Or are they an established company that was rebranded? Didn’t see any threads in the archives, but recently it appears another MSC “shared” my info with Nsite, who emailed to say they had shops in the area. (I never signed up for Nsite’s email list). Has anyone shopped with them? If so, what types of shops are they scheduling? Any issues or concerns with payments? Thanks

Ive done shops with them for a long long time. Probably 12 years or so? Great company. You dont make any money. Just reimbursement, but you can do 2 and sometimes 3 per night which leads for a great night for under an hour of reports total.

Never been paid late. They do bar audits mostly. round of cocktails and an appetizer is the reimbursement. No pay but can negotiate sometimes. I do about 25 to 75 a year depending on year.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2020 10:45PM by jrossetti.

Some of the people from Bestmark started it a few of years ago. Only jobs with fees in my area, no reimbursement only dining.

According to their BBB page, Nsite has been in business for 16 years. I know their owner is active in helping his schedulers with scheduling. I see him in the scheduling groups. This month, I've seen him working to fill inquiry-only retail shops. If you have questions, I'm sure they could help you at info@nsiteinc.com.

They are always looking for new shoppers because they don't appreciate their shoppers...so while I like some of the clients they had by me, I requested deactivation a few years back.

That said, I worked for them quite a few years without issue. It was only when I had a problem with their operational procedure that my interactions with the owner went south. If the shop looks worth it to you, then go for it. Just don't expect any credit for years of quality work if there's an issue...

Thanks all for the replies. Good info!

@SteveSoCal wrote:

They are always looking for new shoppers because they don't appreciate their shoppers...so while I like some of the clients they had by me, I requested deactivation a few years back.

That said, I worked for them quite a few years without issue. It was only when I had a problem with their operational procedure that my interactions with the owner went south. If the shop looks worth it to you, then go for it. Just don't expect any credit for years of quality work if there's an issue...

Would you mind elaborating on this? Im not denying your claim. It just differs from my own experience and Id like to know a bit more.

@jrossetti wrote:

Would you mind elaborating on this?

I don't want to get into too much of a negative rant on the MSC, because it was years ago, and as you've noted, everybody's experience may differ. The software in question that I took issue with also may not even exist or operate the same way anymore....but my main issue was basically a personality conflict with the owner.

There are old threads you can find on the forum where others were complaining about the dining assignments and I defended Nsite for a long time, because they would often bonus assignments in my area and pay me to do the bar/appetizer ones. I felt they were worth it, probably similar to how you feel, because it was close to home and I liked the client.

After years of me regularly filing in on said shops when other shoppers cancelled or flaked, I developed a rapport with the owner. He was aware that I had been a scheduler and editor in the past, and we engaged in discussion about the MS industry at times. He even asked me for leads on clients and reached out for advice about potentially joining the MSPA. I felt that we had an amiable and respectful professional relationship.

At that point, I mentioned politely, that in my opinion, the character requirements were too great for the assignments, and considering the fact that no pay was generally offered, there should be more flexibility allowed with ordering/reimbursement. I was told they would take my input into consideration and forward it to the client, yet nothing changed. When I pressed, I was simply told that the client set the rules and the MSC was not in power to make changes to them.

The debacle arose the owner asked me to take a last-minute assignment. I agreed to it, due to my history with the company, even though I was working a very long day. I got home from work at 10:30 PM and started work on the report, which was due by midnight. Despite me going into considerable detail about the food items, the system kept kicking the food narrative back to me for not having enough characters, but did not specify how many characters exactly were required. After my second attempt to submit the assignment failed, the clock struck midnight, and the entire assignment was immediately cancelled.

My email about the problem was responded to the following morning by the scheduler, who reset the assignment, but all of the data I entered was gone, and I had to start over.

When I finished re-entering the report, I contacted the owner about my disappointment. I explained that I was relatively sure the client did not set the cut-off time in the software, and that since the software would simply delete tardy assignment at the deadline, I felt it would be a professional courtesy to push the deadline back until at least 2:00 AM, to accommodate shoppers who were working late and struggling to get the assignments done on time....considering that the instructions did not specify a required character count, and that it would not affect the workflow to be submitted at 2 AM.

