Thank you.

ok, I just received the invitation from AthPower to receive edeposits from bill.com. So I accepted the invitation. While trying to figure it out. I clicked companies. Ath Power is the only company listed.How do I get sentry to send me another invitation since I never got one. (I did go through my emails, did a search for bill.com and Sentry Marketing I could not find one).

Dave,

Why does it take so long to get paid by your company? Sentry and AboutFace are the only companies I know of that take over 45 days to pay. Most of the companies I work for pay once or twice a month. A Closer Looks pays at the end of the month following my shops. GFK even upped the anty by paying weekly during December.

I work for a utility contractor, as an employee, but our techs are all subcontractors. Their (and our) pay is held two weeks when they first start, because my company is waiting for payment for the jobs billed for. It takes two weeks to get that payment. After that, we are paid weekly.

I've always wondered why some companies can pay me tomorrow for the shops I will be doing tonight, The Source, and some companies wait 60 days to pay.

There are many factors that a company has to consider when deciding on a payment policy. I am aware that there are companies that pay more quickly than Sentry and I am aware that there are companies that pay more slowly than Sentry. The company that you mentioned pays at the end of the month following the shop is taking 4 - 8 weeks to pay shoppers. Our current policy is not much longer than that.

At present, we are focused on transitioning from bill.com to electronic deposit. Once that transition is complete, we plan to review our payment policy.

Another UPDATE from the OP. Finally got to live chat with a rep from bill.com. To cut to the chase, Sentry has mailed my check, dinging me $2.00 because I hadn't known I was supposed to "connect" other "vendors" to my bill.com account. Although ATH Power authorized my payment of $15.00 on 11/16, bill.com tells me I have to chase them down for the money.

So, I'm waiting for a check from Sentry and an email response from ATH.

Dave, I will revisit working for Sentry after I hear you've moved to Dwolla and no one has any complaints. I took that shop with some trepidation because reviews of the work it entailed made it seem onerous. However, it was heavily bonused but the scheduler was upfront in saying that the full bonus was payable only if the report could be delivered to the client without revision. I'd never worked for Sentry before, didn't know what to expect from an editor, but I took the chance. I received notification that no revisions were required and I would receive the full bonus. I have now spent more time trying to chase down this payment than I spent doing the shop and writing the report.

kryswyn916

I am very sorry that your experience with Bill.com was frustrating. This is one of the reasons we made the decision to migrate payments to a new provider.

I don't understand your comment about chasing payment. Based on my review, you were paid the month after you completed the shop and in less than 60 days. I could not find any requests for assistance with this issue or a request to reconsider the $2 check fee. We can't assist shoppers with issues that we don't know exist.

Most, like a huge majority, of your shoppers, already use Paypal. We, as a group, don't have issues with Paypal.

Dave, thank you for your reply. I used the word 'chase' because instead of opening an email from my bank to say there had been a direct deposit of $43.50, I got an email from Bill.com saying I was getting a check for $41.50 and if I didn't want to lose any more money on a future payment I had to set up an account with Bill.com. I tried to do that. I got shut down by Bill.com, requiring several emails back and forth with them plus a 30 minute live chat, which, ultimately will result in my receive a check any day now less the two dollars. So there was a lot more work to get this payment than just seeing the money show up in my bank account like it does with all my other mystery shopping companies. I didn't ask Sentry for the two dollars back because a) I understand the cost involved with cutting a check, and b) I thought the entity to take that up with was Bill.com.

I understand that these things happen sometimes and I'm not going to throw a complete fit over two dollars. But at the end of the day, things like this will determine whether I take a job for a given company. It seems that this job is the only job Sentry has in my area. so unless that changes, I wouldn't be interested in doing it again until your transition to Dwolla is completed. For the record, I prefer companies who pay within 30 days, but your company's payment schedule was known to me and I took the job knowing it would be 45 days for payment. What I didn't expect was all the hoopla. I blame Bill.com for not sending me an email prior to cutting the check saying "Please add Sentry Marketing to your list of vendors so that we can process a direct deposit." To add insult to injury the last email I got from them stated that the bank account I had entered to receive a direct deposit from Sentry Marketing could no longer be used because it was a duplicate of my verified bank account that was already on file with them. Their company is messed up.

