We have a procedure in place when something occurs during an assignment that falls outside the guidelines. The decision to reject a report is not taken lightly and we do everything we can to avoid taking this action. At times, the situation does not leave us with an alternative other than invalidating a report.

We have paid shoppers for invalidated reports on plenty of occasions. The decision to do so depends on the circumstances. There have also been circumstances where the client rejected a shop sent to them for reasons that we didn't agree with and we have paid the shopper the full fee and reimbursement.

To be completely honest, if the OP had contacted me about this situation (as suggested by @MFJohnston), it is highly likely that I would have made a goodwill offer based on their history with us.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2018 06:46PM by Sentry Marketing.

I have done this shop. You have to pass a quiz and in the guidelines, it CLEARLY says OUTDOOR HEATER. I think it is why they stress it so much, the client wants people to ask for OUTDOOR HEATERS.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

To be completely honest, if the OP had contacted me about this situation (as suggested by @MFJohnston), it is highly likely that I would have made a goodwill offer based on their history with us.

There was more work involved in the shop than asking about outdoor heaters. Another associate interaction, identifying and counting of employees, carrying a large item around the store, purchase of a specific item, and a restroom evaluation, plus the completed report.

The owner of the company is on a message board stating that if I had sent a bootlick email, he would consider a goodwill offer. I thought a goodwill offer was made out of goodwill, but I also thought all patios were outdoors.

​

@jenamars
The client makes a distinction between the types of heaters and clearly wants the shopper to use the correct verbiage. The shopper does not get to decide what verbiage to use in this situation. Plus, the shopper does not get to decide which parts of the assignment are (or are not) vital. It's not "bootlicking" to send a professional inquiry to the owner of a company when a shop gets rejected. It is **very** clear from this thread that the client required the use of the word "outdoor."

@MFJohnston I said this already, my email was not returned. When the owner learned on this board that the editor did not return my email, he apologized, BUT I STILL DID NOT GET AN EMAIL REPLY. Please stop explaining mystery shopping to me on this thread. I have learned the answer to my original question. Now Dave is just dragging things out by saying he would have offered to pay something out of goodwill. I do not believe he had any intentions of paying anything. My report was denied, I am not getting paid, and I will not contract with them in the future.

@jenamars

You are misquoting what I've stated on this site and the other site. I didn't say that I would make a payment if you sent an email. I said that if you HAD contacted me about the issue I would have very likely worked out something based on your history. As I stated three days ago on this site, we consider the matter closed.

Regardless of what you believe, if you had contacted me in a professional and pleasant way, it is very likely that I would have offered some payment based on your history with us. Once you posted about the issue in the manner you did, any chance of a goodwill offer ended.

I am not sure what you are looking for in an email reply. I responded to your email/request publicly on this forum. I'll be happy to the same via email.

Seriously? MFJohnston said I should email you. I told her I did and you did not reply. Now you want to know why I want a reply? UFB

I think what Dave is saying is that the answer to your email is right here in this thread. You used the wrong words in your report. Nothing can be done about this now. 5 pages and a lot of insults/misinformation later this is still being dragged out. Moral of the story: pay attention to the guidelines.

Lesson to be learned by all shoppers...when instructions say "Outdoor heater", do ask for a Outdoor heater and not assume they want a patio heater....texting Outdoor heater to yourself, works before leaving house.

Mod note: Post removed as it breached the Forum guideline which states, "Do not reveal the clients of mystery shopping companies". Additionally, it is usually an ICA violation to name both the MSC and client.

@jenamars - On 1/30 @MFJohnston suggested you contact me directly. You did not do that.

Geeze Sentry, if you consider the matter closed, then stop with the nonsense and whiny posts.

@RobinMarie - your animus toward Sentry and me is well documented on this forum. Thanks for confirming my instinct that we should minimize our participation on this site.

Sentry, your refusal to take well-intended advice by many posters is easy to verify with a search. Lately you've escalated into playing the victim. You've mentioned minimizing your participation before (which is usually the free advice offered by veteran posters). Yet you persist. Why would any shopper believe in you or your company if you do not follow through on your own promises?

