Has anyone completed any shops for this company. I did a fine dining shop for them on Oahu (where I live). While I done one before and recieved payment about 70 days later, I did one in May and now 100 days later still have not received payment. they email me every so often saying the check has been mailed. Shoppers beware..........

Buzz in Hawaii

I've never worked for them, but have you tried contacting them directly?

There was a comment posted on Volition about payment problem that got their attention and the shopper got paid promptly. You might consider posting your comment over there (Volition.com) because I'm not sure they read here.

Write to the owner. It was me that posted on volition. I got paid promptly after, and the second check came at 60. The 3rd and 4th went 89 and 78 and I nagged and go doubletalk, Not doing anything till they pay me the one due this week IF I get it without issues and nagging.

Update:

Some of you might have noticed the chatter the past few weeks about them on that "other" forum. Due to issues I have had (not paid on time, posted on V, paid but asked to post I was paid, then paid on time, then not paid for two at the same time - 99 days, 83 days - and having to send two requests) I sent an invoice this time at the 66th day. I heard nothing for 3 days. I was aware of what was being written on V. I heard back today. I got asked to wait "30-45 more days" and told the reason was a "very costly 4 year old lawsuit" that "could threaten the future of MS in CA, and elsewhere."

ROTFL over the reasoning there. No more for me. I want my money, and I warn others that unless you are prepared at this time to not get paid for a long time, get your money and shop for others.
_________________
"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."

Thanks for the heads up Dee Shops!

Hi All:
Two more people have written today on "V" about not getting paid by this firm. Each got a different excuse; one was the same as I got (the litigation thing...) Imagine my surprise when I open my email this AM, and have an offer of a *bonused* shop at an Oahu resort, the *same bonused shop* I did in June (and still have not been paid for.) I shot back a response to the person saying, "Maybe you could pay me for my June 29th shop?" (To her credit, she responded back promptly and said she would try to expedite it. My immediate thought - EXPEDITE? It's 27 days overdue from the 60 day payment schedule!) Before she responded, I also sent yet another attempt to get my money, before I become a casualty of a good MSC gone bad (if ya know what I mean...) The last email I had sent was 19 days ago; NO ONE had bothered to respond as yet.

It should be stated once again that the last two shops I did were not paid until I nagged and kept after it, and they were promised twice without being sent before finally being sent. I have only once been paid on time. Four of five assignments have gone well past the 60 day mark. WELL past.

In the hopes of keeping others from this same experience, I am posting my entire correspondence regarding this latest battle to get paid. You are forewarned....Shop at your own risk. :-(
-Dee


HERE GOES:

On Sep 24, 2008, at 8:50 AM, "Dee Shops" wrote to "BO" and "SP", and cc'd "EB" and "KN":

Subject: VERY over due payment NOW 87 days... AND 19 days since I wrote Billy, with NO response

I was told to write to "BO", so I wrote to "B" several minutes after receiving and reading S's response. I am STILL waiting for a reply, *19* days later.
I am seeking payment on this invoice. This is significantly overdue per the terms of the agreement that your firm set forth and I agreed to. I never agreed to
fund your lawsuit or to take any jobs that my pay would be delayed beyond the 60th day (all of which have, except one. I believe the reason for that one being
paid on time was my posting on Volition, and that alone.) Your firm is sending out emails "bonusing" shops while you still have not paid me (and many others,
according to the forums) for shops done as far back as 6 months ago. This shop was "bonused", but your firm does not pay for the work already delivered to
the clients.

This whole situation is simply unacceptable. I am seeking remittance NOW. No further excuses will be accepted. Do the clients know you are not paying for
the work subcontracted out and delivered to them? I expect payment in my
mailbox on Monday. Please send email copies of the cut checks today.

"Dee Shops"


On Sep 5, 2008, at 11:35 AM, "Dee Shops" wrote to "BO", and cc'd "SP", "EB" and "KN":

This is an extremely difficult time for everyone. The economy is bad. I spent money (that I would not have spent eating at a place I would not have gone
- the food is not very good at RESORT) on the promise of getting my fee and my reimbursement at 60 days. I was never told of these issues before accepting the assignment. I would not have. I have a business to run, and expenses to pay, just as you do. I expect payment. It is overdue. I did the work on the mutually agreed upon 60 day time period. Asking me to underwrite your expenses as an MS firm beyond that 60 day period was never part of the agreement.