Thank you for responding to me on this forum.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2017 11:15PM by kryswyn916.

I second winemaker in saying that I myself don't have a problem with PayPal personally. I have had problems sending my son money using PayPal cuz he let them trick him into something saying use his link to his business., I myself set up PayPal in my better half's name using my fandltelcomm email. When we tried to add my name later to the account I had to convert it to a business account for F & L TeleComm with his name primary and my name secondary. I have had no problems connecting it to my bank account, and bank card with my name ever. and I have received ss payments in my name alone.
And again I say I have not received an invitation from Sentry Marketing to link to my Bill.com. and since there are 10 Sentry Marketings listed I do not know which one to select. so they will probably ding me for a 2 dollar fee unless Dave helps me.
[prntscr.com]
[prntscr.com]
[prntscr.com]
[prntscr.com]
correction over 10.
and none of which say managed by dave anybody. (Dave this is not to say your last name is anybody, but since I don't know your last name without looking it up --anybody named dave with a business website not a gmail/yahoo.com would attract my attention. Unfortunately, it is not there for me to find. Therefore I must have an invitation to add you.

I would suggest emailing help@sentrymarketing.com if you would like us to assist you.

Dave, I am trusting that the check supposed to arrive approximately Dec. 4th will arrive this week (it hasn't yet). I spoke with Megan from bill.com for a half an hour and I felt like she was getting the gift of a mystery shop because I gave her a lot of constructive criticism, starting with rewriting their emails, defining their terms (she kept calling shoppers and MSCs both vendors), and remembering that many shoppers are not trying to run a business. She seemed unaware that many shoppers don't invoice the MSCs; we merely submit reports. Yes, I know I submit an invoice to MaritzCX (and would gladly do it for any company that paid that quickly and regularly) but that is the only company that I do that for. I explained that once a shopper had an account with bill.com we shouldn't have to "add vendors (really MSCs), but when a company submitted a payment that it should just be automatically deposited in the shopper's account without having "invite" "vendors" to join our "network" because shoppers can have only one account, while companies can have numerous accounts.

She tried very hard to "resolve" my problem. I reiterated that the problem was resolved by my decision not to work for any new company that uses bill.com.

This thread has been very helpful for me! I was “this close” to taking a home store shop this week, but the company uses bill.com— feels like I’ve saved myself a huge headache by leaving it on the board. Very grateful to all of you

In regards to PayPal, I’ve been using it for quite a while now and have no complaints. It’s very simple to use. All the “apps” use PayPal as well & they process thousands of payments each week.

@Megs7521 wrote:

This thread has been very helpful for me! I was “this close” to taking a home store shop this week, but the company uses bill.com— feels like I’ve saved myself a huge headache by leaving it on the board. Very grateful to all of you

Then my work here is done.

Assignments completed in December will not be paid with bill.com.

Assignments completed in December will be paid with electronic deposit. You can register for our electronic deposit payment here:


Direct link to signup page:
[www.dwolla.com]

Link to instructions:
[help.dwolla.com]

The process is very straightforward and setting up an account takes about five minutes.

I understand the OP experienced a lot of frustration with bill.com. This could have been avoided if the OP would have contacted our team for help instead of bill.com.

@Megs7521 wrote:

This thread has been very helpful for me! I was “this close” to taking a home store shop this week, but the company uses bill.com— feels like I’ve saved myself a huge headache by leaving it on the board. Very grateful to all of you

In regards to PayPal, I’ve been using it for quite a while now and have no complaints. It’s very simple to use. All the “apps” use PayPal as well & they process thousands of payments each week.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2017 01:51PM by Sentry Marketing.

