I completed a job in July and have not received payment...additionally, their website has not been working for the past week. I'm new to mystery shopping (actually, this shop was my first job) and I'm not sure how to proceed. Very upsetting... Anyone else have issues or advice on this company?

??? I believe in January JC & Associates was purchased by Market Stats. So I'm not sure why you would have been visiting the JC & Associates website. I assumed it had been defunct for some time. Recheck your emails and see who you actually worked the job for. Market Stat's basic website is [marketstat.com].

@ Flash - omgoodness! You are right! I know what happened...I clicked on a link marked JC and Associates and signed up with them however, it actually took me out to the Marketstate site and I overlooked it completely. I filed all my paperwork under JC and Associates in my handy dandy notebook so ergo...

But I still haven't been paid and the job was completed on July 30th. I can "see" an invoice out there for me but where can I find a "status" on that payment?


Again...thank you so much!

JC & Assoc left such a bad taste in my mouth I did not move on along to Market Stats, so really can't tell you. I believe they use 'Shopmetrics' as their reporting site and I don't know that there is a status screen with Shopmetrics. You may need to go back to the Market Stats website and see what their pay schedule is. Somehow 60 days sticks in my mind as their pay cycle but I would not bet on it.

@ Flash Thanks again for your help! I'm not super concerned about it...it will be my first pay for my first shop so I'm just a little excited about it! lol

Can you recommend any other companies to sign up with? I'm signed up with about 5 right now but there doesn't seem to be a lot of jobs...it's so much fun! I would love to do more!

I'm working part time (2 days a week) in an office and if I could combine shops with my work schedule...wow! That would be super great! I just feel like I'm spending more time looking for jobs than actually doing jobs...not fun!

It is fascinating to me how tastes differ in companies to work for and types of shops to perform. If you are doing the JC & A/Market Stat I assume you are doing restaurants. I really like working with A Closer Look, though some find them frustrating. I saw that Mert directed you to the list in the first post of the first thread of the Mystery Shopping Company Discussion section of the forum and also to Jobslinger.com. Jobslinger will let you know some of the companies that have had shops in your area recently. Those are probably ones you should sign up with. Then systematically over time go through the list here. Especially companies that are a PITA to work with get discussed frequently on the forum, so just stay alert to issues other shoppers are having.

Not all companies have jobs in all areas of the country. Until you sign up you will not know if they have anything near you. And even if they have something now they may not next year and vice versa. When a company gets a client in a new area there is usually a flurry of emails about job postings, so as long as you are signed up you will be notified. I'm signed up with somewhat more than 200 companies yet in any given year only work with about 30-40 of them. Some of that is choice of who not to work with, but even more it is who doesn't have jobs/appropriate jobs in my area. And each year about a third of the companies I work with are different than the previous year.

MarketStat has NOT one job here in L.A., and through JC&Assoc., I had work for years, untill the downfall. I was one of the lucky ones, only missing one paycheck (my last one). I felt for them, as I know Jason had serious health problems with his Mother-in-law, the economy, etc. I know many have a hate relationship with them after that happened. I am a softie and wanted to succeed. They only had the one RR restaurant that I did and it was lost here.

I have had a similar problem with them as well, and I am still waiting on a payment from January 2010 that Market Stat promised they'd pay me for. However. Nothing. I did a few shops for MarketStat, and never got paid. I finally found (through much research) a phone number for MarketStat, called it and got paid the next day. I shouldn't have to hunt down payments for any company really, so I'm not doing much work for MarketStat anymore. I do a lot of work for MarketForce and they aare super busy with places and they pay great and on time. You might want to check them out. [www.marketforce.com] . THeir shopper support is #1 in my books, they respond quickly, their email and phone #'s aren't hidden at all. Give them a try!

@ dcat222

I finally did receive pay from them. I sent an email and got an almost immediate response. I also got this response from them which explains things a lot:

Thank you for your recent e-mail to accounting@marketstat.com.

Our Accounting Department is not staffed full-time and therefore you
may experience a delayed response time. We apologize for the
inconvenience. Should you have any immediate needs, please feel free
to call us at 888.515.STAT

If you have a question regarding a specific invoice or payment, please
e-mail Chuck McGuire (Director of Operations) cmcguire@marketstat.com.

Thank you and have a great day!!

Sincerely,

The MarketStat Accounting Team

Hi Sue Bee!

I'm glad you got your issue resolved and thank you so much for posting their reply. Sometimes it is difficult to find contact information for a company and when they are having 'issues' it would appear that some of them actually remove their contact information from their sites or disconnect those phones. This communication from them was refreshing in its contact options.

Hi Flash!

Yes...I have to say...once I contacted them it really became a "non issue". The payment was posted almost immediately and the fact that they are saying they are not fully staffed means that follow up may be necessary for their shops. They handled this so well that I would not hesitate to shop for them again.

Certainly my reaction when they handled payment on claims for old JC & A shops was very, very favorable. They were buying a company that had developed a terrible reputation for non-payment and shopper avoidance, so it is good that they are working diligently to overcome that. Unfortunately JC & A had already lost the client I liked in my market and evidently MarketStat has not gotten them back, so thus far I haven't worked with MarketStat yet. If they had something of interest in my market I would be pleased to give them a try.

Yeah, I loved working for them. Until the pay part came.

Scheduler confirmed my reports had been accepted and used. Never received payment for most of them.

So sadly, I stopped working for them. This may have been when they were going through a change, but still...

*sigh*

After I was stiffed for a shop for JC & Associates in December of '09, I contacted Market Stat. They paid me for the shop when they probably didn't really have to. I have since done a few shops for Market Stat, and I've had no issues with them. They appear to be a company with some ethics.