Wow I guess the common thread is that Jim and Tracy at SS are angry and mean.

@AtomicAngela wrote:

I was a scheduler and editor for Service Scouts until early November of last year. During my time with the company, I had medical issues, car troubles, and went through an exceptionally bad breakup with my partner. In February, I began asking where my 1099 was. After receiving no response and emailing multiple days in a row, I finally received this email. As stated in previous emails between the owner and myself, he stated that all agreements and obligations through Service Scouts are terminated and void which means me posting this now holds no legal bearing. I caution anyone considering signing up with this MSC that this is the kind of person you are dealing with as the owner of the company.

Angela,

1099s were mailed and are due no later than 2/15.

All but one of Service Scout's representatives in over 20 year's in business - and ALl current staff always meets or exceeds deadlines.

I'm sure you'll receive it soon unless:

post office truck lies about a flat tire or something like that and could deliver it on time
or
Your neighborhood postwoman broke up with their boyfriend and is too upset to get it delivered on time.

Thank you,

Your Guide to World Class Customer Care!

Jim Smith
President & Founder
Service Scouts, Inc.
www.ServiceScouts.com

I just thought of something. This person sounds very similar to the owner of amother MSC that I won't name......I'm just glad I never crossed paths with Service Scouts and I thank the OP for posting this for all to see.

@Tostresh wrote:

Wow I guess the common thread is that Jim and Tracy at SS are angry and mean.[/quote From my vantage point it would seemt as if so, yes. I guess a silver lining here is that some newbies may read this and then not sign up with Service Scouts. Others will know what to expect from the Service Scouts Brand and then can decide if they wish to keep a business relationship active with the Service Scouts Brand or not. Different shoppers are going to view this situation through different lens, though.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2016 08:55PM by squireparty.

@AustinMom wrote:

@bgriffin wrote:

Wow

I couldn't have said it better. I'm speechless. And I don't do speechless often.

Just WOW.

Same here. Million-foot pole for me.

Lol......and I thought maybe my 9000 foot pole statement might be a bit harsh.

File complaints:

Nevada Attorney General’s office:
[ag.nv.gov]

BBB, Southern Nevada (the link is queued up to Service Scouts)
[www.bbb.org]

_______
FYI, here is their Nevada Business Registration with Nevada Secretary of State
[www.nvsilverflume.gov]

WOW! Is right.

If this owner doesn't respect his own company, how are we suppose to expect him to respect his Mystery Shoppers or employees?

I have never applied for this MSC and never plan too. Thanks for this heads up email and good luck on any legal issues this may bring..

@ChrisCooper wrote:

File complaints:

Nevada Attorney General’s office:
[ag.nv.gov]

BBB, Southern Nevada (the link is queued up to Service Scouts)
[www.bbb.org]

_______
FYI, here is their Nevada Business Registration with Nevada Secretary of State
[www.nvsilverflume.gov]

I hope the OP has the time and energy and inspiration to follow through with complaints. Remember, look the other way and you are complicit in it by allowing it to happen to the next shopper. Why not dish them some issues they so richly deserve?

Definitely grateful for this group. This is one MSC I think I'll avoid.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2016 11:04PM by wwin.

One of the things that comes across is the incredible unprofessionalism of this company, its employees, and its communications. From the tone of the posts made here by an employee, to the wording of its e-mails that have been shared by shoppers, to the e-mail from the head of the firm to a former employee.... Not only unprofessional, but arrogant, heavy-handed, and mean-spirited. I'm still aghast at the situation with the shopper who was notified on Christmas morning that further information was needed (after the contractual requirement of 24 hours was up), then was locked out of the system because she dared spend a few hours of uninterrupted time with her family on the holiday! Un-effing-believable. (Sorry if that violates rules, and if it has to be deleted, that's fine; I just can't think of a more appropriate term! )



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2016 12:08AM by BirdyC.