Now...It may have just been a bad day for the owner, but was I got as a response was one of the most disrespectful emails I have ever received in a business setting. The owner insisted the fault was entirely mine for simply not submitting the report on time, that his company shared no fault whatsoever for any issues, and that he did not like the tone of my email. He felt that it was accusatory since the report guidelines are entirely out of his control, and suggested that I rethink the tone and content of my emails. His solution was that I should have simply emailed him for an extension the following day and submitted the report then if I was going to be late. He accepted no responsibility for the instruction set not laying out the character requirements. Now...when you are reaching out to a shopper about sales reps and business strategies, I don't think it's a big stretch for that shopper to make a common sense suggestion for your business operation! It's certainly not disrespectful, and was meant to be helpful.

The independent scheduler, who was copied on all of it, personally wrote me to apologize, and removed me from the scheduling roster at my request. Soon after that, she stopped scheduling for Nsite and I had to repeat the whole process of deactivating myself with the new scheduler he brought in.

In the end, I'm not big on repeating assignments in general. I live in Los Angeles where there are plenty of assignments available to me. Since it had gotten to the point where they were bugging me to do these assignments every 60 days or so, ahead of the rotation guidelines, I found it telling that they were willing to blow me off like that based on my being unhappy with the process. I was starting to feel uncomfortable with being known at the locations I shopped anyway, since I knew all of the bartenders by name at that point, and was happy to part ways with Nsite. I don't need to go out of my way for a company that does not appreciate my input.

@SteveSoCal wrote:

@jrossetti wrote:

Would you mind elaborating on this?

I don't want to get into too much of a negative rant on the MSC, because it was years ago, and as you've noted, everybody's experience may differ. The software in question that I took issue with also may not even exist or operate the same way anymore....but my main issue was basically a personality conflict with the owner.

There are old threads you can find on the forum where others were complaining about the dining assignments and I defended Nsite for a long time, because they would often bonus assignments in my area and pay me to do the bar/appetizer ones. I felt they were worth it, probably similar to how you feel, because it was close to home and I liked the client.

After years of me regularly filing in on said shops when other shoppers cancelled or flaked, I developed a rapport with the owner. He was aware that I had been a scheduler and editor in the past, and we engaged in discussion about the MS industry at times. He even asked me for leads on clients and reached out for advice about potentially joining the MSPA. I felt that we had an amiable and respectful professional relationship.

At that point, I mentioned politely, that in my opinion, the character requirements were too great for the assignments, and considering the fact that no pay was generally offered, there should be more flexibility allowed with ordering/reimbursement. I was told they would take my input into consideration and forward it to the client, yet nothing changed. When I pressed, I was simply told that the client set the rules and the MSC was not in power to make changes to them.

The debacle arose the owner asked me to take a last-minute assignment. I agreed to it, due to my history with the company, even though I was working a very long day. I got home from work at 10:30 PM and started work on the report, which was due by midnight. Despite me going into considerable detail about the food items, the system kept kicking the food narrative back to me for not having enough characters, but did not specify how many characters exactly were required. After my second attempt to submit the assignment failed, the clock struck midnight, and the entire assignment was immediately cancelled.

My email about the problem was responded to the following morning by the scheduler, who reset the assignment, but all of the data I entered was gone, and I had to start over.

When I finished re-entering the report, I contacted the owner about my disappointment. I explained that I was relatively sure the client did not set the cut-off time in the software, and that since the software would simply delete tardy assignment at the deadline, I felt it would be a professional courtesy to push the deadline back until at least 2:00 AM, to accommodate shoppers who were working late and struggling to get the assignments done on time....considering that the instructions did not specify a required character count, and that it would not affect the workflow to be submitted at 2 AM.

Now...It may have just been a bad day for the owner, but was I got as a response was one of the most disrespectful emails I have ever received in a business setting. The owner insisted the fault was entirely mine for simply not submitting the report on time, that his company shared no fault whatsoever for any issues, and that he did not like the tone of my email. He felt that it was accusatory since the report guidelines are entirely out of his control, and suggested that I rethink the tone and content of my emails. His solution was that I should have simply emailed him for an extension the following day and submitted the report then if I was going to be late. He accepted no responsibility for the instruction set not laying out the character requirements. Now...when you are reaching out to a shopper about sales reps and business strategies, I don't think it's a big stretch for that shopper to make a common sense suggestion for your business operation! It's certainly not disrespectful, and was meant to be helpful.

