@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Edited to add: One could consider posting unsubstantiated negative information about a company to be bullying.

Really? If you think that's bullying, you need to put your big boy pants on.

Says the bully.

I am not the one cowering behind an anonymous online identity

@iShop123 wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Edited to add: One could consider posting unsubstantiated negative information about a company to be bullying.

Really? If you think that's bullying, you need to put your big boy pants on.

No cowering here, Dave, and I am not the one trying to silence others. Have learned through experience that some MSC schedulers and owners write off excellent shoppers due to things that have nothing whatsoever to do with shopping; hence the anonymity.

Thanks for playing.

I'm no trying to silence anyone. If you have something to say about Sentry or about me, bring it on. But bring the FACTS. If you want to get on this forum, or any other public site, to complain about a company, that's cool. Everyone needs to vent. The problem, and it has been discussed at length on this forum, is when a company's integrity is questioned without sufficient factual basis.

Sharing information and venting is one thing. Settling petty scores is quite another. I'm happy to explain any action we've taken in any situation. Of course, we can't explain ourselves when the person accusing us of unethical behavior won't divulge any details. Sorry, but your excuse for maintaining anonymity lacks credibility. If you believe in what you are posting, you should have not problem standing behind it. If not, troll on.

Fellow mystery shoppers, don’t believe Sentry for a second. They will retaliate by closing down your account if they find out who you are on this forum. Don’t be afraid to speak about your issues here with this company, that’s what the forum is about. Even if Sentry tries to accuse you of lying or trolling (I think it’s not allowed to call others “troll” here?), people will listen. Don’t allow MSC to bully you into silence just because you refuse to disclose your name.

The forum members will believe who they find more credible. The truth of the matter is that one of us is hiding behind anonymity and one isn't.

Within this thread, there are forum members who have posted that they have experienced a problem with Sentry and it was amicably resolved and their account has not been closed. This would seem to contradict several of your statements/accusations about Sentry and myself.

I am not always correct and Sentry is certainly not an error-free company. Like any other company, mistakes are made every day. Becuase we wanted to make it easy for shoppers to report mistakes and we wanted to hold ourselves accountable for resolving issues in a timely matter, we installed a ticketing system years ago. The supporting ticketing system provides us with a centralized location to address shopper questions that are not tied to an individual email box.

Because I don't know who, I can't respond with specifics to your accusations that we are unprofessional. Up to know, all you have done is post very vague comments attacking me, accusing me of blaming shoppers and being unprofessional. You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, however, you are not entitled to your own facts. I am not trying to bully or silence you. In fact, I welcome the feedback on our company and my own conduct and would be happy to explain both to members of this forum. The problem is that you won't provide details. In my opinion, your unwillingness to support what you've accused me and Sentry of with facts is nothing more than online bullying. I don't even know if we have interacted, so I can explain any action (like deactivating your account) that we have allegedly taken?

You claim that we accepted your shop and you also claim that the problem was never resolved. I'm curious, which is it? If we accepted your report, you should be paid. Why would you accept not being paid for an accepted assignment? Something doesn't add up.

The truth is that the Sentry team respects shoppers. We work to live up to a standard of treating every shopper in a patient, professional and pleasant manner and we expect shoppers to conduct themselves in the same way. Those shoppers who don't handle themselves in this way are deactivated. Every day on this forum, shoppers discuss being treated in a way that does not meet their expectations and state unequivocally that they won't complete assignments for a company any longer. How is it controversial when a company takes that same action?

Dave, with the OP writing why 'does' people I can see the need for deactivation.

Wow. Just...wow. I've never done work for Sentry but after reading these incredibly unprofessional comments from them here, I will avoid them like the plague. Reminds me of the epic "Amy's Baking Company" debacle where the owners lashed out at their customers online and ended up going bankrupt.

The ABC reference is a great blast from the past. Obviously, i don't agree with the reference, but I do love the Kitchen Nightmares reference. As you may remember from that show, Chef Ramsay called out people when he disagreed with them. I think that's a more accurate reference.

@BlueMoose wrote:

Wow. Just...wow. I've never done work for Sentry but after reading these incredibly unprofessional comments from them here, I will avoid them like the plague. Reminds me of the epic "Amy's Baking Company" debacle where the owners lashed out at their customers online and ended up going bankrupt.

Yep, cool show. And that company's owners also called their critics "trolls". That worked out great for them, right?

What do you call someone who posts criticism but won't elaborate? Would you tolerate being treated in this manner by any of the companies that you work with?

Maybe a better parallel would be Bourdain's discussion of Yelp and Elite Yelpers from a few weeks ago.

@BlueMoose wrote:

Yep, cool show. And that company's owners also called their critics "trolls". That worked out great for them, right?

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

What do you call someone who posts criticism but won't elaborate?