@BirdyC wrote:

One of the things that comes across is the incredible unprofessionalism of this company, its employees, and its communications. From the tone of the posts made here by an employee, to the wording of its e-mails that have been shared by shoppers, to the e-mail from the head of the firm to a former employee.... Not only unprofessional, but arrogant, heavy-handed, and mean-spirited. I'm still aghast at the situation with the shopper who was notified on Christmas morning that further information was needed (after the contractual requirement of 24 hours was up), then was locked out of the system because she dared spend a few hours of uninterrupted time with her family on the holiday! Un-effing-believable. (Sorry if that violates rules, and if it has to be deleted, that's fine; I just can't think of a more appropriate term! )

Interrupt my life with a request for more shop information on 12/25? 1. You go to voice mail, 2. You can suck eggs until 9 AM 12/26, and 3. As soon as I'm paid on the shop in question, I deactivate. And 4. I warn others of said MSC here.

@wwin wrote:

Definitely grateful for this group. This is one MSC I think I'll avoid.

Looks like that's a wise idea, no?

Holy Moses! My ten-foot-pole list is getting longer.

Interesting FYI -- their address of record, 500 Rainbow Blvd - is a mail forwarding company! How do I know? I used them when I moved out of Las Vegas. It's not his real address!!!

That's bothersome. I have a friend here in California that went to a conference that taught him how to use a Vegas address as a business address in order to evade certain taxes and legal affairs. He is also using a Vegas address as his primary address although he lives here in California.

It's not the first time I have heard of this. In time the tax man will catch on if he hasn't already. Hell, go after him legally and let all this come out.

@deelitefullyme wrote:

That's bothersome. I have a friend here in California that went to a conference that taught him how to use a Vegas address as a business address in order to evade certain taxes and legal affairs. He is also using a Vegas address as his primary address although he lives here in California.

It's not the first time I have heard of this. In time the tax man will catch on if he hasn't already. Hell, go after him legally and let all this come out.

Service Scouts is sounding dodgier and dodgier as this thread goes on.....

Since this msc owner had peaked my curiosity, I hopped on Zillow to check out the alternate address listed for him. The address is for a $900k home, last purchased in 2007, with 400sf garage, deck, fireplace etc. Nice house Jim -- You're nickle and diming your shoppers? Really?

Well, Jim sounds pretty full of himself.

I did notice that one of the testimonials from a "scout" was Eric, who was actually an employee or IC (scheduler).

On Tracy's behalf, I have corresponded with her in the past. She was very pleasant, more than sweet. Honestly, I think that if I had called her and asked for a ride from the airport, she'd have been there for me.

I wonder what the ripple effect of this posting is going to be? I'm sure they already have lost many potential shoppers.

@cindy55 wrote:

I wonder what the ripple effect of this posting is going to be? I'm sure they already have lost many potential shoppers.

Most companies sign up thousands of shoppers. This company claims to have 10,000. Sure, the 20 or so shoppers on this thread won’t sign up with them, but the company won’t miss us.

Here are the same (same!) complaints about this company going back to 2008 [forum.volition.com] Tracy was the scheduler back then, too.

Despite 8 years of treating shoppers deplorably and threatening them, not one person has ever filed a complaint against this company.

The company has no incentive to change because everything is working out beautifully for them.

Posting on forums has limited effect. Writing to either the BBB or the Nevada Attorney General’s office makes the complaint official and serves as a warning to others. Anything less is just spitting in the wind.

Disclaimer: i used to work on a Consumer Protection Hotline. Complainants would regularly point to forums such as this and ask why nothing can be done about unscrupulous companies. The answer is: anonymous complaints are worthless. Put pen to paper and sign your name. Or, file online. Companies count on the fact that no one will bother to file an official complaint. Unfortunately, they're right.

Do you think there may be a fear factor in people making a formal complaint? What if the person is afraid they will be black balled industry wide? Schedulers do have their own section on the V site. They communicate to each other also. It would be hard to blame someone for not putting pen to paper if they thought it could potentially end their career in the Mystery Shopping field. With the economy in the state it is in, it may be their only income stream.

