak to Matt often, this year nothing, my uneducated guess is he may have been sick longer than we suspected. They had been laying off schedulers for awhile...hard to believe one just close's the door, usually someone in family knows what is going on, many layers to this. Would there be a way to freeze your inventory and shopper list to
sell to another company?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2017 09:06PM by Irene_L.A..

I have the total sum of $537.74 (for pizza shops and liquor stores) from which about the 1/2 in bonuses. By the way Sip (the bar he owned) was closed only on May 22. [www.facebook.com] and by reading further down on FB page I discovered that Sip was closed on February 18-19 due family emergency...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2017 11:07PM by gene.

Found this while surfing...........

Mystery Shopper Magazine
Written By Ceridwyn
National Shopping Service
Company Overview: One of the great things about the community on the Mystery Shop Forum is getting the heads up about issues with MSCs. In some cases, this has alerted shoppers to problems of non-payment and other business practices that are unethical.

However, sometimes warnings go up that must be taken in context. This is another reason to be a member of the forum and a subscriber to the Mystery Shopper Magazine. It’s important to get the full story, or a shopper can make hasty and uninformed judgments.

This is the case with National Shopping Service. This company has been around for a long time, starting as a small private investigation firm in 1972. This home-based business continued to grow rapidly. It was placed on the market in 1990, and a decade later its revenue had increased 20 fold.

National Shopping Service is now headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It claims a database of over 100,000 shoppers in the U.S. Types of assignments offered include: financial, jewelry, fast food, convenience stores, specialty retailers, and service businesses.

Payment is made by checks, which are mailed out on the last day of the month following the month that assignments are completed.

To sign up, visit their website at www.nationalshoppingservice.com. National Shopping Service does not use any of the standard software platforms. Some shoppers have expressed that they find the NSS system to be awkward, odd to navigate, and sometimes glitchy.

Click on “Apply To Become A Mystery Shopper”, then “Begin Mystery Shopper Registration”. After completing the general information, an activation email will be sent. Click on the link to activate your account.

To get awarded assignments, you can either call the schedulers at National Shopping Service, respond to email announcements, or search for open assignments on what is termed as the “Shopper Intranet”. As stated before, this is not the most user friendly website. It is not intuitive. It is difficult to find information about the fees for specific assignments.

Many times it is simply easier to contact a scheduler. NSS states that many clients change locations throughout the country on a monthly basis, so the schedulers will be able to tell you what is in your area.

Questions and concerns were posted on www.mysteryshopforum.com in March/April 2013 regarding checks issued by NSS that shoppers were unable to cash or deposit. Shoppers incurred NSF or returned check fees due to this issue. As forum members shared their experiences, many feared that NSS was a business on its way out.

Fortunately, this turned out to not be the case, and National Shopping Service remains a company in good standing with a majority of shoppers that are posting about it on the forum.

What happened is that some checks were forged. Wells Fargo issued a fraud alert and closed the account. To rectify the problem with its shoppers, NSS offered to reissue checks or to pay via PayPal. It also recompensed shoppers for any fees they incurred. NSS was responsive on the forum in explaining to shoppers what had happened and what they were doing about it.

Aside from that issue, shoppers report that all payments have been timely. The NSS staff is described as friendly, supportive, and easy to work with. Reports are easy, and guidelines straightforward. This company is a favorite of many shoppers.

However, lately shoppers have stated that they are seeing lowered fees and fewer clients.

Personal Experience: All of my experiences with NSS have been pleasant. Bonuses have been easily granted for rush assignments. Pay has been accurate and on time.




Let us hope that the past is repeated and we all get paid.

That article is very old..I guess year of 2015..or close.

I guess I should feel lucky to be out $40 or so. I slowed down on their shops when, about a year ago, they began rejecting shops for petty reasons that I just knew they would still get paid for. Seemed fishy to me and they would always wait to notify me about the rejection way past a time frame when there was anything I could do to resolve it. So I started doing only 1 shop every 2-3 months for them so I could make sure I would actually get paid for the last shop before agreeing to another one. Seems that was a good call since my last shop was in march and they continued to bombard me with requests until may 18 or so!

[www.bizjournals.com]

Looks like our plight has hit the media...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 12:20AM by KevinE.

Been following this thread off and on. I stopped doing shops for them regularly. The last shop I did was in 10/16 for a pizza shop that they finally paid me. I was contacted by Lacy/Lucy? in the beginning of April and then again May asking me to perform a pizza shop. It was a strange email as the instructions said to email her directly and she would schedule me. I offered to do the one in April and no response. When May's email came, I did not bother. So glad I did not!

Is there a subscriber to the bizjournals.com and willing to copy the article to the forum or at least tell us what it said?

Lacy Oubichon. Really nice gal. Not her fault. I am betting she thought that things would end up being okay and got the rug pulled out from underneath like all of us did. She was so genuine, I really don't think she would have signed us up for shops if she thought that we wouldn't get paid.

@plmccut wrote:

Is there a subscriber to the bizjournals.com and willing to copy the article to the forum or at least tell us what it said?