Please remit the funds due now. The funding of your lawsuit and jeopardization of MS in CA is not my battle nor my concern. I am owed payment I seek it now.

"Dee Shops"


On Sep 5, 2008, at 11:19 AM, "SP" wrote to "Dee Shops" and cc'd "BO":

"Dee" –

Due to long-term litigation involving our company dating back to 2004, and the current economy, we have gotten behind on payments to our investigators. Our vigorous fight in this case has incurred enormous legal expenses, as this litigation could jeopardize the entire Mystery Shopping industry in California and possibly other states.

As we gather additional resources we must ask that you give us an additional 30 to 45 days to remit payment. This is an extremely difficult time for our company and for the industry as a whole. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please direct them to "BO" at (email address). He will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thank you,

"SP"

Should you have any questions, please feel free to call our office at (office phone).




On September 3 at 9:17 AM, "Dee Shops" wrote to "SP" and "BO":
Subject: Bonused (Hawaii Resort Brunch, Coffee and Bar Shops) June 29th, 2008

I have not received this payment. It is now at at 66 days; this is past the mutually agreed payment date of 60 days. I see I am not the only shopper with this issue, as repeated entries have been stating this same scenario on the Volition forum (as well as other forums dedicated to mystery shopping.)

I am not in the financial position nor of the inclination to underwrite the business activities of Orilio and Associates. That is the essence of what is happening, as this issue has arisen on 4 of the 5 completed assignments.

Please take care of this issue and send scanned copies of the cut check. I will be expecting payment in my mailbox here in Hawaii by Monday.

"Dee Shops"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2008 07:57PM by dee shops.

Thanks for the update Dee Shops. I'm really sorry you are having this hassle. I too got a "bonus" email offer today to a shop I recently was offered without bonus and sent them a message that when I saw from the forums that shoppers were getting paid in a timely manner I would consider.

I am noticing that many companies these days are stretching payments by a couple of days to a couple of weeks and only a very few are paying sooner than their stated pay dates any more. Just before coming on the forum this afternoon I was setting up MY bills to be paid. As I looked over the outflow I recognized just how little of that money has been reimbursed yet. I have an inordinate number of July shops still not paid while in the past it was only Service Sloth and JC & Assoc that I would have expected to still be open this late.

3 locations I did this month that I had shopped in recent months were closed and companies now are reluctant or refusing to give any compensation for the time and miles spent on a now non-existing location. In the past these same companies would either pay the shop or half the shop if they sent you out on a fool's errand.

My guess is that a number of these companies are on the edge of "pulling a Datatron"--going out of business leaving shoppers unpaid. Having fees and reimbursements at risk for 2-4 weeks is one thing, having them at risk for 60-90 days is something else again. I have very little scheduled yet for October because I am reluctant to continue working for companies that have inordinately stretched out pay dates. Intellishop, Service Sleuth, JC & Associates and other MSPs that are not abiding by their stated payment schedules or have unduly long pay cycles, can continue sending email offers, but they are very easy to ignore along with the offers of $10 jobs that take an hour to do. For September I have completed 51 jobs and not met my financial goal for the month while last year I did 160% of that same financial goal in 32 shops. Shopping is no longer a level playing field, our costs go up while our fees go down and the reimbursements and fees take longer and more hassle to receive--if you get them at all. There is certainly no point in working for a company such as Orilio & Associates laying out a dime on their behalf if they are not honoring their side of the contractual agreement.

I know what you mean about whole situation, Flash. The economy is bad, and many companies will just act like nothing is wrong but delay pay before the other shoe drops and we get left holding their bag. The little person loses again. I am also being more and more choosy and if its a new to me MSC, waiting to see how they pay before taking much risk. And as soon as I can free some space on my calendar to do some work on the books, I'm am going to start going after anything more than 5 days overdue. Others owe me too, but its not like this (a long term pattern of no word no check) and its a few $ here or there. While I am not inclined to lose money on this stuff, I rest easier if the loss is a couple of bucks vs over a hundred. I can't imagine fronting thousands (even if I had it!)
dee

Certainly fronting anything becomes less attractive where reimbursement is more than a couple of weeks. And fronting money when the fees have gone down is just foolish. Shoppers only do well when the MSPs insist on fairly priced contracts with their clients and pass on the benefits of those contracts to everyone in the "food chain". I suspect a lot of these MSPs are very poorly administered if in good times they have not accumulated reserves for lean times. And if their decision in lean times is to reduce shopper fees or not pay shoppers, they are just shooting themselves in the foot because without the information we gather and submit they have nothing.

