Received payment as well. Perhaps the drama will discontinue!!

Yup, payment is in my PP account! Thanks, IPSOS....I wasn't at all worried!

Paid!

Golly gee wilikers a mystery shopper who is bitchy. I've never seen that on here before....

Wait, can we say bitchy here without getting banned?

Oh, well, Google says it means "(of a person's comments or behavior) malicious or unpleasant."

I got my payment at 10:25 am EST. Which means someone was up early at Ipsos taking care of what should have been taken care of yesterday by 8:00pm EST. The squeaky wheel gets the grease...don't thank me, though, I know it would take too much humility for you all to do so.

Chris

Payment hit my PayPal this morning too. I’m not sure the credit goes to you, though, Chris. Sorry. I too plan my shops around promised payments, so I do understand the frustration, but a little patience goes a long way with this line of work.

I think the problem with a lot of the people posting here is that they don't seem to want to treat it like a real job. I have to wonder what their reaction would be if they had a regular 9-5 job, with Friday being the payday, and the end of the day on Friday rolls around and everyone in the office goes home and there's no paycheck...no excuses, no nothing from the boss. I guess a lot of the sheep in this forum would think nothing of it and come back to work on Monday and hope for the best.

Chris

@Sassyangi wrote:

Payment hit my PayPal this morning too. I’m not sure the credit goes to you, though, Chris. Sorry. I too plan my shops around promised payments, so I do understand the frustration, but a little patience goes a long way with this line of work.

Patience doesn't pay the bills. I have found though, that complaining long and hard gets me what I want.

Touchdown.

Chris

The problem is not that we don't treat this like a Monday through Friday job. The problem is you do. We are not employees. We are vendors and as I said several times, the MSCs are actually our clients. It makes sense to consider the severity of the issue before publicly bashing your client. Despite your assertion of when the business day ended, we are in a 24/7 business so midnight was the end of the day. Harassing anyone on the due date of a payment may not end well for the harasser.

@comitatus1 wrote:

Patience doesn't pay the bills. I have found though, that complaining long and hard gets me what I want.

The only thing I can say to that is: What goes 'round, comes 'round....Happy future to you!

@guysmom wrote:

@comitatus1 wrote:

Patience doesn't pay the bills. I have found though, that complaining long and hard gets me what I want.

The only thing I can say to that is: What goes 'round, comes 'round....Happy future to you!

I do my job correctly and in a timely manner...therefore I expect to get paid correctly and in a timely manner. Sorry you don't understand such a simple concept.

Chris

In my opinion, belittling your clients in a public forum doesn’t pay the bills either.

@comitatus1
Nobody on here wants/expects to be paid later than what is stated in our shop guidelines and/or ICA. There is no dispute that a delayed payment is a violation of said ICA. What we do dispute is throwing a fit over it. I do not for a moment believe that your complaints is what caused Ipsos to pay every independent contractor nationwide. For some unknown reason they were one day late with their payments. We may never know the reason. However, the suggestion that they were planning to stiff everybody is over-the-top: It would put them out of business and subject them to all sorts of litigation.

The question as to how to react to a late payment is an open one and one to which there is no clear answer in our industry. I work a regular job and recognize that the pay date is set in stone. Any delay would cause an uproar. However, mystery shopping is not a 'regular job.' We are self-employed independent contractors. We are not employees of these companies. We choose for whom and when to work. If you are angered by the delay, you are free to never work for them again. Others are free to continue working for them. I was paid late (three days by one company and eight days by another) by two companies this month, totaling between $500 and $600. It is a part of the industry. When a company is especially egregious with their late payments, I don't refuse to work for them in the future, I just consider it part of the "deal" when I take a job - and I generally expect them to pay more than a company with similar shops who consistently pays on time.

Many (most?) MSC's are smaller companies that may not be able to pay their contractors until they receive payment from clients. Many have exactly one person who runs their payroll and, should that person get the flu, there would be a delay. Some might have clients who are part of the federal government and could be affected by little things like a government shut down. Etc. If we were to completely drop MSC's every time they make a blunder, we'd no longer be shopping. At the same time, if we get ill, stuck in traffic, get into a car accident, etc. we expect that MSC to give us some leeway and reschedule. In other words, for this industry to function, we all need to respect the humanity of each other.

That said, as a part of your business model, I would strongly suggest leaving yourself a cushion in your checking account so that you can weather delayed payments. I'm not saying that they should have delayed payments or that they can always be justified but, rather, that as business owners we have to recognize that delays happen and we should be prepared for them when they do.

The other part that should be of concern is this: You have spent a tremendous amount of energy lambasting Ipsos over the last day. Your first name is attached to that. If somebody from Ipsos were to read your rantings, they could very easily identify and deactivate you. Some folks who schedule for Ipsos schedule for other companies as well. You could be inadvertently digging a hole for yourself elsewhere, too. You may be fine not to work for Ipsos again. However, I would suggest that you want that to be your decision, not theirs.

Think about it this way... imagine you have a side business shoveling for people, raking leaves, or cleaning houses. You have cleaned someone’s house weekly, and in 2 years, they have never been late paying you. One day, their payment is late.

Do you immediately blow their phone up, email them, and then go on Facebook and post a big complaint about your customer? Even if it was an honest mistake (death in the family, illness, they just forgot for some reason), there would be a good chance they wouldn’t want to hire you anymore in the future. Not only that, they might tell their friends & family their experience, and those people would not longer use you either.

Catch my drift?