I prefer PayPal because I don't like giving out my banking information to anyone.

So you don't write checks?

I have not written a check in 10 years, at least. My info however is on any check my bank has to send on my behalf. I prefer electronic transfers.

That was kinda the point

I still don't write checks...

I use Bill.com in my day job. I don't understand why people dislike it. I find it intuitive and easy to use if you bother to read the FAQ or google issues. The Bill.com team is also very helpful.

As for Bill.com requiring you to input your bank information to a new vendor that would like to pay you, that is a security measure. I know I don't want third parties linking my bank account to vendors that I haven't approved. The process is very easy and intuitive if you take 5 minutes to figure it out instead getting frustrated because it doesn't work exactly how you wanted it to.

Also - while I find some shops with Sentry frustrating, I have always received accurate payments in a timely manner....probably because I bothered to figure out to set up my information with Bill.com (I shopped for Sentry before I started using Bill.com professionally so at that time, I was just as clueless as you.)

I do not "write" checks either. However, my credit cards, car note and the loan I took out to refinance my car all come out like auto checks. My utilities I pay online with my debit card. I don't "dislike" bill.com. However, when I enrolled it told me I could only link one company or I would have to pay. I refuse to pay, when A) there are free services out there and You should not have to Pay to be Paid. Also, I'm not going to pay someone to pay my bills for me when I can do it myself for free, I am not rich. That is something rich people do not regular impoverished people. The only time you should Pay to be paid is when for example you are investing in something that will provide residual income, such as rental properties or vending machines or containers. and that is called investing not paying.

@F and L TeleComm wrote:

ok, I just received the invitation from AthPower to receive edeposits from bill.com. So I accepted the invitation. While trying to figure it out. I clicked companies. Ath Power is the only company listed.How do I get sentry to send me another invitation since I never got one. (I did go through my emails, did a search for bill.com and Sentry Marketing I could not find one).

I looked at ATH in a panic, thinking I would have to deal with this but their payment policy says that if you don't want bill.com, delete the email and they will send a paper check at no charge. I'll take the check.

You can give the company your bank routing number and bank account number and they can enter it for you on their end, free of charge. I think you are mistaking the verbiage for the Bill.com receivables section, which would apply if you are sending out invoices to customers. As for saying "you shouldn't have to be paid to get paid," the banks and services don't operate for free...there's fees on everything unless you find the loopholes to get around it. Most businesses and contractors pay fees to accept credit card payments. It's just an overhead cost of doing business. Luckily, mystery shopping companies don't pay by credit card so this avenue hasn't had to worry about that.

Those paper checks they are sending probably come Bill.com as well if it's their processing system. They have the option to set you up for epayment or have Bill.com send you a check.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2017 10:15PM by nixkit.

@Donna5783 wrote:

Paypal is good. The majority of my MSCs send me payment via Paypal and I've never had a problem with them.

Same here and I was using PP before I got into MSing and have never had a problem.

I have only done 2 shops for sentry. The 1st shop was in March. I never got the email from them to sign up with bill.com. Long story short sentry took $2 from that shop and i was FINALLY paid in the end of September. My second shop after i was already signed up with bill.com was in September and in October i emailed support and the lady asked me to wait another week to see if i would get paid lol i ended up writing them again and i just now got paid for that shop!!

@F and L TeleComm wrote:

My utilities I pay online with my debit card.

Why use a debit card? Is it less expensive? I pay them with a credit card and rack up points and then pay off the card at the end of the month. Is there an advantage I'm not seeing? (Serious question; I'm always looking for ways to save money.)

I don't get points for using credit. I have a cash back card that I'm dumping cuz of the annual fee. It's not worth it. The cash back isn't even equal to the annual fee and the high-interest rate.

Both. I have trouble getting paid correctly just about every time I shop for a company that uses bill.com.

Great I was afraid Dwolla would be another
PIA....