I would call that person "prudent". I have no dog in this fight but as an outsider, it's abundantly clear to me that you are trying to get your critics to post enough identifying information here that you can figure out who they are and deactivate their accounts.

A wise man once said "when you're in a hole, stop digging". If you want to avoid doing more damage to your company's reputation, you should put down your shovel and just walk away.

Shoppers have choice, there are many mystery shopping companies to chose from. I don't understand shoppers trying to make a point when, if you don't like the company or a client, then find one that suits you, rather than post bitter and angry comments here. BTW If I had my own business, I would certainly not tolerate negative and unproductive employees/shoppers. I cannot imagine having shoppers with such a strong opinions perfom shops for my client and expect them to provide an objective information, let alone work for my company and under me....

@RobG wrote:

Dave, with the OP writing why 'does' people I can see the need for deactivation.

I tried hard not to make the same comment yeah.. it is much even for ESL crowd like me

I know the OP and I can assure you that he used that language with tongue firmly in cheek! He is a well educated, native speaker of English. He would only construct such a sentence to get y'all's attention. My suggestion: go get you a dictionary and read up on sarcasm.

@MikiNV wrote:

Shoppers have choice, there are many mystery shopping companies to chose from. I don't understand shoppers trying to make a point when, if you don't like the company or a client, then find one that suits you, rather than post bitter and angry comments here. BTW If I had my own business, I would certainly not tolerate negative and unproductive employees/shoppers. I cannot imagine having shoppers with such a strong opinions perfom shops for my client and expect them to provide an objective information, let alone work for my company and under me....

I also don’t understand the brown nosers on these forums. If you don’t have bad experience with a certain company, don’t try to question why others did and want to share it with fellow mystery shoppers. Trying to shut down negative feedback is not going to work.

Thank you for the advice.

You wrote that I am trying to get enough information to deactivate the accounts of forum members who post complaints. Let me ask you this: why would someone like Alik want to continue to shop for our company if they have been treated badly by our staff (and by me) as they claim?

I am very comfortable with Sentry's reputation. I am not going to apologize for deactivating the account of a shopper who chooses to act in a less than professional manner. As I have said repeatedly, shoppers should not tolerate being treated in an unprofessional manner by any MSC and any MSC should not tolerate a shopper behaving in an unpleasant or unprofessional manner.

It's your prerogative to arrive at a conclusion about Sentry based on half the facts. I assure you that if all of the details of any given situation came to light, you would think again. For example, I can share with you that one forum member who "likes" posts criticizing Sentry and myself were extremely discourteous to our team despite being informed that I was out of the office on bereavement. This occurred over the summer after my father passed away suddenly.

I'd elaborate on other situations, but the reality is that you don't care and have already made up your mind about Sentry despite having no first-hand experience with our company.

@BlueMoose wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

What do you call someone who posts criticism but won't elaborate?

I would call that person "prudent". I have no dog in this fight but as an outsider, it's abundantly clear to me that you are trying to get your critics to post enough identifying information here that you can figure out who they are and deactivate their accounts.

A wise man once said "when you're in a hole, stop digging". If you want to avoid doing more damage to your company's reputation, you should put down your shovel and just walk away.

Why are you trying to silence feedback from members of this forum?

@Alik wrote:

I also don’t understand the brown nosers on these forums. If you don’t have bad experience with a certain company, don’t try to question why others did and want to share it with fellow mystery shoppers. Trying to shut down negative feedback is not going to work.

If Sentry was fine with the (bad) reputation they have, they would not be trying to silence everyone who comments on their shortcomings. To Sentry the “facts” are only selective.
The simple fact that they can’t even figure out whose accounts were closed after unfavorable shopper feedback to them, shows that they block accounts on a regular basis. Sentry reiterated that they are proud of this business model many times in this thread.

If shoppers were to take Sentrys advice “don’t put up with unprofessional MSC” - that would mean to NOT SHOP FOR SENTRY. Their responses on this forum have proven to be extremely unprofessional over and over again.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Why are you trying to silence feedback from members of this forum?

@Alik wrote:

I also don’t understand the brown nosers on these forums. If you don’t have bad experience with a certain company, don’t try to question why others did and want to share it with fellow mystery shoppers. Trying to shut down negative feedback is not going to work.

You’re projecting, it’s you who tries to control everything that is said about Sentry on every single post. You always have to have the last word in argument.

@Alik... Projecting, and twisting facts. When I had problems getting paid from Sentry (through no fault of mine) I only came on the forum to speak about it hoping to get help. And yes, by that time it was a complaint because up until then I had sent 3 support tickets to Sentry with no results. Kept saying they were going to pay, and nothing showed up. Then when I sent a fourth ticket, I got ignored. So, the forum was a recourse for me. But to hear Dave tell it, of course it's a different story. It's my fault because I complained when I was treated with disrespect and they were unprofessional to begin with. But he won't ever apologize or admit to that. All he will do is continue to alienate some of the best shoppers in the business. His loss.

