I am NOT a SNARKY or RUDE person in anyway but if someone is gonna attack me for absolutely no reason especially when I was trying to give a different point of view and help someone out, I'm gonna fight back! I vary rarely even comment on these forums, so being attacked like that I didn't think was right. So all of you who have judged me by this please read my initial post and see that I was only trying to give positive feedback on this company and not to be called names or get a bad rep.

@bethmar224 wrote:

AuburnHarleyMama, I had emailed and called my TOM and she would never answer. I heard from her when she needed me to cover some stores for her on a Sunday. I still didn't get an answer from her. She just complained about her working on a Sunday without being paid. That was the end for me.

@bethmar224: I am so sorry to hear that your T.O.M. will not return phone calls or email...

Am I reading this correctly, in that you are no longer with CAST? If I have read this incorrectly, and you are still working for them, then PM me, because I think I may be able to help.

Mine won't return phone calls or emails either. I just call support. What else to do?

Not sure what is the role of TOM when they don't reply or respond emails.

I didn't go with CAST. I was working for Castforce and really liked it and the scheduler. However, when they went CAST, my scheduler was no more and the company couldn't seem to get their problems worked out. So, I was able to go back with my perevious company from a year earlier and the base is in the town where I live.....much better. I work two stores two-three days a week; travel paid between stores and time paid between stores.

I went against my better judgement and applied. I specifically made a note on the application that I can only work until noon, and I only do work in the .south and west suburbs. The recruiting person assured me that this was workable. Twice he called and twice I made a major point of both these non negotiable requirements. He agreed twice. Next day I get 23 emails for stores which I was assigned to. You probably already guessed the locations. I called the recruiting person as the TOM was not answering either phone calls or emails. He put me on hold , came back and said the TOM told him I requested these stores. I explained that there was apparently a mix up as these were no way, no how locations. He again insisted I requested them. I quit on the spot. I'm going to request a store where a gun was pulled 8 feet away from me at Christmas? Stores that now have armed security guards? I think not. Some people have good luck with this company, I did not. I think it was the manager, trying to fill the unfillable locations.

I will try to make this as short as possible, but I have a lot to say, and I think it will make for a good read for anyone that is on the fence working for this company... I worked as an IC for Castforce for 2-3 years... never had any major issues, just a couple errors on my part uploading the wrong pictures etc, but made good money because I could pick and choose what I want to do and where I want to do it. Working for other 'stable,' companies, this was perfect for me because some weeks were busier with my other jobs and I could supplement my time by picking up what I could with Castforce. After I got wind Castforce was doing away with their ICs at the beginning of 2016, (I had to learn this from other people in the business, because this was clearly not communicated with myself, or a couple of their other ICs I know), I did apply for and has hired rather quickly by CAST as a W-2 employee. I was told that I had to have a IPhone or Android. I have one, so that wasn't an issue. I was told that all work was to be reported on their app while in store. Also, I really did not have an issue with this. Less paperwork when I get home. What I wasn't told is how "buggy" the app is. Numerous times it has crashed on me during the middle of a job... which has lead me to have to make numerous calls to their app support team... which has wasted a lot of my time. I've had to do such things as delete and re-install the app, clear the cache numerous times... wait for their server to get back up and running, etc. Since you HAVE TO submit your report at the store (their GPS tracks you), you're pretty much dead in the water if you have any issues. You'll need to get them resolved on site. I pride myself with doing a good job in all my work, but until all the bugs are worked out, or a reliable app is produced, there will seemingly be more time worrying about app issues, than actually doing the work properly. As I write this now, both their main site and app site are DOWN. Thankfully, I'm not in a store doing work for them right now, but I'm sure some people are. Second thing I was not told, and I think this change went into effect around the time I was hired... you're only paid from CHECK IN to CHECK OUT. So you check in via the app upon arrival, and check out again when you leave. Certain projects do require you to spend 'X' amount of time in store, and I understand that. But others, which are marked at a 1 HR call for $11.50 (simple projects like checking if a display is present, adding coupons, or IRCs, etc.) which can be done in 15-20 and still be in full compliance... if you choose to leave the store and checkout after you're done, you'll only be paid for that 15 or 20 mins. So in cases like that, you're actually being penalized for working quickly and efficiently. So if you want that full hour of pay, be prepared to sit in the parking lot for the other 40 minutes twiddling your thumbs waiting to check out of the app. Certainly not good use of anyone's time. To be fair, I have gone over the said time for a job on a couple of instances for one reason or another, and I was compensated. Other things to take into account... currently, field employees are capped at only 26 hours per week and no more than 6 hours of work can be scheduled or completed in 1 day. This makes scheduling more difficult if you cover different areas, and you like to bang everything out in one day. So to sum it up for me... you're spending more time, being paid less, and at least for now, dealing with a very frustrating, buggy app. I'm moving soon, and need the extra money... it's the only reason I'm putting up with this. Hopefully, they'll get better in time, but I'm not banking on it. Hope this helps some of you other there.

