Alta 360, in my experience, had and has some of the nicest, most responsive, helpful, and reasonable schedulers and managers that I have come in contact in the industry. I've dealt with some amazing people at every mystery shopping company, but this is the first one where every single person I worked with was truly a joy to work with. Their shops rarely pay a lot, but they've been great in filling in routes and helping add a little extra income. They've almost always been helpful with me in allowing me to plan a little bit ahead and add some of their shops to my trips with some reasonable bonuses.

This is not the case anymore in all interactions. Some of the schedulers and managers from IntouchInsight have moved in, and I I'm starting to see some of the less than forthright and above board tactics that some not so fun to work with schedulers tend to use. I never saw any of these tactics or anything less than the most respectful and professional communications before some of the new people came in.

So who knows what actually happened with the original poster. We will probably never know if it's a simple as they state or if there's something more to it.

A couple of years ago, I would be right on board with saying that there's no way that Alta 360 would unfairly ban a shopper for something beyond their control and at least not try to work with them to get it fixed. However, I'm not 100% sure that's the case anymore.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/24/2024 04:42AM by sil2222.

I live in Florida and the stores are in Florida next to my Bank. I actually made a deposit at my bank before I shopped the 2 stores. The receipts showed an address in Georgia. The receipts do have the correct stores name and items purchased, but that is all there is to it. The reimbursement and pay would have been 12 dollars for both shops. So not really worth the problem this has caused. I just learned never use cash for shops ever again.

Sil2222. Thanks for the reminder to check receipts more closely. I can forget to do this.

I stand corrected. Buried in the Intouch Insight website is a timeline that shows that they bought both Alta 360 and Ardent Services in 2023. Alta 360 still has a separate website, job board, etc., which led to my confusion. They acquired SeeLevel in 2021. Here is the Intouch Insight timeline: [www.intouchinsight.com]

@Morledzep wrote:

Alta360 is now part of Intouch Insight, just like SeeLevel. Intouch Insight is another company that is swallowing up smaller MSCs like Ipsos did.

Alta is far from perfect, but up until Intouch Insight took over they were relatively easy to deal with. They listened to exceptions and understood when things came up. But, I can't say that is still the case. Though they pay quicker now than they used to.

I think you solved this mystery. This makes perfect sense the stores are located close to each other and they are both the same brand name. Maybe they received POA equipment from that same store which would explain the same wrong address ?

BS? Sometimes people think too much. These shops pay very little money 6.00 each I have the receipts they show an address in a different state. Thats all there is to this story. From my end I cant do anything to fix this, but at this point it does not even matter.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz LOL you seem like a perfectly reasonable person.................I actually did a business name verification check to match the names on the receipts because they have different franchisee owners. The names matched the addresses for the stores on Florida registered businesses web site. So the receipts do have the franchisee names correct on them and items purchased , but the address is for an out of state store. It is what happened. I lost a whole 12 dollars on these shops so its not the end of the world, but getting wrongfully accused for something I did not do is the issue.

@myst4au wrote:

I stand corrected. Buried in the Intouch Insight website is a timeline that shows that they bought both Alta 360 and Ardent Services in 2023. Alta 360 still has a separate website, job board, etc., which led to my confusion. They acquired SeeLevel in 2021. Here is the Intouch Insight timeline: [www.intouchinsight.com]



I am not signed up with Alta 360 so I am surprised to see that they purchased Ardent. I used to do a lot of work for Ardent and their jobs were set up very differently than any other msc I have worked for. Does Alta 360 have any with the old Ardent model?...specific on sight training for the shoppers they have chosen to do those shops and there was no job board but once you were trained you got sent assignments monthly.

Sandy,

I've never seen anything on Alta360 that is even similar to the Ardent reports from the way back machine. I'm starting to miss that food, but not the awful narratives.

@Morledzep I think we're talking about two different companies with "Ardent" in their names.

Alta 360 has some of their shops up on GigSpot, which I find really confounding.

I like doing their $8 + $2 travel center shops, but the jobs are split between the two sites, making for that much more work just to get stuff scheduled.

How are you able to view both spots? Last time I tried Gigspot, I could not log in to Shopmetrics.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2024 02:34AM by mystery2me.

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@Morledzep I think we're talking about two different companies with "Ardent" in their names.

The Ardent I'm talking about is the one that did the burrito shops, one long run-on paragraph of your experience ordering your food, and then another long run-on paragraph about your experience eating your food in the dining room, while watching the activity of the employees, and then an even longer run-on paragraph of your entire visit. I did it for almost a year before I burned out completely, and I still get headaches even thinking about shops with long narratives.

I did the burrito shops for Ardent for many years and was OK with the narratives. I got sick of the shops due to the decreased food quality. The Ardent company that was Alta360's sister company and gobbled up by Intouch Insight was a different company altogether.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/2024 09:40AM by BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz.

I did their burrito shops and their pizza shops. I still love the food at both places. The best thing I found about those shops here in LA was that the description of the employees was the same for each and every one of them. Occasionally the manager would be a little taller as they were 20 years old instead of 16-19.

The Ardent owned by Intouch Insight is Ardent Retail Services at this URL: [www.ardentretailservice.com] Ardent Retail Services now appears to do retail merchandising and is associated with Alta 360. This is from their FAQs: "Merchandising jobs posted by Ardent Retail are exclusively “W-2” opportunities, meaning you would become an employee of the contracting merchandising company should you be hired."

Using Google, I found Ardent Services LLC: [www.ardentretailservice.com], and on that website they show the burrito company and others. They describe themselves as "A boutique market research company" They do not currently have any shops within 999 miles of me.

@Morledzep wrote:

@BusyBeeBuzzBuzzBuzz wrote:

@Morledzep I think we're talking about two different companies with "Ardent" in their names.

The Ardent I'm talking about is the one that did the burrito shops, one long run-on paragraph of your experience ordering your food, and then another long run-on paragraph about your experience eating your food in the dining room, while watching the activity of the employees, and then an even longer run-on paragraph of your entire visit. I did it for almost a year before I burned out completely, and I still get headaches even thinking about shops with long narratives.

@sil2222 I see nothing wrong or questionable about your post. WTH and how are you supposed to explain why there is a discrepancy with the receipt address? That's the receipt you were given. I would never go buy something nearby or feel the need to prove I was in the area. Never would have thought to take a time stamped picture either. I have not performed retail in awhile due to the payment pittance.