Okay, I did four menu shops for Mintel, three were on Oct 16, and the last was on Oct 24.

One from the 16th and the one from the 24th were approved/accepted right away. If I go into my shop history, it show the payment for them was processed over two weeks ago. I forgot to sign up for direct deposit with them, so I am being paid by check. When I click on search shops with a check sent, it shows no check has been sent yet. I was a little confused seeing as I always read they were fast paying. I am not talking about not receiving the check yet, as I always allow extra time for the mail. According to their search, they have yet to even mail payment for shops processed over two weeks ago. Am I correct in assuming the check should have already been mailed for these?

Now, on to question two. The two shops that have yet to even be approved, both from Oct 16th. They were both for the same restaurant, one lunch menu and one all day menu. About two weeks ago, I was sent an email saying the all day shop had been returned because I was missing some menu items. So I went back to the restaurant, asked again for the menus, asked if I had all the menu items, etc. I was told that yes I had all the items. Mintel said I was missing sandwiches, but the waitress said their menus only have the sandwiches on the lunch page, there is no separate page for them as they have older menus.

I gave that info to Mintel about 11 days ago. I have not heard anything yet and the two shops still show they are not approved. Is this normal? I also question why the lunch shop shows it is not approved when I was never questioned about the lunch shop. The only shop that was questioned was the all day shop.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2009 04:32PM by lisams901.

I'd say we can all speculate here as to what is going on but the only ones that can tell you for sure are the folks at Mintel. I would not wait much longer before contacting them.
My own experience with them is limited. I only did about 4 shops with them. I have noticed that some shops take longer to be approved than others. But so far I have not had any problems.

When you are signed in, go to "Search Past Assignments". Put in some reasonable start date that will include the shops in question. If the shops say "Published", they have been submitted to the client and you should expect payment unless the client kicks them back. The 'approved', 'not approved' on the front page is generally slower to update than the "Search Past Assignments" section. I have never had them reject a good faith job. On the menu stuff I have had no option except a take out menu when the manager told me clearly and firmly that the take out had exactly the same items at the same prices as the regular menus. I know and knew then that they were not the same but his stance was an end game on getting the rest of the information. It was submitted to the client with the information given and the shop was accepted. That has been more than a year ago and I don't know if they or the client have become pickier.

My reaction is that there is a fairly steady progression of shops through submission to "Published" and that approvals and payment processing happen in waves at less predictable speeds. So I have had payments for work in a week or two while some have taken up to a month.

I have done many Mintel shops and never had any issues with them. They just require accuracy in their reports.

dr.lloyd@sbcglobal.net Wrote:
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> I have done many Mintel shops and never had any
> issues with them. They just require accuracy in
> their reports.


My issues with them have been resolved and they did end up paying quickly.

My reports were very accurate, but the menus the restaurant had were old. I could only provide pictures of menus the restaurant had.

I am not finding the website for them does anyone have it? I don't know if they have any in my area or not but I would like to see.

Thanks

To the above posting, try this:

www.shopper.mintel.com

I have done a few shops for Mintel and they pay quickly. They do not have many shops in my area.