Thanks CasinoMan! for this info. I have some questions for you:
1) Can I schedule store A but work at store B in that time slot?
2) Can I work outside of working hour e.g. outside of 9-5 ?
3) Can I work more than 6 hours? I know we can't schedule but can I still work more than 6 hours?
4)Did you get paid for mileage or driving time? If yo drove between 2 stores?

CasinoMan, you are so right with all you've posted.

I finally waved the white flag of surrender.

Started last week when I was sick for 2 days. God forbid anyone return a phone call as per usual. I was getting spammed with overdue job emails, "glitchy" unscheduled emails, and good email about unscheduled work. I was scheduled 6 hours a day 6 - 7 days a week and still the unscheduled jobs were piling up with no way in the world to schedule them. Literally, 18+ emails every 12 hours.

I sat last Friday night with pencil and planner, rearranging jobs on paper, using every .25 of an hour I could, to schedule myself out solid for 3 weeks. Took me an hour and a half of MY time. And still had unscheduled jobs. And still came the emails. Honestly, I didn't sleep at all Friday night. I've been doing this for over 10 years and have never had such a stressful part time job. EVER.

So much for 26 hours a week. It was a minimum of 30. Add in drive time? We're talking a full time job here. And I knew there was no way in the world CAST would make this right. I have another merchandising job and I'm certainly not going to quit a very good company, with an excellent manager, a company with INTEGRITY ... to work for this *whatever*.

So, knowing the reduced pay rule, I nonetheless emailed Saturday morning. Made assurances I would finish out the weekend scheduled jobs "meeting all objectives" and I was done. Meaning, I wasn't going to sit in a parking lot for 2 hours staring off into space, mad because I could have been doing something else productive.

(Anyone reading from CAST, you've by now figured out who I am.)

I noticed when I logged in this morning my paystubs were all zeroed out. I've got no idea if that was retribution or a system glitch. I was expecting (naive, I know) to be able to see all the jobs removed, all the stores removed, and to have access to my portal until pay posted. Wrong. I tried to log in this afternoon to see about payroll and I'm totally blocked out.

Word to the wise: keep a log book of your projects and your times. You may need them.

Best decision I ever made. I tried to be all unicorns and rainbows for 3 months and it just kept getting worse.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2016 11:19PM by adlib.

1. It doesn't matter what hour you schedule your job for a day, you can report it and check-in, check-out at any point during that given day. If you do not have the job scheduled for that day, you cannot check-in, check-out, etc. Also, obviously, you can't be checked into more than 1 store at a time. If you check into a 2nd store, you will be automatically checked out of your first store.
2. Various jobs have a START time frame of 9-5 or similar some as late as 9:00 PM. I haven't started or ended a job outside the time frame, but I imagine you could still report.
3. If you go over on your scheduled jobs for that day, I would assume they'd pay you for your time in store.. However, you cannot schedule more than 6 hours a day, so any time above those 6 hours would be minimul.
4. I don't know if it's the same for everyone, but I am not paid mileage unless I drive more than 60 miles BETWEEN stores a day, and then after that, it's @ 32 cents per mile. I was told if your TOM (manager) asks you to cover stores for another rep, you are paid full mileage from the time you leave your home. I had one such case like that, which would be in my next paycheck... we'll see if it comes to fruition or not.

I am sorry I have sat so quietly following this forum for months. Hoping all this was not so. We as people tend to have a passivity as long as it's not happening to us. But then it happened all the same scheduling and non communication issues. Good communication when they need something and then when we need something screened calls and the run around. Such a pattern developed of this. Even some TOMs who took over temporarily who thought they could talk to you any kind of way.

I will tell you all, they pay bonuses and full drive time mileage as they like say to certain people. It's been going on. People keep it quiet so they can get theirs. Some have said recently that they are cracking down on that but it's been going on even since the change over. I see all the previous payolls are zeroed out and certain pages cannot be accessed. Check your portals people. Why the lack of transparency?

