I have just deactivated myself from Bestmark. They were never my favorite company, but they were not my least favorite, either. They pay pretty low, and their scheduling system is rather restrictive. However, they had some shops I thought were pretty easy and were in locations I would be at anyway. So I did a couple a month.

Last week I did a coffee shop for them. I have done this location and it's "friends" many times. I'll be the first to admit I have upon occasion ordered the wrong size or the wrong item once or twice and had to re-shop it. This nullified any profit I made, and made it a loss when you add in the time, plus two reports. However, I did it wrong, and so I make my mistakes right. But this time was not one of those.

So I did the report for this shop. Tuesday evening, while I am teaching, I get an email from an editor canceling my shop. Why? Because the last section of the report is blank (no questions answered, no narrative) and *I have not responded to her questions.* Huh? I have heard nothing from her. Till this. And I have a screen shot of every page. None of it is blank. So their system deleted my last page of input.

I write back instantly. No response from editor ever. I copied scheduler. No response from him, either. Wait. No response. Send email to scheduler again. Again, no response. Send third email saying I am escalating. FINALLY get "response" from scheduler. He tells me to take it up with the editor. (Ya, would that be the same one that hasn't responded in three days?) So I tell him I did, and that I copied him, and that she hasn't written back, and that if he won't help me, I'm escalating.

That got a response. He forwarded the email that never got to me, the one from the editor. I noted the editor does not use a Bestmark email address, so I am guessing a spam filter banged her out the first time. I really don't know, since I never got this email. But it has always been a bone of contention for me that their editors do not use Bestmark addresses, as I did
have this happen before with one of their editors who used @comcast (as did this one.) However that one called me as well, so I was able to answer her question.

I responded to the scheduler that if you look at my track record, I have always responded to their editors, and why would I stop now, especially when I already spent my own money?

The editor's decision stuck.

So I asked to deactivate myself. They do not pay well enough or allow enough scheduling flexibility for me to put up with that crap and the extra time I energy I spent on it. For a free coffee and $5? I know when it's time for me to say I have had it, and this was it for me with them.

I will be going after that money, since I have my screenshots of my report.

So make sure you keep yours. In case the same situation arises for you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/19/2010 07:39PM by dee shops.

I have been doing shops for bestmark. I think they are good. My first shop, I forgot to upload receipt and they had deducted $2 for each day missed. I realized after 4 days. Then I uploaded the receipt and emailed my scheduler, he took all the deduction off my record.

And recently, I confused between two identical shops and conducted them other way round. He changed the date on both so my results don't get rejected.

Also they send checks faster than other companies.

tarek972 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been doing shops for bestmark. I think they
> are good. My first shop, I forgot to upload
> receipt and they had deducted $2 for each day
> missed. I realized after 4 days. Then I uploaded
> the receipt and emailed my scheduler, he took all
> the deduction off my record.
>
> And recently, I confused between two identical
> shops and conducted them other way round. He
> changed the date on both so my results don't get
> rejected.
>
> Also they send checks faster than other companies.


Sounds like you're lucky to have a scheduler that understanding. I can not think of many, if any, companies I shop with that would overlook errors like that.

Seems like tarek definitely had a good scheduler. I have not had that good of an experience when dealing with staff at Bestmark.

I had a similar experience to dee many years ago with Bestmark where I was clearly in the right and they made a judgement against me that the management stood by. I deactivated, then signed up again a few years later when I had cooled off. Most of the good clients that Bestmark had back then have moved on now. The one good client they recently got in LA is not worth the trouble of trying to decipher which restaurant is which on their website, especially when reimbursement can be so easily denied after an internal slip up.

While the pay is quick, the hassle that often comes along with the assignments make it a company that I will only work for on occasion. The fact that it placed in my survey of the 5 worst MSCs to work for in 2009 means that many shoppers agree with me.

As far as missing info on the final page goes, I think there's some compatibility issues with certain browsers (not sure if you were using Safari or not, dee). I find that I have to use the "back" button to move to another page of the report when I'm finished and save the final page on the server before submitting it.

I was using FF. I hadn't had an issue with their site previously. I only do Safari with CoRI, as their site does not work with Mac and FF, but strangely works with Safari, which is problematic for many sites unrelated to MS'ing...Go figure. :-)

Not that it will be an issue, since you deactivated, but Safari seems to work better with Bestmark as well.

Whaddya know. The problematic to design for browser works on sites problematic for Macs! LOL. That is pretty funny.