For starters…. Pay as promised. I accepted the almost 90 day pay date terms, and still no payment.

I just looked this company up and found that there address is registered to a Mailboxes, Etc store. They rent out a box to accept their mail, no physical address that I can see.

Mintel now lists some shops on iSecretShop.

@Totallytop8x5 wrote:

Mintel has another shopper portal?? I only know of the one... care to share the other one, please. Thank you!

@joanna81 wrote:

I did one of the weird apartment ones where you do a shared login and group report. I never wound up getting paid and it was $5 so I didn't bother chasing it. It was odd. Otherwise they don't have much else for me.

I did about 5 of these and never got paid. I never understood why I didn't sign in under my own user ID and password. Those are the last shops I did for Cirrus.

I will absolutely never ever work for this company ever again! I've had to use multiple PayPal accounts because somebody keeps hacking mine and PayPal won't let me open another one!

I should have been paid for the last shop that I did for them two weeks ago! They want to give me some song and dance about my multiple PayPal accounts and they tell me they want to be sure they're paying the Shopper that did the shop but they don't want to issue checks or use Venmo because they want to say that is!

I want to file a formal complaint against this worthless company because I will never ever work for them again! I would advise any other mystery shop or not to work for them because who can wait 3 months to get paid in today's inflation I can't!

I did send an email to the company stating that I could not request more work until my pay was brought current. On the next business day, I was magically paid for the two months that they were behind.

This supports the theory that the company only pays, when a shopper tracks them down. This is ridiculous. I do think that they probably expect that some shoppers will simply not follow up for payment. I won’t be doing any more jobs for them.

I don't understand how Cirrus gets away with this super late payment schedule. It is way outside the bounds of what is considered standard for MSCs, paying on the 20th - 25th of the following month.

On their site it reads If you completed your shop during month X, "Payment processing begins month end (hits PayPal usually 3-5 after month end." So in the column if you completed the task in August, the payment processing column reads November. So does that mean that they will pay you December 3rd-5th if you submitted the invoice by August 31st?

Either way, it is understandable why they are having problems filling storage audits for $75 and apartment shops for $100. The pool of candidates that can do this are wise to their nonsense.

I wonder if they figure with the slow pay and not paying, that people will just forget? It tells me that they don't hold shoppers in high regard to treat them this way.

At least five yrs. ago, I considered Cirrus, but the stated payment term, of approx. 110 days, was unacceptable to me. IF the company is still candid, concerning when money flows, the ball is in the court of shoppers to either play or exit the game. A crucial ability in business is the discipline to adhere to Kenny Rogers, AKA Brady Hawkes, and know when to fold 'em.

I think there is a significant difference between a company that pays "on time" according to their published pay schedule that happens to be quite long, and a company that doesn't pay at all or pays much later than their published schedule.

We may not like having to wait 90 days or more to be paid, but if that is the published pay schedule for a particular company, then that is what we signed up for. We might complain about that, but that's the system. If they pay when they say they are going to so, I don't see how we can hold it against them.

This is completely different, however. There has been significant evidence that Cirrus pays very late or not at all. There are numerous accounts of shoppers that have had to chase pay and wait months and months past the payment date to get their money. There are accounts of shoppers that never got paid at all. This is completely different than a company that has a long turnaround but pays when they say they will.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2022 04:20PM by thunderdeacon.

Deacon states--I think there is a significant difference between a company that pays "on time" according to their published pay schedule that happens to be quite long, and a company that doesn't pay at all or pays much later than their published schedule.

Bob comments--I completely agree.

Earlier I received an email from Cirrus titled

XMAS IS COMING! EARN CASH NOW!

That's pretty funny because if you do their job by Friday, September 30th, you will be lucky to get paid by Christmas.

Update: I took a shot at emailing them about nonpayment from two years ago (my fault for not submitting an invoice). The scheduler basically laughed, so I emailed through their contact button and got a response. I was told to submit the invoice and they would pay it immediately. I did and have since been paid! Maybe there is hope...

The talk about IPSOS paying twice a week (pay quickly, pay often) for the rest of the year reminded me how slow to pay CIRRUS Marketing is.

@hbbigdaddy mentioned the days of having to wait 2-3 months was a standard thing. Cirrus is still stuck in 2005. They pay three months later, IF they remember to pay you. Although the pay schedule is on their site, there is no reason they should take this long.

They were disingenuous with their Earn XMAS Cash email last month. If you did a job in October for them, you won't get that cash until at least January. So how are you getting Christmas cash? I did one of their storage unit audits in August with plans of doing more and figured the time applied to training and passing the test was an investment. I would know what to do on future audits.

I can't envision doing more storage jobs for them since even with a bonus, it is too much time, low rate per hour, small window when you can perform this task, and weekdays only. So many other jobs pay more and you get your money so much sooner,

If you figure an hour to watch their training video and take the test, add 2.5 hours as the minimum time to stay onsite for their audit, 2 hours to upload all the pics and the rest of the report, and the thing I never thought I would run into -- I had to reach out to the scheduler multiple times over a period of a week to get a code so I could log into their system. I wasted another hour at least waiting to hear back for the code. If I recall, you had a small window to enter the code before it became invalid, so I had to be on standby. They should assign you a code when you accept the job.