@RobinMarie

I agree with you that forum members should use the search function to verify what I've said because I am not playing the victim, rather I am stating facts. For example, a simple search of "sentry" and your user name will reveal that you have posted innuendo about our company on more than one occasion.

The truth is that there are a few members of this forum who continually post negative content about Sentry in an effort to dissuade others from accepting our assignments. For these members, positive feedback about Sentry is ignored and in almost all cases, the members support the person posting criticism of Sentry without regard for the situation.

I believe that interaction between mystery shoppers and MSC team members can be positive, productive and good for the industry. The challenge on this site is the mob mentality shared by a small group of members.

I've posted my observations several times about your conduct in this forum. Along with others, we have generously provided you with critical and constructive feedback on how you respond to others here and how it directly impacts your reputation. Normally we are paid to provide such critique. Despite the free advice offered, you continue to demean shoppers who come here with feedback.

Simply put, your conduct here does your company more harm than good. I given it some thought and I can only estimate that it is in our nature to provide honest and critical feedback which is why we continue the fruitless efforts. The paranoid statement that people post here for the purposes to turn people off to your company tells a lot about you. Is this one of your 'facts' you insist you are right about? You are a mind reader? Your pursuit to be 'right' continues all the while tarnishing the company's reputation and attempts to belittle shoppers.

You use the phrase 'mob mentality' as some way to justify your bad behavior. Everyone else is wrong, and you are right. It does not work that way.

@RobinMarie

Your posting your opinion as if it is fact. A simple search will reveal that despite the gentle tone of your comments in this thread, you've shown an animus toward our company and a willingness to spread innuendo in an attempt to sully our reputation. That's not paranoia, rather, it is an observation based on the comments that you and others have posted and "liked".

Any time that I post information that contradicts was a forum members posts, you categorize it as demeaning shoppers. Fortunately, not all forum members agree with you. An UNBIASED review of our posts here over the years will show that I've taken responsibility when we have made a mistake or not lived up to our own standards and there are plenty of examples of forum members who have contacted us for help via this site and received the assistance they were looking for.

Your statement that (paraphrasing) "I insist that I am always right" may be your perception, but that does not make it reality or fact. In this thread I apologized to the OP for my team not responding to her email. The fact that I chose not to update the guidelines wasn't based on ego or some need to be correct. I made the decision based on the fact that the issue raised in the initial comment happened only one time in over 750 shops and that we were 3/4 finished with the project.

Over the years, we've implemented several process changes based on feedback from this forum. I believe that interaction between mystery shoppers and MSC reps can be very productive for both groups and very helpful to the industry. The problem with this forum is a small group of vocal members who play favorites based on personal feelings rather than doing what is best for the industry.

You are still responding, despite your earlier assertion (and promise) that you would limit, or refrain, from participation. Your false assumptions as to why I respond unfavorably about your company is not rooted in my attempts to sully your reputation, you do a fine job of that on your own. In your words, 'you are posting your opinion as fact.'

And you're still not getting it. It's a discussion board where people are free and encouraged to provide their feedback and experiences. It is my opinion, which I've shared several times, that you are a bully and make attempts to out shoppers as a way to demean and insult.

What nonsense you write about an unbiased opinion. Who are you to be able to assert such a thing? You own your company's reputation, yet you shirk your responsibility with the blame game of mob mentality. Your attempt to argue each sentence/statement/opinion results in your company looking bad. Own it. It's the mob, it's the shoppers, it's a few .... it's you man. It's you.

@RobinMarie

It's more than a bit ironic that you call me a bully when that is exactly how you are acting.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and I'm sorry that you see it that way. I see it as responding to your historical attempts to belittle and out shoppers, who are entitled to <pick a word> vent, complain, explain, express themselves here. I am not surprised at your response given your whining about mob mentality.

One would expect a shopping company to not bully. You are a business. Expectations are in place

I would think one would expect no one to be a bully no matter what position they hold in the mystery shopping world or any other type of environment. I do not understand why we as shoppers should be able to say anything we want and expect the ones being attacked to stay quiet.

