Is contacting Papa John's a violation of IC's?

Given the recent issues regarding this long time restaurant chain and their continues commitment to mystery shopping.... Is it a violation of independent contractor agreements to reach out to them about the mess of one of their primary vendors leaving all of us high and dry? We are consumers as well and while each of the MPSA members have their lawyers and agreements to protect them, who represents us?

More to the point, now that they have redistributed that to at least two other large MSC's, which most of us also have relationships with, would such contact violate those agreements even if the issue is on a matter not directly related to them?

Many of us are casting about for who can compensate us for our hard work and the only entity with deep pockets seems to be Papa John's itself who failed to do due diligence in selecting a vendor that was not financially stable and has caused reputational harm to Papa John's by failing to fulfill the obligations to their vendors. Surely this is worth a discussion on this forum.

Big Ed
Mystery shopping in the Great Smokey & Blue Ridge Mountain ranges of Southern Appalachia (GA, NC, SC, & TN)
BigEdBSA@gmail.com

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You may want to look at the thread regarding the other MSC. You will never be able to hold the client responsible for what happened there.

Equal rights for others does not mean fewer rights for you. It's not pie.
"I prefer someone who burns the flag and then wraps themselves up in the Constitution over someone who burns the Constitution and then wraps themselves up in the flag." -Molly Ivins
Never try to teach a pig to sing. It's a waste of your time and it really annoys the pig.

It would be useless to contact the client, and yes, if you are doing shops for the other MSCs, probably a violation even though they were not connected.

Violation or not, it is the wrong thing to do and pointless. A shopper's relationship is with the MSC, not the MSC's client. It is the MSC which is liable to the shopper. The MSC's client has ZERO liability to the shopper. Contacting the client would paint the shopper as other than professional. As professionals who extend credit every day to various MSCs we know that at any moment one or more of our clients may not pay. We engage in legitimate collection efforts - e.g. letter writing, law suits, etc - but even still sometimes bad debts are worthless. That is likely the case with the MSC which has ceased operations. Had it had positive cash flow it would have remained in operation notwithstanding the owner's death. That's unfortunate, but bad debts are just one of our many costs of business.

@BigEdBSA wrote:

Many of us are casting about for who can compensate us for our hard work and the only entity with deep pockets seems to be Papa John's itself who failed to do due diligence in selecting a vendor that was not financially stable and has caused reputational harm to Papa John's by failing to fulfill the obligations to their vendors. Surely this is worth a discussion on this forum.

Big Ed I would encourage you to read the threads about the demise of the MSC you are talking about. It seems you have missed some key information about the events leading up to our current situation. If Papa John's knew ahead of time by doing "due diligence in selecting a vendor" that the owner would die I would think that they would make more money in a new business venture letting people know their date of ultimate death. I am also confused as to the reputation harm the demise of this msc has done to Papa John's. I doubt very many, if any, of their paying customers have a clue about this situation.

i havent been around past month. i know u cant say what msc since client is named. R u saying that the msc has gone out of biz? i think its ok to confirm w.out namimg names.

Yes, an owner of an MSC who had this client has passed away due to suicide and the business is no more.

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Is contacting Papa John's a violation of IC's?

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