“I truly believe that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your business.” - Richard Branson.

Anyone reading from the company, CEO or whomever, you need to take notice of this quote and think about what it really means. You've lost a lot of good people over the last several months. People who took very good care of your business.

Oh and their Quality Control, I don't know if they are just scared or not well trained, but they need to learn to read the notes from the job before they reply. It seems there is a culture of this company trying to scare people into production or quality work. That's not necessary, if the work environment is pleasant and rewarding.

I will say that I am one that has been hopeful and defended them for months. Never a complaint.

So it isn't just me with the zeroed out payroll history. Or should I say *wasn't* just me.

My payroll history too has been cleared to all 0s. Hope its just a glitch... This current payroll should be posting at any time now... At least it better, but yes, I'd advise keeping a log book as well. Too many red flags here...

These stories are making me really glad I quit before I actually did any work for them.

So, it isn't just me with a gltchy App and prolems Galore (with a capital G) :-) with the CAST Technical Support? Their Technical Support can be helpful, so long as it is in their realm of knowledge. But ask one question that they cannot answer, and you might well have just shot yourself in the foot!!

A Big Shout Out to CasinoMan123 for sharing what you did...it helps me, Big Time, to know that I am not the only one to have such problems. I was truly starting to think it was just Little ol' Me.

Oh, and here's a helpful hint (plus, maybe this hint will finally get a reply from the CAST folk who are reading this forum, but not "communicating" anything with us) and that is - when
you do not have a job scheduled for that day, you CAN go ahead and Check-In and Check -Out, by changing the system date/clock on your Tablet. Do not know if this works on iPhone/iTabs because I do not own one, or if this will work for anyone else. What I do know is that it works for me, and I was able to get more jobs completed by changing my phones system date/clock, checking in to that store, completing the work, submitting the work, and then checking out.

Finally, I am in total agreement with C4L, that the Quality Control peeps seem to be scared! What they have sent back, vs what they have Not sent back shows a complete lack of training. It also seems they have a quota. As if they MUST return XX number of jobs/tasks, or risk questioning by their own QC? If that makes any sense. ... it just seems like what they have returned to me was SO not needed, had they read my #$^=%÷ #/^&, I mean, my Beautiful Notes.
;-)

Would anyone from CAST care to respond? Anyone? Like maybe a CEO or a T.O.M.? Or someone from Quality Control? I really could use some insightful knowledge from a CAST employee in the know. ... ... ...

There doesn't seem that there would be much that they could say. It's all giant mess? We don't have a clue what to do to fix any of the horrendous problems? I am sure that there are upper management people that are about to tear their hair out trying to fix some pretty spectacular issues. Maybe the changes happened too fast. Were there lots of problems when it was still CAST?

When it was CastForce, no.

I did A LOT of work for Castforce, nearly full time in December including tremendous travel and, besides pictures that I messed up and had to go back and take, it was smooth sailing with that side. I scheduled the work for the week (accepted assignments) I did them, reported them, they paid me. Paid perfectly and on time every time. Not at all the same.

You know, they had Cast as well as Castforce this whole time. This "Cast" is not new. They did either create, or update, the new app and that is where the problem lies. Well, also, and this attitude among their employees to not admit to anything being wrong. Makes you feel like the problem is with you or you are the only one with the problem.

In my opinion, the problem goes way deeper than the app. I didn't even consider the app when I quit.

Like any job, it really boils down to the relationship you have with your immediate supervisor. I have a great one with my TOM so it is easier for me to roll with the punches while they work out their issues.

Food for thought, this company has over 6,000 field reps, yet only a small percentage post on the board. Do search on Glassdoor.com and find me ANY company... in ANY industry that has positive reviews.

My point is it is usually the disgruntled that voice their opinions... and it usually isn't positive. Just browse the mystery shopping posts for mystery shopping companies on this board to prove my point. If you read those, there aren't many companies that pay their shoppers or screw them in some way.

Just sayin....

I'm not disgruntled. I just posted the facts about my experience. I didn't say they're arseholes because of it.

They shorted my pay, then kept asking me to check the mail. Then, they asked me to pay the $12 for a stop payment on that check; this was 6 weeks after I was supposed to have received the pay.