@Alik wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Why are you trying to silence feedback from members of this forum?

@Alik wrote:

I also don’t understand the brown nosers on these forums. If you don’t have bad experience with a certain company, don’t try to question why others did and want to share it with fellow mystery shoppers. Trying to shut down negative feedback is not going to work.

You’re projecting, it’s you who tries to control everything that is said about Sentry on every single post. You always have to have the last word in argument.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

You wrote that I am trying to get enough information to deactivate the accounts of forum members who post complaints.... I am not going to apologize for deactivating the account of a shopper...

Well, thanks for confirming that that's why you're here.

Donna - On 8/16/2017, I responded to your payment inquiry with the following:

BEGIN TEXT
Because of a mistake I made, your payment was scheduled for 8/22. I have corrected the error and rescheduled the payment to process tomorrow. You should see it in your bill.com account two business days after it processes.

I apologize for the delay.

Dave
END TEXT

The above is an exact and complete copy and paste.

You also insinuated in multiple posts that we were intentionally delaying payment.

BlueMoose - I noticed that you cut off my statement to eliminate the rest of the sentence. It's also interesting that you chose not to answer my question about how you handle being treated disrespectfully by an MSC.

Alik - your motives are clear. You have some ax to grind against Sentry and me and won't elaborate. That tells me that the facts of the situation don't support your position. You can try to hide your motive, but they are quite clear forum members.

After reading all that, I'm thinking about signing up for another bar integrity shop.

Like I said....

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Donna - On 8/16/2017, I responded to your payment inquiry with the following:

BEGIN TEXT
Because of a mistake I made, your payment was scheduled for 8/22. I have corrected the error and rescheduled the payment to process tomorrow. You should see it in your bill.com account two business days after it processes.

I apologize for the delay.

Dave
END TEXT

The above is an exact and complete copy and paste.

You also insinuated in multiple posts that we were intentionally delaying payment.

BlueMoose - I noticed that you cut off my statement to eliminate the rest of the sentence. It's also interesting that you chose not to answer my question about how you handle being treated disrespectfully by an MSC.

Alik - your motives are clear. You have some ax to grind against Sentry and me and won't elaborate. That tells me that the facts of the situation don't support your position. You can try to hide your motive, but they are quite clear forum members.

BM - one other thing to think about. In the Kitchen Nightmares episode you referenced, the business owners yelled and belittled their customers. Are mystery shoppers the customers of MSCs or do mystery shoppers provide an important service to MSCs. In other words, aren't mystery shoppers a vendor for mystery shopping companies? Is there another industry where the vendors publicly complain about the companies they work for?

Something to think about.

@BlueMoose wrote:

Wow. Just...wow. I've never done work for Sentry but after reading these incredibly unprofessional comments from them here, I will avoid them like the plague. Reminds me of the epic "Amy's Baking Company" debacle where the owners lashed out at their customers online and ended up going bankrupt.

There are many negative comments about many companies. Most MSCs allow forum members to take care of one hit wonders, ask questions and make posts that give a more balanced perspective. The result is the negative threads often drop off and get buried within a few days or a week. I'll be damned if I can figure out why a MSC owner would want to act like a dog with a bone when the result is keeping a negative thread about their company front and center for days and weeks on end.

BTW, I understand why Blue Moose used only a portion of a quote. It summed it all up quite nicely. Stop trying to get the real names of shoppers via phony offers of help and most of this crap will go away on it's own.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

BM - one other thing to think about. In the Kitchen Nightmares episode you referenced, the business owners yelled and belittled their customers. Are mystery shoppers the customers of MSCs or do mystery shoppers provide an important service to MSCs. In other words, aren't mystery shoppers a vendor for mystery shopping companies? Is there another industry where the vendors publicly complain about the companies they work for?

Something to think about.

You keep digging yourself deeper into the hole. Do you really not get how badly you are trashing your own company here?

It's a simple question. Are mystery shoppers the customer/client of MSCs or are they a supplier/vendor/business partner?

Is there another industry in which vendors openly complain about their clients on a public website?

@BlueMoose wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

BM - one other thing to think about. In the Kitchen Nightmares episode you referenced, the business owners yelled and belittled their customers. Are mystery shoppers the customers of MSCs or do mystery shoppers provide an important service to MSCs. In other words, aren't mystery shoppers a vendor for mystery shopping companies? Is there another industry where the vendors publicly complain about the companies they work for?

Something to think about.

You keep digging yourself deeper into the hole. Do you really not get how badly you are trashing your own company here?