Has anyone done any work for AQ Services/AQ International? I have not been paid yet for a project I completed for them in the first week of December. If anyone has worked with them and gotten paid successfully, please PM me - thanks!!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2013 03:11PM by pcs.

They just popped up on my facebook page and I was wondering about them.

Last night I received this email:

"Dear Shopper,

Our sincere apology on the late payment to you. Unfortunately we are currently facing a backlog with this process, causing a delay in the payment to our mystery shoppers. We have escalated your case so that payment to your account will be made soonest possible.

Apologize for this situation, but would like to assure you that we are working diligently to improve this.


Best Regards."

I am afraid I won't see my money...I am owed $240 for this project.

oh WOW.....that's a lot of money to mess with....what kind of shop was it?

pcs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last night I received this email:
>
> "Dear Shopper,
>
> Our sincere apology on the late payment to you.
> Unfortunately we are currently facing a backlog
> with this process, causing a delay in the payment
> to our mystery shoppers. We have escalated your
> case so that payment to your account will be made
> soonest possible.
>
> Apologize for this situation, but would like to
> assure you that we are working diligently to
> improve this.
>
>
> Best Regards."

Let me translate that for you:

"Dear Sucker,

We were hoping you hadn't noticed that we hadn't paid you (the payment isn't "late," it's non-existent at this point). Unfortunately, we spent all the money from the client on a company party for all the schedulers who get people to do our work for us for free. We have thoroughly investigated and determined that we simply don't have any money, but maybe if we pretend to be forthcoming and communicative you won't sue us until we can close up and leave town.

We're sorry you called us down on this. We have scolded the office manager who ordered the caterers. We told her to do a potluck but she wanted chateaubriand and caviar for some reason.

Best regards,

I. M. Rippinguoff"

Is there a note of cynicism in itsasecret's last post? lol.

Itsaecret - that might be funny to you (and apparently others who "liked" your post), but it's not to me. This is my business and livelihood and we're not talking about $10 or $15 here. I wasn't looking for a funny interpretation of an email regarding an issue I am already concerned about, I was looking for input from someone who has actually worked with AQ Services.

Nanabelle - it was a project called Asia Benchmarking, and I don't even know who the end client was. The project consisted of going to 30 different clothing stores in a certain geographic area and reporting on the service I received.

BTW, still no payment but at least I am getting responses now.

pcs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Itsaecret - that might be funny to you (and
> apparently others who "liked" your post), but it's
> not to me. This is my business and livelihood and
> we're not talking about $10 or $15 here.

No one thinks that nonpayment issues are funny, PCS. However, shoppers learn to become somewhat cynical and develop a barbed sense of humor when relating to the excuses MSCs provide. In your case, the MSC was needlessly wordy yet impersonal and detached.Their use of the phrase "we have escalated your case" sounds like "we are passing the buck".

Regardless, I'm sure all of us here hope that your situation is resolved quickly and easily.

itsasecret's response was meant to be funny. I did not find it to be and that is what I was referring to, not nonpayment issues in general. The only responses I expected to get from my original post were from people who had previously worked with AQ. Since that is apparently not you, please do not waste any more of your time on this thread.

I laughed at the translated email. No one's diminishing your problem, pcs.... It's a gallows-type humor that people who are all in the same boat share. Many of us have had to chase payments from less-than-forthright companies. I feel for you...that's a lot of money to have to hunt down. But don't lash out at others.

I have no experience with this company, but since this is a public thread in a forum, I'll reply if I care to.

Even if you start a thread, pcs, unless you are a moderator of the forum, it isn't up to you who can or cannot "waste their time" on the thread. I can understand that you did not enjoy secret's attempt at humor. So don't laugh. But there really is no need to be pissy. I would suggest a nap, a good meal or a walk as ways to diminish your obvious stress.

I hope your day gets better.

Whoa, everyone, pump your brakes. What started out as a mere request for information has turned into this? WOW. I am not stressed, I don't need a nap, and I am on a diet so a good meal is out of the question.