Then, she said she'd go ahead and replace the check for free on the next payroll and could I take an assignment tomorrow. lol

Cast reminds me of Wimpey. They always want their hamburgers and then pay later. You might have to be a certain age to know that reference.

Not disgruntled here. Just disappointed as everything always went pretty swell the last 3 years. It always feels a little like they are trying to manipulate me into working. Like, don't mind this thing called details.

They also seem to try to hold a lot of secrecy, which is understandable for a company that wants to protect their interest but when issues start arising and you don't address them it becomes
suspicious. IC's shouldn't go to stores and see CAST sign in sheets and when you inquire about them, they dismiss it. Why not be forthcoming? You can tell when they are uncomfortable being asked about something. Like they are afraid to say the wrong thing. When they started corresponding to ask people to come on board with CAST. The representative calling couldn't or wouldn't even answer basic questions. If you have a great relationship with your TOM, great! Been there, done that. It was a good feeling and makes all the difference. I've gone through a few and they ain't all winners.

Over 6,000 Field Reps?
Phew.
No Wonder...
... and how many T.O.M.s?
No Wonder...
Phew.
Glad My T.O.M. Is The Bomb!
I just wish there were more upfront details so I can plan my days...but, with that said, now that I have a few under the belt, i am getting a feel for how long each job will take to complete. Planning and scheduling is smoothing out.
Can't help but to agree with you, though, C4L, on the forthcoming of CAST members. ...this cloak of secrecy on various issues has begun to be more than suspicious. But what can you do. No one from CAST will speak up, and its not like the answer is going to be found in here. So, I'm all for playing the wait and see game. Hopefully, it is all for the best and after all the wrinkles have been straightened out, all will be like it was, only better! ;-)

I think the current lawsuit in Florida has a lot to do with the secrecy. I also think the lawsuit forced their hand to merge before they were ready. No solid intel on this... just a hunch. Has anyone found any positive reviews on glassdoor yet lol??

I've found plenty positive reviews on glassdoor. In fact, I placed one myself about Crossmark

[www.glassdoor.com]

@Wild Bill wrote:

I think the current lawsuit in Florida has a lot to do with the secrecy. I also think the lawsuit forced their hand to merge before they were ready. No solid intel on this... just a hunch. Has anyone found any positive reviews on glassdoor yet lol??

There is a class action lawsuit in GA also, Rodriguez v. Castforce, Inc.

921 reviews on Glassdoor about Crossmark. Biggest complaint? Management and communication. Sound familiar? I didn't say all reviews were bad on Glassdoor, what I said is that the negative reviews far surpass the positive ones for EVERY company. Just search by stars, you will find way more 1 and 2 stars than 4 or 5. It is just human nature.

And thanks for the info on the lawsuit in GA... I'll have to google that one.

@Wild bill

Would you mind explaining how Cast is working out better for you?

1) Are they paying you driving time and mileage?
2) Are you not experiencing application crash?
3) Are you able to connect with TOM or Support within 5 minutes?
4) Are you able to make equal for same projects worked for Castforce?
5) Are you able to work more than 6 hours every day?
6) Are you able to schedule jobs more than 6 hours?
7) Are you able to work outside of 9-5 window frame?
8) Are you getting the ​timely response from your TOM?

Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2016 02:13PM by shahid09.

Would you mind explaining how Cast is working out better for you?

1) Are they paying you driving time and mileage?

Yes, after the 60 mile rule.

2) Are you not experiencing application crash?

Of course I am. Just rolling with the punches, they'll work it out.

3) Are you able to connect with TOM or Support within 5 minutes?

Yes, I text him and he calls me or texts me back.

4) Are you able to make equal for same projects worked for Castforce?

Yes. More actually as Castforce didn't have 3 hr Loreal visits.

5) Are you able to work more than 6 hours every day?

Yes. They pay for all hrs worked.

6) Are you able to schedule jobs more than 6 hours?

Yes. Once you close out a job, you can reschedule a job from another day into the same day and complete the job.

7) Are you able to work outside of 9-5 window frame?

Yes. It seems the App wont allow you to schedule a job after 2 pm, so I just schedule multiple jobs for 2 pm. No big deal, you can complete scheduled jobs anytime during the day without penalty.

8) Are you getting the ​timely response from your TOM?

Yes. Usually by text. They are extremely busy so a short text works great.

Have patience... all restructures are a cluster **** until the bugs are worked out. It will probably take 6 months for this transition to smooth out.