So what else is there that is a reasonable second job from home? I don't want to merchandise as too many of my students work at the same stores I would be at...But we need the extra income. Ideas? MS'ing is looking less happy each day, except for a few of my proven favs, and then I have to wait for some to have a job in my area. ;-(

I sure haven't found one. Generally I am a stock trader, but this market is making that horrendously difficult to make a buck mostly because all the deregulation over the past few years has made it a very unlevel playing field and now those chickens are coming home to roost and the taxpayer is being asked to bail them out after Wall Street has managed to already jack energy costs with speculative trades and destroy the housing market with their greed to make a profit in an under regulated market. At this point I am back to working stained glass and will build an inventory of pieces because tourist gift shops are a major outlet and mostly folks can't afford to travel these days.

Oooh ya! Another artist! :-)

I might have to resort to doing palm trees and turtles under an alias to pay bills! Not my definition of art, but I sure don't have a huge market for my very contemporary art in THIS tourist area! Etsy, next stop??? :-)

Make it really classy, paint the palm trees and then sell them pot and all There was a big industry around here a few years ago that was making artificial palm trees, decorating them with lights and selling them as 6', 8', 10' and 12' Christmas decorations. But please don't put paint on the poor turtles . . .

I think she meant she was making paintings OF palm trees and turtles. LOL.

Flash, any other MSP's that you know are in trouble?

Of course she did, I was just taking a little poetic license.

Not that I KNOW of, I did hear some grumbling about Reality Check not too long ago.

Reality Check is paying just fine..........paid yesterday.........they did change their pay time which is what shoppers were complaining about.

They used to pay 45- 60 days........but now: Shopper payments are distributed in most cases 60-90 days after you perform your shop. They pay via Pay Pal, or by check depending on your preference.

Most times, I was paid about 60-65 days after shop and they still hold true to that. I have never had to wait 90 days. I think they changed it because they were prolly being contacted at that 60 day mark by shoppers.

I actually love this company........partially because of the scheduler Toni and the editor, Jamie. Wish they had more shops around here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2008 11:36PM by bugspost.

I got paid today. 91 days. Happy to be paid. Won't be doing any shops in the near future...till they get their act together, payment wise, and I hear it from
consistently others before trying it myself.

Glad to hear you got paid. What a hassle just to have them fulfill their end of the contract. Sure reduces the value of any fee to have to spend a lot of time and energy to get paid.

I have a lovely company, Informa, that sends out checks as the reports are processed. Not efficient for them, but great for us. They also have pleasant schedulers, easy reports and low-key editors. Needless to say, you have to read your email early in the AM to get their shops.

Sneakers, they have no jobs here! Wah!

Nyah, nyah!

:-)

ACTUALLY..

Since I stopped getting up so early to read my email, I've lost most of their shops. It's very competitive here. When I first started shopping last year, I got up every day at 8 Eastern to do email. Now...

Recently on Volition someone posted they finally got paid after 4 months and the check bounced. Shopper beware! :-( It is very unfortunate, as other than the
long lead time (60 day per agreement) for payment, I did like dealing with them, the staff is nice. However, I won't be doing any shops in the near future, if they even exist in the near future.

You're talking about Informa?

No Sneakers, I am pretty sure she is referring to Orilio & Associates.

Yes, Orilio. I have never done a shop for Informa. They never have anything out here. Too bad, too, based on what Sneakers wrote earlier. :-(

Informa is not all sweetness and light . . . I just got paid for a job performed 9/15, which is not too bad. But they didn't pay me for the training done 9/9 as promised. I sent them a note 10/9 looking for the training payment and have heard nothing back. On the other hand, several weeks ago I check their website and discovered I had been assigned 2 or 3 shops I did not request and that are outside my shopping area. I figured it was a fluke and declined them. Then last night I looked and had been assigned a shop I did not request. It WAS in my shopping area and would work, so I picked a date for it. This behavior disturbs me and is NOT what I experienced several years ago when I was working with this company.

Informa assigned unrequested shops? Whoa, that would bug me alot, unless it was a no penalty cancellation, like a "reservation" based on previous shops or something!