Seelevel has been sending more and more email for $8 jobs. I can't imagine why people aren't jumping on then. They now are offering a bonus, so they pay $12.

So telling shoppers that their time is worth crumbs, they inundate shoppers with 63 messages. The number has been gradually raising for weeks.

Federal Law requires that one opt-in to all commercial law and that each email contains a physical street address, does not mislead, and provides an automatic opt out request.

1) No physical address is provided on these emails.
2) The "unsubscribe" button does not take you to an unsubscribe page. It takes you to a website where one needs to register to be removed.
3) I've sent in requests requesting a stop to the volume of mail.

Each of these emails violates three different parts of the Can Spam Act. Penalties for only these emails sent only to me only on this day are $47,250. The FTC is likely to examine all email going back several months and could apply the maximum penalty of $2million dollars.

In addition officers could be convicted and sentenced to 3-5 years in Federal prisons.

We know only a few MSCs inundate us with mail. They give a bad name to the other quality MSCs.

Federal Law requires that you opt-in to any email.
A physical address must be listed.
They must immediately honor your request to unsubscribe.
Unsubscribe sites should be automatic, with at most a confirmation of your email and a checkbox to confirm.
Email titles should not be deceptive.

A violation is counted as a single instance of any of the above in one email. An email may have multiple violations. All violations over a certain time period can be counted for a $250 fine per violation. And of course there could be a prison term as well.

I may not be able to stop the insult of being offered $8 for a job after going through signing up, writing tests, warnings about not meeting an MSC's requirements, late or no payments, Yes or No answers requiring 25 characters, web sites using technology that was obsolete 20 years ago, poorly written instructions, questions asking information that is impossible to obtain, or Multiple Choice Questions that do not offer the correct choice, bad spelling/grammar in letters written to us and on the questions themselves, and requirements to remember the names, full descriptions, and complete responses to a series of questions, all done without notes. It was enough that when the Covid Epidemic hit, MSCs were requesting that we and our minor children go on shops exposing our selves and our families to this deadly disease. It is enough that MSCs tell us to break the law by audio and videotaping businesses. They use ever trick in the book to avoid paying. Websites are down. Schedulers are rude and have no concept that shoppers are anything but drones.

I will ignore most of that. I am going to file a complaint at the FTC. You may do this a well. Let's at least stop one egregious practice.

Is it any wonder that they are desperate for shoppers when they fill ones email box and offer people $8 for a job?

You may report violations of the Can Spam Act at [reportfraud.ftc.gov].
If the person emails from gmail or outlook, each of those services has rules about spam and you can send a violation there. If the mail shows up as a private domain (name of a company), go to [lookup.icann.org] type in the domain name. They will provide you with the address of the service company (ie. godaddy.com) where you can forward your complaint that their web server is being used to send spam.

Who knows. If a few shoppers decide they want to be treated respectfully, a number of MSCs may just start doing that. And by the way, the MSCs need to follow the law regardless of whether you are a stellar shopper, just stated shopping, or are not the best shopper. Don't accept the "if you were a good shopper, you wouldn't have to put up with ...." It's a bit like, "if you weren't dressed like that, you...." Respect, being treated properly is NOT something someone should have to earn or prove themselves deserving.

You may have noticed that the moving industry, telemarketing industry and a few others receive a lot of focus from the FTC. Targeted industries have additional requirements, specific paperwork and review from multiple Federal Agencies including the IRS. Some industries that were once incredibly bad, have had the bad players removed, and the remaining businesses have cleared up their act. Remarkably, they find their profits have improved as they are perceived as more trustworthy. The FTC performs undercover investigations and reviews complaints as they go through their reviews to determine if there are systemic violations of things such as spam, fraud, tax violations, improper classification of employees as contractors, false advertising, wage & hour violations, reporting and more. It's unfortunate that the more ethical businesses in the same industry suffer the additional scrutiny, are investigated and sometimes have their reputation suffer.

If the more reputable MSCs worked to ensure everyone followed the laws and were ethical and told the common MSC platforms that they would not share a platform with disreputable businesses, and MSC business associations had a standard of ethics and removed bad players, they would able to work with better shoppers, and be received better when they go to businesses to sell their services.

MSCs are paid by businesses that want feedback on customer service. It is ironic that the reputation of the MSC industry is so poor. It must be so difficult to continually attract new, untested shoppers, screen them, train them, meet client deadlines and generate new business from clients that often feel the need to wash their hands after hearing from a MSC.

When one registers for an MSC, one opts-in or declines to receive e-mail. Rather than getting all upset about it, why not just change your settings so that SeeLevel does not send you e-mail?

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2021 01:16AM by Rousseau.

As Rousseau said, go into your profile and choose to stop the e-mails.

TL;dr

I've requested that they stop emailing me. They still are.

In 1990, one could create a simple excel formula, that would examine all outstanding jobs, determine which shoppers were within 15 (or so) miles, then create a single email to shoppers listing all the jobs they might be interested in. Furthermore a shopper could preselect the criteria.

Currently schedulers are cutting and pasting and spending hours trying to get people to work fighting against themselves. An agency that hires an IT person for a month would blow everyone else out of the water. Their costs would go down, they could focus on the best jobs and the best shoppers, pay more to the shoppers, get better reports and put others out of business. Technology is not the answer to every question, but the entire industry is shooting themselves in the foot.

FYI, I am NOT an IT consultant. But I have worked in that arena. This sort of thing can be done by a bright high schooler.

Requests to humans often fall on deaf ears. Logon to your SeeLevel account in Sassie and make the changes yourself.

lol seelevel. the last real quick and easy jobs i enjoyed doing for them were the donut shops when they were called beyond hello in 2015… made a lot of money that summer.

just saw an email from them about the easiest $15 i’ll ever make… LMAO not even close. they have no shame, gave me a good laugh though.

To whoever claiming the emails as a violation - you will never win your arguments.

They are more transactional or relationship content rather than commercial. To begin with, you are not a typical consumer, but a mystery shopper. So your protection as a "consumer" is weakened by this special status.

Also - SeeLevel HX's agreement has a mandatory arbitration clause.

So if you don't like the emails, close the account and cancel the agreement.

How about you send an email first with the requirement spelled out and if they don't correct it then file a complaint?

I've provided them with what is required by Federal Law. They continue to send email. At this point I WANT them to send more email as each one is a separate violation. When the FTC does their fact finding, I've got more evidence.

I've not had this problem with other agencies.

Arbitration is for civil suits that I might file. I am filing nothing. The FTC will file Federal Criminal Charges. They can't tell the FTC to arbitrate

@ts.....that's where I am. Thanks.

Ugh!! Same! I am just glad they stopped (for the most part) with the stupid rhyming subjects on their emails that they did last year. It was making my brain implode