@jenamars wrote:

I responded to the denial email that I disagreed, and I am waiting for clarification. What do you think, is a patio heater and an outdoor heater the same thing? ​

I did not know, so I checked. There are enclosed patios. Presumably, these are indoor areas or the equivalent of indoor areas. I love your thread! I have learned to read carefully and then read more carefully. Thanks for putting your 'oops' out there for all to see. I think you made an honest oops here, based on the fact that it might not be obvious to anyone and everyone that 'patio' and 'outdoor' are not the same.

I just did a Sentry shop for a garden center. I was extremely I careful in following exactly (word for word) what was required and using many terms verbatim. I had to ask for peppers and the associate was supposed to tell me it was too early in the season for them. However, today in California it was 85, they had plenty of peppers for sale and I was told there was no problem in planting them since there was no frost expected.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2018 05:29AM by kenasch.

In my opinion, MSC's don't need to get into it with their independent contractors/shoppers on a public forum like this. No matter how the independent contractor behaves/acts, there is no reason to hash it out on a public forum. Even if the MSC is in the right, this shines a very negative light on the company. I would suggest bowing out and e-mailing individuals directly if they want to communicate with them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2018 07:56AM by jsalli.

@RobinMarie wrote:

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and I'm sorry that you see it that way. I see it as responding to your historical attempts to belittle and out shoppers, who are entitled to <pick a word> vent, complain, explain, express themselves here. I am not surprised at your response given your whining about mob mentality.

You are very condescending, one could say this demonstrates a lack of maturity.

Your emotional responses are not factual. You can repeat things as much as you want, that does not make them true. Please support "historical attempts to belittle shoppers" on Dave's part.

The OP left out facts. Several shoppers familiar with this shop pointed out that the OP was provided clear instructions.

Every time a member starts a complaint thread, we ask for details before trying to help. We understand emotions alter perception. Your personal problems with Sentry alter your ability to sensibly participate in threads like this.

My first post here was a negative one about Sentry. It was emotional which led to my altering the facts, inadvertently. Dave was very nice and polite. Asking me to reflect back on what actually happened, I recognized that I did perform a step of the shop out of place.

I had been paid for the shop, just upset over a reduced fee. Several members here have also recalled having Sentry editors reduce fees. My position was, if the client accepts the shop, pay us in full. My perception was the fee reduction was an incentive for tthe editors to find issues, regardless of the actual thought behind the deductions. Dave halted the fee penalty years ago, taking our input into consideration. He did not belittle me or whine about my post.

@isaiah58

To be accurate, we didn't eliminate the fee deduction policy. After our interaction, however, the team and I revised the policy to become more judicious and consistent about the application of fee deductions. Your point-of-view helped us understand why we needed to change our approach in this area.

Sentry is not "awful" but they are not the most pleasant company to do business with.......Putting in an application and have it sit for days not knowing if it has even been looked at. Putting in an application and then finding the dates that I applied for are no longer available. NO AUTO ASSIGN CAPABILITY- JUST MAKE AN APPOINTMENT and then wait for days. I also once had a question on feedback for one of my reports and asked and asked about 3 times. The poor scheduler was forwarding the question to the editors but getting no response from the editor. And the final answer from the editors?? Get this: "We don't answer shopper questions". No love lost with Sentry. And oh yeah, they text you for a shop but do not offer a bonus and wont answer when I asked if there is a bonus. No warm fuzzies for this company.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2018 03:23PM by catlassy.

@catlassy

Thank you for your feedback.

Last month we started to set up some projects for self-assign. We are reviewing all projects and it is our intent to open up as many as feasible to be self-assigned by shoppers.

For those projects not setup for self-assign, applications are check throughout the day M - F and on Saturdays until Noon Central Time. It is not feasible for us to respond to every shopper who has applied for an assignment to let them know they were not selected.

Providing shoppers with feedback on their reports is very important to us. I apologize if we did not provide a more professional response to your inquiry. In general, we don't respond to any questions sent in response to shopper feedback because of the time it would take to reply. I'll discuss your comments with my time and revisit this policy to see if there is a better way to handle these inquiries. I'm sorry that we did not convey the message to you in a manner more consistent with our culture.

@RobinMarie wrote:

Your attempt to argue each sentence/statement/opinion results in your company looking bad. Own it. It's the mob, it's the shoppers, it's a few .... it's you man. It's you.

Well said.