I had a nightmare when I decide to sign up for some work with Cast several weeks ago. A manager who never spoke to me, replied to me, or answered my questions, assigned EVERY STORE in a 25 mile radius (over 35) for the 2 hour card reset. I quit after the 4th email assigning me even more stores. All were in hard to fill locations. When I called the recruiter who interviewed me, he told me that the manager, who was too busy to answer me, said I had applied for all of them. At that point I had not requested any stores! I had been checking my work schedule with my other companies to figure out what I could reasonably do in the time frame allowed. Some were even stores that are in my personal no man's land. Nope, didn't happen, didn't do it.
My question for the people who work for Cast is, has there been a change in the company recently? Have they got the change over straightened out and all those other glitches ironed out?
I am looking for a few more assignments, but, I do have higher priority work that I will not drop for an abundance of lower paying work in areas I have no desire to be in.

The issues are being worked out. The app is more stable now. They have relaxed when work can be done. They pay for the entire project time if you spend at least half the time in the store for project work. I.E 31 minutes for an hour job, you will be paid for the hour.

You still have to take all work in the assigned store however. So CVS, 7 eleven, Lowes, Sams Club etc should fit your schedule fine. Stay away from Walmart, they have 2-3 hr continuity visits each week for Loreal in a short window, plus other project work every other week. So Walmart probably has too much work for you.

Communication is better, but not great. They have turned some recruiters who were assigning stores randomly, that was creating issues on completion rates.

Like I said months ago... over time they will smooth things out. And they have made progress. By the end of the year it should be smooth sailing.

Hello,

Here's my ordeal with Cast, I signed up with them & explained my situation that I work another part time position, (ok, no problem, schedule is always flexible, so they say) So, once I got into my dashboard, I picked a couple of stores to work, just to see how things went. Next day, I started receiving emails from the territory manager from there company state, assigning me stores, that I never selected. So, I sent an message through the dashboard, then she finally replies & tells me that there part of my territory. (oh, no there not, not if I didn't select them, I'm not driving over 30 miles, to be at a store 30mins till an hour) then come to find out the stores were due within the next couple of days. They wait till the very last minute to have you work the stores they assigned you for completion. Like they are that vip & your time isn't valuable & you have nothing else better to do, but wait on them; Now, I see why they cant keep anyone. Then wants you to use your cell phone data, that cost you each month. And not give you a dime toward it. while their noisy spying app is using up your data. To be honest, I don't deal with shady companies like this at all. Lack of communication & management skills & territory skills, How can your help service a rep in need, when you don't even reply to emails or voicemails. Now, I see why all those stores were available to work, no one in my region wants to be bothered with them. (sad)

I received an email from Cast and the Recruiter used "do" instead of "due" Shaking My head

I have been doing work for cast for about a month or so. And yes i got a message to reactivate the app but havnt yet , tjey do have a lot of updating also. So far no oppertunites have come up yet, excwpt only have a tew stores

I just got one today. How is the company doing nowadays? Does anyone if a contact admin for the midwest ... loosely located there ... by the initials of MM is still with CAST?

CAST seems to be the most poorly run of the 125+ mystery shopping and merchandising companies I'm registered with. I'm getting ready to cancel a store with them on short notice, even if it means I ruin my rating. A coupe of weeks ago I agreed to do a job August 3 at a location that's not particularly convenient to my house, and built an entire day of mystery shops and errands around it. Last Thursday I get an email from them telling me I can't complete shop until I receive materials in the mail from them. I'm still waiting for the materials.

The email said to call if I had any questions. However, the automated system at the office doesn't offer an option for this type of questions. Instead it refers me to the territory manager, who isn't great about returning emails. (I left one on Saturday, indicating I might be cancelling job, and I'm still waiting for a response).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2016 02:42PM by KathyG.

KathyG, I am having the same problem with 2 of my usually really good companies. 1 week window, still don't have the product in the store to do the reset this week, and a huge summer reset and no paperwork. Contacted both companies and I am still in a waiting mode. Losing a day with 5 huge resets due by Friday, plus the heat, humidity and storms coming later this week will make for a real special week.
I still haven't made a second attempt with CAST, frankly, I have my doubts about getting all my curret work done this week

The box I needed arrived today, so I'll be able to complete the job as scheduled!

Lucky you, I have package envy now.
I just accepted 2 stores that someone went MIA on, and then found out that they went MIA a few weeks ago! If I would have known that they were several huge projects behind, I wouldn't have accepted. I now have 60 potential hours for this week, and still don't have my stuff. The same for next week, too.

Please keep in mind that most supply kits come from the clients rather than the merchandising company. I agree it is frustrating when they don't arrive on time. I work for a number of merchandising companies and have had projects delayed a week to two weeks due to late arriving kits.

What's funny is that most of the time the merchandising companies don't know about the late kits until reps start reporting that they are late.

So the non communication issues happen between client and merchandising company as well as the merchandising company to rep.

But I agree, CAST could improve their communication. Most of their other issues have seemed to have ironed out over time, but the communication is still poor.

Wild Bill, thanks for the information. I'm just getting my feet wet in merchandising and still don't know a whole lot.

After all the drama of wondering if the box would come or not, today I went to the store to complete the task. The department manager took one look and said she had no idea where they'd put it. However, she let me assemble the display and told me they'd take charge of stocking it if it made it to the floor.

@Wild Bill wrote:

Please keep in mind that most supply kits come from the clients rather than the merchandising company. I agree it is frustrating when they don't arrive on time. I work for a number of merchandising companies and have had projects delayed a week to two weeks due to late arriving kits.

What's funny is that most of the time the merchandising companies don't know about the late kits until reps start reporting that they are late.

So the non communication issues happen between client and merchandising company as well as the merchandising company to rep.

But I agree, CAST could improve their communication. Most of their other issues have seemed to have ironed out over time, but the communication is still poor.