You are right there are many more shoppers than participate on forums. You are wrong to think it was only the shoppers who participated directly in this thread who may now stop working with SS or never bother registering.

@ChrisCooper wrote:

Posting on forums has limited effect. Writing to either the BBB or the Nevada Attorney General’s office makes the complaint official and serves as a warning to others. Anything less is just spitting in the wind.

It's been noted on multiple occasions that the BBB does not oversee business-to-business transactions, so that's not an appropriate place to lodge a complaint. As far as the AG goes; That would be appropriate if the company was defrauding shoppers, but I don't think that's the case here. They are not unscrupulous, they just seem to be jerks who don't appear to respect shoppers.

As is the case with most MSCs that don't offer appropriate fees and have an inflated value for what they offer, this company is not attractive to a number of experienced shoppers and they probably have a high rate of flakes and/or problems with their shops. I'm guessing that's why they seem to operate from a place of entering into every disputed transaction with a combative attitude. If the shops were as desirable as they claim, there would be fewer or no complains. Shoppers would put up with the negative components because the positives outweighed them. I can think of a handful of companies that are at times painful to work for, but I still work for them because there are some great aspects to the assignments. I can also think of another handful of companies that have overinflated views regarding the value of their assignments and constantly have issues with shoppers on the forum.

You are correct that the forum represents only a small fraction of shoppers overall, though, and all the negative reviews posted will probably never amount to putting a company out of business. For those of us that do partake in the forum, it make our businesses that much easier to operate, however. That's why this forum is such a great resource.

Peer Pressure works with most kids. There is a shopper's convention soon. I wonder if there is any way to disseminate the information there? Stick with the facts and don't be negative or "bad mouthing." Does anyone know if SS has a booth? Does the forum have a booth?

Peer pressure is inappropriate for businesses. Our goal is and should be education because knowledge is power in this business.

@LisaSTL wrote:

You are right there are many more shoppers than participate on forums. You are wrong to think it was only the shoppers who participated directly in this thread who may now stop working with SS or never bother registering.

If all shoppers were on forums, Hilli Dunlap would have closed up shop 10 years ago.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 06:00AM by SoCalMama.

What may happen is when a company is looking for a mystery shop to hire they'll search the internet for information and come across this thread about Service Scouts.

They got a contract with a NBA team local to me. They recruited, didn't get the number of people they needed and so asked the few of us who signed up to recruit for them. I had a few people sign up. A year later and none of us work for them any longer.

The seats were always for crap. Not once did I get seats lower than the third deck. I was in another city and there was NFL, so I asked for it, again, 3 deck.

Two hours or more to fill out their very clunky reports, and I would get texts in the middle of writing the report telling me he wanted it different. Live editing reports? Unheard of.

I never had any issue with Tracy. She was cool on the phone, but their pitch, training and expectation of the reporting was shady.

They kept re-reimbursement​ on my last three shops because I didn't complete a shop in a timely manner on $400 worth of NFL tickets. The thing is, their system couldn't support what I needed to report, and I had made multiple requests to them that day asking how to handle something.

So, F*@k them. Buyer beware!

I probably did 20 shops between the various sports for them. Once in a while I would get decent seats. Once I got pretty good seats. I would tell myself "That is it; I am not doing this again--it is too much work for $12 seats!" and then the next game I would get something better so I would agree to do a few more and they would all be awful. The final straw was when I went to a game and the employee directing me to my seats said something like, "You may want to grab any snacks you want now because you have a long walk to your seats." He wasn't kidding--we were at the very top of the stadium! The absolute TOP row (passed empty rows of seats to get there too). Having crummy seats makes doing the required observations even more tedious, let me tell ya! There are a LOT of stairs in some venues! I did contact my scheduler but she explained she had no control over what seats I received. I even had an acquaintance who was a shopper with the same company and who went to a few of the same games I did and she always had way better seats than me which was even more frustrating, lol.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/2016 11:06PM by Scshopper.

Not to hijack this thread, but can someone recommend a company that would be a good alternative for activities in the SF Bay Area?