They have zero respect for people's time.

I did not receive my payment for the CIRRUS August shop that should've been paid by December 7th per their website. I thought someone posted the CEO or owner's email and several shared that they got paid right away after doing so.

I tried searching it using various phrases and expanded the time to 90 days and even further out and nothing. Perhaps I am confusing CIRRUS with another late paying company. Hoping that someone with better searching skills can find it and post it here.

TIA

I did some in Sept because they were high-paying. I called and spoke to the scheduler/manager before I accepted the shops stating I was concerned about the length of time to receive payment. She assured me that they now pay in 2 months and I would receive payment in November. I did not receive payment in November. I have emailed and called and have had no response. Here it is mid December and I still have not received my compensation.

I agree with this but when I voiced my concern to the account manager about the length of time to be paid, I was told that they now pay quicker and I would receive my payment in November. This did not happen and they do not respond to my calls or emails. This is a problem.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2022 06:38AM by Jeannine louise.

@Jeannine louise wrote:

I agree with this but when I voiced my concern to the account manager about the length of time to be paid, I was told that they now pay quicker and I would receive my payment in November. This did not happen and they do not respond to my calls or emails. This is a problem.

If it were me, I would have asked them to put it in writing via email BEFORE I agreed to do such a shop. But, that's just me being a Monday morning quarterback. Such advice doesn't help in this case, but maybe it will help someone else. Sorry that has happened to you and I hope you get your payment soon!

@jeannine louise - did you send an itemized invoice to them? they only pay if you send their accounting department your invoice.

@Jeannine louise When I visited the site, the same info was there. If you do a shop in September, then your payment will be processed at the end of December so that you receive it 5-7 days later in January!

You do have to send an invoice by the end of the month of when you completed your shop and it was reviewed. In my opinion, this is yet another negative in why you shouldn't bother with this company. Can you imagine if you had to send an invoice to every company you do work for at the end of the month?!

I could not find a CEO contact email, but I reached out to the general contact email about payments on their site which is questions@ and was quickly paid. Point is I still had to do extra work to get in touch with them to get my money when essentially everyone else pays automatically.

I still have another payment that is due next month which I am sure I will have to chase down. I can't see myself doing another shop for them. Their storage center audits are inconvenient in terms of when you must conduct them, take too long, poorly paid on a per hour rate, and if all of this weren't enough to scare you away, you will have to chase them down for payment.

The other assignment I did for them was a real estate audit. On here we complain about the half rate paid if the location is closed or can't be conducted. There isn't a provision like that with Cirrus. You get zero. I had to go multiple times to do the shop due to their lack of due diligence. In the end, I wish I had stayed away.

To John's first post:

My experience with Cirrus Marketing is limited. Thanks to this board, I avoided them. I did several phone shops including the weird 5 am calls where you call the apartment community's answering service and leave a message. I got paid 4 months later for those phone shops, but later learned that when it comes to apartment shopping Grace Hill/Shadow Shopper is a better place to go. I have never had any complaints with the latter.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2022 02:47AM by larueda992.

I got paid last week for two apartment shops i did in Mid October. Still have one in review from last month.

They never paid me for an apartment shop I did in 2018. That was enough. Never again.

@All303ie1 That is interesting that you got paid last week by them for jobs done in October. According to their website, you shouldn't expect to get payment until the first 7 days of February for those jobs.

Yes, I sent invoices and many emails. Shopped several shops for them in May!
Still have not been paid. They have a bunch of automail replies when you ask questions. They just keep telling me to send in an invoice!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2022 07:20AM by 7welcomehome77.

Hello, I did 51 shops for Cirrus in 2021 December and they owe me $4685 . The do not reply to any of my emails and not getting the phone calls. Stay away from this company. Is there anyone filed a small claims with them ?

@7welcomehome77 Get in touch with Cirrus about payment at their email questions@ I reached out to them after I did not receive payment using their stated schedule on the website and was paid rather quickly. It stinks that you have to chase them down for the money on top of waiting 100+ days after doing the task and submitting the report.

@girasol I share your sentiment about dealing with Cirrus, but I find it rather hard to believe that you did 51 jobs in one month (2021 December) for them (maybe I am reading your sentence incorrectly). That number equals to an average pay of over $91 and that is the very upper range that they pay for jobs. I am presuming you are talking about storage shop audits and it isn't possible to do more than 2 per day due to the minimum stay and time visit requirements and these require a weekday visit.

What was the purpose of this?

@Totallytop8x5 wrote:

I just looked this company up and found that there address is registered to a Mailboxes, Etc store. They rent out a box to accept their mail, no physical address that I can see.

They owe me apx $700.00 from March 2022. Same situation, many emails, many phone calls, no returns.

@7welcomehome77 Since you have sent the invoices, may I suggest you email them at questions@ . I had to email them at that address since they were late. I explained that I had not received payment per their stated schedule. After sending the emails, I was paid as soon as a couple of hours to as late as thirty hours later.

I too was paid after contacting the @questions email. I sent a copy of the invoice a few days after it was due and sent it again two days later and was then quickly paid for September 2022. I even got paid for one I forgot to invoice two years ago! Do not bother with the scheduler.