I was surprised when I received feedback from Sentry marketing that payment was deducted for being late.

For the shop that I did for them, I was supposed to receive a follow up call before I can submit the shop. So, I hold the report for another day before I submitted it.

However, Sentry marketing deducted payment anyway as indicated in the excerpt below. So, now u know ......

DON'T DO SHOP FOR THEM.


------------------------------------
Project Name Auto Park
Location Evaluated [deleted]
Assignment Date 3/2/2011
Comments
Number of days report was due after visit 0
Number of days report was received 1
If report was late, number of days late 1
Purchase Reimbursement Amount 0
Deduction for late report -5
Deduction for report content 0
Total Shopper Payment 25
------------------------------------

The Sentry Marketing Group
Shopper Support Center:
(p) 214.295.2615
(w) www.sentrymarketing.net

Have you contacted them directly about the deduction? It may be that it was an oversight done by an automated portion of the system that did not recognize a call back requirement.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2011 05:41PM by Flash.

Rahakim, What does the guidelines say in terms of when to submit the report. Sometimes they want you to submit the report on time and then email them if you received the follow-up call.

I did a salad shop for them last year and they deducted most of the amount that I laid out. I don't remember what it was that I did thst they did not like ( I would have to research it) but I decided right there and then that I would not do any shops for them in the future.
They are way too picky and it is not worth my time and effort. After reading your post it appears to me that they are looking for ways to not pay the shopper the entire fee. Ocassionaly, we all make a mistake and screw up a shop but most editors that I have dealt with have een understanding.

THere are lots of companies that treat the MS better.

Different MSC, but an auto dealership I just did, you had to wait 72 hours to finish report while waiting for a followup call, after 48 hours I got an email asking to complete report, and say no if I didn't receive the call. I followed instructions, report was accepted, the the following day dealership called. I emailed scheduler that I had received call within the 72 hours, don't know what happened after that, certainly no deduction. I received a nine. I don't feel you should have been deducted points or anything else. Next time you get an email from them, you know what to do, as the owner had stated on this forum, they have changed their way. Find out what the time frame for the phone call was. That is so wrong!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2011 07:41PM by Irene_L.A..

In my experience, the companies that require you to see if there's follow-up usually have a cutoff date, a "wait for 'x' days" but also a "submit by" date. If there was no submit by date, or if you were within that, it certainly seems that payment was unreasonably withheld. Or, as computer_man stated, perhaps they wanted you to submit and then email? At any rate, it's definitely worth discussing -- hopefully, as Flash suggested, it might have been an oversight.

I had a situation once, in a shop with many steps, where I received an overdue notice. I corresponded with the MSC immediately, and found out that since I did not fill out every section as it occurred, they thought it was overdue. (I mistakenly thought I could leave some things for later, when the shop was done, and follow-up or lack thereof complete.) It was all cleared up, and nothing was deducted, but next time, I'll definitely complete each section "as it happens"!

The payment deduction was the result of an error on the shop form. We were first notified of the error today at 9:49 AM CT and the error was corrected before 10:00 AM CT.

There are many companies in the industry that will reject a shop outright if it is submitted past the deadline, if the guidelines were not followed properly or if the shop contains inadequate content. We use payment deductions in lieu of rejecting a shop where possible.

Payment deductions are not applied to shops that contain minor mistakes. Deductions are applied to shops that are submitted after the published deadline (although we routinely grant extensions and waive late fees), contain an excessive amount of opinion or anecdotal information or contain an excessive amount of misspelled word or poor grammar.

Thank you.

Dave Agius, Owner
The Sentry Marketing Group

OK Dave. Did you correct the deduction?

mrcomputer101 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK Dave. Did you correct the deduction?


mrcomputer,

The deduction was corrected at 10:00 AM this morning, about 15 minutes after receiving notification that the issue had been submitted via our ticketing system.

Good job, thanks for clarifying.

With Sentry, it is my experience that you must comb over your report very closely to make sure things are on the up and up, on both sides of the work. That should ring true with all companies. If I ever feel like I will be late on a shop, I always request an extension from my awesome scheduler Jennifer. Recently, the payments on shops have slowed to about every 2-3 months, which saddens me, but I still enjoy the shops. I also had a payment issue where my check was about $14 off and it was quickly corrected, but I had to point out the issue. All in all, the company has great clients and decent pay, so as a shopper just be forthcoming, honest and check the details in your report and payments.

Ihven't been doing any shops due to getting ready to move, hope to do some in March though. Gald to hear Sentry is making a more favorable imression over all. Still waiting for my check from them, but it isn't due until the end of this month.
I will be on the road sometime between now and the end of this month, so will see what I can pick up on my travels...

rahakim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was surprised when I received feedback from
> Sentry marketing that payment was deducted for
> being late.
>
> For the shop that I did for them, I was supposed
> to receive a follow up call before I can submit
> the shop. So, I hold the report for another day
> before I submitted it.
>
> However, Sentry marketing deducted payment anyway
> as indicated in the excerpt below. So, now u know
> ......
>
> DON'T DO SHOP FOR THEM.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
> Project Name Auto Park
> Location Evaluated
> Assignment Date 3/2/2011
> Comments
> Number of days report was due after visit 0
> Number of days report was received 1
> If report was late, number of days late 1
> Purchase Reimbursement Amount 0
> Deduction for late report -5
> Deduction for report content 0
> Total Shopper Payment 25
> ------------------------------------
>
> The Sentry Marketing Group
> Shopper Support Center:
> (p) 214.295.2615
> (w) www.sentrymarketing.net


I see this was tken care of, gosh, you have to give someone a chance to take care of things, and getting our pay is as much our responsibility as it is theirs. (Though I agree that we should not have to be chasing after payments all of the time!) I don't have a problem with deducting if I have done soemthing to cause it through sloppyness etc, but I do have a problem with reimbursments not being made. As far as I am concerned, I spent my money in good faith, and at the very least give it back to me! Otherwise I feel like it is stealng. Granted I am sure there are those who like to cheat the companies, but that is a part of the MSC overhead also. No matter which side you are on, if someone doesn't get their money back that is stealing.