Please reread my posts. I was not lashing out at anyone, but itsasecret's post rubbed me the wrong way and as a public forum, I feel that I have a right to respond. For heaven's sakes. Now can everyone go back to their corners? I have had enough pummeling for one day. (that was a joke, not being pissy

pcs Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...What started
> out as a mere request for information has turned
> into this?...Please reread my posts.
> I was not lashing out at
> anyone, but itsasecret's post rubbed me the wrong
> way and as a public forum, I feel that I have a
> right to respond...

As does everyone, PCS. I tried explaining the reasoning behind ItsASecret's tongue-in-cheek posting. You immediately came back with "The only responses I expected to get from my original post were from people who had previously worked with AQ. Since that is apparently not you, please do not waste any more of your time on this thread." When I posted, I did not feel I was wasting my time in reaching out to you. But I sure did after seeing your reply.

I've performed one shop for AQ and was paid promptly. However, the shop was arranged through an MSC in the states with whom they sometimes work, and they were also the entity who remitted payment.

Thanks nicely. Who do they work with in the states? Just curious, since an AQ scheduler contacted me directly.

RSG, now Mystery Researchers, but they are most definitely two different companies. RSG wouldn't have anything to do with the shop contracted directly through AQ.

I have done shops for this company that were schedule through a 2nd party scheduling company and was paid promptly. Then when I was contacted directly by the company in Holland, I agreed to do a shop for them. It was a huge pricing project that were a few hundred Euros. I dropped all other shops for 1 wk to do this. In Canada if you go to store A and store B and price something that is a designer item such as a Chanel lipstick or Louis Vuitton Bag, each store sells for the same price; ie Macy's and Bloomingdales.
When I reported the same prices twice for two different stores, the client told the company this cannot be right. I took me almost 5 months to be paid. They said they hired another shopper. I called the head office of some of the companies and some of the prices I reported had changed 5 months later and some products were discontinued so of course the data would be different. They said they would pay me 50% of the agreed monies. After many emails and phone calls overseas; where my time is very valuable, no matter what I said or emailed them for factual evidence it was like talking to a wall.
When I finally did receive a paypal payment it wasn't even close to the original amount which I still have the scan of the sassie page. It was less than half.
I agreed to 450 Euros. They said they'd pay 225 Euros. And they paid me 150 Euros.
I will never work for this company again. I lost a lot of time and other shops that I could have been doing.

Wow, that's terrible. Sorry to hear about your trouble. Are you still working on trying to recover the rest of it? I found it very difficult to correspond with them as well. I did finally get paid today, more than three months after the assignment date. I don't think I will be working with them again...

My experiences show that AQ is not reliable. Don't work for them.

I also had bad experience with a Price Check in Germany last year which asked much more time than foreseen. Part of the problem was that AQ "assistant managers" themselves did not really know which prices were required. But at least after prompting I got some extra money for my efforts to finish the check and got paid some time much later.
But I am still waiting for an amount of 20 € advanced by me for a mystery park visit in July 2013! The amount was approved correct by AQ last automn and in January they arrived to send me a "proof of payment" - to a completely unknown account with my name not spelled correctly - no anwers since so I'll have to transfer the affair to a lawyer. But I'm lucky I already got the main part of money for this check.

Any updates on this MSC and payment issues? I just applied to them and passed their little MS test. Do you really have to have a phone training session before every shop? I can understand for the new shopper to their company or maybe a new special project but every shop?

I always get my feet wet first; take on one job to see how it goes, then if all is well, I'll proceed to apply for more.

Thirty jobs was quite a quest, not knowing much about this company.

A challenge that I would not undertake.

Hi,
I have done some work for this company in July 2014 and still waiting for the payment.

DO NOT WORK FOR THEM... THEY PAY SO LITTLE AND NEVER ON TIME.
THE WORST COMPANY EVER.