The independent scheduler, who was copied on all of it, personally wrote me to apologize, and removed me from the scheduling roster at my request. Soon after that, she stopped scheduling for Nsite and I had to repeat the whole process of deactivating myself with the new scheduler he brought in.

In the end, I'm not big on repeating assignments in general. I live in Los Angeles where there are plenty of assignments available to me. Since it had gotten to the point where they were bugging me to do these assignments every 60 days or so, ahead of the rotation guidelines, I found it telling that they were willing to blow me off like that based on my being unhappy with the process. I was starting to feel uncomfortable with being known at the locations I shopped anyway, since I knew all of the bartenders by name at that point, and was happy to part ways with Nsite. I don't need to go out of my way for a company that does not appreciate my input.

Okay, so maybe your experience doesn't differ all that much from my own.


Yeah, that sounds like the owner. Ive been hosed by that cutoff time too. Ive also gotten a nastygram from him before...somewhat valid to be fair, but along the lines of me needing to get my @#$%& together in basically those words lol.

They are the reason I do all of my reports in google docs for narratives because I lost several as I often would do them late at night too. I feel we have a decent understanding but I too think they should at least have like 5 or 10 bucks for the darn report.

Thanks for sharing. There's nothing you said here that really differs from my own experience. I took it more as him just being blunt and keeping it real with me than trying to be rude but still.

@jrossetti wrote:

I took it more as him just being blunt and keeping it real with me than trying to be rude but still.

Well, I can stand rudeness, which was him telling me to check my attitude...while giving me attitude. It was the not being willing to accept any responsibility or input that made me feel disrespected. The midnight cutoff is meaningless, and expecting shoppers to jump through hoops when not getting paid is unprofessional.

The reason why the shops don't pay is because the owner doesn't have enough faith in his product or company to sell it on value. He let's the client dictate all the terms and then allows the negative parts of that to roll down to shoppers (I.e. disrespect for shoppers time/value).

If he came from Bestmark, that makes sense, since that's the basic attitude I always received from them.

Love @SteveSoCal 's response:

"I don't want to go on a rant, but...[ten paragraph rant]."

LOL

Anyhow, valid points there. The MSC is a one-person operation (plus IC schedulers) that the MSC owner runs out of their home. Lots of shoppers have reported needing to chase payments. The narrative requirements for some of the shops are unrealistic--think fine-dining style report for a counter service hot dog stand. No, really.

I also deactivated my account, BUT, I still get occasional e-mails from their schedulers. WTF?

@MSF wrote:

Love @SteveSoCal 's response:

"I don't want to go on a rant, but...[ten paragraph rant]."

Typical.

Well, I am now sure that I am not going to be doing that shop out in BFE that I drive past twice a year. I don't need $25 that badly. Thanks guys.

What is BFE? the only thing I could come up with is Beyond Freaking Everywhere
In any case reading what happened to Steve, who I am sure is a great mystery shopper and an asset to any company, it sounds as though truly there is no consideration for a human at this company. I have never worked for them but a midnight deadline to get a dinner report in is really too short and crazy. I have often left a nice restaurant after 10 PM, sometimes later. That combined with traffic and other little details before making it possible for me to sit down and write narrative reports would always put me past midnight. And the character max not showing...I have issue with the msc that will not show this number until you are over but not ever showing it is something which i cannot believe would be the client's choice. Doesn't the mystery shop company put the reporting form together on their software? If the client is doing everything why would they need to hire a msc in the first place?
Steve you are well rid of this company and I will try to remember not to accept the occasional job sent to me. I am not signed up with them,

@sandyf wrote:

What is BFE?

Bum F Egypt

Blythe, Indio, Yuba City, Manteca all qualify.

My favorite is Manteca, which means lard in Spanish, yet they want to call it Man-Teek-Ah to make it uppity. Nope, it's lard if you ask me.

In the MSc's defense, the shop may have been due by midnight the following day. I can't remember specifically, but I was working 14 hours days at the regular job that week so I just remember getting home and thinking, "Ugh!...I have 90 minutes to get this report in!"