I'M TELLING YOU PEOPLE THIS MYSTERY SHOPPING COMPANY I ABOVE HAS THE WAY TO LET YOU IN THE COMPANY THEN WHEN SOMETHING GO WRONG LIKE YOUR SICK IN THE HOSPITAL OR AN EMERGENCY THEY WILL TAKE YOU OUT THE SYSTEM IN A HEARTBEAT THEN YOU CAN'T SPEAK TO MANAGERS THEY JUST TELL YOU NO. ONLY REASON WHY (AND I NOTICE) THAT IF THEY TAKE OUT THEY START CHANGING THE PRICES ON THE ASSIGNMENTS THAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU AND THE NEXT PERSON GET THE ASSIGNMENT FOR CHEAP. PLEASE WHAT EVER YOU DO DO'T GO TO THIS SIGHT

Why are you "SHOUTING"? Please don't use all caps.

Lenalane is 100% correct. I'm assuming he or she is "shouting" because this person is most likely one of many who became a victim of Certified's horrible/rude treatment and is upset. I don't blame lenalane at all.

I too have been one of the victims of certified. I am sad because I love to go to the movies and now do not get to go. Who can we write to so we can tell them how cruel they are?

I am in agreement that they aren't very good. One of the lowest paying and quickest to remove, but then again they are now part of Marketforce... you know, the MSP who offers $1.75 phone shops!

I totally agree with you about certified. Thank God they are not the only mystery shopping company.

I have been with this company for several months now and have never had any issues with them?

I have been doing shops for Market Force for a few months now, and haven't had a problem. Maybe it is just this 'side' of the operation. In fact Market Force schedulers have been great about working with me.

run like hell

How do they get to still be a company?

Run like Hell and keep running. Along the way stop and purchase a tube of PH. You will need it.
Some people neverlearn until they are really scr....d

Run? Why? I've no bad experiences with Certified and would like to know.

I've never had a problem with them, in fact they've given me bonuses on more than one occasion. I even got a phone call from them last week where they wanted to offer me a job before it was going to get posted on the board.

I used to do lots of work for Certified. I enjoyed many of their jobs, too. Unfortunately, I was deactivated because I was not liked by 1 scheduler. I had great relationships with many schedulers there. Certified lost a good shopper. They also deactivated my husband because he was married to me! Is that right?

Market force and all their group cut you off the minute you are not willing to work with them. I would get nonstop calls for movie checks and other shops, but when I started having conflicts and telling them I was unable to do the jobs, I was cut from the system. THey are not willing to listen to anything. I have had receipts that were submitted, and because the cashier di not input things the right way, I did not get paid for the job, ie order a sandwich the way it comes, and the cashier inputs the items, they consider it a special order. They don't want to hear anything. Also they have jobs that they repeatedly put up and their is no such business at the address. When I let them know they were giving a phone number in Arkansas for a job in CT, they took it from my list, but then just relisted it bsack on the board at a lower price and I did not even get reimbursed for the phone call, and I was not allowed to resign up for it. BE VERY CAREFUL!!!

lenalane Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'M TELLING YOU PEOPLE THIS MYSTERY SHOPPING
> COMPANY I ABOVE HAS THE WAY TO LET YOU IN THE
> COMPANY THEN WHEN SOMETHING GO WRONG LIKE YOUR
> SICK IN THE HOSPITAL OR AN EMERGENCY THEY WILL
> TAKE YOU OUT THE SYSTEM IN A HEARTBEAT THEN YOU
> CAN'T SPEAK TO MANAGERS THEY JUST TELL YOU NO.
> ONLY REASON WHY (AND I NOTICE) THAT IF THEY TAKE
> OUT THEY START CHANGING THE PRICES ON THE
> ASSIGNMENTS THAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU AND THE NEXT
> PERSON GET THE ASSIGNMENT FOR CHEAP. PLEASE WHAT
> EVER YOU DO DO'T GO TO THIS SIGHT


I merchandised for them last year. The pay wasn't worth it and they were also rude to me at times so I left them with some oustanding unperformed shops. Never again will I work for them.

Well I have been doing shops for them for years and have never had a problem. I pick and choose what shops I want, they offer me bonuses on hard to assign jobs. I like them.

Again I ask, how do they stay in business?

I would advise ALSO, DO NOT sign up for CERTIFIED ASSOCIATES. There was a shop on the search page that was overdue which means I should have been allowed to do it, but they put it on there by mistake. So, I went out and did it, and now they tell me they cannot accept the shop! How frustrating!

Let's write the companies that they do mystery shops for, give bbb a shot, and the MSPA.

I too have not had any problems with Certified in the the 2 yrs I've been working for them. I find them very easy to work with.

This is funny. I went to go on the site to see what shops they have. Because they have been shooting me emails. Well I went in and tried to log in and it said that they deactivated my account. Just because I haven't done anything for them lately.
I have been working for them for the past 4 years and didn't have any problem with them. They were always calling me and giving me a bonus for doing things for them. I did alot of movie standees and KMarts for them. I guess this is the way they treat people that have been loyal???? But I know that market force is a nasty group to work with.

What's really funny is how obvious the trolls are with their false-positive posts. Only a truly ignorant %$^%^%$ would be fooled by these idiots. I, too, worked for Certified. But, many of my shops weren't paid for, I was lied to by the schedulers, details of the shop were changed at the last minute, and one of my shops was cancelled by the client after the fact. Of course, I wasn't paid for that submitted shop, either. And, in case you're wondering, Certified merged with Market Force for survival. They won't be around much longer if they continue treating shoppers so poorly, and paying them a pittance.




Attention TROLLS: You're not welcome here. Go away...