Well I'm happy. Payment is in my account and now I don't have to deal with this drama anymore. I survived.

My paypal notice was in my email this morning at 7 AM. That would be exactly 7 hours late. Perhaps some people would prefer a statement that they pay twice a month or in two months...This is a 31 day month after all. The consequences of too much complaining in my long experience leads to much expanded or vague guidelines..many companies say we will be paid at the end of the month or in 3-6 weeks or something like that. I much prefer to have more exact information and to give them the benefit of the doubt over 7 hours.

In the end, the OP is correct. I mean, Obviously IPSOS is one of the darlings among mystery shopping companies for many reasons and among them is that they are backed (have a contract with) one of the largest employers/contractors in the US. However, if I submitted my report a day late they would not accept it. If I submitted my report a few hours after the deadline, they would not accept it, more than likely. If I cancelled on the day before or the day of, it would be unacceptable. This 'mystery shopping' is definitely a one way street with the power in the hands of the company, not the mystery shopper. I think it is outrageously funny how people talk about mystery shopping and say it is a business. It is primarily a part-time gig, mostly VERY part-time, wherein you are an I.C. so you have to pay taxes out of your fee. 94 percent of the time the fee is not enough to pay taxes and earn above minimum wage. That is a fact. So one of the only advantages, to most mystery shoppers, is to be able to recycle their money. When you aren't paid according to the schedule, obviously you can't do that so you have to have backup money. Most people do not have backup money.

I don't understand why comitastrophe Chris is still going on about this. They got paid. I'm sure them getting paid had nothing to do with them freaking out and throwing a tantrum in the forum. And the person I emailed at IPSOS this morning about you, Chris, responded to me within 6 hours.

I can attest that is not true at all.

@spicy1 wrote:

However, if I submitted my report a day late they would not accept it. If I submitted my report a few hours after the deadline, they would not accept it, more than likely.

Lets not get into the same warnings / threats of not saying what you want to say here because thrre are eyes watching you (rolls eyes)! Hate that! Its a childish, manipulative technique used by adult-children who have not learned another, less manipulative-stomps-feet way to lead.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2018 07:37PM by spicy1.

@LisaSTL wrote:

I can attest that is not true at all.

@spicy1 wrote:

However, if I submitted my report a day late they would not accept it. If I submitted my report a few hours after the deadline, they would not accept it, more than likely.

Agreed. Ipsos is one of the easiest MSCs to work with and they bend over backward to help shoppers be successful. If they're a few hours late on a payment that coincides with getting out 1099s, I'm not going to fret.

I take every assignment I can get from them for all of those reasons. I don't fret it either, I have backup money. I dont know why youve equated it with 1099s as those print automatically from accounting software.

I got my payment today, I'm happy. I choose to keep working for them because I like their jobs and they have plenty near me (even more if I expanded my territory a little bit). What each of us does is our own business and how we view the various companies and their policies is also each of ours own business. There are a lot of MSC's out there to choose from. I like IPSOS and I'm not going to let one day late bother me. Heck See Level a couple of months ago was several days later than expected. They sent an email out about it which was nice but that did bother me. But I eventually got paid so I was happy. Ask yourselves, Have I ever been late with a bill? Have I ever promised something and not followed through until the next day? I think if we're totally honest, most of us would have to answer yes at some point in my life I have done this. If you never have, good for you. For the rest of us. . .

My real job paid us late pretty often. Keeping my job was my best option so I lived with it.

@comitatus1 wrote:

I think the problem with a lot of the people posting here is that they don't seem to want to treat it like a real job. I have to wonder what their reaction would be if they had a regular 9-5 job, with Friday being the payday, and the end of the day on Friday rolls around and everyone in the office goes home and there's no paycheck...no excuses, no nothing from the boss. I guess a lot of the sheep in this forum would think nothing of it and come back to work on Monday and hope for the best.

Chris

@spicy1 wrote:

I take every assignment I can get from them for all of those reasons. I don't fret it either, I have backup money. I don't know why you've equated it with 1099s as those print automatically from accounting software.

It places a stress on the accounting department because there are things such as making certain every shopper's info is inputted, physically getting them ready to mail, etc. I'm sure they wish it was as simple as pushing a button!

It is. They literally just push a button, they print button. Place in in the envelope and off it goes.

@JASFLALMT wrote:

I don't understand why comitastrophe Chris is still going on about this. They got paid. I'm sure them getting paid had nothing to do with them freaking out and throwing a tantrum in the forum. And the person I emailed at IPSOS this morning about you, Chris, responded to me within 6 hours.

I know, right? My "7 hour late check" was big enough to pay 2 car payments. Whoo Hoo.
I'm too busy to notice it being late anyway. I thought that they paid on the 15th and the 31st?

I would @#$%& about it if:

I was never late on a report
I never asked to reschedule
I never had to cancel any shop
I never asked for an extension
I never completely missed a shop and had ot do it another day

I'm not perfect. I'm about 95% perfect. I do my best. That's all anyone can ask.

comitatus1 is no sheep for sure. Perhaps Jackass is more appropriate? They are stubborn you know?

I posted that Megs post was stalking, obnoxious etc and my post was removed.

I hope SoCalMama's post is removed for calling comitatus1 a Jackass.

Spicy, you're assuming that posts are moderated evenly. I have not found this to be the case.

Really, spicy? Chris (comitatus) called me stupid on the first page because I had something positive to say about IPSOS. I reported it. It still remains.