Do you have a link to the article? Don't have a subscription but I will subscribe.

Kevin posted a link - [www.bizjournals.com]

anyone have copy of article? the link has a PAYWALL

Judging by the other articles in the paper that we can read, I don't think there would be anything in the article that we don't already know. Most articles are about 12 sentences long. It doesn't seem to warrant the $119 cost.

Here's the article:
Independent contractors nationwide say they are owed money after the death of the CEO of a mystery shopping service based in Rocklin.

That company, National Shopping Service, has apparently shuttered its headquarters at 2510 Warren Drive. The location was closed during normal business hours last week.
The office of National Shopping Service at 2510 Warren Drive in Rocklin.
Enlarge

The office of National Shopping Service at 2510 Warren Drive in Rocklin.

Sonya Sorich | Sacramento Business Journal

Matt Wozniak, National Shopping's president and CEO for nearly 30 years, also owned two other businesses: the Amour Privé winery and Auburn wine bar Sip, according to his LinkedIn page. A Feb. 28 post on Sip's Facebook page confirms Wozniak's death.

National Shopping used independent contractors — "mystery shoppers" — to anonymously patronize businesses including restaurants and retailers and provide feedback to help them determine their strengths and weaknesses.

City records show the company's Rocklin office employed 25 people, according to a business license issued last August. A city official said National Shopping still maintains a business license that's scheduled to expire on July 31.

In recent weeks, mystery shoppers have left comments on the Facebook page for National Shopping and other online forums, saying the company owes them money.

Pamela Olmstead, president of the Independent Mystery Shoppers Coalition, estimates at least 1,000 independent contractors are affected. In general, those shoppers are individually owed $10 to more than $1,800 for jobs between February and May, according to Olmstead, who is based in Arizona.

Shoppers also report having checks from the Rocklin company returned for insufficient funds, Olmstead said.

Most the money that's apparently owed is for reimbursements — for example, for a shopper who spent his or her own money to buy food for an assignment, Olmstead said. Clients such as restaurants pay fees to National Shopping Service, which should then be used to pay shoppers, she said.

National Shopping Service began in 1972 as a private investigation firm under a different operator. Wozniak later bought the business. Its corporate office moved from Los Angeles to Northern California in 1999, according to the company's website.

National Shopping used "a network of 450,000 trained mystery shoppers around the world," according Wozniak's LinkedIn page.

In the mystery-shopping industry, it's not common for companies to shut down in a manner similar to National Shopping Service, Olmstead said. There are approximately 1 million mystery shoppers in the U.S. and about 300 mystery-shopping companies in the nation, according to Olmstead.

Phone calls to the business went to a message saying "all circuits are busy now." Meanwhile, Sip — the Auburn wine bar Wozniak owned — announced its temporary closure with a May 22 Facebook post. The business has a phone message confirming it has closed as a result of "the loss of the owner." Phone calls to Amour Privé — where Wozniak was owner and winemaker, according to his LinkedIn page — went to a voicemail message last week.

Wozniak's death was ruled a suicide, according to Dena Erwin, public information officer for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.

Wozniak's family declined to comment on the future of National Shopping Service.

Joan, thank you very much for paying for the article. That was so kind of you.

OMG! I would never have dreamed that he would have been suicidal! I read many of the comments on the Sip page and looked at his picture and was left with the opinion that he was a well balanced individual - you just never know, do you? That's truly sad!

Oh gosh how horrible.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

Joan, thank you very much for paying for the article. That was so kind of you.

Business expense....although a sad one. So horrible to read this. I can't imagine in my wildest dreams what the family is dealing with at this point.
This is going to take awhile folks.....I know this sounds callous but please document everything while you still can and send DIGNIFIED, PROFESSIONAL certified letters to both the NSS corporate address and to the estate's attorney's office.

Spencer T. Malysiak
Spencer T. Malysiak Law Corporation
3500 Douglas Blvd., Suite 200
Roseville, CA 95661



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2017 02:42AM by Inside Evaluators.

Massive heart attack, car accident or suicide were about the only things making sense for a "sudden" death leaving everything in a shambles. This is all much worse for his loved ones than a heart attack or car accident.

Lisa - I know it took me 3 months to get over the shock of an auto accident causing the death of my husband but if it had been suicide? I don't know how long it would take me. I feel so sorry for his oved ones..

Truly sorry for the family.....shocked and saddened.

Lacy was a sweetheart, always on the ball and worked with you. I always enjoyed working with her.

I loved working with Lacy, too. She was very responsive. In retrospect though, she was obviously under stress when she made my May shop assignments. She gave me my usual shops (3 per day) with only a couple days in between. I emailed her and told her I thought they were too close together and got her to give me the last day of the period. I then set them up with several days in between and had her reschedule. I would bet the employees were very, very stressed and wanted badly to tell us but could not ethically do so. I would hope that Lacy is relocated and gotten a good job. If anyone sees her showing up on another MSC, please let me know. I'd do work for her anytime!

Thank you and it sure explains a WHOLE lot!