I am NOT a "troll", but a university instructor who ms's for extra money because the pay is poor teaching and i have huge college loans to pay, not to mention a family. Just because someone has had a different experience with a company that you think they should hate, doesn't mean they are a "troll." You come here one day, and start posting for people who have been here much longer than you to "go away" and have done this in more than one thread. WHY? Contribute something useful before you start calling regulars names. Maybe you are the "troll" trying to look for those who are "disloyal."

Trolls defend horrendous companies known to treat shoppers poorly, and to pay them pennies, if they pay them at all. I didn't specifically mention any post authors name. But, your quick reply suggests that I struck a nerve with you. Hmmm... Did you see your name in my post? NO! And, yet, your defensive tone suggests that you inferred that my comment was specifically directed toward you. Why?

Besides, I know better than to believe for one second that this forum is "clean" and I certainly don't believe that MSP spies are going to be intimidated by MY posts. But, just letting them know that I'm aware of their presence is the point to my above-referenced post. There are good companies out there.

However, they are exceeded by the bad/poor companies. I've read horror stories on other forums about the companies you speak of so highly. If you have truly had such an amazing experience with said companies, why are you one of only a few forum authors defending said MSP's? Seems like there would be more posts by other authors coming to said companies defense if your posts ring true.

For the MSP troll reading this post, here's a suggestion: create multiple forum ID's so you can make it seem as though several shoppers are all pleased with you. Oh, wait, you already thought of that, didn't you; but, then you realized that we aren't as gullible as you'd hoped. Oh, well. Better luck next time.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2009 08:41AM by unitechpetro.

I agree with unitech. There are enough complaints againsts certified on this forum and other MS forums as well as the Better Business Bureau itself to PROOVE it's a poor compnay to work for. That's a fact, not an opinion based on statistics. For those who still work for certified because they haven't deactivated you "yet", I can promise you that they will deactivate you eventually. I also believe that it's a coincidence that after several negative comments about this company, there's always one person that logs in and defends the company. I'm willing to bet that some of these people are simply reps of certified, pretending to be mystery shoppers. I'm not saying that Dee Shops IS a representative of certified, but anything is possible. Certified is going down, it's just a matter of time. I already received an e-mail from another compamy stating that they will be starting trailer checks in the near future (most likely because certified is slowly losing deals with theaters due to their poor reputation with the Better Business Bureau!

I log in daily here and respond to what I feel like. I'm not affiliated with Certified. I live in HI-they are on the East Coast. I teach digital art at college-looking at their website, do you think they employ anyone like me??? BUT You can think I am if it makes you feel better. :-)

I disagree on this. There must be a reason why you were so badly mistreated. I myself have worked for them for several years and have always been well treated and paid on time. As a matter of fact they are one of my most favorite companies to work for. I usually will accept assignments from them first before any one else.

unitechpetro, I'd appreciate something specific from you. Is that possible?

Hi Mert,

Yes. Sorry about the delay. I'm going to school full-time in an accelerated program and working full-time in addition to all the merchandising and mystery shopping + insurance-related commercial property inspections/field work I do.

Okay. Here goes. I worked for Certified off and on for almost 1 year. My main problem with them was that, when I submitted my shops, they always found 'problems' that they used as an excuse not to pay me for. Yet, they continued to give me assignments. Doesn't make sense, does it?

Yet, they were never specific about the errors with my shops. Oh, sure...I got paid every now and then. They did that to string me along. I'm willing to bet they submitted my so-called faulty shops to the client and were paid on them. But, Certified is a big company. They have several schedulers.

And, I always seemed to get a different scheduler each time. Is there a huge turnover at Certified? If so, that might explain why I kept getting assignments, if new schedulers weren't told that my shops were faulty, as was implied by the reps. I spoke to when I asked why I hadn't been paid. Who knows...

Maybe Certified is having problems, and is trying to work them out. For those of you lucky enough to have had a positive experience with them, congratulations. You were very fortunate. I have a few favorite MSP's, myself. But, unfortunately, Certified isn't one of them. Plus, after they finally deactivated me, the company they merged with - MarketForce - begin having problems, themselves.

Maybe that's a coincidence. Who knows. But, I still keep tabs on them. I'm hoping to one day return, when they get their act together. I especially enjoyed doing their theatre audits, auto dealership reviews, and miniature golf shops.

Fortunately, I still do these with other companies, just not as often as I did with Certified. I rarely got paid. But, I had fun anyway. Hope this answers your question. I have three 70-page chapters to read/study/memorize for a test next week. Good night.

P.S. Dee. No one here (not njrebel1978, unitechpetro (that's me), nor any other member) accused you of being a rep. for Certified. njrebel1978 merely stated that you could be, just as any of us could be. But, even if you were, I wouldn't care. Because, ultimately, I hope that Certified does have reps. monitoring this forum.

That would show that they care about their image, and that would suggest that they are trying to improve themselves. As long as Certified and other MSP's don't sue forums like this out of existence, I don't really have a problem with them. But, I do have a problem with companies not seeking improvement, who only spy on forums like this one in an effort to find comments they can use to shut us down.

It's happened to other forums. Remember [www.walmartsucks.com]? It was shut down by the webhost due to threats by overpaid lawyers. That is just one example. There is also constant legal trouble for [www.ripoffreport.com,and] other similar sights. So. Yes. In an effort to help prevent this forum from being shut down, I will be very careful with my comments.

Alas, I will not mention MSP clients. And, I haven't done so, yet. But, hopefully, we can be honest about our experiences with the MSP's, themselves. If not, this forum will become a ghost town. And, even though I do like ghost towns, I hope this forum stays active. Thanks!